The early hymnody of Sabbathkeeping Adventists laid heavy stress on the distinctive doctrines of the church—the Sabbath and the Second Advent. Beginning in 1849 with Hymns for God’s Peculiar People That Keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus, James White edited five hymnals and four supplements for his fellow believers prior to the organization of the church in 1863. In addition, his sister, Anna White, compiled Hymns for Youth and Children in 1854.
While these early hymnals drew heavily on existing Protestant worship music, Adventists themselves wrote about 5 percent of the hymns they published during this era. Annie R. Smith and Roswell F. Cottrell were the most prolific Adventist hymnwriters of the period.
The first Sabbathkeeping Adventist hymnal to contain music was Hymns for Those Who Keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus (1855). The music in the earliest hymnals was derived from three sources: psalm tunes, Lowell Mason and his school, and folk hymns or White spirituals. Closely akin to the latter category were popular tunes for which Adventists supplied religious words. Uriah Smith’s “Land of Light,” written to fit Stephen Foster’s tune “Swanee River,” appeared in an 1858 supplement.
The second generation of pioneers, notably J. Edson White and his cousin Frank Belden, added variety if not quality to Seventh-day Adventist hymnody. Edson White was the first SDA printer to learn to set the musical type for hymnals. He published a number of temperance and Sabbath school songbooks, sometimes collaborating with Belden. Both men were composers, and a number of Belden’s hymns still survive in SDA hymnody.
Since 1886 three volumes have dominated SDA hymnody. The first was Hymns and Tunes . Officially titled The Seventh-day Adventist Hymn and Tune Book for Use in Divine Worship , the collection was compiled between 1884 and 1886 by a special committee of the General Conference.
At the turn of the century F. E. Belden published Christ in Song . This hymnal supplanted Hymns and Tunes and remained the most popular collection among SDA s until 1941, when the Church Hymnal was published.
In 1981 the General Conference set up a 19-member Church Hymnal Committee to compile a new hymnal. The committee was chaired by C. L. Brooks, an associate director of the Sabbath School Department of the General Conference and an accomplished soloist. Wayne Hooper, formerly with the King’s Heralds Quartet and the Voice of Prophecy, served as executive secretary. The committee included music teachers, choir leaders, organists, composers, writers, editors, soloists, evangelists, pastors, and church administrators.
Issued in 1985, the new hymnal retained 300 of the 1941 hymnal’s selections, but two thirds of them were pitched lower to make them easier for congregations to sing. About 160 “new” hymns were introduced, drawn from Protestant hymnody as well as from new compositions and other SDA hymnals. In the Composers and Arrangers index of the new hymnal, several members of the compiling committee were acknowledged for their contributions. Wayne Hooper provided six original hymn tunes and arranged 19 others, while Melvin West wrote three new tunes and arranged 31. Other members contributing tunes were Allen Foster, James Bingham, and John Read. A pair of Sabbath hymn texts were contributed by Gem Fitch and Ottilie Stafford.
A number of hymn texts were altered slightly to avoid obsolete language, make theological corrections, or eliminate gender-exclusive language. A much-improved section of Scripture readings and worship aids was provided by Merle Whitney and his associates on a worship aids committee.