In the Sweet By-and-By

Last updated
"The Sweet By-and-By"
SweetByAndBy1868.png
Cover of original Lyon & Healy sheet music, 1868
Hymn
Published1868
Composer(s) Joseph P. Webster
Lyricist(s) S. Fillmore Bennett

"The Sweet By-and-By" is a Christian hymn with lyrics by S. Fillmore Bennett and music by Joseph P. Webster. It is recognizable by its chorus:

Contents

In the sweet by and by
  We shall meet on that beautiful shore.
In the sweet by and by
  We shall meet on that beautiful shore. [1]

Background

Bennett described the composition of the hymn in his autobiography.

Mr. Webster, like many musicians, was of an exceedingly nervous and sensitive nature, and subject to periods of depression, in which he looked upon the dark side of all things in life. I had learned his peculiarities so well that on meeting him I could tell at a glance if he was melancholy, and had found that I could rouse him up by giving him a new song to work on. He came into my place of business [in Elkhorn, Wisconsin], walked down to the stove, and turned his back on me without speaking. I was at my desk. Turning to him, I said, "Webster, what is the matter now?" "It's no matter," he replied, "it will be all right by and by." The idea of the hymn came me like a flash of sunlight, and I replied, "The Sweet By and By! Why would not that make a good hymn?" "Maybe it would," he said indifferently. Turning to my desk I penned the words of the hymn as fast as I could write. I handed the words to Webster. As he read his eyes kindled, and stepping to the desk he began writing the notes. Taking his violin, he played the melody and then jotted down the notes of the chorus. It was not over thirty minutes from the time I took my pen to write the words before two friends with Webster and myself were singing the hymn.Sanford Fillmore Bennett (1836–1898) [2]

Performance history

The hymn, immensely popular in the nineteenth century, became a Gospel standard and has appeared in hymnals ever since.

A crowd of admirers in New Zealand sang the hymn in 1885 at the railway station to the departing American temperance evangelists Mary Greenleaf Clement Leavitt of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and Blue Ribbon Army representative R.T. Booth. [3]

In the New Orleans jazz tradition, the song is a standard dirge played in so-called "jazz funerals". The American composer Charles Ives quoted the hymn in several works, most notably in the finale of his Orchestral Set No. 2 , written between 1915 and 1919. Translations of the text exist in a number of world languages.

It continues to be regularly performed. Noteworthy recordings over the years have been made by Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn and Kenny Rogers.

The hymn is also heard in films, including The 39 Steps (1935), Sergeant York (1941), Places in the Heart (as "In the Sweet Bye and Bye"), Benny and Joon , The Outlaw Josey Wales , A Prairie Home Companion , Supervixens , Django Unchained (2012) and Suburbicon (2017).

"Placentero" text

The 1907 Spanish-language hymnal of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) contained a similar song, "Hay un Mundo Feliz Más Allá", and set to the same tune modified by adding to all parts the notes of the traditional first response in the call-and-response division of the refrain. This hymn was copied with permission from the American Tract Society's Himnos evangélicos. [4] [5] During the era of the Mexican Revolution, Andrés C. Gonzalez, an early LDS Church missionary in Mexico, sang "Hay un mundo feliz más allá" in public and was arrested for "stealing" the Protestants' song. [6] While incarcerated, he rewrote the lyrics as Despedida, which appeased the police. [6] This revised version appears in place of the original in every iteration of the church's hymnal from 1912 on. [7] [8] It was titled "Despedida" until the 1992 version of the hymnal, when it changed to match the first line: "Placentero nos es trabajar". [7] [9]

Parodies and satire

Mark Twain made fun of the song's ubiquitous popularity, along with the demographic groups in which it became popular. The melody is mentioned in The Loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rosannah Ethelton (1878) and The invalid's Story (1882); in both stories the melody is sung out of tune. Also in chapter 17 ("A Banquet") of his 1889 satirical novel A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court . The protagonist, Hank Morgan, a visitor from the future, attends a lavish court dinner given by Morgan Le Fay, King Arthur's sister, during which guests are regaled with music:

In a gallery a band with cymbals, horns, harps, and other horrors, opened the proceedings with what seemed to be the crude first-draft or original agony of the wail known to later centuries as "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." It was new, and ought to have been rehearsed a little more. For some reason or other the queen had the composer hanged, after dinner.

The hymn was parodied by Joe Hill in 1911 as The Preacher and the Slave , in which the phrase "pie in the sky" was coined as a satirical comment on the Christian conception of heavenly reward.

The parody In This Wheat By and By, written from the perspective of grasshoppers, was published in Beadle's Half-Dime Singer's Library in 1878. These singing grasshoppers became a common motif in advertising at the time. [10]

Related Research Articles

"How Can I Keep From Singing?" is an American folksong originating as a Christian hymn. The author of the lyrics was known only as 'Pauline T', and the original tune was composed by American Baptist minister Robert Lowry. The song is frequently, though erroneously, cited as a traditional Quaker or Shaker hymn. The original composition has now entered into the public domain, and appears in several hymnals and song collections, both in its original form and with a revised text that omits most of the explicitly Christian content and adds a verse about solidarity in the face of oppression. Though it was not originally a Quaker hymn, Quakers adopted it as their own in the twentieth century and use it widely today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ismael Serrano</span> Musical artist

Ismael Serrano is a singer-songwriter and guitarist from Spain, popular in Spain and Latin America, known for his often political lyrics and eclectic musical influences. During his creative career he has been influenced by other Spanish singer-songwriters such as Joaquín Sabina, Joan Manuel Serrat and the Cuban Silvio Rodríguez amongst others. His music also shows influences from renowned poets such as Luis García Montero and Mario Benedetti.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Surrender All</span> Christian hymn written by Judson W. Van DeVenter

"I Surrender All" is a Christian hymn, with words written by American art teacher and musician Judson W. Van DeVenter (1855–1939), who subsequently became a music minister and evangelist. It was put to music by Winfield S. Weeden (1847–1908), and published in 1896.

Federico José Pagura was an Argentine religious leader and champion of human rights. He was born on February 9, 1923, in Arroyo Seco, Santa Fe, Argentina. Converted to Methodism in his adolescence, became a normal school teacher and graduated from the Facultad Evangélica de Teología in Buenos Aires. He did post-graduate studies in the United States and was ordained a Methodist pastor in 1950.

<i>Grandes Éxitos 1991–2004</i> 2004 compilation album

Grandes Éxitos 1991–2004 is the first greatest hits album from Spanish singer-songwriter Alejandro Sanz. The album assembles his previous hits in two CDs; the first contains songs from 1991 to 1996 of the albums Viviendo Deprisa, Si Tú Me Miras, Básico and 3 and the second the hits from 1997 to 2004 of the albums Más, El Alma al Aire, MTV Unplugged and No Es lo Mismo. For this album, Sanz recorded two new songs, the single "Tú No Tienes Alma" and "Cuando Sea Espacio".

Hymns are an important part of the history and worship of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Es ist ein Ros entsprungen</span> Christmas carol and Marian Hymn of German origin

"Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" is a Christmas carol and Marian hymn of German origin. It is most commonly translated into English as "Lo, how a rose e'er blooming" and is also called "A Spotless Rose" and "Behold a Rose of Judah". The rose in the German text is a symbolic reference to the Virgin Mary. The hymn makes reference to the Old Testament prophecies of Isaiah, which in Christian interpretation foretell the Incarnation of Christ, and to the Tree of Jesse, a traditional symbol of the lineage of Jesus. Because of its prophetic theme, the hymn is popular during the Christian season of Advent.

"How Great Thou Art" is a Christian hymn based on an original Swedish hymn entitled "O Store Gud" written in 1885 by Carl Boberg (1859–1940). The English version of the hymn and its title are a loose translation by the English missionary Stuart K. Hine from 1949. The hymn was popularised by George Beverly Shea and Cliff Barrows during Billy Graham's crusades. It was voted the British public's favourite hymn by BBC's Songs of Praise. "How Great Thou Art" was ranked second on a list of the favourite hymns of all time in a survey by Christianity Today magazine in 2001 and in a nationwide poll by Songs Of Praise in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Lily of the Valley</span>

"The Lily of the Valley" is a Christian hymn written by William Charles Fry (1837–1882) in London for the Salvation Army. Ira D. Sankey arranged the words to the music of "The Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane" composed by Will Hays.

Russell Schulz-Widmar is a composer, author, and conductor, and a former Professor of Liturgical Music at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. For much of his career he lived in Austin, Texas and upon retirement he has divided his time between Berlin, Germany and Dallas, Texas. He is married to Hubertus Schulz-Wilke.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Davis Tillman</span> American singer-songwriter

Charles Davis Tillman —also known as Charlie D. Tillman, Charles Tillman, Charlie Tillman, and C. D. Tillman—was a popularizer of the gospel song. He had a knack for adopting material from eclectic sources and flowing it into the mix now known as southern gospel, becoming one of the formative influences on that genre.

<i>Every Time I Feel the Spirit</i> 1959 studio album by Nat King Cole

Every Time I Feel the Spirit is a 1959 studio album by Nat King Cole, of spirituals, arranged by Gordon Jenkins. Cole is accompanied by the First Church of Deliverance Choir of Chicago, Illinois. The album was re-issued by Capitol Records in 1966 under the new title, Nat King Cole Sings Hymns and Spirituals. Several bonus tracks, recorded between 1951 and 1961 and arranged by Nelson Riddle and others, were added to later CD re-issues.

<i>Uno No Es Uno</i> 2009 studio album by Noel Schajris

Uno No Es Uno is the second album by Argentine singer Noel Schajris released on October 13, 2009.

"Softly and Tenderly" is a Christian hymn. It was composed and written by Will L. Thompson in 1880. It is based on the Bible verse Mark 10:49.

<i>Canaan Hymns</i>

Canaan Hymns or Songs of Canaan is a collection of Chinese hymns composed by Lü Xiaomin, a Christian convert peasant woman with no musical education, beginning in 1990. Lü's theological background is in Pentecostalism and the local churches movement, and the hymns reflect themes of Christology, pneumatology and eschatology against the backdrop of Chinese political realities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo Harlem</span> Spanish comedian and late-blooming actor

Leonardo González Feliz, better known as Leo Harlem, is a Spanish comedian and late-blooming actor.

“Placentero nos es trabajar” is a popular Latter-day Saint hymn written by Mormon missionary Andrés C. González during the Mexican Revolution.

The hymn ¿Por qué somos? by Edmund W. Richardson is Mormon hymn that was initially published in the 1912 edition of Himnos de Sion, the Spanish-language hymnbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is one of the three hymns that were written originally in Spanish that are included in the 1992 Spanish hymnal. The hymn has also been included in the Portuguese hymnal as “De que rumo vêm os homens”, though it is not included in the current hymnbook in that language. The original publication indicated that it should be sung to the tune of hymn 50 in Songs of Zion, which was ELIZA by Joseph J. Daynes.

References

  1. Bennett, "The Sweet By and By."
  2. Sankey, My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns, pp. 199-200.
  3. "News of the Day". (Christchurch) Press. No. 6148. Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand. 3 June 1885. p. 2. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  4. "Hay un Mundo Feliz Más Allá". Himnario Mormón. Mexico: Talleres Tipograficos de Müller Hnos. 1907. p. 63. Note that page 2 mistakenly attributes the song to the Himnario evangélico , which did not in fact contain any rendition of "The Sweet By-and-By".
  5. "Hay un mundo feliz más allá". Himnos evangélicos. New York: American Tract Society. 1895. p. 140.
  6. 1 2 Fallick, Don (February 2009). "Placentero nos es trabajar". Gospel-friendly Guitar Tabs. Blogger.
  7. 1 2 Duffy, John-Charles; Olaiz, Hugo (2002). "Correlated Praise: The Development of the Spanish Hymnal" (PDF). Dialogue . 35 (2): 90–92.
  8. Gonzalez, Andrés C (1996). Placentero nos es trabajar. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. p. 88.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  9. "Títulos y primeras frases". Himnos. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1996. Este es un índice de los títulos actuales de los himnos y de la primera frase de cada uno de ellos, en el caso de que ésta sea muy diferente del título, así como de los títulos que llevaban en el himnario Himnos de Sión. Todas las partidas que no sean el título actual de un himno aparecen en letras itálicas.
  10. See e.g. here and here

Bibliography