Dr. Horatio Richmond Palmer

Dr. Horatio Richmond Palmer, the well-known author and composer, was a man of peculiar and diversified abilities and won distinction in many departments of music. The records show he was born in Sherburne, N. Y., April 26, 1834. By the death of his mother he was left half orphan when little more than two years old. For a time he was tenderly cared for by his mother’s sister. Then changes came and during his entire youth he faced the world single handed and alone. He acquired his musical education by hard unremitting study with little assistance. He sang in his father’s choir when nine years of age, commenced conducting and composing at eighteen. He married Miss Lucia A. Chapman, a student in Rushford Academy, N. Y., where he was Principal of Music. Mr. Palmer was playing the organ and directing the choir in the Baptist Church at Rushford, JST. Y., when a request came from Centerville, a neighboring town, asking him to teach a singing school. He answered the call with fear and trembling, having decided years before that it was not his forte to teach. However, the first lesson went along in a manner satisfactory to all except the teacher.

At the intermission it seemed to Mr. Palmei* that everything had gone wrong. He was utterly discouraged and was considering stopping then and there, giving it up and running away, when a friend (Mrs. James Cole) came to where the disheartened young leader was sitting alone in a most gloomy state of mind. She was hearty in praise of the lesson thus far. ” It was delightful, way ahead of anything ever given there before,” etc., etc. Taking courage from her enthusiasm he finished the lesson and the term. At the final concert the chorus acquitted itself finely, and at once Mr. Palmer was engaged to return the next year.

Having met with such success he was immediately besieged with requests to teach singing classes in adjoining localities and states.

For the purpose of enlarging his field of labor he located for a time in Chicago where he edited a musical monthly journal, wrote books, and conducted festivals and associations. He began this work in 1865 shortly after the war. At that time of increasing life and prosperity the desire for music awakened also and demanded attention, conventions sprang up here and there and quickly became the social events of city, town and country districts. In this work Dr. Palmer was foremost and it grew to gigantic proportions.

He held music schools, normal courses in training and conducting musical conventions and festivals. This work extended over all the Northern states and some of the Provinces of Canada ; one week he would be in the West, the next in the East a thousand miles distant and in the meanwhile his books kept the presses running continually. He never missed an engagement for any of these musical festivals although often required to make a journey of hundreds of miles, sometimes driving through snow across country to make trains, when other connections failed. lie never permitted anything to come between him and his aim. He went into everything he undertook with all his heart, loving it, intent upon it, knowing no such word as fail — not recognizing it if it stared him in the face, but walking calmly over it and on to success.

He has carried music and musical enthusiasm to thousands who were otlierwise beyond its reach. He has encouraged and helped many hundreds of music students, by instructions, example and personal kindness, to work on against all discouragements, to attain the heights they desired. Scattered all over the country we find leading teachers and conductors who gratefully acknowledge their indebtedness to this loved educator.

The fruitage of this work is what might naturally have been expected from this keen, tactful, energetic, courageous man.

In 1873 he returned to New York City, since which time, accompanied by Mrs. Palmer, he visited Europe three times, once having extended his travels into the Orient. He spent nearly three years in different capitals and musical centres of Europe, studying and investigating the best methods of teaching, listening to operas and concerts given by the best artists, and rendered under the direction of the most able drill-masters in the world.

Dr. Palmer was beyond doubt one of the best-equipped teachers of music in the country. His large and discriminating experience put him in possession of knowledge that cannot be purchased. He Avas familiar with all the standard operas and oratorios, has adapted and compiled most of the practical excerpts, and unquestionably could lay his hand on more line choruses and put them to immediate use than most men in the profession.

In 1881 Dr. Palmer organized the Church Choral Union in New York City. The aim of the organization was to elevate the class of music used in churches. Dr. Palmer brought to this work twenty -five years experience in handling large gatherings of singers and the methods which such experience and practical usefulness had developed. No wonder that it grew from two hundred and fifty the first season to forty-two hundred the third. Brooklyn, Buffalo, Washington, Philadelphia and other cities called him and his assistants to start the same kind of work there. The Church Choral Union was made up from two hundred and twenty churches, the total number of singers reaching upwards of twenty thousand, thus forming the largest church music organization in this country. Dr. Palmer solved the difficult problem of church music. At one of his mammoth concerts in Madison Square Garden, during the period in which he had charge of the Church Choral Union of New York City, he had nearly four thousand singers on the stage, while the audience filled the remaining portion of the vast auditorium. It consisted mostly of churchgoing people, and New York never saw a more refined assemblage.

Dr. Palmer chose the Church for his field of labor and always had the loyal and liberal support of Christian people. His career was a brilliant one.

Another way in which Dr. Palmer has reached the homes of thousands of music lovers yearly was through his Chautauqua work. For fourteen years he had charge of the music there. He trained and conducted the marvellous chorus, which averaged four hundred voices and enrolled one thousand during the season. He was Dean of the College of Music in which Wm. H. Sherwood, Bernhard Listemann, Wheeler, Flagler, and Leason were teachers. Dr. Palmer gave his personal attention to the department of methods, analytical harmony, teachers and conducting clubs and to the big choir. Thousands were attracted to Chautauqua, N. Y., annually by the masterf id rendering of music by the great choir under the direction of Dr. Palmer. The vast amphitheatre often failed to accommodate the crowds that attended the concerts and sacred song services and hundreds could be seen standing through an entire program. There is no one man in his field of labor who has stood professionally in the presence of so many people. His usefulness extended from ocean to ocean, and from the Gulf to the British possessions.

His most helpful influences on daily life have unquestionably been exerted through his sacred music. He has been called the j^oet-musician since he has in so many instances written both the words and music of his popular pieces. Among these are his useful and widely known hymns : ” Yield N’ot to Temptation,” ” Shall 1 Let Him In,” ” Beautiful Home,” ” The Rose of Sharon,” ” Step by Step,” ” Jesus Loves Little Children,” etc., all of which he has set to appropriate music. Space would fail us to mention all of his sacred sonars. Everybody has sung his ” Galilee, Blue Galilee,” ” Peace, Be Still,” ” Come, Sinner Come,” ” By and By AVe Shall Meet Him,” ” Life’s Balance Sheet,” etc. Some of his hymns are sung the world over wherever the Christian religion is found, having been translated into numerous tongues. His never dying “Yield Not to Temptation ” has been printed millions of times.

“The sun never sets” on the lands that use his verse and song. He has also issued many sheet songs that have had wide circulation. ” She Sleeps in the Yalley so Sweet,” ” Fawn Footed Nannie,” etc.

In Chicago he edited and published for years a musical monthly, called the Concordia. His first two books were “The Song Queen” and ” Song King.” They had immense sales. Among his theoretical works are his ” Theory of Music,” ” Class Method,” ” Manual for Teachers,” ” Brief Statements,” ” Musical Catechism,” ” Piano Primer,” ” Dictionary of Musical Terms,” etc., etc., all of which are standard, being used by the best teachers and music schools. They too have had enormous sales. His theoretical writing is characterized by clearness and accuracy, and his music is distinguished for grace, purity and melodiousness.

A large number of Dr. Palmer’s books, collections of songs of all grades, always containing the best of music, are to-day being used in schools and churches everywhere in this country. He wrote and compiled fifty volumes in the interest of music. In recognition of the great services rendered in the AVest by the introduction of thorough methods and high grades of music, the Chicago University conferred upon him the honorable degree of Doctor of Music, and a year later, for similar services rendered in the East, the Alfred University conferred upon him the same degree.

As a leader Dr. Palmer was an inspiration to a choir or chorus and was not surpassed in kindly thought and skill. He had enthusiasm that was contagious and was also blessed with the staying quality and the genius of good fellowship. Dr. Palmer conducted the Chautauqua, N. Y., Chorus for fourteen years, built up the choir at the Broom Street Tabernacle and had charge of the three choirs for eleven years, lie served two church choirs seven years each, worked in the Madison, Wis., Assembly seven years and in the De Funiack Springs, Fla., six years. He was the first leader at the Albany Georgia Assembly and conducted the chorus for a number of years. He served the Cortland, K. Y., Festival nineteen times. The list of festivals in which he worked from two to ten years is too long to mention here.

Dr. Palmer once told an interesting anecdote of his forty-third birthday. He happened on that day to be in London. He said he never had thought about getting old or having to lay aside the work he loved so much ; but that day he was struck with the idea that he was old and would be getting older — past his days of usefulness. Soon he would be fifty-three, then sixty-three. The thought was so impressed on him that he felt very gloomy. In the afternoon he went around to hear Spurgeon. The great preacher was exactly Dr. Palmer’s age, and listening to the words that fell from those immortal lips, realizing the wonderful power for good that Spurgeon exerted then, and would exert for years to come, it was borne in on him that forty-three was not old ; that a world of usefulness still lay before him ; that if one’s life is filled with love and work, there is no time for age to creep in.

During their visit to the Holy Land Dr. and Mrs. Palmer were invited to a Sunday afternoon tea in Jerusalem, and Avere greeted by about fifty people who sat at the same table. Instead of saying ” Grace ” all joined in singing his

” By and by we shall meet Him,
By and by we shall greet Him.”

When at Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee, the young people of the mission invited the Doctor to a moonlight row on the sea and surprised him by singing his ” Galilee, Blue Galilee ” and ” Peace, Be Still ” on the beautiful waters which gave i^ise to the songs.

When returning from Nazareth to Jerusalem, Dr. Palmer was invited to spend a night at the mission in Nablous (the old Shechem of Bible times). The medical missionary, the Rev. Dr. Fallsheer who has a church consisting of about two hundred converted Mohammedans, had arranged a meeting that night and asked Dr. Palmer to play the organ during the service which was conducted entirely in the Arabic language. As the Arabic reads from right to left instead of from left to right as in English, the music must conform to that plan, i. e.^it begins at the extreme right and is read to the left, so the Doctor had to play backwards, so to say, through the entire service, during which his hymn “Yield Not to Temptation ” was sung in Arabic by the congregation.

He was well known on the lecture platform of many states in connection with subjects other than musical. He has devoted much time to astronomy and gave his lecture on this subject with all the charm that belongs to only a true lover of the science. Again he was eagerly sought as a lecturer to give his illustrated lectures on the Orient and the Holy Land. He has carried into these other lines the same quick brain and forceful activity that developed his music work years ago and placed him in its first ranks.

Dr. Palmer owned a beautiful home at Park Hill-on-Hudson. From two windows in his study there is an extended view of the river and Palisades. This view was always a great joy to him. He was also fond of the trees, flowering shrubs, and plants. He would go out before breakfast looking for new buds and blossoms. There is a symmetrical young maple tree standing on the summit of the grounds that he took delight in showing to callers and visitors. It has always been called Dr. Palmer’s tree.

Dr. Palmer’s last public services were done in the Mountain Summer Assembly at Ebensburg, Pa., in 1907. He closed with a fine concert the first of August.

In the autumn when a purple haze softened the sunlight and a wealth of autumn leaves had colored the Palisades and crept up the hillside Dr. Palmer passed peacefully to rest in the home he loved, November 15, 1907, in the seventy-third year of his age.