W. S. Nickle: Chicago gospel hymn tunes

About W. S. Nickle

William S. Nickle, styled the Reverend in the hymnals that carry his tunes, lived from 1853 to 1914 and worked in Chicago. He is best documented as an editor rather than as a lone composer. With F. A. Hardin and John B. Shaw he compiled Honey Out of the Rock, issued by Meyer & Brother of Chicago in 1892, and with George J. Meyer and O. F. Pugh he compiled Gospel Herald in Song, published by the same house in 1899 for gospel meetings, Sunday schools and prayer meetings.

His tunes travelled through other people's books. Hymnary traces them into Salvation Songs (1895), The Crowning Day, Hymns of Victory (1905) and even a German-language collection, Die Kleine Palme, where a Nickle setting appears under a German first line. That pattern explains the shape of the catalogue: 21 short pieces, three at complexity index 0, seventeen at 1 and one at 2, with five carrying lyrics.

Two entries deserve a word of explanation. Lord, for Tomorrow and Its Needs sets an early-twentieth-century prayer for daily bread (Sybil F. Partridge, c. 1905), one line of petition at a time, and it remains the tune of his that congregational singers are most likely to have met. Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us carries the composer's name in brackets because Dorothy Thrupp's 1836 text is normally sung to Bradbury's tune; Nickle's is a different setting of the same words, and the two are easily confused in a catalogue that lists both under one title.

Listening and playing notes

Nickle's tunes are modest in range and rhythmically square, which is why they wore well in prayer meetings: a congregation can learn the refrain on one hearing. Keep the harmony plain and the tempo unhurried, but do not let the repeated chords at the end of each phrase drag. In the invitation pieces the last line usually rises, so save a little tone for it. If you are playing from a single-line file, add the harmony sparingly; these melodies were written to sit under a tune-book alto and tenor rather than over a piano texture.

Selected scores

1. Lord, for Tomorrow and Its Needs

   The most-viewed score on the page: a setting of a Victorian prayer that asks for help with the present day alone.

2. Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us (Nickle)

   Nickle's own tune for Dorothy Thrupp's 1836 text, marked with his name to distinguish it from Bradbury's better-known setting.

3. I Have Found Him! I Have Found Him

   A discovery testimony with an exclamatory refrain, the third most-viewed entry in the collection.

4. I Will Trust in the Lord, for His Love Will Endure

   A trust chorus built on a single psalm-like assertion, repeated with each verse.

5. Beyond the Hills Where Suns Go Down

   A heaven-and-sunset hymn, one of several in the collection that look past the horizon rather than at the cross.

6. I Have Found the Opened Fountain

   A fountain-of-cleansing text in the revival idiom, with a refrain that returns to the image each time.

7. Come, Sinner, to the Mercy Seat

   A direct invitation hymn, the sort of piece that accompanied an altar call in a Chicago mission hall.

8. Are You Weary Now of Sin

   A question-and-answer evangelistic song, opening with the listener's condition rather than with the Saviour.

9. Throw Open the Gates of the City

   A New Jerusalem hymn with a processional refrain, among the most extrovert pieces in the collection.

10. Gently Jesus Calls

    A quiet invitation, and one of the five entries whose lyric field is filled in.