Based in Vienna, this publishing house is known for its focus on contemporary music, publishing works by composers such as Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern.
This sheet music is part of the collection of crosby3145 :
Bliss. Merriam-Webster
defines the word as (1)
complete happiness and (2) as
PARADISE, HEAVEN. It just
happened to be the last name
of the composer of these
hymns, but seldom in human
history do we find a name that
fits someone more
appropriately, from birth.
Just sing through a few of the
Bliss hymns, and you’ll feel
the joy and enthusiasm Bliss
experienced from his
relationship with Christ.
Philip Bliss was born July 9,
1838, in Clearfield County,
Pennsylvania. His father was
a singer, and the young Bliss
grew up loving music—one
anecdote tells of his
wandering into a house at age
10 and asking the astonished
pianist to keep playing—it
was his first time hearing the
instrument. Not the last,
though!
Bliss worked a number of
different jobs growing up,
eventually taking a position
as schoolteacher in
Hartsville, New York, at 19.
About this time, he met J.G.
Towner (father of Daniel B.
Towner) and William B.
Bradbury, who mentored and
encouraged him to pursue music
as a career. Bliss started
composing, writing his first
composition in exchange for a
flute.
Dr. George F. Root, another
well-known hymnwriter, hired
Bliss to come to Chicago in
1864—around this time, he
also served in the 149th
Pennsylvania Infantry, but not
for long, as the Civil War was
almost over. After that, he
worked for Root in the
Root-Cady Publishing
Company—his duties included
writing hymns, leading musical
conventions, and putting on
concerts. He met D.L. Moody
in 1869, and Moody urged Bliss
to make evangelism his career,
which Bliss would eventually
do in 1874—teaming up with
Daniel W. Whittle. Bliss
never was a rich man, but he
donated the royalties to his
songs for evangelism. He died
December 29, 1876, in a famous
train wreck at Ashtabula,
Ohio—though he initially
escaped the wreck, he perished
trying to save his wife. He
composed a great number of
hymns during his short life,
many of which are still
commonly sung today.
Bliss’s hymns are all
written in a way that captures
joy, while being quite simple.
That may be why two of the
hymns in the collection, Dare
to Be a Daniel and Jesus Loves
Even Me, are children’s
favorites. Unlike a lot of
hymnwriters, Bliss usually
wrote the words and the music
to his compositions. This
collection contains those
exclusively—thus, it omits
perhaps his most famous hymn,
It Is Well with My Soul.
Horatio Spafford wrote the
words to that one, of course,
and it appears as the title
work for one of my other
collections. This collection
also omits I Will Sing of My
Redeemer, one Bliss never got
around to writing a tune to
(the words were found in his
briefcase after the train
wreck).
That said, Bliss had many
other famous hymns, which are
included here. Several have a
story behind them. “Hold
the Fort!” was inspired by
an incident from the Civil
War—not one Bliss himself
was involved in, but one he
heard about from Daniel
Whittle, a major in the war.
Whittle was in Bartow County,
Georgia, for the Battle of
Allatoona Pass. October 4,
1864, the day before the
conflict, Whittle and his
company were guarding the
garrison at Allatoona, waiting
for General William Tecumseh
Sherman and additional troops.
The general had not yet
arrived, but he sent
messengers to the garrison to
tell the soldiers, as Whittle
reported it, “Hold the fort,
for I am coming!” Bliss saw
the spiritual application
easily—stay faithful to
Christ, for He is coming—and
he wrote a hymn based on the
incident. Before he died in
1876, he and Whittle got to
travel to the site of the
battle and see the area where
the hymn was inspired.
Sherman later recounted that
while he didn’t actually say
“Hold the fort!” (his
actual words were “Hold
Fast. We are coming!”),
that’s what he meant—and
that is the quotation that has
become so famous today.
“Let the Lower Lights Be
Burning” was inspired by a
D.L. Moody sermon. Moody once
told a story of a ship
approaching Cleveland Harbor.
The lighthouse showed where
the harbor was, but other
lights that were supposed to
mark the harbor’s entry (the
“lower lights”) had gone
out, due to negligence.
Unable to tell where the
danger lay, the pilot ran the
ship into a rock, and many
drowned. That inspired the
now famous words of Bliss
(“but to us He gives the
keeping of the lights along
the shore”—“Some poor
fainting, struggling seaman
you may rescue, you may
save.”)
Other Bliss hymns are great
succinct and memorable
statements of Christian
doctrine. “Whosoever
Will” encompasses the great
truth of John 3:16, “…that
whosoever believeth on Him
should not perish but have
everlasting life.” “Once
for All!” reminds us that
“It is
finished!”—Christ’s
sacrifice is the substitute
for all sins that those who
believe on Him may commit.
More famous Bliss hymns in
this collection include
“Wonderful Words of Life,”
“Dare to Be a Daniel,” and
“Jesus Loves Even Me.”
There are also a few in here
that, while they are not as
well-known as the others, are
also gems which deserve to be
performed. I hope these hymns
are a blessing to you! Sheet music list : › Dare to Be a Daniel › Hallelujah, 'Tis Done! › Hold the Fort › Jesus Loves Even Me › Let the Lower Lights Be Burning › More Holiness Give Me › Once for All! › The Light of the World Is Jesus › Whosoever Will › Wonderful Words of Life