Very few people in the Brethren Church are aware that two hymnals have been created for denominational use.  The first was commissioned in June 1883 by the organizing convention that formed The Brethren Church (the second hymnal will be the subject of the next post).  One of the important actions of this convention was authorizing a committee “to compile a new hymn book to be used in the worship of God by the Brethren.”  The committee consisted of Joseph W. Beer, H. G. Ullery, and John C. Ewing.  The hymnal, The Brethren Hymnody, with Tunes for the Sanctuary, Sunday-School, Prayer-Meeting, and Home Circle, was completed in 1884 and was primarily the work of Ewing.

Ewing (1849-1937) has been described as “the pioneer in the music ministry” of the Brethren.  He was a gifted composer, pianist, and organist.  As noted in the previous post, he was responsible for revising Holsinger’s and Funk’s 1872 hymnal.  He composed seventeen tunes for this revision.  Ewing was also a music educator, serving as the first teacher of music at what would become Juniata College, organized in 1876, and later serving at Ashland College, which came under the control of the Brethren Church.  He joined with the Progressive Brethren at the time of the division of the early 1880s.  Until he was forced into retirement by ongoing health issues, he taught music in public schools in Ohio, Indiana, Alabama, and Georgia.

The Brethren Hymnody contained a total of 324 hymns divided into three parts: “old standard metrical hymns and tunes,” more recent songs that had become “popular in the service of the Sanctuary as well as in the Sabbath School and Prayer-meeting,” and “a selection of Hymn-tunes, Anthems, and Chants, which are not intended for congregational use.” The hymnal thus sought to provide the church with both traditional hymns and the more recent revival and gospel music; 197 of the hymns had never appeared in previous Brethren hymnals.  It continued the Brethren practice of encouraging private devotions in the “home circle.” 

For the hymnal Ewing composed thirteen new tunes.  He incorporated standard round musical notation in this hymnal rather than the shaped notes used in the previous Brethren hymnals.  In part one, Ewing borrowed Holsinger’s and Funk’s idea of arranging the hymns so that the hymns on facing pages shared “the same meter and character.”  As many as seven hymns might appear on the facing pages, but tunes were supplied for only the hymns at the top of the pages; texts alone appeared for the hymns at the bottom of these pages (see the photo).  By using shared hymn tunes, based on their meter, Ewing was able to create a compact hymnal with a wide selection of hymns.  Ewing further introduced the convention of noting the authors of not only the texts but also the tunes, when these were known; earlier Brethren hymnals, with but one exception, Quinter’s hymnbook, omitted all such attribution to avoid any appearance of vanity.  One of the innovations that accompanied the publishing of this hymnal was that churches gradually began to furnish hymnals in their pews for the use of their people, rather than having people purchase their own hymnals.  The Brethren Church also introduced the use of pianos and organs in their church buildings, an innovation still prohibited by the German Baptist Brethren.  There is no indication that The Brethren Hymnody was widely adopted by congregations within the newly formed Brethren Church.  Few copies of the hymnal exist today. 

by Dale Stoffer, Brethren Archives