SIMEON BUTLER MARSH1

1798-1875

ONE of the first pieces of sacred music that the amateur tries to learn is "Martyn." The reason for this is its simplicity and its slow movement; and it is also probably that the words, which are usually those of Wesley, beginning, "Jesus, Lover of my soul," attract by their noble sentiment and their appeal to rest from the troubles that assail us all at one time or another. The tune was written by Simeon Butler Marsh, and one is surprised to learn that there is no other music of his in common use, though he wrote many other pieces. He loved music from the time when, as a boy of seven, he joined a children's choir; and he wrote other music which was sung more or less in his day. But "Martyn" alone has survived in the hymnals of the present time. This tune and the words of Wesley are now so firmly wedded that the one suggests the other, and in recent hymnals it is seldom that the tune appears without these words. The tune was written in 1834, but where it first appeared in print I have been unable to determine. In the Plymouth Collection, compiled by Henry Ward Beecher in 1855, we find Martyn with words of John Newton, "Mary to the Saviour's Tomb"; the hymn by Robert Grant, beginning, "Saviour, when in dust to thee," is set to this tune in a book printed in 1859. But during the last fifty years the joint product of Marsh and Wesley has appeared together in every hymnal.

1 From The Choir Herald.

The parents of our author had five children, four of whom were born in Weathersfield, Connecticut. In 1797 the family removed to Sherburne, New York, and here Simeon was born on the first of June, 1798. His father was Eli, and his mother Azubah Butler. He was reared upon a farm, and before he was eight years old he began to sing in a children's choir in Sherburne. When he was sixteen years of age he secured a music teacher, and in 1817 began to teach the singing school, which at that period was so popular throughout the entire country. The following year he met Dr. Thomas Hastings in his school in Geneva, and from him received much help and encouragement. For the next thirty years he labored with congregations within the Albany Presbytery, teaching choirs, and leading singing schools with great success. In 1837 he undertook another line of work, starting a newspaper at Amsterdam, New York, which he called The Intelligencer, and which later became The Recorder. This paper he conducted for seven years, and later established the Sherburne News in his home town.

Not all of his work was for remuneration. For thirteen years he gave free instruction to the children of Schenectady in his own hired room. He made use of his knowledge of the printer's art by setting the type with his own hand and preparing for the press the forms of three juvenile books. In 1859 he returned to Sherburne, where he taught voice, piano, and violin to large classes of men, women, and children. He was the superintendent of the Sunday school in Sherburne for six years and for half that time the leader of the choir. Among

his compositions were two cantatas, "The Saviour," for mixed voices, and "The King of the Forest," arranged mostly for boys' voices.

On his twenty-second birthday, June 1, 1820, he married Eliza Carrier, of Hamilton, New York. Two children were born to them, one of whom, John Butler Marsh, was for a number of years professor of vocal culture and organ instruction in the Elmira Female College, New York. Mr. Marsh celebrated his golden wedding in 1870. His wife died in 1873, after which he removed to Albany to live with his son, and died there July 14, 1875.

SAMUEL LYTLER METCALF

1798-1856

THE payment of one's college expenses from the proceeds of the publication of a music book is of such rare occurrence that it is worthy of note. This happened in the case of Samuel Lytler Metcalf, a native of Virginia, who was born near Winchester, September 21, 1798. While he was yet young his parents moved to Shelby County, Kentucky, and he began his education in Shelbyville. His aptitude for music led him to take up the teaching of music. He gave lessons once a week, and when only nineteen years old he wrote a volume of sacred music, which was published in Cincinnati at his own risk, and which gave him sufficient funds with which to enter college.

This book was The Kentucky Harmonist, and was a "choice selection of sacred music from the most

eminent and approved authors of that science, for the use of Christian Churches of every denomination, Singing Schools and Private Societies, together with an explanation of the rules and principles of composition and rules for learners." It was copyrighted in 1817, and printed in Cincinnati for the author. A second edition was called for and was dated at Lexington in 1819, while a fourth edition, to which he adds the letters of his degree M. D., was printed in 1826.

Just as he was entering upon manhood, in 1819, he began his studies in Transylvania University, a school in Lexington, Kentucky, which had been founded during the year of his birth, 1798, and which was absorbed in 1865 by the Kentucky State University. Here he continued for the regular course of four years, and from this university he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He began the practice of a physician in New Albany, Indiana, later removed to Mississippi, where he met a lady who became his wife, but who died four years later. For many years he was a professor of chemistry in Transylvania University, his Alma Mater. He was a close student of a number of subjects, and possessed a well-chosen library, which was at one time unfortunately destroyed by fire. The results of his studies he put into permanent form in a history of the Indian Wars in the West, a volume of Terrestrial Magnetism, and two volumes on the subject of Calorie, the latter of which was first issued in 1845, and this was followed by a second edition in 1853. This book was well received abroad, and Doctor Metcalf was solicited to become a candidate

for the Gregorian chair in the University of Edinburgh, but this honor he declined. He had studied his favorite science in London, and in 1846 was married a second time to an English lady in that city. Doctor Metcalf died at Cape May in July, 1856, leaving, besides his widow, a daughter eight years old.

THOMAS LOUD

THOMAS LOUD was one of the musical group in Philadelphia, and was probably a native American. He is found in that city as early as 1812, where he finished musical training under George Pfeffer. He became so efficient that the rivalry between him and his teacher was settled by a public performance in favor of the pupil. His ability made him popular as an organist and a conductor of choruses. He was one of the directors of the Musical Fund Society of his home city. In 1824, when he was organist of Saint Andrew's Church, he published The Psalmist, "a Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes arranged for the organ or pianoforte." This was a book of sixty-four pages, contained some of his own music, and was written and engraved by Joseph Perkins. Another book of his was printed in New York in 1853 and was called The Organ Study, "being an introduction to the practice of the organ together with a collection of voluntaries, preludes, original and selected, and a model of a church service." This was also a small book, having only seventy-five pages. The date of Mr. Loud's death has not been discovered.