Chapin, Primrose, Twenty-fourth

[Haruo (Leland)]

I'm in the process of completing the Hymnary.org database's info for John Gordon McCurry's1855/1973 Social Harp (it was previously a partial list from the DNAH), and am wondering about the attribution of PRIMROSE, which is #24B in this book. I see the PRIMROSE instances are linked to the TWENTY-FOURTH tune authority, and they do appear to be the same tune pretty much, but there doesn't seem to be a clear explanation of whether Amzi Chapin or Lucius Chapin is to blame ;-). So I created an additional person authority, Chapin, to link the instance to. Is the composer's identity settled? Also, is the Aaron Chapin to whom Hymnary.org attributes some tunes, a typo for Amzi or was there another A. Chapin composer born the same year?

[Robert Vaughn]

Leland,

The Makers of the Sacred Harp gives Amzi Chapin as the composer (pp. 99, 183) Warren says that at its first publication in A Collection of Tunes in 1812 it is attributed to Lucius Chapin -- but that Lucius himself attributes it to Amzi in a letter to Andrew Law. I don't know whether anything new has been discovered since then.

 

His glories sing,

Robert Vaughn
Mount Enterprise, TX
http://baptistsearch.blogspot.com
Ask for the old paths, where is the good way
http://mtcarmelbaptist.blogspot.com
For ask now of the days that are past...
http://oldredland.blogspot.com
Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.

---

From: Haruo (Leland) <rosh...@gmail.com>
To: fasola-di...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2015 1:45 PM
Subject: [fasola-discussions] Chapin, Primrose, Twenty-fourth

I'm in the process of completing the Hymnary.org database's info for John Gordon McCurry's1855/1973 Social Harp (it was previously a partial list from the DNAH), and am wondering about the attribution of PRIMROSE, which is #24B in this book. I see the PRIMROSE instances are linked to the TWENTY-FOURTH tune authority, and they do appear to be the same tune pretty much, but there doesn't seem to be a clear explanation of whether Amzi Chapin or Lucius Chapin is to blame ;-). So I created an additional person authority, Chapin, to link the instance to. Is the composer's identity settled? Also, is the Aaron Chapin to whom Hymnary.org attributes some tunes, a typo for Amzi or was there another A. Chapin composer born the same year?

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[Wade Kotter]

Quoting from p. 183 in The Makers of the Sacred Harp:

"Music: Amzi Chapin. In its first publication, in A Collection of Tunes, 1812, under the name TWENTY-FORTH, it is attributed to Lucius Chapin, but Lucius attributes it (under the name ORANGE) to Amzi in an 1812 letter to Andrew Law."

A Collection of Tunes is a reference to a pamphlet of tunes printed for John Logan. Based on this information, I think you should delete the "Chapin" person authority you created and attribute this tune to Amzi Chapin.

For some reason, I can't access hymnary.org at this time (on either Chrome or Safari), so I can't really comment on the Aaron Chapin references.

Wade

 

Wade Kotter
South Ogden, UT
"Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord"

---

From: Haruo (Leland) <rosh...@gmail.com>
To: fasola-di...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2015 12:45 PM

Subject: [fasola-discussions] Chapin, Primrose, Twenty-fourth

I'm in the process of completing the Hymnary.org database's info for John Gordon McCurry's1855/1973 Social Harp (it was previously a partial list from the DNAH), and am wondering about the attribution of PRIMROSE, which is #24B in this book. I see the PRIMROSE instances are linked to the TWENTY-FOURTH tune authority, and they do appear to be the same tune pretty much, but there doesn't seem to be a clear explanation of whether Amzi Chapin or Lucius Chapin is to blame ;-). So I created an additional person authority, Chapin, to link the instance to. Is the composer's identity settled? Also, is the Aaron Chapin to whom Hymnary.org attributes some tunes, a typo for Amzi or was there another A. Chapin composer born the same year?

[ip...@centurylink.net]

Ninety-Third Psalm (SH 31T) "arr. -- Lucius Chapin, 1812" is similar.
The various Chapins are discussed on pp. 41-42 of Dorothy Horn's
"Sing to me of Heaven" (Gainesville, 1970)--likely already familiar.

Best wishes,

David Jensen

On 3/11/2015 10:45 AM, Haruo (Leland) wrote:

I'm in the process of completing the Hymnary.org database's info for John Gordon McCurry's1855/1973 Social Harp (it was previously a partial list from the DNAH), and am wondering about the attribution of PRIMROSE, which is #24B in this book. I see the PRIMROSE instances are linked to the TWENTY-FOURTH tune authority, and they do appear to be the same tune pretty much, but there doesn't seem to be a clear explanation of whether Amzi Chapin or Lucius Chapin is to blame ;-). So I created an additional person authority, Chapin, to link the instance to. Is the composer's identity settled? Also, is the Aaron Chapin to whom Hymnary.org attributes some tunes, a typo for Amzi or was there another A. Chapin composer born the same year?

[Ros’ Haruo]

Thanks, Wade, I'll reassign this tune to Amzi,  but I'll leave the Chapin person page until I'm convinced all their tunes are appropriately divvied up.

Thanks to both of you for the Makers references. I recall reading that, now that you mention it...

--

Leland Bryant Ross aka Ros' Haruo (呂須•春男)
Delegito en Seattle, Universala Esperanto-Asocio
My Hymn Blog | Mia Himna Blogo — The Seattle Esperanto Society
Sankta Harmonio (formnotacia libro plurlingva) — Biblioteko Culbert

[Robert Vaughn]

Leland,

You asked, "is the Aaron Chapin to whom Hymnary.org attributes some tunes, a typo for Amzi or was there another A. Chapin composer born the same year?"

I believe the references to "Aaron Chapin" are in error, and should be Amzi. Here's what I see on the songs on the "Aaron Chapin" page:

http://www.hymnary.org/person/Chapin_A

http://www.hymnary.org/tune/chelmsford_chapin

Chelmsford is also Primrose, which is by Amzi Chapin.

http://www.hymnary.org/tune/golden_hill_davisson

Golden Hill is credited to "A. Chapin" in two scans on this page, so the name "Aaron" doesn't actually come into play for this tune. Apparently someone just made that association. But the Hymnary page itself credits the tune to Ananias Davisson rather than Chapin.

http://www.hymnary.org/tune/kentucky_chapin

Kentucky is also Ninety-Third Psalm, which is credited to Lucius Chapin in the 1991 and 2012 Sacred Harp books.

http://www.hymnary.org/tune/melody_51232

Melody is also Primrose.

Not sure of all the fine points of Hymnary, but perhaps there needs to be an "Aaron Chapin" page since there are song books that credit songs to that name. But it probably should only contain tunes that are credited to that name (e.g., Golden Hill is not, at least on any scans Hymnary has) and should also explain that Aaron probably is just a misnomer of Amzi.

 

Just my opinion.

Robert Vaughn
Mount Enterprise, TX
http://baptistsearch.blogspot.com
Ask for the old paths, where is the good way
http://mtcarmelbaptist.blogspot.com
For ask now of the days that are past...
http://oldredland.blogspot.com
Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.

---

From: Ros’ Haruo <rosh...@gmail.com>
To: Wade Kotter <wadek...@yahoo.com>
Cc: "fasola-di...@googlegroups.com" <fasola-di...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2015 9:00 PM
Subject: Re: [fasola-discussions] Chapin, Primrose, Twenty-fourth

[Ros’ Haruo]

Thanks, Robert. That all makes sense to me. I read that Amzi had two older brothers, Aaron and Lucius, but the Hymnary page gave both A. (Aaron) and Amzi the same birth year, a red flag. Thanks for adding, too, to my stockpile of alternate tunenames!

Leland

On Friday, March 13, 2015, Robert Vaughn <rl_v...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Leland,
> You asked, "is the Aaron Chapin to whom Hymnary.org attributes some tunes, a typo for Amzi or was there another A. Chapin composer born the same year?"
> I believe the references to "Aaron Chapin" are in error, and should be Amzi. Here's what I see on the songs on the "Aaron Chapin" page:
> http://www.hymnary.org/person/Chapin_A
> http://www.hymnary.org/tune/chelmsford_chapin
> Chelmsford is also Primrose, which is by Amzi Chapin.
> http://www.hymnary.org/tune/golden_hill_davisson
> Golden Hill is credited to "A. Chapin" in two scans on this page, so the name "Aaron" doesn't actually come into play for this tune. Apparently someone just made that association. But the Hymnary page itself credits the tune to Ananias Davisson rather than Chapin.
> http://www.hymnary.org/tune/kentucky_chapin
> Kentucky is also Ninety-Third Psalm, which is credited to Lucius Chapin in the 1991 and 2012 Sacred Harp books.
> http://www.hymnary.org/tune/melody_51232
> Melody is also Primrose.
> Not sure of all the fine points of Hymnary, but perhaps there needs to be an "Aaron Chapin" page since there are song books that credit songs to that name. But it probably should only contain tunes that are credited to that name (e.g., Golden Hill is not, at least on any scans Hymnary has) and should also explain that Aaron probably is just a misnomer of Amzi.
>  
> Just my opinion.
> Robert Vaughn
> Mount Enterprise, TX
> http://baptistsearch.blogspot.com
> Ask for the old paths, where is the good way
> http://mtcarmelbaptist.blogspot.com
> For ask now of the days that are past...
> http://oldredland.blogspot.com
> Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.
>

[Wade Kotter]

I agree with Robert. Three of the tunes listed on the "Aaron" Chapin person page (http://www.hymnary.org/person/Chapin_A) are certainly based on Amzi Chapin tunes and the fourth (GOLDEN HILL) is attributed to Davisson (I'm not sure this attribution to Davisson is correct either). Using archive.org and HathiTrust, I found all four of these tunes attributed to Aaron Chapin in at least one late 19th century collection. My guess is that some mid 19th compiler saw an attribution to "A. Chapin" in an earlier collection and mistakenly assumed that A. was a reference to Aaron. This mistaken attribution was then picked up by other compilers. It seems that the hymnary.org contributor who indexed the collections linked to these four "Aaron" Chapin tunes  just took the attributions in that source at face value, not knowing of the earlier printings attributed to Amzi Chapin or just Chapin. In fact, I have come to the conclusion that the text and tune attributions on hymnary.org are best used as a way of finding who a tune or text was attributed to at various times in various collections and not as a source for definitive attributions.

Regarding the other "person" pages relevant to the name Chapin  (go to hymnary.org, click on the Person tab, and then browse for Chapin), I find the following when browsing: Amzi Chapin, and Chapin. There is no link in the browse list to a person page for Lucius Chapin, but, oddly, if you click on the link that says just Chapin, it takes you to a person page titled "Lucius Chapin" (http://www.hymnary.org/person/Chapin_L). Also, if you simply search for Lucius Chapin, you're taken to list that has Lucius Chapin at the top; if you click on the link, it goes to the Lucius Chapin person page.. On this page, four tunes are listed with the designation "Chapin (composer)": "NINETY-THIRD PSALM", "ROCKBRIDGE," "ROCKINGHAM (Chapin)," and "VERNON (Chapin)." The parenthetical designation after the tune name means that there is at least one other tune by that name in the database. The remaining tune on the list is TWENTY-FOURTH, which is given the designation "Lucius Chapin (attributed to)." It appears to me that indexers have at least two fields to fill in related to responsibility for a tune, a "Composer" field, and an "Attributed to" field. My guess is that some of the erroneous attributions in later sources were put into the "Composer" field by indexers who didn't know any better. At least the attributions of tunes in the James books to Amzi Chopin (PRIMROSE), F. F. Chopin (TRIBULATION & VERNON), and Francis Fred. Chopin (OLNEY) haven't made it into the hymnary.org database yet. Unfortunately, I can see this happening if someone who wasn't aware of these problems were to index the James book.

Wade

Wade Kotter
South Ogden, UT
"Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord"

---

From: 'Robert Vaughn' via Fasola Discussions <fasola-di...@googlegroups.com>
To: "rosh...@gmail.com" <rosh...@gmail.com>; Wade Kotter <wadek...@yahoo.com>
Cc: "fasola-di...@googlegroups.com" <fasola-di...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2015 6:50 AM

[Wade Kotter]

With regards to GOLDEN HILL, Davisson claimed it in his 1817 edition of the Kentucky Harmony but dropped this claim in the 1818 3rd edition. Cardon included it, without attribution, in the Missouri Harmony. It seems to be a variant of THIRTIETH PSALM from Patterson's Church Music (1813); Patterson gives no attribution, but there are later attributions, often under the name THIRTIETH, to Amzi Chapin, Lucius Chapin, or just Chapin. In his discussion of ABBEVILLE (another variant claimed by E. J. King) in The Maker's, Warren Steel indicates that THIRTIETH PSALM as published by Patterson is a variant of THE GENERAL DOOM from Ingall's 1805 Christian Harmonist. Another variant appears as PSALM 30 (22B) in The Shenandoah Harmony, taken from a c. 1798 Amzi Chapin manuscript (discovered by Nikos Pappas, if I remember correctly). The attribution is the Shenandoah harmony says "Arr. Amzi Chapin, c. 1798," implying that this was probably a folk tune that was written down by various compilers in their own arrangements for which they sometimes took credit. Lowell Mason published his own arrangement of GOLDEN HILL in  "The Boston Academy's Collection of Church Music;" here's Mason's arrangement from the 3rd edition of this collection, dated 1835:

https://archive.org/stream/bostonacademysco00bost_2#page/153/mode/1up

 

Note that Mason identified it as a "Western Tune."

Based on all of  this, I think that this should be identified as an anonymous folk tune, the earliest known source of its adaptation as a hymn tune being a c. 1798 arrangement by Amzi Chapin. It's not clear to me how hymnary.org handles folk tunes that appear as arrangements (sometimes claimed by the arranger) in tune books. To me, if the above information is correct, GOLDEN HILL and the various related tunes should not be assigned a "Composer" designation unless there is a way to identify the "composer" as "Anonymous" or there is a different way to indicate a tune's origin as a folk tune arranged for use with a sacred text.

Wade

Wade Kotter
South Ogden, UT
"Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord"

---

From: Wade Kotter <wadek...@yahoo.com>
To: "rl_v...@yahoo.com" <rl_v...@yahoo.com>; "rosh...@gmail.com" <rosh...@gmail.com>
Cc: "fasola-di...@googlegroups.com" <fasola-di...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2015 9:56 AM

[Wade Kotter]

Ingalls' collection is the Christian Harmony, of course. Just another typo from the typo king.

Wade

 

Wade Kotter
South Ogden, UT
"Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord"

---

From: 'Wade Kotter' via Fasola Discussions <fasola-di...@googlegroups.com>

To: "rl_v...@yahoo.com" <rl_v...@yahoo.com>; "rosh...@gmail.com" <rosh...@gmail.com>
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Sent: Friday, March 13, 2015 11:19 AM

[Gabriel Kastelle]

egads...  proof-reading error, sry:


5 + 3 = 8

____________________

EIGHT related Chapins active in late 1700's - early 1800's

(which number IS still "no fewer than seven" ;-) )

...and this 8 still is NOT counting the apparently unrelated tunesmith Nathan Chapin, who is nonetheless a NINTH in the mix...  [Hamm, p. 94]

...other comments still stand, I think...

:-)

-- AGK

On Mon, Mar 16, 2015 at 8:42 PM, Gabriel Kastelle <gabrie...@gmail.com> wrote:

Chapins...

I'm sure there are others here with a bit more focused detail than I...

...but not seeing their clarifications yet, and being VERY fond of various Chapins and their music, and happening to have a relevant article "literally" [for real!!] in my hand, I thought I'd at least share some tidbits quickly... 

Perhaps the best progress in clarity in this post is a little more unique detail about brother Aaron Chapin...

Charles Hamm, author, sought to disambiguate some the multiple Chapin amibiguities in a 1960 article still rarely surpassed...

"The Chapins and Sacred Music in the South and West"

in Journal of Research in Music Education 8:91-8.

...whence these bits: 

( p. 91): "...clear that no fewer than seven Chapins were involved in the sacred music of the period..."

[[ :-) :-) LOVE the increasingly rare correct usage of "...no fewer than [number]..." rather than "no less than" <<vomit>>]]

Five brothers:

[of f. Edward, and m. Eunice nee Colton, ]

***Lucius Chapin (b. 1760, Springfield MA--d. 1842) "...enlist[ed] in the Continental Army as a fifer in Boston in 1775..." (p. 92) [young enlistment in army!--recalls Billings' original text for CHESTER!]  

***Amzi Chapin ("eight years his [Lucius'] junior" [p. 93] ==> b. ca. 1768; d.1835 [p. 94])

***Aaron Chapin (1753-1828) "singing master"; "held classes in Connecticut" [p. 94]

***"Calvin Chapin, a brother of Lucius [n.d. given]" [p. 91]  ...Calvin reported that at the age of eighty-four [in the1840's is implied, p. 91...?] he still led the music in church, singing with a voice which still had 'the same sweetness & without a gravel in the notes'." [p. [source is Calvin's own sketch of Chapin family history written in 1840's, donated to H&P Society of Ohio]

*** "Alpheus (1765-1826) also taught, probably in Massachusetts." ]p. 94]

***then, three sons of Lucius at least also were musically active:

   **"Lucius Rezeau Chapin (born 1794)" [p. 94]

   **"Amzi Philander Chapin (born 1795)" [p. 94]

   **"Cephas Lysander Chapin (1804-1828)" [p. 94]

_______________________________

7 Chapins known as tunesmiths, singing school leaders, and/or church music leaders, three with first initial "A".


:-)  :-)  :-) 

But it's not really as bad as all that...  ...pretty much, Amzi and Lucius were the golden tunesmiths, it would seem, and where we find "A. Chapin" believably today, preponderant probability for credit lies with the earliest Amzi, Lucius' brother, from Springfield, MA, it seems to me, from this Chas. Hamm and other sources...  Birth and death dates for brothers Lucius and Amzi from Hamm (1960) and from Makers of the Sacred Harp (2010) are in agreement.

Yes, as surmised by others, Nikos Pappas these days is The ONE with special access to papers incl. the legendary 1798 Chapin manuscript and relations with relevant Chapin descendants...  ...especially useful now that some of the Chapin papers described by Chas. Hamm have since been "lost" from the library of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio... 

...and I believe that The Shenandoah Harmony now has the most complete and most correct, or perhaps most-meticulously-researched, at least most-recently-researched, attributions of various Chapin tunes...  :-)

The most-believable source clues amidst the mass of contradictory indications, in my opinion, are from the attributions in the John Logan supplement / Andrew Law tunebook-insert of 1812 [[shrewdly predicted by Hamm, p. 98!!] and in various correspondences of the actual tunesmiths, compilers, and publishers involved at the time... 

...more detail and convincement than that, I feel, are beyond scope of this e-mail, perhaps even also beyond original posting relevance and/or general patience for or interest in dubious micro-detail... 
...except, maybe, just a cautionary note that manuscript circulation was really important in Revolutionary--early Federal era +/-, an importance perhaps under-estimated these days, when SOPHRONIA, THE INDIAN PHILOSOPHER, and other tunes--maybe I'll include (THE) GENERAL DOOM--THIRTIETH--GOLDEN HILL [[yeah, I see much significant relation along with substantial differences amongst these...  and how is IDUMEA not just a minor version of the same??]]--were very commonly spread in many areas of the colonies / USA, usu. with no claim or presumption of individual authorship, including late in the trending once famously in Chapin manuscripts, so what...  ...also, all these tunes were not always anonymous in their Eastern publications...

:-)

-- Gabriel Kastelle --

Middletown, CT

P.S. bibliographic info is not available to me now, but the first time I personally found an attribution to a Chapin for GOLDEN HILL was in a modern Korean methodist hymnal in a church pew in North Philadelphia...  !!  ...THAT near-random (?) event set me off on quite a journey, lo, these many years ago...  

P.P.S. I'm not convinced that we understand yet all the mutual influences and "shared" (?) tunes and attributions amongst and between A. Davisson and the [various] Chapins, who, interestingly, all produced most typically four-part tunes in early shape note years when three-parters (and two) were much more common than now...  ...just throwing that out there, no more...   ;-)   

[Gabriel Kastelle]