History Through 26 Hymns and Songs

Companion Publication to Hymns and Songs for Living Recording

This is the companion publication to the album Hymns and Songs for Living. This book presents historical information about events before and around the time each hymn or song was written. The goal is to provide the reader with the historical context of the times that shaped the hymns and songs. In addition to those historical stories, the book includes additional supporting information in several appendicies.

• Appendix one provides an overview of historical highpoints from the past 2 millenia that impacted Christian congregational hymn singing from the death of Christ in the 1st to 20th century.


• Appendix two provides history about the American Colony in Jerusalem after publication of the hymn "It Is Well with My Soul" and the Spafford family's abrupt departure for Jerusalem.


• Several other appencices provide lyrics used on the companion album, the list of hymn books used as references for selection of the hymns, a bibliography, and index.

Various persons contributed inputs that shaped this book:

• Dr. Nancy Graham recommended adopting an established style manual for the structure on the book. The Chicago Manual of Style was selected. A short credit page for her is included on the dropdown local submenu above.


• Mr. Dave Mather provided an initial set of copy edit comments that assisted in getting the text to conform to the Chicago Manual of Style, improving readability. He has a wide variety of experiences dealing with various different types of publications. A bio for him is included on the dropdown local submenu above.


• Mr. Terry Hamilton, the freind who initially asked the author to record some duets with him at Bias recording studio, provided resources for content. He is a bit of an Anglophile. That seems particularly fitting since a portion of the hymn histories involve England over the centuries.


• Ms. Ingrid Bartinique then became the editor for this book and provided detailed editing recommendations on the draft final version.

Returning to work with Ms. Bartinique on this book is somewhat analogous to what occurred with completing the recording. For the recording David returned to working with Mr. Bill McElroy. For this book, he returned to working with Ms. Bartinique. Both are examples of full circles and are welcome privileges. We previously worked with Ms. Bartinique as professional colleagues on various projects as a manager of research projects with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. A bio for Ms. Bartinique is included on the dropdown local submenu above.

Structure of Book

A major goal of this book is to provide readers an easy reference of the feel of historical events surrounding creation of each individual hymn and song which shaped them.

It deliberately uses the order of the hymns and songs on the companion album, not a chronological historical structure, and is quite long. Thus, it is presumed readers are likely to skip around it, rather than read it straight through. Thus, internal bookmarks are provided for electronically skipping to related history discussion in other histories.

In addition to providing readers with a feel for the historical events surrounding creation of each individual hymn and song thus shaping them, there is additional information given in several appendices.

One is an expansive summary appendix of historical highpoints from the past 2 millenia of selected christian religious histories that seem relevant to development of congregational hymn singing. It begins from Christ's death to the 20th century. That history overview appendix provides additional insights into how historical contexts contributed to the development of current religious landscape.

Another is a rather extensive history of the America Colony in Jerusalem that occurred after the hymn "It Is Well with My Soul" was published. While that extended history is not germane to shaping of the hymn, it is germane to the reader deciding how to judge actions of the family before the hymn was written.

Others present:

• Lyrics contained in the hymns and songs;
• Resource hymnals;
• Bibliography;
• Index.

Since opinions can be strong regarding religious subject matter, this book provides numerous footnotes throughout to enable readers with questions or reservations regarding throughness and/or reliability of information presented, to explore supporting source materials.

Because many scholarly reference books are only accessible via libraries, this book chose to dominantly cite reference materials accessible via the internet to facilitate readers in accessing them. The goal is to facilitate readers being able to easily follow up on topics of interest to them.

Note. While popular internet sources are invaluable for easily accessed resources, they can have scholarly limitations, and can disappear.

Two Publication Formats are planned for this book:

1. The initial publication format will be a fixed format ebook. That will ensure footnotes are presented at the bottom of the page where they are cited; and


2. A planned audio book. (Initiation of recording that version is projected to begin with release of the ebook.

Projected availability. This website will provide details on how to access this ebook when it becomes available.

NOTE. This TortoiseClimbing.net website will be migrated to the .com website in the future, with automatic referal.

Higlight Materials from Book

Draft finals of two selections from the front material of the book are accessible on this website via the dropdown local submenu above for:

1. Acknowledgements; and


2. Preface

As technical options are developed for making this book electronically available, additional materials from the book may be made available via this website, perhaps in pdf format.

Improving Accuracy of Stories

Comments from readers on inaccuracies, plus sources for missing materials, etc., are incouraged for improving content of this book. All communication with TortoiseClimbing™ can be submitted via the comment page on this website. It can be accessed by clicking on the comment button at the bottom of this and every page on this website.

Note. If you wish to link to the Recording section of this website to check on the companion recording, Hymns and Songs for Living:

• Click on the Recording selection above in the Top Menu, and
• Then on Hymns and Songs for Living on the dropdown menu.

If you wish to comment on contents of this webpage, Clicking the button below will both transfer you to the Contact/Comment page, and pass along that you were on this webpage when you decided to comment.