Edward L. White (1809-1851) and John Edgar Gould (1822-1875,) both short-lived, were, albeit their limited years, fairly prolific producers of music for popular consumption. The Modern Harp was their first collaboration of four; their Harmonia Sacra, which will take a place in these pages in course of time, being their last joint compilation. White had a Church Melodist that appeared in the year of his death that the Oliver Ditson Company continued in print at least twenty-four years, and probably longer; Gould is perhaps best know for a couple of tunes, Bera, and Pilot, which do not appear here. White worked hard in the 1840s arranging other composers' songs, adding piano "symphonies" and interludes to existing work; he also composed a number of instrumental works, marches, quicksteps and so forth, dedicated to political stars like Henry Clay and Zachary Taylor. Perhaps we have in White a solid Whig psalmodist--his dedicatees being all of that political persuasion. His secular collections, The Boston Melodeon among others, remained in print long after his death.
The Modern Harp, as its compilers note in their preface, is primarily new music, most of it unattributed to either the one or the other editor: very standard writing mostly, with here and there an interesting piece. Oberlin is a good starting tune, which for my own use I have set to Montgomery's "Friend after friend departs;" Endicott, beginning with unison voices, is very pleasant; they included a good arrangement of Deodatus Dutton's Woodstock; the various Chants are worth listening to. Minor key tunes like Morena, Sigourney and Suffolk provide a welcome contrast to the mostly somewhat bland majority of tunes. |