T. E. Perkins: hymn tunes for the American church

About Theodore E. Perkins

Theodore Edson Perkins was born at Poughkeepsie, New York, on 21 July 1831, the son of a Baptist minister. He taught music at Madison University, later Colgate, and at the Female Seminary in Hamilton, New York, from 1851; in the summer of 1856 he studied at the Normal Academy of Music at North Reading, Massachusetts, under Lowell Mason and George F. Root, and in 1859 became co-principal with William Bradbury of the Normal Academy at Geneseo. He married Mary Frances Caskey, a soprano from Port Jervis, in April 1855, directed music in churches in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, and taught voice culture at Princeton, Lafayette, the Union Theological Seminary and Crozer Seminary.

His first collection, The Olive Branch, appeared in 1860 and sold a hundred thousand copies. Hallowed Songs followed in 1865, compiled with Philip Phillips, and by the end of his career he had edited some thirty-four books of church music.

The catalogue holds 69 scores, about 37 minutes of music and 17,390 notes, with lyrics on 44. Two entries are the same hymn: Jesus of Nazareth passeth by, Emma F. R. Campbell's 1864 text beginning 'What means this eager, anxious throng', which Perkins set in 1866. Sixty-seven entries are filed as classical and two as folk.

Listening and playing notes

These are congregational tunes, so the test is whether a room of untrained singers can hold them. Keep the pulse firm and the harmony plain, and do not let the organ double the melody so heavily that the words disappear. In the longer hymns, breathe at the line ends rather than the bar lines. The parts are mostly homophonic, which means the tenor and bass carry the harmony and should be kept quieter than the tune.

Selected scores

1. Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By

   Emma F. R. Campbell's 1864 text, set by Perkins in 1866; the most-viewed score on the page and the same hymn as the entry below.

2. Sitting at the Feet of Jesus

   A quiet devotional hymn, the kind of piece Perkins wrote for the Brooklyn churches where he directed music.

3. There Is a Green Hill Far Away

   Cecil Frances Alexander's 1848 text for children, here in Perkins's own tune rather than the better-known setting.

4. More Love to Thee, O Christ

   Elizabeth Prentiss's text; the tune in widest use is W. H. Doane's, so this entry preserves a different setting of the same words.

5. My Heavenly Home Is Bright and Fair

   A heaven hymn of the sort that filled nineteenth-century American hymnals, with the tune supplied by Perkins.

6. Oh, Shall I Wear a Starless Crown

   An evangelistic invitation hymn; the title's question is the whole argument of the text.

7. God Speed

   Printed in capitals in the catalogue; whether GOD SPEED is a tune name or the title of the piece cannot be told from the entry.

8. Cling Close to the Rock

   A short chorus on the rock of the Psalms, one of the pieces that carried Perkins's name into Sunday-school collections.

9. Keep Thou My Way

   Fanny Crosby's text with Perkins's music, printed in Sacred Songs No. 1, the Sankey, McGranahan and Stebbins collection of 1896.

10. Fade, Fade, Each Earthly Joy

    A hymn of resignation in which each earthly comfort is named and given up in turn.