Crafting a Durham Hymn
Thomas Durham was born in the early industrial boomtown of Oldham, Lancashire, England in 1828, and joined the church in 1850. He and his first wife Mary Morton survived the harrowing trek across the plains in the Martin handcart company in 1856, and settled in Parowan, Utah, where he was the heart of the community’s musical life, serving as ward choir director from his arrival there in 1856 until his death in 1909. He also directed a brass band and string orchestra under the guise of the “Parowan Harmonic Society.” Music was revealed to him in dreams, including an ancient Nephite melody. Family tradition has it that during a discussion about whether to buy a chandelier for the meetinghouse an objection arose from the back of the congregation asking, “Why go to all that expense when Brother Durham will be the only one able to play it?”
Thomas launched a family tradition of hymn-writing. His hymn “Stars of Morning, Shout for Joy” was a standard in earlier hymnals. It was left out of the 1985 green book but his musical and spiritual legacy is well represented there through four hymns by his son, Alfred M., three by his grandsons G. Homer and Lowell M., and two by his great grandsons Lowell Jr. and Thomas L. These hymns range from the triumphant (“Firm as the Mountains Around Us,” “They the Builders of the Nation,” “My Redeemer Lives”) to the pensive (“As the Shadows Fall,” “With Humble Heart”) but common to them all is deep devotion. Also common is a family resemblance in musical language--a fondness for accidentals and modulation.
With his third wife Caroline Mortensen Durham, a convert born in Denmark who also crossed the plains in 1856 as a young girl in the ill-fated Willie handcart company, Thomas had ten children in addition to one with his second wife, Mary Moore Mitchell. Almost all of his descendants seem to be musical to one degree or another, as far as we both know—there are so many of us that cousins remain unacquainted.
Indeed, we first met in New York City in June 2017 at the inaugural gathering of the Latter-day Saint Arts Festival. John is the grandson of G. Homer Durham, and Ethan the great-grandson of Alfred M. Durham. John loved Ethan’s string quartet that was performed at the Festival and a seed was planted that sprouted when the Church issued a call for contributions to a new hymnal. To write a new “Durham hymn”—that was the plan.
John’s lyrics were shaped by the experience of repeatedly teaching the poetry of Emily Dickinson to Yale undergraduates. The meter matters a lot for understanding the very musical Dickinson (like most poets). She typically uses “common meter,” a line of eight syllables followed by one of six, reinventing this, the dominant meter of hymnody, for her own transcendent purposes. Isaac Watts was a major influence on her, as he was on the LDS tradition. Of 30 sacrament hymns in the green book, however, only seven are in common meter. Nearly half (14) are in “long meter,” with lines of 8 syllables each. “Our Savior Went Where No One’s Gone” establishes its status partly as a sacrament hymn by the generic appropriateness of long meter. Counting syllables can be a spiritual discipline!
Less technically, John wanted to write a hymn that frankly acknowledged the struggle, worries, and wonderments that face disciples of Christ. “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” is beloved in part because of its open admission that our hearts are “prone to wander” as is “A Poor Wayfaring Man” for confessing that we all have “a wound concealed.” John wanted to state deep theological truths—about the atonement, repentance, and the ways that covenants can transfigure history--in ways both simple and poetic. Lyrically speaking, it’s more condensed than the average hymn, but that’s what happens when you read Dickinson a lot and have been thinking about the sacrament for decades! It’s clearly more on the yearning, pensive side of the Durham tradition than the triumphant one.
When he received John’s poignant text, Ethan was struck by the rich imagery that mingled the Gethsemane story with the aforementioned “struggle, worries, and wonderments” that disciples face. Sacrament hymns in particular hold a special role in drawing minds and hearts to the atonement of Christ, while also creating space for reflection and meditation. Musically this suggests a particular tone, a narrow range of tempi, and a melodic-harmonic profile with just enough tension to render the sweet-sadness of remorse with hopeful resolve.
Ethan’s music attempted this in three ways. First, satisfying harmonic resolution is withheld until the last chord of each verse. This is done by deploying a formal structure called a ‘double-period.’ In double-periods there are four phrases, but the first three phrases avoid strong conclusions on the primary chord (in this case, F-major) until the end. Each of the first three phrases (ending respectively in measures 8, 16, and 24) conclude on a C-major chord (a most unstable chord in this hymn’s key of F-major). The chord in these three places offers temporary respite, but always leans into the beginning of the next phrase. This mechanism keeps the music moving forward, but while delaying the gratification of the final cadence (phrase conclusion) on the home chord until the end. Second, Ethan altered the harmonic color with the occasional use of D-flat (‘borrowed’ from the key of F-minor). He also created a texture with lots of scale-like stepwise motion rendering ‘non-chord tones.’ Non-chord tones create dissonance as they rub against the more consonant members of a chord at any given time (note the tenor in m.8, the alto in mm. 16 and 32). Finally, the highest note of the melody is reserved until the final phrase (m.26), creating the sense that all previous movement leads inevitably to this place. The total effect is one of a miniature drama in which each participant yokes themselves individually to Christ and his atonement.
John Durham Peters teaches and writes on media history and philosophy. He is the María Rosa Menocal Professor of English and of Film & Media Studies at Yale University.
Ethan F. Wickman is Professor of Music Composition and Theory at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
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Very nice hymn and an excellent performance.