Fanny Crosby - Tunesmith?!

Subject: RE: Fanny Crosby - Tunesmith?!
From: Haruo
Date: 29 Dec 12 - 01:15 PM

Here's the PDF of the hymn-sing where we sang two of Fanny's tunes:
Evergreen Hymn-Sing #3

Subject: Lyr Add: Higher is the grace of God
From: Haruo
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 02:08 AM

I just posted the following at hymnary.org:

Day after tomorrow I'll be singing a short "special music" set in morning worship at Fremont Baptist in Seattle, which will include two stanzas to the CROSBY tune as it appears in the 1954 讃美歌 [Sambika] - the first stanza of #492 «かみのめぐみは (いとたかし)» "Kami no megumi wa (itotakashi)" in Japanese, followed by an English stanza that I wrote which draws in a general way on all three stanzas of #492. "Kami no megumi wa (itotakashi)" is a hymn of three stanzas on the grace of God; the first stanza covers its height, the second its depth, and the third its breadth. The English conflation/derivation I've come up with is

Higher is the grace of God
than Mount Hermon's heights.
Deeper than Genessaret
is God's grace in Christ.
Broader is God's saving grace
than Arabia's sand.
Greater is the grace of God
than we understand.

I propose to call the tune CROSBY SHORTER (in contrast to CROSBY LONGER as given in Fresh Laurels).

The text is by Leland Bryant Ross, 1954-, © 2010 (attribution requested), and is very distantly derived from «かみのめぐみは (いとたかし)» by Tsunejirō Amano, 1866-1905. Its first publication (not counting this posting) will be in a bulletin insert this Sunday. The congregation will be invited to join me in singing it.

Masato, if you see this, tell me what you think and add any data you can (including the proper kanji for Tsunejirou Amano if possible). Arigatou gozaimasu yo.

Haruo

Subject: RE: Fanny Crosby - Tunesmith?!
From: Haruo
Date: 04 Feb 10 - 11:12 PM

Actually it's really not the latter half of the tune that is different, but the repeat pattern of the third fourth, and the last two measures of the tune, I think.

We're having a Fanny Crosby hymn sing in April and I'll make sure we do this tune (though in what language and with what text I'm not sure yet).

Haruo

Subject: RE: Fanny Crosby - Tunesmith?!
From: masato sakurai
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 09:57 AM

"Jesus, Dear, I Come to Thee" is in Bradbury's Fresh Laurels (1867), p. 31, without Crosby's name.

Subject: RE: Fanny Crosby - Tunesmith?!
From: Haruo
Date: 05 Aug 09 - 01:46 AM

I've actually got a copy of Fresh Laurels out from the public library, but hadn't noticed that one was in there. I'll look!

Haruo

Subject: RE: Fanny Crosby - Tunesmith?!
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Aug 09 - 06:57 PM

Fanny Crosby wrote in her autobiography Memories of Eighty Years (1906, p. 183):

"Jesus, Dear, I Come to Thee," was a children's song, which I wrote, both words and music, for the book called "Fresh Laurels," in 1867.

Subject: RE: Fanny Crosby - Tunesmith?!
From: Haruo
Date: 03 Aug 09 - 12:34 PM

Wonderful! Thanks so very much, Masato!

Haruo

Subject: RE: Fanny Crosby - Tunesmith?!
From: masato sakurai
Date: 03 Aug 09 - 10:38 AM

Haruo, I've just found the original: "Jesus, Dear, I Come to Thee" in The Clariona by William Batchelder Bradbury (1867, p. 215). No author/composer is given there, but Christian Songs For the Sunday School (1872) (p. 166) says "Words and Music by Fanny Crosby" (though the latter half of the tune is not the same).

Subject: RE: Fanny Crosby - Tunesmith?!
From: Haruo
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 05:30 AM

Prodded by a recent post on the hymnblog Conjubilant With Song, I finally made a MIDI and a PDF of this tune, whose origins and original text remain obscure to me. (I also just posted about it on the Hymn Society discussion board.) I'm still hopeful that someone out there knows the answers and will share them.

Subject: RE: Fanny Crosby — Tunesmith?!
From: masato sakurai
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 09:20 PM

Sanbika (1954) and Sanbika 21 (1997) are publications by Nihon Kirisuto Kyôdan [United Church of Christ in Japan]. They published Hymns of the Church [hymnal in English] in 1963, which doesn't contain CROSBY. Strange, I can't find their official website via Google Japan.

Subject: RE: Fanny Crosby — Tunesmith?!
From: Haruo
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 08:59 PM

Thanks, Masato. You wrote

210. "Kiyoki tokoro o tsukureyo to" -- "Build a Holy Place for Me" (CROSBY)
492. "Kami no megumi wa ito takashi" -- "Like Mount Hermon's Lofty Peak"(CROSBY)

What do these English words mean? Titles of the original tunes? First lines?

The Japanese lines are indeed the first lines of nos. 210 and 492. "Build a holy place for me" looks to me like an English translation of "Kiyoki tokoro o tsukureyo to", sure enough, but "Like Mount Hermon's lofty peak" looks like it's taken from the third and fourth lines ("herumon no yama ni mo masari") more than the first.

There are eight Crosby hymns in the 1954 Sanbika and one in the 1967 supplement (which is also a treasure trove of Negro Spirituals in Japanese; ahead of its time in this regard, by comparison with American hymnals of the period).

Would you by any chance be able to dig up for me an email address for the hymnal committee responsible for the Kyōdan's hymnals (I am assuming both the 1954 and the 1997 Sanbika are basically Kyōdan products)? I would like to correspond with them on a variety of topics (including this one; who knows, they may actually know who composed it, or at least know who told them it was by Crosby).

Japanese hymnals, unlike American ones but like British ones, tend to index Ms. Crosby under her married name, Van Alstyne. (An aside, for the benefit of anyone trying to follow in my footsteps ;-).)

Haruo

Subject: RE: Fanny Crosby — Tunesmith?!
From: masato sakurai
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 06:12 AM

There's another set of words to this tune (also named CROSBY) in Shinsei Sanbika (Nihon Baputesuto Renmei [Japan Baptist Convention], 1989, no. 244): "Osanaki kora o."

Subject: RE: Fanny Crosby — Tunesmith?!
From: masato sakurai
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 05:44 AM

Haruo, no luck with the tune.

This page says No. 210 and No. 429 are "hymns with original Japanese words."

210. "Kiyoki tokoro o tsukureyo to" -- "Build a Holy Place for Me" (CROSBY)
492. "Kami no megumi wa ito takashi" -- "Like Mount Hermon's Lofty Peak"(CROSBY)

What do these English words mean? Titles of the original tunes? First lines? Google search has returned this page. Megumi Hara's book on hymns (Sanbika, 1980) doesn't say anything about these hymns. Incidentally, No. 210 is adopted by Sin-Seika (Kyobunkan, 2001, no. 498), successor to Seika (Nihon Fukuin Renmei, 1986). No Crosby hymns are contained in the new Sanbika 21 (1997).

Subject: RE: Fanny Crosby ¡¦Tunesmith?!
From: masato sakurai
Date: 27 Oct 02 - 09:54 PM

Haruo, I'm not at home now. I'll check on Sanbika and CROSBY when I get home.
~Masato

Subject: Fanny Crosby — ¡¿Tunesmith?!
From: Haruo
Date: 27 Oct 02 - 09:23 PM

In the widely used 1954 Japanese Protestant hymnal Sanbika (or Sambika), there is a tune attributed to Fanny Jane (Crosby) Van Alstyne, which is given the tune-name designation CROSBY and dated 1867. It is given with two texts, both indigenous Japanese hymns of the late 19th century: No. 210 (first line Kiyokitokoroo, by Denkichi Fujimoto (1857-1935), dated 1894) and No. 492 (first line Kami no megumi wa, by Tsunejirō Amano (1866-1905), undated).

Fanny Crosby was one of the most prolific text authors in the history of Christian hymnody, with over 8,000 hymns to her credit, but (aside from this tune attribution in the 1954 Sanbika) I have never heard any mention of her as a composer of melodies. Mary Louise VanDyke, librarian of the Dictionary of American Hymnology at Oberlin College, tells me she has also seen no such information, and assures me that in Ms. Crosby's autobiography there is no mention of her engaging in tune composition. So the question arises, who wrote the tune the Japanese think Crosby wrote, and what (if anything) is its proper text, that is, the text it was written for or first published with? (For that matter, it may turn out that one of the texts set to it in Sanbika is in fact a translation or paraphrase of the proper text in English.)

Any assistance in identifying the provenance or authorship or original text of this tune will be gratefully received. PM me, or email me at [e-mail]. Click here to visit a page in my online hymnal with a link to a MIDI of the tune.

Haruo