Source of Almighty Father, Hear our Prayer?

Mon, 08/13/2018 - 16:47 — FanKing11000

Greetings, fellow hymnists.

I'm wondering if anyone here knows the original piece where "Almighty Father, Hear our Prayer" came from.

I have looked at all scores composed by Mendelssohn that were written in 1846 that I could obtain, But I have not found one single piece that has anything sounding similar to that hymn!!!

A few thoughts are in my head concerning this:

The piece is incorrectly attributed to him.
He is the composer of that piece, but little or no evidence exists that it was arranged from him.
The year is incorrect

This is driving me nuts, I am in urgent need of help on this!!!

If no proof exsists, I just simply can not credit him as the composer of that piece.

As a person who plans to publish hymnals in the future, It is important that the information is as accurate as possible.

Thanks.

Comments

Thu, 09/06/2018 - 11:24 — FanKing11000

Should I have asked this

Should I have asked this question differently?

Tue, 09/18/2018 - 14:35 — Haruo

My guess is that the reason there has been no response is that no one has any more information than is in the database. Given that its first appearance in the database is in 1940, in the Broadman Hymnal, I think it not imlausible that it may be a folk attribution sort of like ascribing "Away in a Manger" to Martin Luther, or taking Lowell Mason's word for it that he got ANTIOCH from Handel. I also note that most of the the hymnals that have a high standard of scholarly backing to their attributions say "Arr[anged] from" Mendelssohn rather than "[Composed] by" him, it may be that the they had found something in Mendelssohn that might possibly have led to this tune. I also note the additional attribution in the Hymns of the Saints (1982) to William H. Callcott. If you are still really worried about this particular attribution, and have not yet tried this, you might do well to look through Callcott's published arrangements, as he may have specified his precise source. After all of this, if you still have not located a specific source in Mendelssohn, I would suggest crediting it as "Attr[ibuted] to" Mendelssohn, as this does appear to be the overwhelming consensus among past hymnal compilers, even though you can't find the original autograph to corroborate their assertion.

As another person who plans to publish hymnals in the future, and who actively collects hymnals, I'd be interested to know details of your plans, and to be notified when they come to fruition. And I thank you for indirectly bringing Callcott to my attention, since his ELIM which I glanced at more or less by chance, is a tune I may have a use for in my forthcoming tunebooks. Or even two uses for it in two separate tunebooks.

Mon, 09/24/2018 - 00:57 — FanKing11000