The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1886-10-15
CAMP MEETING TUNES,
To Which Were Sung Good Old Hymns
in the Good Old Way.
r-necial COrresDOndence,1


Especial Correspondence
TERRE HAUTE. Ind. Oct. 1.-THE COM
plant goes up to high heaven, from the
churches and Sunday schools of the regions
which once knew the "circuit rider" in all his
glory, that the so-called sacred" music of to-
day doesn't wear like the good old tunes of
camp meeting times" Forty years ago, which
is further back than many of us dare &C.
member, in the days of backwoodS rsvivais
in that section of country which has been
facetiously termed "the Wabash ague belt, -
many good but emotional people sang them
selves nearer to God and the angels than folks
are likely to get in these days of operate
jingle and rhyme.
My earliest religious experience SO my
parents say, consisted in my dancing vigor-
ously in my mothers arms-I was vigorous
2-year- bookkeeping time to the music, while
a large backwoods congregation of somewhat
primitive religionists sang:
PreSg On, Rra bys, on we're aganing ground
The power of God is a-coming down.
Oh, hale-hallelujah!
and other rousing revival songs of the same
character. There was one song, remember
still popular in parts of western Indiana
with swinging, joyous semi-refrain, "Oh
tell me, happy sailor" and another beginning
with "Oh how happy are they" but sung to a
quaint, lnspiriting tune, now seldom heard,
except in the out-of the way parts of the
country.
There were dozen or two, perhaps twice
that number, of those old fashioned revival
songs and tunes which doubtless would be
worth fortune to the music publisher who
would but take trouble to gather them to-
gether before the few remaining voices which
once sung them are stilled forever. Then
there might be added to the collection the
variations" of the still well known melodies
which are yet preserved in 1.-THE American
Vocalist" and stray copies of older books of
the "fa-sol-la-fa" system; and there were some
tunes in a work which contained a "figure"
system of notation, with commas, periods and
dashes to indicate the various lengths of the
notes.
In a few of the country churches of the
west you may frequently hear to-day the
"variations" referred to, in which the com
paratively plain and simple psalm tune" of
the notebook is almost lost in a succession of
vocal gldes, swels and diminuendos, which
none but a skillful musician could express by
means of musical notation. Even in the days
of long ago critics who thought they knew
said that "Balerma," "Ortonville," little
Clear" and score of other tunes were
marred-murdered-by those untaught pill
grims to the tomb. Those sticklers for exact
ness forgot that the singers had caught the
freedom of the winds of heaven which swayed
the tree tops under which the camp meeting
congregations assembled to worship-in Goods
first temples"
What glorious singing they did i'll those
days! Everybody. sinner as well as saint,
sang then. The hymns were "lined" as an
aid to those who were without hymn books,
and the young man or young woman who
did not "jne in" on the tune was looked upon
as worse than a heather and publican To
assist in the singing was an essential part of
the etiquette of the Lords house, and every
body conformed to the custom.
There was one hymn which entirely capti-
waited my boyish fancy. It was particularly
adapted to calling out to the uttermost the
vocal strength of the assembled worshipers.
Everybody, from the old grandfather down
to the tiniest urchin, knew the words, and,
tenor, and even few half afraid alto voices,
found utterance for the talent but recently
developed at the crossroads singing school,"
and the volume of sound rose with force
that at times threatened the integrity of the
meeting house roof. The theme was grand
one-the triumph over the world, the flesh
&nd the devil
When can read my title clear,
began the hymn in jubilant strains; then, the
tune gradually rising to greater heights, came
the next line:
To mansions in--the-s-kie-s,
and while the elderly singers were dwelling