E. T. Hildebrand › Tunes

Born: January 18, 1866, Rockingham County, Virginia.
Died: March 23, 1931.
Buried: Weaver Mennonite Church Cemetery, Dayton, Virginia.

Hildebrand attended the public schools and Shenandoah Seminary. His mother taught him to sing as soon as he could talk, but his first regular teacher was D. M. Click. He later studied with James Ruebush, Benjamin Unseld, P. J. Merges, George and Frederick Root, C. B. Shaw, F. H. Tubbs and others. He began teaching singing schools during the summer months while pursuing his college course. He was elected principal of the Dayton Music School in 1894, resigning in 1899 to become Director of Music at Bridgewater College, Virginia. He owned the Hildebrand-Burnette music publishing company in Waynesboro, Virginia, and helped edit several music books.

Hildebrand married Zona T. Wise in 1902. His parents and other members of his family were Mennonites, but his membership was with the United Brethren Church.

--www.hymntime.com/tch/

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Ephraim Timothy Hildebrand (1866-1932) was raised in a Mennonite family near Bridgewater and Dayton, Virginia. He attended Shenandoah College, associated with the United Brethren Church, and was a member of that body during his adult life.(Gospel Herald) He studied music education at Shenandoah, which at that time was located in Dayton, VA, where he also joined the influential circle of the Ruebush-Kieffer gospel music enterprise. From 1895-99 Hildebrand actually directed the music program at Shenandoah, rather remarkable for such a recent graduate; then beginning in 1899 he did the same at Bridgewater College. In the early 20th century he also pursued a more classical career in New York City, studying under the popular composer George F. Root and singing with the New York Oratorio Society.(Bridgewater) A search of Worldcat.org shows that Hildebrand continued to publish primarily in the gospel song genre, however, collaborating with the Fillmore Brothers and even decidedly "Southern gospel" publishers such as James D. Vaughan and Virgil O. Stamps.

For someone who was so active and apparently well-known in his time, it is surprising how few of his works have survived to the present day.

--drhamrick.blogspot.com