Maybe "Bortnianski" is Russian for "Stevenson"?

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Sun, 08/19/2012 - 13:09 — Haruo

Ah, but I know for a fact that "Dmitri" is not Russian for "John"...

A search for a composer named Stevenson turns up results that include two tunes called VESPER HYMN, both of which show "John A. Stevenson" in the Composer column, yet the second one (where the results page just calls it VESPER HYMN as opposed to VESPER HYMN (Stevenson)) actually links to a VESPER HYMN (Bortnianski). Why? How can I edit it to not do this?


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Sun, 08/19/2012 - 13:19 — Haruo

What I was actually researching was the tune of hymn #207 in Sankey's Gospel Hymns Nos. 1 to 6, which is "Depth of Mercy" with a tune said to be "From Stevenson", one of three settings of this text in this book. (The others are SEYMOUR, #57, and one attributed to F. W. Kücken, arr. H. P. Main #610.) Trying at least to figure out which Stevenson, and if it has a TUNE NAME, then what that is.

Sun, 08/19/2012 - 17:09 — Haruo

The same tune is presumably found in Gospel Hymns No. 4, d19.

Wed, 08/22/2012 - 10:08 — cfenner

In Samuel J. Rogal, Sing Glory and Hallelujah! Historical and Biographical Guide to Gospel Hymns Nos. 1 to 6 Complete (1996) the composer is listed merely as J. Stevenson with no further info. In Sankey's My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns, p. 151, he says, "This hymn has been set to a number of tunes. But the most popular one in America is the melody arranged from Stevenson," with no further elaboration on the composer.

I was browsing page scans here on Hymnary and came across one from The Evangelical Hymnal (1921) that lists the composer as Sir John Stevenson, and the tune is called DEPTH OF MERCY. He has a biography in Grove, and I'm sure you can find other tidbits online. I imagine we should offer more info here on Hymnary, but I don't know enough about him to know which tunes properly belong to him.

CF

Thu, 08/30/2012 - 12:17 — dianneshapiro

I fixed this. Some hymnals credit the tune to Bortnianski and some credit it to Stevenson but it is the same tune. Most likely, Stevenson is the composer, but for now I've kept him as the arranger.

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