W. Stillman Martin: gospel songs for revival and Sunday school

Walter Stillman Martin was a Baptist minister who set the words his wife, Civilla, handed him, and the catalogue is built from that partnership: 58 scores, about 40 minutes of music and 18,845 notated notes. Thirty-one entries carry lyrics; the rest are melody or keyboard settings without them.

Nothing here runs long. Twenty-eight scores sit at complexity index 1 and 19 at index 2, with 11 at index 0, so the page suits a choir wanting a short, singable verse rather than a recital piece. The Old-Fashioned Way leads the viewing figures, followed by The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power and God Will Take Care of You.

58Scores
40 minutesMusic (approx.)
18,845Notated notes
31Scores with lyric notation

About W. Stillman Martin

Martin was born on 8 March 1862 at Rowley, Massachusetts, and studied for the ministry at Harvard before ordination as a Baptist minister; he later moved to the Disciples of Christ. In 1916 he became professor of Bible at Atlantic Christian College in Wilson, North Carolina, and three years later settled in Atlanta, travelling from there to run Bible conferences and evangelistic meetings. He died in Atlanta on 16 December 1935.

His wife, Civilla Durfee Martin, wrote the words for most of the hymns here, and the division of labour was often literal. God Will Take Care of You dates from 1904, when the couple was at a Bible school in Lestershire, New York, and Walter was compiling a songbook; Civilla wrote the verses while he was preaching at a church nearby, he composed the tune on his return, and the pair wrote thirty hymns for Songs of Redemption and Praise, printed in 1905. The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power appeared by 1912, and The Old-Fashioned Way was still circulating in revival songbooks decades later.

The catalogue keeps hymnbook titles as they were printed, which is why The Old-Fashioned Way and They Call Me Old-Fashioned Because I Believe appear as separate entries for one hymn, and why the composer is variously W. Stillman Martin and Walter S. Martin. Of the 58 scores, 31 have text; the remainder are instrumental settings. All are indexed as classical, a filing decision that says more about the notation than about the style.

Listening and playing notes

These are strophic gospel songs, so the tune repeats with every verse and the interest has to come from the words. Keep the accompaniment light and let the refrain lift rather than accelerate. In God Will Take Care of You the melody's rise on the refrain is the whole gesture; do not add rubato to it. Where an entry has no text, treat it as a keyboard or melody-line version and add an underlay cautiously.

Selected scores

The Old-Fashioned Way
Civilla Martin's text with her husband's tune, and the most-viewed score on the page.
The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power
A hymn on the blood of Christ from 1912, beginning 'The blood that Jesus once shed for me', often noted as a forerunner of Andraé Crouch's later song of the same title.
God Will Take Care of You
Written at a Bible school in Lestershire, New York, in 1904 and first printed in Songs of Redemption and Praise the following year.
"What Manner of Man Is This"
Its title takes the disciples' question in the storm from Mark 4:41; the catalogue gives no hymnal source.
No Other Name but Jesus
A 1907 gospel song with words by Civilla and a refrain built on the name of Jesus.
Windows of Heaven Are Open Today
Also from 1907; its title comes from Malachi 3:10 and its refrain from the promise of showers of blessing.
They Call Me Old-Fashioned Because I Believe
The same hymn as The Old-Fashioned Way, filed under its first line instead of its title.
Never Surrender! Our Watchword Today
A short rallying song; the catalogue keeps the em dash of the printed title.
There's a Sound of Abundance of Rain
Its title quotes Elijah's word to Ahab in 1 Kings 18:41.

Questions about W. Stillman Martin

How many W. Stillman Martin scores are on TuneViva?

58, running to about 40 minutes of music and 18,845 notated notes. Thirty-one of them include lyrics.

Who wrote the words to these hymns?

Most of the texts are by his wife, Civilla Durfee Martin. God Will Take Care of You, The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power, The Old-Fashioned Way, No Other Name but Jesus and Windows of Heaven Are Open Today all pair her words with his music.

Why do two entries look like the same hymn?

The Old-Fashioned Way is filed once under its title and once under its first line, They Call Me Old-Fashioned Because I Believe. Compare the two files before printing both for one service.

Is the tune the same in every hymnal?

Broadly, but hymnals differ in the refrain's harmony and in how many verses they print. Set the file's first page beside your congregation's book before the rehearsal.