MASSACHUSETTS (Davis)

MASSACHUSETTS (Davis)

Composer: Katherine K. Davis (1962)
Published in 11 hymnals


Audio files: MIDI

Composer: Katherine K. Davis

Katherine Kennicott Davis (b. St. Joseph, MO, 1892; d. Concord, MA, 1980) studied at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, where she was also a teaching assistant in music. From 1921 to 1929 she taught singing and piano in private schools in Concord, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After 1929 she devoted herself largely to music composition. She wrote some eight hundred pieces, most of which were choral (often writing under several pseudonyms). One of her most popular songs is "The Little Drummer Boy," originally called "Carol of the Drum" (1941). Her other publications include the folk operetta Cinderella (1933) and Songs of Freedom (1948). Bert Polman Go to person page >

Tune Information

Title: MASSACHUSETTS (Davis)
Composer: Katherine K. Davis (1962)
Meter: 8.6.8.6 D
Incipit: 11554 53423 42121
Key: e minor
Copyright: © 1964, Abingdon Press

Texts

Venimos hoy a ti, Señor

Make Room within My Heart, O God

Be Merciful to Me, O God (Post)

Be merciful to me, O God,
bend down and hear my cry.
Within the shadow of your wings
I hide while storms pass by.
You will fulfill your purposes,
will send your saving power,
and put to shame my enemies
in this most trying hour.

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Notes

Katherine Kennicott Davis (b. St. Joseph, MA, 1892; d. Concord, MA, 1980) composed MASSACHUSETTS in 1962 for The Methodist Hymnal (1964), in which it was set to Charles Kingsley's "From Thee All Skill and Science Flow." Davis named the tune after her home state. MASSACHUSSETTS exhibits the classic structure of a rounded bar form (AABA). The second half of stanzas 2 and 3 and all of stanza 4 bear an energetic and even jubilant performance; sing the entire psalm with two beats per measure.

Davis studied at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, where she was also a teaching assistant in music. From 1921 to 1929 she taught singing and piano in private schools in Concord, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After 1929 she devoted herself largely to music composition. She wrote some eight hundred pieces, most of which were choral (often writing under several pseudonyms). One of her most popular songs is "The Little Drummer Boy," originally called "Carol of the Drum" (1941). Her other publications include the folk operetta Cinderella (1933) and Songs of Freedom (1948).

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1988

Timeline

Instances

Instances (1 - 10 of 10)
Text

Celebrating Grace Hymnal #675

Christian Classics Ethereal Hymnary #321

El Himnario #237

El Himnario Presbiteriano #237

Himnos de Vida y Luz #49

Himnos de Vida y Luz #230

Hymns of the Saints #300

Hymns of the Saints #360

Text InfoTune InfoAudio

Psalter Hymnal (Gray) #57

Trinity Psalter Hymnal #26

Include 1 pre-1979 instance
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