Asa Brooks Everett (1828-1875)
N.B. The following account discusses drug abuse and possible
suicide.
In an earlier post I examined the gospel songs of Mary
Bridges Canedy Slade, many of which were set to music by the relatively obscure composer Dr. Asa
Brooks Everett. I had originally thought to look at both lyricist and
composer together, but the difficulty of researching Everett’s history led
to putting his story off for a post of its own. For example, in a post a few years ago on the Slade-Everett song “Beyond this land of parting”, I suggested
that Everett’s honorific “Dr.” might have been the customary title assumed
by many American musicians in the 19th century who could claim some sort of
European training. It is typical of the confusing case of Everett that on
the one hand, I am less sure now that he ever studied in Europe, but on the
other hand, there is convincing evidence that he was actually an M.D.
Several points in his biography, in fact, are confusing and questionable. My goal here is to present what facts I can, with some reasonable speculation, in
hopes that it may provide a starting point for someone else with more time
and access to primary sources. A. B. Everett would seem to be ripe for an academic
thesis, and so far as I can tell has not been studied in that depth.
Asa Brooks Everett was born in 1828 to Nathan and Sarah Everett in
Randolph County, Virginia (now West Virginia), at the heart of the
Monongahela National Forest in the Allegheny Mountains (Nathan Everett
Pedigree Resource File; 1830 Census). Nathan Everett was a Primitive
Baptist preacher, holding services in a log building a few miles south of
Beverly (Hu, 313). Asa Brooks had ten older brothers and sisters, most of
whom were considerably older. He would work closely, however, with his
next oldest sibling, Lemuel Charles Everett (1818-1866), and also with
Benjamin Holden Everett (1809-1889), both of whom were composers, music
teachers, and publishers. His closest sibling was probably Sarah, his
little sister by two years. Their mother passed away the same year,
perhaps in childbirth (Nathan Everett Pedigree Resource File), and Asa
Brooks would be raised by his stepmother Rebecca, who gave birth to his
younger brother Walter in about 1840 (1850 census).
By 1839 the Everetts had moved to Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania
(“Hymeneal”), first settling in Todd Township, about 150 miles northeast
along the Allegheny range (1840 Census). Nathan Everett was pastor of the
Huntingdon Baptist Church (Africa 240) and identified politically with the
Whigs (“Whig Club”). Some of the family remained in this area or returned
over the years, such as Asa's older brother Benjamin Holden Everett (1870
Census). It is worth noting that then-western Virginia (now the state of West Virginia) and the
mountainous central region of Pennsylvania were--and still are--more
similar to each other than to the coastal cities of their respective
states, both culturally and politically. Though Asa Brooks Everett was a
Virginian by birth and would be remembered chiefly for his teaching and
publishing in the Southern states, his background was considerably more
complicated.
 |
Asa Brooks Everett, date unknown, from Hall's
Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers |
Of Asa Brooks Everett’s childhood I have found nothing else, except the
somewhat disconcerting notice in the
Huntingdon Journal that he was
tried for “larceny of a horse” in 1845 at the age of approximately
seventeen. Though he was judged not guilty, it was not his last brush with
the law (“Proceedings”). In 1850 Asa and his older brother Lemuel were
arrested in Cass Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania for "seduction"
and assault and battery, escaped custody and fled the state (Bowman). ("Seduction" meant a lady's character had been compromised, so to speak, under pretenses of matrimony; the assault and battery was likely a natural consequence of the former charge and probably involved her male relatives.) I
have been unable to find any more information on this event, and can
only wonder what actually happened. Other than these two incidents just mentioned, A. B. Everett was spoken of very highly; an 1858 editorial from the
Baltimore American claimed, "we have the pleasure of knowing
the Messrs. Everett personally," and described them as "high toned,
honorable and noble hearted gentlemen" (reprinted in "Sacred music"). The
trouble in Pennsylvania, however, may have had a part in their "coming
south before the war" as Rigdon McIntosh put it (Oswalt 11).
Where A. B. Everett spent the late 1840s to the middle 1850s is a puzzle.
The notice of the 1850 arrest in Cass states that the Everett brothers
"lately came here from Virginia or the neighborhood of Washington City,
and were engaged teaching singing school" (Bowman), so he had already left home. "L. C. Everett & Co." were organizing classes in
Alexandria, Virginia in December of 1849 (Everett, L. C., "Vocal music"),
and the association of the Everetts with the Washington, D.C. environs
would last for many years. But when and where did A. B. Everett receive his
musical education? And when and where did he become a medical doctor?
The primary source of information about Asa Brooks Everett has been Jacob
H. Hall's Biography of Gospel Song Writers (New York: Revell,
1914). Hall (1855-1941) was a Virginian and closely associated with the music publishers Ruebush & Kieffer, actually taking Aldine Kieffer's place
as editor during the 1890s (Morrison 153). Though there is no evidence of his direct contact with A. B. Everett, Hall was twenty at the time of Everett's death, was well acquainted with people who had worked with
Everett , and could be expected to be familiar with his
career. Hall claims that,
The Everetts and McIntosh were to the music of the South what
Mason, Hastings, Bradbury and others were to the music of the North. . .
. (97)
In early manhood they were broadly and liberally educated, the one for
the Christian ministry and the other for the practice of medicine.
During this time Mr. L. C. Everett gave much attention to the study of
church music . . . His example influenced his younger brother, and
together they pursued their studies and investigations of the subject.
Being passionately fond of music, they became intensely interested and
finally decided to forego their original purposes and to adopt music as
their profession.
On the strength of this decision they went to Boston, and took a pretty
thorough course of musical instruction. . . Returning South they began
teaching vocal music in classes and soon became famous. Being desirous
of still further musical study, Dr. A. B. Everett went to Leipzig,
Germany, and took a four years' course. He then returned to America and
joined his brother in an effort to develop an easy practical and
scientific method of elementary class instruction. "The Everett System"
was the final outcome, and was exceedingly popular in its day.
The L. C. Everett Co., which consisted of L. C. and A. B. Everett, and
R. M. Mcintosh, had prior to the Civil War in their employ over fifty
teachers of vocal music in the Southern and Middle Atlantic states . . .
(98)
For a time they made Richmond, Va., their headquarters. Later the
Everett family moved to Pennsylvania. . .
Dr. A. B. Everett composed many excellent hymn tunes and anthems, and
devoted the latter years of his life almost entirely to writing gospel
songs. The following are considered among his most popular : ''Footsteps
of Jesus," "Knocking at the Door," "Come Unto Me," "To that City Will
You Go ?," " Hear Him Calling," and "Summer Land." . . . (99)
Prof. L. C. Everett was a member of the M. E. Church South, and Dr. A.
B. Everett a communicant of the Christian Church (100).
Some details are obviously incorrect and imply sketchy, second-hand
knowledge--for example, Hall is correct that the Everetts moved from
Virginia to Pennsylvania, but implies that it was after the Everett Company's heyday in Richmond during the 1850s, when in fact Asa Brooks had grown to manhood in Pennsylvania in the 1840s. Hall telegraphs an uncertainty about the facts in the opening
of the chapter:
It is greatly to be regretted that the records we have of the lives of
the Everetts are so meagre. Strange to say, and strange as it may seem,
there was but little record kept of the work and lives of these great
men of the southland (97).
With this in mind, I propose to examine Hall's basic outline of events,
with the caveat that he may have been misinformed of their order,
location, or extent:
-
Asa Brooks Everett trained in medicine, and earned the title "Doctor" in
that profession.
-
A. B. followed L. C. Everett into music and received musical training in
Boston.
-
They returned south, founded the L. C. Everett Company in Richmond, and
taught the "Everett System" across the South.
-
A. B. went to Leipzig (or to Germany at least--DRH) for a few years of
instruction.
- They later moved to Pennsylvania (or back North--DRH).
-
Though A. B. Everett wrote traditional hymn tunes and anthems, in his last
years he turned to writing gospel songs.
-
A. B. Everett died in Nashville, Tennessee in 1875 (actually Alamo,
TN--DRH).
1. Asa Brooks Everett's medical training.
Thanks to the ever-expanding
digitization of archival documents, it is now evident that A. B. Everett was
a student in the M.D. program at the University of Nashville Medical
Department in 1857-58. His sponsor was the National Medical College of
Washington D.C. (Catalogue 1857-8, 13). The role of the "sponsor"
(today more commonly called a preceptor) is to provide clinical
experience, and was either an individual doctor's practice or, as in
Everett's case, a hospital or other institution. As already mentioned, his
brother L. C. Everett was in the Washington area as early as 1849, and an
1853 notice of hotel arrivals in Washington places L. C. Everett there
again, listing his residence in Maryland ("List of arrivals"). It is
possible that A. B. lived with his brother while studying at the National
Medical College (today the Georgetown University School of Medicine)
during the 1850s or even the late 1840s. I have not been able to find
evidence that he received a degree there, but he may have completed his
clinical training.
Though clinical experience is typically the latter stage of medical
training today, in the less standardized era of the antebellum U.S. it
would not have been unusual for Everett to spread out various parts of his
medical education. Robert Slawson's excellent article "Medical Training in
the United States Prior to the Civil War" points out that during the era,
"Only between 25% and 40% of medical school attendees ever graduated. In
1830, probably no more than 40% of practitioners had medical degrees. As
late as 1850, as many as 25% of physicians had no degree" (17).
Requirements for an M.D. were generally two years of classes and three
years of preceptorship (14), and "many started practice with minimal
preceptorship and/or minimal attendance at a medical school." In addition,
Slawson notes that "In the United States, in contrast to the situation in
Europe, the majority of medical practitioners were called 'doctor'" (14);
that is, "Doctor" was sometimes a courtesy title for anyone who practiced
medicine, and not reserved for those with certain medical degrees.
This may explain why Everett referred to himself as "Dr. A. B. Everett" in music
book advertisements as early as 1855 (New York Musical Review, 2
June 1855, VI:12, 192), but as "Asa Brooks Everett, M.D." in his 1859 song
"I love the little laughing rill", after his graduation. Interestingly, in
a University of Nashville medical lecture published in November 1857, "A.
Brooks Everett, M.D., Va." is listed a member of the "Medical Class" that
fall (Buchanan). His obituary in the Staunton Vindicator (Staunton, Virginia) claimed he was an 1857 graduate ("Sad death"),
and the University of Nashville catalogue does not list him as a graduate
in 1857-58, so perhaps he graduated in the spring of 1857 and continued
postgraduate study. It is unknown whether Everett actually practiced
medicine, but he obviously did not give up his medical education in favor
of music; rather, he pursued them simultaneously, or perhaps in
alternation.
2. Asa Brooks & Lemuel C. Everett's musical training in Boston.
I have
found no trace of the Everetts in Boston other than some published works
in the later 1850s, but its was certainly the place to be for aspiring
music educators in the 19th century. Boston was a center of the "better
music movement" (read "European" for "better") that was gathering steam in
the coastal cities, and in church music and music education it found a
champion in Lowell Mason (1792-1872). Recognized today as the founder of music education in the U.S., Mason recognized the critical need to
first teach the teacher, and in 1834 added a teacher education department
to the Boston Academy of Music. By 1845, this program of eight- to ten-day
seminars had more than 500 aspiring teachers enrolled (Hash 268). Though
the Academy itself ceased operations in 1847, its influence was carried
forward by a multitude of other organizations. The Musical Education
Society, for example, was composed of Boston Academy students who met
weekly to sing more challenging music and for further training from Mason
or his colleague George Webb. This organization outlived the Academy by
another decade (Pemberton 184). Teacher training seminars
based on the Boston Academy plan began to be offered all along the East
Coast and through the upper Midwest, and in the early 1850s these gave way to more structured summer-long "normal institutes" such as the
Normal Musical Institutes conducted by Mason, George F. Root, and William
Bradbury (Hash 268-270).
In support of the Everetts' possible association with Lowell Mason and the
Boston Academy of Music is the later appearance of the "Everett teaching
system", detailed through at least the first eight lessons in A. B. Everett's
The Sceptre of 1871. Though it is far narrower in scope than,
for example, Lowell Mason's Manual of the Boston Academy of Music (1839), this is by design: Everett explains that he has stripped
the material down to that which will make decent sight-singers for typical
church music of the day, leaving out many of the more complex concepts
that would rarely if ever be needed for that repertoire. Even so,
Everett's approach is often similar to that of Mason, based on the
inductive learning approach of Pestalozzi (as stated in the full title of
Mason's work). The Everett System was even sometimes called the "Everett
induction method" ("Prof. G. W. Linton"). Little more can be said on this
point until further information is discovered, except that as earlier
noted, L. C. Everett was organizing music classes of his own by the end of
1849, and A. B. Everett was involved by 1850. Asa's time in Boston,
therefore, was probably the last few years of the 1840s; if he arrived in
1846 at the age of eighteen (being in company of his much older brother),
he might even have attended the Boston Academy itself. And, suggestively,
the Everetts' first church music collection,
The Progressive Church Vocalist, was published in 1855 in New York
by Mason Brothers--a publishing firm recently founded by Lowell Mason's
sons.
|
The hymn "RYLAND", dated 1849, is the earliest work by Everett I
have found. From The Tabor (1866).
N.B. Following the custom in American church music at the time, the tenor is on top, the soprano above the bass.
|
3. Return to the South, the L. C. Everett Co., and the "Everett System".
As previously mentioned, in December 1849 L. C. Everett was organizing
vocal classes in the Alexandria, Virginia area with the aim to "stir up a
reformation throughout the State of Virginia" ("Vocal music"). Though the
Everett brothers were teaching in Pennsylvania in 1850 (prior to their
hasty and illegal departure), their sights were set on the South. The next
mention of their activities I have found is in Charleston, South Carolina,
where they held a course of lessons in vocal music in Rev. Dr. Smyth's
lecture room on Society Street in mid-November. The next definite mention
of Asa Brooks's whereabouts is a notice of hotel arrivals placing him in Richmond
in early March of 1853, and noting his place of residence as Staunton,
Virginia ("Arrivals at the principal hotels"). Staunton, favorably located
at a major crossroads in the Shenandoah Valley, would have been an ideal
base, with major roads to Richmond, Washington, and points south and west.
It was also the home of another brother, Elijah G. Everett, a lawyer ("E.
G. Everett") and occasional composer (McIntosh, Tabor, 61). When
the Everett brothers' first publication appeared,
The Progressive Church Vocalist (New York: Mason Brothers,
1855), it was available in the South from Elijah Everett in Staunton
("Progressive Church Vocalist", New York Musical Review).
The first definite mention of the Everetts operating from Richmond is the
publication of the Thesaurus Musicus in 1856. Though it was
again published by Mason Brothers in New York City, it was simultaneously
published in Richmond by the editors, L. C. and Dr. A. B. Everett.
Oswalt's invaluable dissertation on Rigdon McIntosh notes that it was 1856
when McIntosh actually moved to Richmond to join the Everett Company, and
the Virginia capital was the publishing home of this enterprise until it
ceased operation during the Civil War. The New Thesaurus Musicus appeared in 1858, and Everett's Sabbath Chime in 1860, followed by
reprints even through the war years. (When A. B. published under his own
name alone, however, he often used other publishers.)
The Everetts' intention to "stir up a reformation" of musical literacy in
the South was to some extent quixotic, primarily because they refused to
employ the already entrenched shape-note tradition. William Walker's
Southern Harmony (1835), and the then-new Sacred Harp (1844) from Georgia, carried the traditional four-shape system
further south and west, while the seven-shape system of future Southern
gospel was already getting notice with Joseph Funk's 1851 edition of
Harmonia Sacra in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Lewis Oswalt's
description of Rigdon McIntosh's early publications
The Tabor (1866) and Hermon (1973) is illustrative
of the situation faced by the Everetts:
McIntosh was trained by the Everetts in a style of music and a form of
notation that were used by a minority of southern people, and although
he adopted the Everetts' approach and taught their system, he was always
aware that some southerners did not appreciate the interference of
"outsiders". Tabor and Hermon were representative of that
"outsider" style and form of notation, and while there was a
considerable amount of music by southern composers in both books, it was
representative of the tradition of Lowell Mason and other northern
tunebook compilers. Thus McIntosh's tunebooks were in stark contrast to
the shape-note books popular in the South with their indigenous tunes,
open harmonies, contrapuntal inner voices, and other folk elements
(Oswalt 93ff.).
Based on the descriptions and
actions of their contemporaries, however, the Everetts made a considerable impact
in the South in spite of these difficulties. McIntosh had just begun a career as a teacher in Triana,
Alabama (near Huntsville) in 1854, when the opportunity to attend a
session of the Everetts' traveling music institute caused him to change
careers. They received outstanding reviews in the newspapers of the larger
cities, as seen in an article from the Memphis Daily Appeal, 6
February 1857, which is worth quoting at length:
The proper effect of Divine worship is greatly improved and rendered
more salutary and imposing by a correct and expressive vocal performance
of the psalms and hymns. Its magic influence upon the minds and hearts
of worshipping congregations, in bringing them to sober and solemn
contemplation, and in preparing them for an attentive and prayerful
hearing of the Word of God, is universally admitted; and we cannot
conceive how it is possible for any one to feel a deep and lively
interest in the culture of morality and religion, and, at the same time,
entertain feelings of indifference in regard to the general cultivation
of sacred vocal music, which, in all ages of the world, has, very
justly, been regarded as the hand-maid of virtue and piety.
That the moral and religious portion of our community attach due
consequence to this important subject, we do not pretend to doubt; but,
that there is a universal deficiency in the music of our churches, no
one will venture to deny. Then it becomes our duty, if possible, by a
careful and intelligent investigation, to ascertain the true cause of
the deficiency, and to take early and efficient measures to remedy the
evil. The means of acquiring all necessary information on this important
subject are now placed within the grasp of our entire church-going
population, and all others interested, through the medium of a series of
two or three illustrative lectures, proposed to be given by Prof. L. C.
and Dr. A. B. Everett, in each of our churches--the object being to
prepare the way for the establishment of congregational classes for
elementary and practical training. One of the above gentlemen, Prof. L.
C. E., gave an introductory lecture to an unusually attentive and
delighted audience, in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, on Tuesday
night last. The force of the Professor's arguments and vocal
illustrations upon this occasion was such as to convince, we believe,
even the most skeptical of his audience of the feasibility of his
propositions, and the prompt action of the interested audience in the
formation of a large class gave abundant evidence of the high degree of
satisfaction realized from the lecture.
These gentlemen enjoy an enviable and well merited reputation as
composers and teachers of sacred Music, and are conjointly the authors
of two valuable works on this subject. The first of which known as "The
Progressive Church Vocalist" issued two years since, of which several
large editions have been exhausted, is still held in very high
estimation, while the second, entitled "Thesaurus Musicus," which first
appeared in August last, has run through an extensive edition, and is
destined to become the standard work of the South. From the various
notices which we have seen of Prof. L. C. and Dr. A. B. Everett, we have
become deeply interested in them, and feel much anxiety for the success
of the laudable and praiseworthy enterprise in which they, in connection
with two of their brothers, are so zealously engaged. They have
associated themselves together for the purpose of elevating the standard
of Sacred Music in the Southern States; and, being southerners
themselves, (hailing from the ''Old Dominion") and possessing the
highest qualifications in their profession, they richly deserve the
universal patronage and co-operation in this great work of every
community in the South; and we are pleased to see them endorsed by many
of the most eminent clergymen, and other prominent citizens of our
section of the Union. We would here add that in order to the successful
bringing about of this important reformation they have employed at their
own expence a large number of highly qualified assistant teachers who
are at present laboring in various parts of the South for the promotion
of the cause. We esteem the opportunity now offered the citizens of
Memphis for improvement in this sacred and too much neglected science as
one of rare occurrence and which should be eagerly embraced by all whose
circumstances will admit of their so doing ("Vocal music",
Memphis Daily Appeal).
 |
The old 1st Cumberland Presbyterian Church,
Memphis, where the Everetts taught in 1857
From historic-memphis.com |
An even more flattering picture comes from a letter to the
Home Journal of Winchester, Tennessee in December of the same
year:
Mr. Editor:
Having always been a lover of Music, having always appreciated its
utility as a science, and looked upon it as one of the most necessary
branches of education, and as one of the greatest embellishments
belonging to an educated lady or gentleman; and especially, believing
good Vocal Music one of the most indispensable parts of Divine
Service–at the same time forced to regret the glaring deficiency in the
execution of Sacred Music in our churches generally–often having to
witness and feel the mortification of discord and jargon, instead of the
soul-inspiring, animating and expressive performance, that may be truly
termed singing “with the spirit and the understanding”--I would ask a
little space in your paper for a few paragraphs touching its great
importance, and the golden advantages we are at this time honored with
in this community, for elevating the standard of vocal music, and adding
much to the interest of divine service in our churches.
For the last 18 or 20 years, many courses of instruction have been given
in this place in church music; many hundreds of dollars have been
expended for furnishing good and efficient choirs in our churches, while
some few of our citizens who had made themselves sufficiently acquainted
with its principles, have kindly given much of their time to the
instruction of others, and they are entitled to the gratitude of all the
lovers of religious worship and friends to morality and refinement in
this community–but they have had to labor under many disadvantages, such
as the early imbibed habit of dragging or drawling in performance, a
want of general and deep interest being felt, and consequently the want
of a better and livelier appreciation of the beauties and real worth of
efficient vocal performance, &c., and more or less incapacity to
feel the charm and power "that sways the breast; Bids every passion
revel or be still," and tunes the soul to harmony, has prevailed.
Indeed, we are far behind, here, in vocal music. But I am pleased to
know we have an auspicious opportunity now of cultivating the taste and
improving the ear, thus enabling us to elevate the standard of church
music, and exert a moral and refining influence in our midst, that will
tell for the honor of our community, when many of us who worship at its
shrine now, shall have left the walks of men.
Now, while we have so good an opportunity for such decided improvement,
I trust it will be seized with avidity.
In the course of the twelve lessons given by Prof. L. C. Everett, just
ended, the fact is already established here, that almost every person
can learn to sing and read music with great facility; even in less than
a dozen lessons. I had the pleasure of being present on two occasions of
taking lessons, and I have no hesitancy in asserting, that never before
have I witnessed such rapid improvement. To see a class of respectable
size, each one in the class taking up pieces entirely new to the whole
class, and singing the four parts off with remarkable ease, at sight,
and with more tact, grace and expression than is common in old choirs,
is what I have never before seen in Winchester, nor anywhere else; and I
have been present on many similar occasion of vocal performance.
Prof. L. C. Everett's manner of lecturing and imparting instruction is
decidedly superior to anything I have ever witnessed from any other
teacher of vocal music. His easy and instructive illustrations on the
black board, his forcible and lucid manner of explanation, the
attractive manner in which the pupil is led on, step by step, in the
delightful and heavenly science, the lively interest he so happily
infuses in the class, and the entire control he naturally and agreeably
exercises over them, at once give him a decided superiority, and ensure
rapid and thorough improvement.
No humbug in his case--though this is an age of humbuggery and
deception. On the contrary, he goes beyond his pledges, and surpasses
the expectation of the most sanguine.
Never before have I known the Chromatic scale introduced. It is a new
thing to us here.
I find that even we who thought we knew a thing or two about music are
just beginning to see "its nameless graces" and feel its
inspiration.
It is truly gratifying that another and larger class has been raised,
and that, too, principally by the agency of several of our clever
ladies, to whom we should feel under lasting obligations for their noble
and praiseworthy conduct in this, as in every instance where failure is
about to be made and they come up to our rescue!--for they are always
more energetic and successful in any good cause than we poor men, after
we think we have done our very best.
The many notices of Profs. L. C. & A. B. Everett, in connection with
two other brothers, to be seen in most of the leading papers North and
South, speak of them in the highest and most commendable terms, of their
already successful efforts as teachers and composers of sacred music,
and their great and laudable enterprise of effecting a reformation
throughout the South in the knowledge and practice of a science so much
neglected, and of such incalculable importance and utility.
The brothers Mason, who have done so much for the musical world, are not
more highly complimented by the papers of their own latitude than the
brothers Everett now are by the same papers, and by the press wherever
they have been.--In Washington, Baltimore and Richmond, and other cities
still farther North, the press is only awarding to them what they richly
merit--the preference over all others engaged in teaching the science of
vocal music.
Success to them in an enterprise so noble–so elevated–so sublime in
itself, as that of elevating to its legitimate position the beauty and
efficacy of a science that engages the attention of celestial choirs in
harmonious strains of sublimity beyond description, and beyond mortal
conception.
AN OBSERVER ("Vocal music", Winchester Home Journal).
Oswalt's research on Rigdon McIntosh, however, shows the somewhat cooler
reception they may have received outside the cities. According to
McIntosh, it was his own rural Tennessee roots that helped break the ice
for the Everett brothers; he could "give them a kind of southern status by
uniting with them in business and traveling with them through the southern
states" (Oswalt 11). This notwithstanding, they appeared to have been
thriving in the late 1850s. In addition to the engagements already
mentioned in Memphis and in Winchester, the Everett Company had classes in
Nashville in January 1858 ("Vocal music", Nashville Union), in
Macon, Georgia in June of that year ("Sacred Music"), and in Raleigh,
North Carolina in April 1859 ("Singing in church"). Though these are
obviously just a few of the places they may have taught, it is interesting
that all of them were major cities or college towns where the Everetts
would find well-established churches and well-educated audiences.
4. Asa Brooks Everett's education in Germany.
Hall claims
that A. B. Everett "went to Leipzig, Germany, and took a four years' course" (98)
soon after the Everetts began their music teaching career. Elam D.
Bomberger's dissertation on 19th-century American music students in
Germany lists Everett as having studied in Leipzig, but Bomberger found no
information as to when or with whom (411). It is interesting to note that
William Mason, the son of Lowell Mason and later publisher of the
Everetts' first sacred music collection, was a student in Leipzig
1849-1850, studying with Ignaz Moscheles, Moritz Hauptmann, and Ernst
Friedrich Richter (Bomberger 357). Other gospel music composers who
studied in Leipzig include William B. Bradbury in the 1840s (55 n. 30) and
Charles C. Converse in 1855-1856 (357). Unfortunately Bomberger did not discover any more specific evidence for A. B. Everett's presence there beyond the received tradition in the standard
reference works, which themselves generally refer back to Jacob H. Hall.
Another source has surfaced, however, that casts this problem in a
different light. In an 1897 retrospective, the venerable shape-note
gospel publisher Aldine S. Kieffer told of his one and only meeting with A. B. Everett. It was the summer of 1859 at Halifax Courthouse, Virginia, and (not
surprisingly) in the company of Rigdon McIntosh. Kieffer quotes Everett as
saying of his early training, "I was for a long time a student with Dr.
Marx, of Germany" (Kieffer). This is almost certainly Adolph Bernhard Marx
(1795-1866), best known today as one of the earliest scholars to make a serious study of the works of Beethoven.
Marx lectured in music at the University of Berlin (today the Humboldt
University of Berlin) from the 1830s, and in 1850 was a co-founder of what
became the Stern Conservatory. Better known today as a music theorist and
historian than as a composer, Marx "rejected the idea of music theory
as specialized knowledge for professional musicians, arguing instead that
it was an opportunity for any human being to grow and develop as a whole
person as he or she progressed through an organically constructed course
of musical instruction" (Pederson 14). This approach to music education
parallels the inductive method of Mason and the Everetts, and shows a
similar spirit in thinking of musical training as a social good. If A. B. Everett studied with Marx, he almost certainly did so in Berlin, and
probably prior to 1856 when Marx had a falling out with the conservatory
faculty that led to his departure (Pederson 14). No contemporary records
have been discovered so far to positively indicate A. B. Everett's presence
in either Berlin or Leipzig; but Bomberger notes that records for the
period 1850-1900 are missing from the Stern Conservatory (316).
It is reasonable to suppose, then, that A. B. Everett went to Germany sometime
during 1850-1855. Bomberger found that the average sojourn of an American
studying at the German conservatories was two to three years (208), so
this event would easily fit between Asa's known activities around 1850 and
his more obvious presence in the South from 1855 onward. Additionally, his
sacred music activities were paralleled in the second half of the 1850s by
the publication of secular songs for solo voice and piano,
reflecting a classical music education beyond the sacred vocal music of
his earlier years. Similar to the better-known works of Stephen Foster,
these parlor songs are intended for a popular audience of home
music-makers, and do not reflect the full extent of Everett's abilities.
They are simple, perhaps even simple enough to be played and sung by the
same performer, but in my opinion they would be respectable work for an
average student in the second year of study. They flow naturally, and
already show the gift of easy, singable melody that would make A. B. Everett's gospel songs last for generations.
5. The Everetts return North.
Jacob H. Hall's account mentions
nothing of the effects of the Civil War on the fortunes of the Everett
brothers, but fortunately we have an1872 letter from Rigdon McIntosh to the
New York publisher F. J. Huntington that is more direct:
While they were in the south the war came on--I went into the southern
army--they went to Canada. Why they did so, I never asked, and never knew.
When the war ended we were still friends and I never lost an opportunity
to forward their interests and popularity, even at the risk of injuring my
own (Oswalt 15).
With the facts previously established we can now see that although
the Everetts had lived in the South for a decade and made it their field of
work, their sectional ties were complicated. We have no idea what their
thoughts were on the greater moral questions of the conflict, but like many
others, their loyalties were divided. Their roots were in the part of
Virginia that was rapidly separating into West Virginia--the mountain people
being less than enthusiastic for what they saw as a war to preserve the
privilege of the lowland planters. Much of the Everetts' family lived in
Pennsylvania (or possibly in the Washington D.C. vicinity), and they had
many musical and publishing colleagues in the North. But above all, their younger half-brother, Walter, mustered into the Union Army in June 1861 as
part of the 34th Pennsylvania Regiment (Africa 118, 121). He was fatally
wounded in the battle of Fredericksburg and died four days later on 17
December, 1862 (Africa 121). In 1863 L.C. and A. B. Everett
published The Canadian Warbler in Toronto, and notes in that songbook indicate their activity in
Canada started as early as the fall of 1861 (34).
.jpg) |
Lemuel C. Everett, from Hall's Biography
of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers |
After the war A. B. Everett next turns up in Elmira, New York as a music teacher (
Elmira City Directory, 1866, 187). It was here, as Hall reported, that Lemuel C. Everett, Asa Brooks's older
brother and senior partner, passed away (Hall 97; but in 1866, not 1867, cf.
"Joshua Greenland"). In the late 1860s Asa Brooks was back in Pennsylvania
teaching and lecturing. In the fall of 1867 he lectured in Mifflintown, in the neighboring county to his old home in Huntingdon County ("Dr. A. B. Everett"). In
January of 1868 he advertised for submissions to a new songbook, with
correspondence to be sent to him at Lewistown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania.
In the fall of 1868 he had mail waiting at the post office at Clearfield,
Pennsylvania ("Letters"). And although it is uncertain whether he ever lived
in the Cass vicinity again, there was some form of estate left in his name there after his
death ("Letters of Administration"). It appears, therefore, that Jacob H.
Hall was essentially right in saying that A. B. Everett returned to Pennsylvania, and
kept his work in the Northern states in the period immediately following the
war.
But in December 1867 A. B. Everett returned, however briefly, to the area of
Virginia that had once been his home. The Shenandoah Valley Musical
Convention met in Woodstock, Virginia from the 24th to the 27th, organized
by Rigdon McIntosh. A. B. Everett lectured on the subject, "The History,
Utility, and Influence of Sacred Music." Though shape-note instruction was
gaining ground in the South and would soon outstrip the work the Everetts
had done in teaching traditional notation, he was still highly regarded by
the musical luminaries of the South and apparently had occasional
engagements there.
6. Asa Brooks Everett's turn from metrical hymns & anthems to gospel songs.
A. B. Everett's first editorial work, mentioned previously, was with his
brother in The Progressive Church Vocalist (New York: Mason
Brothers, 1855). It was followed in 1856 by the Thesaurus Musicus (Richmond, Virginia: L.C. & A.B. Everett) and then the New Thesaurus Musicus (Richmond, 1858). I have not been able to examine these, but
McIntosh's Tabor (New York: Huntington, 1866) identifies
two hymns reprinted from Thesaurus Musicus and seven from
New Thesaurus Musicus. These are essentially similar to the metrical
hymns of their other, better-studied works of the next few years. A review
of the New Thesaurus Musicus in the
North Carolina Journal of Education noted that it contained
"Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Sentences, Anthems, Chants, &c., for the use of
the Choir, the Congregation, and the Singing School." The reviewer also
noted that the new compositions in the book "are plain and simple, yet they
are excellent congregational tunes"--which I would argue is characteristic
of Everett's later gospel songs ("New Thesaurus Musicus" [Review]).
During the late 1850s both Lemuel and Asa Brooks Everett would independently
undertake denominational hymnal projects that were among the first of their
kind in the Southern U.S. Though singing-school tunebooks were becoming
widely available in the South, the hymnals prepared by the various religious
bodies for formal worship had typically appeared in text-only form, with the
psalms and hymns fitted to tunes known by heart. This reduced cost and
accommodated local preferences in tunes; some had also considered the presence
of notes on the page an unwelcome distraction to the act of worship. In 1859
Lemuel C. Everett edited the musical selections for
The Wesleyan Hymn and Tune Book (Nashville: Southern Methodist Publishing House), based on the
existing Methodist hymnal. Though traditional Southern folk hymns were
included, L. C. Everett also used a number of his own hymns as well as those of Asa Brooks. The Everetts' junior partner, Rigdon McIntosh, assisted in this work
and would draw on it in his later Methodist hymnals.
The very same year, A. B. Everett edited the music for Basil
Manly's
Baptist Chorals (Richmond: T. J. Starke). Whereas L. C. Everett and
Rigdon McIntosh were Methodists prior to their involvement with the
Southern Methodist hymnals, Asa's work with Manly seems to indicate a
continuing adherence to the Baptist faith of his father. (Hall claims that A. B. Everett was a "communicant of the Christian Church" (100), but no
further information on this subject has come to light.) Basil Manly, Jr.,
the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Richmond, was one of the most
influential Baptists in the South, and had published the important
words-only collection
Baptist Psalmody in 1850
(Stoutamire 236ff.). His collaboration with A. B. Everett produced what
David Music & Paul Richardson named the "most significant ante-bellum
Southern effort to provide a collection of tunes for Baptist worship"
(300). As usual, most of the music was written by A. B. Everett himself and his
brothers (Music & Richardson, 301).
Incidentally, the
notation of both
The Wesleyan Hymn and Tune Book and
Baptist Chorals is an example of the
transition in American hymnals from open score (each of the four parts on separate staffs) to close score (soprano & alto on a staff,
tenor & bass on a staff). The former is still used in the
Sacred Harp books, as in the example below (from the
digital copy at Michigan State University Libraries):
Note again that the melody is in the "tenor" part, above the bass, while the
part sung by tenors today is in the top staff, called the "treble"
in
Sacred Harp terminology. Having the melody in the
tenor voice with harmony parts above it is a holdover from the earliest
beginnings of part-writing in the Middle Ages, and though melody-on-top
writing had long since become the norm in other styles of music, it
persisted in American hymn-singing as well as some folk music contexts.
In A. B. Everett's Baptist Chorals, the part we would recognize as tenor is still on a
separate staff at the top, but the alto voice is placed beneath the melody on the middle staff--what some have called "semi-close
score", which is as good a term as any:
I have not found a thorough study of
this phenomenon, but my initial observations from a sampling of 19th-century
hymnals suggests that it dates mostly from the 1850s-1860s, and corresponds
to the trend away from the oblong hymnals (such as the
Sacred Harp) toward the modern "book-format" hymnal. From a practical standpoint it
saved space; perhaps it was reluctance to force the "trebles" (singing the modern tenor part) to read a
different clef that delayed the move to fully "close score" all at once.
In the "Music editor's preface" to
Baptist Chorals (pages iv-v), A. B. Everett describes his ambitious plan: for each hymn, he would provide a familiar old tune on one side of the page opening, and a brand new tune on the other side. He took particular care to increase the selection of Short Meter tunes, citing a general lack of them in current practice. Everett also called attention to the Southern-ness of the new selections, thanking McIntosh in particular, and modestly acknowledging that "we have been compelled to insert a good many of our own compositions" (which, to be fair, was pretty common at the time). In the process of assembling a
works list for Asa Brooks Everett, I have identified 35 A. B. Everett works in
Baptist Chorals. All are metrical hymns, and as indicated in his preface he took pains to expand the variety of meters available. The traditional long, common, and short meters make up only half of these contributions, and the remainder are divided among 12 different "peculiar" meters. There are no chants, sentences, or anthems; Everett remarked toward the end of his preface that he intended to publish a volume of these to accompany
Baptist Chorals, but there is no evidence that this came to pass (
Baptist Chorals, v). Interestingly, 24 of A. B. Everett's metrical hymns appear in his brothers
Wesleyan Hymn & Tune Book, and 14 of these appear in both brothers' hymnals. It would be logical and economical to collaborate in their work, especially since their projects were intended for different denominations.
At some point before 1866 A. B. Everett contributed a significant number of works to a volume titled The Church Peal, which has proven as elusive a volume as I have ever tried to track down. It is credited as a source in Tabor, edited by Rigdon McIntosh in 1866--and that is all I know. All but three of the pieces McIntosh took from it are by A. B. Everett, and all but three of these are in the traditional meters, making this a far more conservative group than his contributions to Baptist Chorals. This might suggest an earlier date, perhaps even the early 1850s.
Rigdon McIntosh, separated from his former partners by the Civil War, brought out his first independently edited work in 1866.
Tabor was published in New York (probably owing to the lack of available facilities in the South), but made pains to appeal to the Southern audience (Oswalt 42ff.) As part of this effort, and reflecting his long association with the Everett brothers, he included a large number of their works. (He may also have already had ownership of, or an arrangement to use, their copyrights, but it is unclear when this transfer took place.) Out of roughly 550 works in the collection, 109 are confirmed as works by A. B. Everett, a far greater portion than was contributed by McIntosh himself. Of his 96 metrical hymns included, about two-thirds are in the traditional meters, the remainder being scattered across a wide variety of peculiar meters. The remainder of Everett's contribution includes chants, sentences, and anthems. Notable examples are the sentence "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord" and the anthem
"Serve the Lord with gladness", the most extended choral work by A. B. Everett I have found so far.
After the death of his brother Lemuel C. in 1866, Asa Brooks Everett was at a crossroads again. McIntosh's Tabor was popular (Oswalt 16), and put A. B. Everett's works in front of the American public again after the wartime hiatus. But he no longer had his brother, apparently the businessman of the family, and no longer had his right-hand man McIntosh (for reasons unknown they never edited a songbook together). A report in the Musical Advocate and Singer's Friend (forerunner to the venerable Musical Million published in Virginia by Ruebush & Kieffer) indicated that Everett was working on a new book in January 1868 ("Musical intelligence"). Everett actually published a notice about it in the New York Pioneer and Chorister's Budget that month:
We earnestly solicit our brother composers to send us contributions of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Senetences, Anthems, Chants, etc., four our new Book of Church Music. It is our design to make the work, so far as it is possible, the honest exponent of American taste and talent (musically considered), and we shall thankfully receive contributions from any and every competent source. Of course we cannot promise to insert every composition that may be sent us, but will give it a careful and impartial examination, and use all that we think calculated to do credit to the book and the composer.
If this notice should meet the eye of any of our numerous professional friends in Canada, we express the hope that they have not forgotten the "Days of Old Lang Syne," and trust they will send us some sparkling gems form the icy North.
N.B.--All music must be sent in by the first of February next. . . (Everett, A.B., "Card")
Of note is the fact that Everett's book was on the lips of Aldine Kieffer in Singer's Glen, Virginia, and also advertised in the heart of Northern music publishing, with a special appeal to Canada. Everett was casting the net far and wide, instead of emphasizing his Southern-ness as McIntosh was wont to do. But for reasons unknown, this book never appeared. In October of 1868, John P. Morgan, reviewing his new book The Tonart (published by Huntington in New York and co-edited with Edward Roberts) noted that A. B. Everett was involved "by special arrangement" and that The Tonart "takes the place of" the work that Everett had sought to bring out earlier that year (Morgan, "Tonart [review]"). It would be a few more years before Everett achieved his goal.
The Tonart includes 42 pieces by Everett, 33 of which appear for the first time in this work. All but four are metrical hymns, leaning strongly into Long Meter and Common Meter. One of Everett's two new anthems in this work, "Plunged in a gulf of dark despair", shows Everett's continuing experimentation with the available forms: the first section is actually his MELOS, a striking Aeolian tune in a G minor setting, which breaks off mid-stanza for a modulation to the parallel major and an entirely new, through-composed rendition of the remaining text. Incidentally, The Tonart is also the first occasion in which Everett is known to have used anagrams of his name as pseudonyms, including "Asa Bettever" and "E. A. Brooks" (the latter of which, being less obvious, carried over into some later hymnals). In a later work, The Sceptre, he also used "B. A. Teveret".
The Sceptre (New York: Biglow & Main, 1871) would appear to be Asa Brooks Everett's crowning work. It is the only church music collection, in fact, for which he took chief credit, being "assisted by" his brother Benjamin Holden Everett. It was 300 pages, containing 527 pieces of music, and was printed in the oblong or "longboy" format of the traditional tunebook. Semi-close score predominates, with close score used for pages that pack in old familiar hymn tunes in smaller print with a single stanza of text. The work begins with a "Student's Compend of Musical Notation", an 18-page summary of basic music reading with exercises, followed by "The 'Everett System' of Teaching Vocal Music in Elementary Classes: A Guide for Young Teachers". In 27 pages, Everett gives detailed lesson plans for the first eight lessons in a vocal music class, concluding with an encouragement to the teacher to adapt these techniques for introducing new musical concepts as they are encountered in practice. He concludes this section with another 13 pages of musical works keyed to the lessons, including metrical hymns and secular choruses.
proper begins with metrical hymns, arranged in subsections by meter: 104 Long Meter tunes (pages 61-93), 81 Common Meter tunes (pages 94-118), and 93 Short Meter tunes (pages 119-145), followed by 146 tunes in a variety of other meters (pages 146-205). Everett himself contributed hymn tunes in more than 40 different meters. The final section of the book (pages 206-300) contains 71 works, of which 20 are labeled as anthems or "hymn-anthems", 9 are labeled sentences, and 15 are labeled chants. The first three are not always distinct in style; though generally one expects more complexity in an anthem, most of the interest is created from alternating pairs of voices, and from tempo changes, rather than from imitative counterpoint. The differences arise from text (and length): the anthem will usually treat at stanza of text (at least four lines), where the sentence is usually no more than a couplet. Thus the anthems tend to be at least two pages of music, where a sentence usually takes only one.
Almost half of the content of The Sceptre (248 works) was written by A. B. Everett himself, often under his anagrammatic pseudonyms, and though some of them dated back to Baptist Chorals, 161 of these works were appearing in print for the first time. It was a huge body of work, the largest by far that A. B. Everett would ever publish. The other half of the contents was drawn from a wide variety of composers. Everett included 27 works by his late brother L. C., and 12 by Rigdon McIntosh. Curiously, his brother and co-editor Benjamin H. Everett is credited with only one song. Other composers with multiple contributions tended to be Northerners, such as William Bradbury, J. H. Tenney, and Hubert P. Main. Older works by Lowell Mason and Thomas Hastings were also prominent.
Looking at The Sceptre's place in Everett's career, it shows that as late as the 1870s--his final five years--his ideal book was still very much in line with the high-minded educational works of the Lowell Mason circle of his younger days. I have not found a song in The Sceptre that I am comfortable with labeling "gospel" in the Ira Sankey/Philip Bliss vein (or even "Sunday School" in the style of William Bradbury). Though Everett made more important contributions to gospel songs, he appears never to have wavered from his ideals of a broad, classical musical education first and foremost.
Identifying a "gospel song" can be difficult in the first place. Shearon & Eskew emphasize that it has a strophic text and "often" a refrain, simple harmony with a slow rate of chord change (relative to the classical hymn), and often uses lively rhythms in the manner of popular music. The lyrics, taken from contemporary writers, also tend to be more personal and subjective than those of the traditional hymns. The Evangelical revival movement in Northern cities after the Civil War fostered this new type of church music, exemplified by Philip Bliss and Ira Sankey in the Gospel Hymns series beginning in 1875, but it was foreshadowed to a great extent by the Sunday School songbooks as far back as the 1840s ("Gospel Music").
The Everett brothers were not unaware of these developments, of course, and in 1860 published Everett's Sabbath Chime in Richmond, subtitled "A new collection of Sabbath school hymns and tunes, for the use of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South." I have not been able to examine this (only three copies are listed in WorldCat), but it shows their openness at an early date to working in this genre as well as the traditional hymns and choral church music. Fortunately, a digital copy exists (though of imperfect quality) for their next foray into Sunday School music, The Canadian Warbler, published in Toronto and Montreal in 1863 during their Canadian exile. (It is apparently coincidence that A. B. Everett was involved in a bird-themed Sunday School book just three years prior to the Root & Cady series Our Song Birds, for which Mary B. C. Slade--later to be Everett's most significant lyricist--was a major contributor.) L. C. Everett's preface makes clear the intent of the work:
Convinced, by long experience and observation in training the young in vocal music, that their tastes require the frequent introduction of new tunes, and those, too, of a more sprightly and pleasing flow of melody than those heavy, dignified compositions ordinarily heard in the regular service of the sanctuary, with the view of gratifying his young friends, he has thought it best to employ tunes of the former character mainly for this work, while of the latter class a sufficient number have been inserted for all occasions requiring their use (3).
The Canadian Warbler was published in the smaller 12 cm by16 cm oblong format, which seems to be typical of the early Sunday School books (the "longboy" tunebooks such as the Sacred Harp are closer to 18 cm by 26 cm). It contains 192 songs, primarily in semi-close score but with a significant number of three-voice songs in close score. (In these the soprano and alto are on the upper staff, and the bass is alone on its staff.) Approximately 3/4 of the tunes indicate a meter, but given L. C. Everett's statement about the contents, these cannot all be assumed to be "metrical hymns" in the classical sense. On the other hand, only about 30 songs have a chorus, the easiest distinctive mark of a gospel song. Many more have a musical structure that is similar to stanza-chorus (two musical periods of equal closure), but continues the stanza across what could have been a chorus section (cf. "Jesus, keep me near the cross" and "Sweet hour of prayer"). The prevalence of dotted rhythms, root position harmonies, and a liberal use of compound meters make this collection certainly "proto-gospel" at the very least.
A. B. Everett's identifiable contributions to Canadian Warbler number 28 songs (the copies available online come from a poorly photographed microfilm, and the top quarter of the pages is unreadable in about 25% of the book). Three of these are metrical hymns from the Baptist Chorals; the remainder appear to have been written for the collection. These new songs are primarily in 2/4 time, with a few in 6/8 or 3/4, and a smaller number in 4/4. The quarter note (or dotted quarter) has the beat, and in all but a couple the rhythm runs along in sprightly eighth notes. In other words, these are more like gospel songs than the metrical hymns which Everett had written earlier and would continue to write for The Sceptre. Notable examples of songs that approach the post-Civil War gospel song are "Will you go?" with its refrain after each line of the stanza; "I will fear no evil" with its lilting dotted rhythms in 6/8 time; and Everett's arrangement of the classic "I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger." Another interesting development is the presence of a few songs that are clearly more revival songs than for the Sunday School, such as "Sinner, come, mid thy gloom / All thy guilt confessing"; "Come, sinner, come / Why longer roam?"; and "Delay not, delay not / O sinner, draw near". These would fit easily into the Sankey-Bliss era, and forecast some of Everett's better known compositions such as "There's a fountain free".
Everett's songs in the Canadian Warbler (and the songbook as a whole) do not seem to have had a great deal of reach, but he continued to contribute to the Sunday-School genre through the 1860s, with a couple of songs turning up in post-Civil War collections. It was his old associate Rigdon McIntosh, however, who would bring Everett's gospel songs to widespread use. In 1867 the ever-industrious McIntosh edited a Sunday School book published by Newton Kurz in Baltimore. Only a text index is available at present from Hymnary.org, but there are 16 texts out of this collection that had been set to music by A. B. Everett, many of them in the Canadian Warbler; it is possible that there are a number of Everett songs in this work, but I have not been able to examine it.
In 1870, McIntosh became acquainted with Atticus Haygood, an up-and-coming Southern Methodist minister who occupied the newly created position of Sunday School Secretary. The General Conference had authorized him to bring out a new Sunday School songbook, the first such publication for the Nashville-based denomination. In the course of the next two years McIntosh relocated to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, close enough to Nashville to work closely with Haygood on this project (Oswalt 16ff.). The result was The Amaranth, published in 1872 (Oswalt 181ff.). Everett contributed only 11 new songs, but among them were his first settings of lyrics by Mary B. C. Slade, 8 in all. Among these were two that survived well into the 20th century, and one that is still in wide use: "Where the jasper walls are beaming" and "Footsteps of Jesus" ("Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling"). And significantly, all but one of Everett's contributions were in the stanza-chorus format that had become a hallmark of the emerging gospel style.
The Southern Methodists were quite pleased with The Amaranth, and McIntosh followed up with The Emerald in 1873, also from their publishing house in Nashville. In this volume he included only 7 works by Everett, four of which had lyrics by Mary Slade. Despite this small contribution (McIntosh had promised not to repeat any material from The Amaranth), The Emerald saw the first publication of "Hark, the gentle voice of Jesus falleth", a perennial invitation song among the Churches of Christ. Everett was also appearing in major denominational songbooks again for the first time since Baptist Chorals, and alongside prominent gospel composers such as William Doane, Philip Bliss, and Horatio Palmer. In the next few years McIntosh forged ahead with an even bigger project that would bring Everett and Slade songs to a nationwide audience, and Everett was supplying him with new material; unfortunately he would not live to see how popular his gospel music became.
Good News was Rigdon McIntosh's next major Sunday School collection, published by Oliver Ditson, one of the largest music publishers in the country. (Oswalt speculates that McIntosh may have leveraged a copyright dispute with the Boston giant to get this deal (206-208).) McIntosh was probably working on this by 1874 (Oswalt 206), and perhaps had unused material from the Methodist collections. The preface of Good News also indicates that Everett was closely involved until his untimely death in late 1875. McIntosh's comments are worth quoting at length:
It will be noticed that we have inserted a large number of vigorous compositions from the able and experienced pen of Dr. A. Brooks Everett, who, when we commenced this work was in his usual health, and, as he had so often done before, kindly gave us free access to his well filled portfolio, with a promise to furnish more, if necessary. But before the selections were all made we received the intelligence of his sudden death, which so saddened our heart that for a time we felt as though we could never finish the book. God grant that "THE MEETING PLACE" may verily be in heaven, our "BEAUTIFUL HOME."
McIntosh dedicated one of Everett's songs, "Loved one, farewell" (page 127) with the words, "In memoriam--Tuesday morning, Nov. 23, 1875", referring to the date and time of Everett's death. In a note at the bottom of the page he gives this interesting insight into the interaction of Everett, McIntosh, and lyricist Mary Slade:
This is one of several beautiful "songs without words" that my true and well tried friend, Dr. A. Brooks Everett, contributed for these pages only a short time before his death; and to me, it is as sweet as anything Schumann ever wrote. The words are Mrs. Slade's and I thank her for them: the dedication is mine.--R. M. McIntosh.
McIntosh surely is saying that Everett wrote music that was later matched up with words, at least part of the time; it also appears that at least in this instance, Mary Slade wrote lyrics to the music instead of the other way around. The syllabic structure is 5.4.5.4.6.6.6.4, and it is curious to think that a composer would write such an unusual piece with the expectation that the lyricist would work around it. But we will likely never know what their arrangement was, or how much McIntosh was involved in pairing word and music.
Good News, then, is practically a memorial to Asa Brooks Everett's work in the gospel genre, and a worthy one it is. He is represented by no fewer than 36 works in a book of 160 pages; it seems as though the eye falls on his name at every turn of the page. Only eight of the works are reprints, drawing especially from The Amaranth or The Emerald; the remainder were, so far as I can tell, new works made for this publication. Some of the lyrics are settings of traditional hymns from authors such as Frances R. Havergal, Horatius Bonar, Reginald Heber, and Frederick William Faber. The outstanding group, however, are the dozen songs with lyrics by Mary B. C. Slade:
To the earlier pair of classics from The Amaranth ("Sweetly, Lord have we") and The Emerald (Hark! the gentle voice"), McIntosh adds another three: "Beyond this land of parting", "There's a fountain free", and "Who at my door is standing?", all of which are still in use among many of the Churches of Christ, and appear in the hymnals of many other groups.
In estimating the impact of Everett's different genres of church music, it is instructive to look at the number of instances his tunes are found in hymnals at Hymnary.org. His top five gospel songs, in descending order (using the more accurate number of instances from the Mary Slade texts page):
By contrast, his most popular metrical hymn tunes in the Hymnary.org database were RICHMOND (13 instances) and ASHVILLE (11 instances), and none of his anthems, sentences, or chants are listed at all. Everett's metrical hymns did linger in a few places; the Southern Methodist Church continued to use some of this material until their reunification with the Northern denomination, and for reasons unknown The Brethren Hymnal of 1901 (Old German Baptist Brethren) used no fewer than 25 metrical hymns by A. B. Everett. But for the most part Everett's metrical hymns passed into disuse within a generation or two.
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Mary B. C. Slade, 1870s?
hymntime.com/tch |
The greater longevity of Everett's gospel songs can probably be explained as a happy combination of several factors. First, he had a gift for simple and pleasant melody and harmony. When I mentioned above that I could sing and play his parlor songs at sight, it was no boast about my (modest) abilities as a performer, and neither was it a slight against the music as if it were trite or simplistic. Ease of singing at sight often indicate that the music is logical and elegant--poorly written music is far harder to read! Everett wrote the gospel songs in a simple, folk-like manner, avoid chromaticism or complex melodic figures, because he was writing for children. In the same vein, Mary Slade's lyrics are easily scanned and easily sung, but also thoughtful; she avoided flowery turns of phrase in favor of direct and simple language. Both Everett and Slade were capable of more complex expressions, but instead put the best of their abilities into the simple framework of a children's song. Not surprisingly, then, as the gospel genre worked its way from the Sunday School to the revival meeting, and eventually into the regular worship service, these well-written songs survived. They offer thoughtful words and singable tunes, for adults as well as for children.
Whether this move into gospel songs was Everett's goal, or was just a matter of opportunity and the need for work, is an interesting question. For one thing, he got into the gospel genre much earlier than I realized before beginning this study. The Canadian Warbler was a forward-looking sort of book for its time, and showed at least a willingness to engage the genre long before McIntosh's books in the 1870s. It would be illuminating, no doubt, to get a look at Everett's Sabbath Chime to see how much A. B. Everett contributed to that volume as well. On the other hand, he obviously put a great deal of effort into The Sceptre, from1871, which may be the book he was unable to publish back in 1868. He might well have been writing gospel songs for McIntosh's Amaranth while he was finishing up his own testament to the Lowell Mason-style tunebook. Given the breadth of the types of composition he took on, it is believable that he saw the value of both genres when they were written well.
7. Asa Brooks Everett's death.
Obviously the last five years of A. B. Everett's life were highly productive--he
brought out his first and only sacred music collection as chief editor,
The Sceptre (New York: Biglow & Main, 1871), and he was writing gospel songs for Rigdon McIntosh's books, set to Mary Slade's lyrics, that would become his
true legacy in church music. But something was amiss in Asa Brooks
Everett's life, and we are likely never to know exactly what that was. The
events leading up to his death on November 23, 1875, are as follows.
Everett had organized a vocal music class in Humboldt, Tennessee by at
least the 11th of November, 1875 (McIntosh, Good News #22).
(Humboldt is about 20 miles north of Jackson, so closer actually to
Memphis than to Nashville.) He was still teaching there on the 18th ("Over
the county"). On Saturday the 20th he arrived in Alamo, Tennessee
(13 miles east of Humboldt) and announced his intention to begin a series
of vocal music classes on Monday the 22, beginning with an evening
lecture (Johnson). What actually transpired on the 22nd is best described by
Isaac M. Johnson, a leading citizen of the town, who wrote an account for
the Nashville Tennessean in an effort to inform A. B. Everett's family of his fate:
Our little town was thrown into a state of unwonted excitement last
Monday, when it became known that Dr. A. Brooks Everett, a professor of
music, had taken about 12 grains of morphine, for the purpose of
destroying his life. He took it in the presence of one of our citizens,
who made an effort to get the deadly drug from him, but failed. All the
physicians of our town went to his assistance, and everything that skill
and close attention could suggest was done to counteract the effect of
the poison, but without success. Dr. Everett died at a quarter past 2
A.M., on the 23rd inst. . . .
If this should ever reach [his family], it will no doubt be a
consolation to them to know that, though a stranger here, their brother
received every possible attention, and was decently buried in our town
cemetery, on the 24th inst. (Johnson)
The date of Everett's death was almost immediately confused by the
newspapers, some putting it on the 20th (the date he arrived in Alamo),
and some putting it on the 22nd, the day he took the fatal dose. His Pennsylvania certification of death said "on or about the 22nd day of Nov. 1875"
("Date of death"), but the person giving the statement probably did not know that he survived into the early hours of the next day. In the 1876
songbook Good News, his colleague and friend Rigdon McIntosh
dedicated the song "Loved one, farewell" (lyrics by Mary Slade, music by A. B. Everett) as follows: "In memoriam--Tuesday morning, Nov. 23, 1875."
Johnson's account of the cause of death states that Everett took the dose
"for the purpose of destroying his life," and another local news account simply said
he "committed suicide in Alamo last week" ("Tennessee news"), but there
was another interpretation given in the newspapers of the Shenandoah
Valley where he had lived and worked. In the
Staunton Vindicator, it was described as an "overdose of morphine taken to quiet his nerves"
("Sad death"). This may have been softening the language out of concern
for his family's feelings, but also suggests that those better acquainted with him knew he used morphine for this purpose. That opens up the possibility that he was, like
many doctors of his era, an accidental addict.
Barry Milligan's research has pointed out the rapid rise of the abuse of morphine in the middle of the 19th century, especially following
the Civil War when it emerged as a wonder drug for relieving pain.
Combined with the new technology of the hypodermic needle and easily
controllable doses, it was also perceived as a modern and scientific
(Milligan 542). Only in the closing decades of the century did the medical
community begin to sound the alarm over the danger of addiction, the
dynamics of which were still little understood. In 1883 J. B. Mattison
published a disturbing report in the New York
Medical Record titled "Opium addiction among medical men," in
which he claimed that "Physicians form a large proportion of opium
habitués in general." In his case records of treating doctors with
addiction, he found some taking as many as 12 grains a day, and one even
using 30 grains a day, reflecting the diminishing effect of the drug
over a lengthy period of abuse (Mattison). It is possible that A. B. Everett was a long-term addict, for whom higher and higher doses
were needed to achieve the desired effect, until he accidentally
overdosed. Whether intentional or accidental, it was a terrible way to lose such a gifted man, whose songs have lifted so many spirits over the years.
In Closing
What exactly brought Asa Brooks Everett to this sad end will
never be known this side of eternity. We can only note the considerable
talents he demonstrated in his short life, and wonder what more he might
have done. I cannot help but think of great composers of years past whose lives were cut short--Henry Purcell, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn, George Gershwin--and what they might have done with a few more decades. Perhaps a more appropriate comparison, however, would be Ludwig van Beethoven. In a letter to his brother, he once admitted that when he first learned of his declining hearing, he contemplated ending his life--in 1802. We would never have had the Waldstein Sonata, or the Rasumovsky quartets, or Fidelio. We would never have had the Eroica Symphony, or the 5th Symphony, or the 9th Symphony and its Ode to Joy. What the world would have been denied! And though most of us will never write a symphony--or perhaps even a moderately successful hymn--we will never know until eternity how much our presence and influence has meant to someone else, or how God's will may have been accomplished through us. May we all continue in His service until He calls us in His time.
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