BISHOP (Holbrook)

Composer: Joseph P. Holbrook

Little is known about the composer of BISHOP, Joseph P. Holbrook (b. near Boston, MA, 1822; d. U.S.A., 1888); he did serve as editor of several hymn collections, including Songs of the Church (1862) and Hymnal of the Methodist Episcopal Church with Tunes (1878), to which he contributed a number of his own tunes.

Holbrook's tune BISHOP was first published in Duryea's The Presbyterian Hymnal (1874). No specific bishop has been identified in relation to the tune title. It is a serviceable tune with some dramatic flair in the second phrase that matches the text particularly well. Lines 1 and 3 are identical. BISHOP has the character of early Puritan psalm tunes; the humility of this melody helps one focus on the song text. It is ideally sung in harmony and in its entirety: all the stanzas belong together, and stanza 3 continues into stanza 4. Though the music consists of four lines, the textual units usually cover two; try to sing in two long lines, feeling two beats per bar, so that the textual lines prevail.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1988

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Trinity Psalter Hymnal (2018), p.315