Favorite Hymns from Robert Shaw

The posts of Robert Shaw's early Thanksgiving and Christmas albums led me to explore some of his neglected recordings from the 1940s and early 50s - including today's subject, the 1949 album Onward, Christian Soldiers and Other Beloved Hymns.

Shaw's interest in sacred music was perhaps familial - his father was a minister. Then, too, he retained an active interest in all types of music, producing collections such as this early in his career alongside recordings of Bach and Mozart, while he was also preparing choruses for Arturo Toscanini.

Robert Shaw

The album above originally came out as 78 and 45 sets, later on a 10-inch LP. These transfers come from the 78s, which have much better sound than the LP. Because the album includes just six songs, I added five other compatible Shaw recordings from the same era (details below).

The album takes its title from the 19th century English hymn "Onward, Christian Soldiers" with words by Sabine Baring-Gould and music by Arthur Sullivan. The hymn's link of religion to war is perhaps unfortunate; there have even been attempts to remove the work from the Methodist and Episcopal hymnals for that reason. But the world was a much different place in the post-World War II years, and few gave it a second thought.

Here are a  few comments about the other hymns in the collection.

"Holy, Holy, Holy" (formally "Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!") was written in the early 19th century by the Anglican bishop Reginald Heber. It was set to a tune called "Nicaea," composed by John Bacchus Dykes.

Isaac Watts and Sabine Baring-Gould

The prolific 18th century hymn composer Isaac Watts wrote "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" in 1708. Here it is set to the hymn tune "St. Anne" by Watts' contemporary William Croft.

The words to "All Creatures of Our God and King," first published in 1919, are by William Henry Draper, who adapted a poem by St. Francis of Assisi. The words are set to a 17th century German hymn tune, "Lasst uns erfreuen." Draper possibly became aware of the tune through the 1906 arrangement by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

"All People That on Earth Do Dwell" is sometimes called the "Old Hundreth" because it was adapted from Psalm 100. The author was the 16th century clergyman William Kethe, with the tune by his contemporary, the French composer Louis Bourgeois. The melody is also used for "Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow," and Bach made use of it in his cantata "Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir" (BWV 130).

The final song from the Onward, Christian Soldiers album is "Now the Day Is Over," with words by Sabine Baring-Gould again and music is by Merrial Joseph Barnby. It dates from the 1860s. Richard Rivers is the baritone soloist on the Shaw recording. This touching piece can also be heard in the marvelous Jo Stafford-Gordon MacRae collection Sunday Evening Songs.

Carl Weinrich

The accompaniment in the hymns above is by the distinguished organist Carl Weinrich, Director of Music for the Princeton University Chapel. He later was to record Bach's complete organ works for Westminster.

Now on to the bonus selections, starting with the "Lourdes Pilgrims' Hymn," often called "Immaculate Mary." The French priest Jean Gaignet set it to a traditional tune in 1873 for use by pilgrims to Lourdes, site of the 1858 apparitions.

"O Lord I Am Not Worthy" is a Victorian-era Communion hymn of unknown provenance. (Shaw's record says it is a traditional melody.) Richard Rivers is again credited as the baritone, although no soloist appears on the record.

William Billings?

"I Am the Rose of Sharon" is a setting from the Song of Solomon by William Billings, perhaps the best-known of the early American composers. About the portrait at right - there are several images on the web purporting to be Billings, none of which looks like the others and one of which is actually John Adams. The fellow depicted may or may not be the composer.

The song "The Bells of St. Mary's" is closely associated with the 1945 Bing Crosby film of the same name. It actually was composed as early as 1917 by A. Emmett Adams and Douglas Furber. The piece is sometimes considered a holiday song because it is heard in the film during a Christmas pageant. The Shaw recording dates from the time of the movie.

We complete the program with "The Lord's Prayer" in the 1935 setting by Albert Hay Malotte. John Charles Thomas popularized the work on radio.

The performances are all scrupulous, as carefully prepared and presented as the other Shaw recordings available here.

The Church of the Heavenly Rest

These recordings were remastered from 78s found on Internet Archive. The sound was dry; I added a small amount of convolution reverberation to the mix. The first seven songs were recorded in the Church of the Heavenly Rest on upper Fifth Avenue in New York. "O Lord I Am Not Worthy" and "I Am the Rose of Sharon" come from the Manhattan Center. The latter is from an album of American songs by the Shaw Chorale with soprano Margaret Truman, daughter of then-President Harry Truman. (She does not appear on this cut.) "The Bells of St. Mary's" and "The Lord's Prayer" were recorded in the Lotos Club, then on W. 57th Street in New York.

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