Music Notes 7-21-24

Jester Hairston was a local treasure.  One of the most recognizable names in the world of spirituals, Jester was born the grandson of slaves, who worked the Hairston Plantation in Belews Creek, North Carolina.  His parents moved to Homestead, PA (outside Pittsburgh), where he graduated high school.  He then studied at, as one of the first black individuals admitted, and graduated from Tufts College outside Boston in 1929.  He sang with the Hall Johnson Choir in Harlem for a while, but was almost fired because of his Boston accent (Johnson told him “we’re singing ain’t and cain’t, and you’re singing shahn’t and cahn’t – they don’t mix!”).  His work on Broadway with that choir took him to Hollywood, where he began working regularly on movies, television and radio.  He began writing and arranging, especially spirituals, with Mary’s Little Boy Child composed in 1956.  Most of us have seen the movie Lilies of the Field (1963), starring Sidney Poitier.  Those wonderful scenes where Sidney is singing “Amen, amen, amen”, which he teaches to the nuns – that song was composed and arranged by Jester for the movie, and Sidney’s singing isn’t Sidney – it’s Jester.  Jester lived out his life in Los Angeles, traveling all over the world teaching and conducting and spreading the word of spirituals.  He also worked as an actor in front of the camera, in such movies as The Alamo, To Kill A Mockingbird and In The Heat Of The Night, to name a few.  Many of the singers in town were his protégés, and “Jester stories” abound at local music events.  We lost Jester on January 18, 2000, at the age of 98, and most of the musical world in Los Angeles attended the funeral service.  Our anthem this week, Give Me Jesus, is one of his classics. 

In the spring of 1863, Folliott S. Pierpoint, born in Somerset, England in 1835, sat on a hilltop outside his native city of Bath, England, admiring the country view and the winding Avon River.  Inspired by the view to think about God’s gifts in creation, he wrote this text for For The Beauty Of The Earth.  He was educated at Queen’s College, Cambridge, and periodically taught classics at Somersetshire College.  But because he had received an inheritance, he didn’t need a regular teaching position and could afford the leisure of personal study and writing.  His 3 volumes of poetry were collected in 1878.  He contributed hymns to The Hymnal Noted (1852) and Lyra Eucharistica (1864).  The text of For The Beauty Of The Earth has been set to music by numerous composers over the years, adapted for our hymnal to an 1838 chorale tune by German composer Conrad Kocher (1786-1872) and more recently and notably set to music by English composer John Rutter.  For The Beauty Of The Earth is the only Pierpoint hymn still sung today.

Holy, Holy, Holy is a classic hymn that, at last count, has been published in 1421 hymnals.  The words were written in by Reginald Heber, an English clergyman born in 1783.  He entered Oxford at age 17, winning awards for his poetry, and was appointed to the post of Vicar of Hobnet (near Shrewsbury) in 1807.  All 57 of his hymns were written during his time at Hobnet, were he resided for 16 years before being appointed Bishop of Calcutta in 1823.  He was inspired by the Nicene Creed to write this great hymn of praise to the Triune God, with the intent that the hymn be sung before or after the creed was recited in a service, and on Trinity Sunday – eight weeks after Easter.  The tune was composed by John Bacchus Dykes in 1861, and is considered to be one of his best melodies.  He was called his tune NICAEA, in recognition of Heber’s text, and after their first publication together in Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861, the tune and the text have been inseparable.