Thomas Hastings
15 October 1784—15 May 1872
The cause of Sacred Music in America is under great obligations to the late DR. THOMAS HASTINGS. Few men have labored so long, so earnestly, so intelligently, so devoutly, and so successfully, for the improvement of “the service of song” in the worship of God. To him and the late Dr. Lowell Mason—“par nobile fratrum!”—more than to all others, is to be attributed the great advance made in the character of this part of public worship during the last half century. They may properly be regarded as the founders of the prevailing psalmody of America.
Thomas Hastings was the son of Seth Hastings, M.D., and was born October 15, 1784, at Washington, Litchfield Co., Conn., where the first twelve years of his boyhood were spent. In the winter of 1796, his father, in company with several of his neighbors, removed to Oneida Co., N.Y., and located in the town of Clinton, a remote settlement, quite on the frontiers of civilization. Here the son became inured to hardship in the clearing of the forests, and the subjugation of the virgin soil to the plough. His opportunities of education were quite limited and remote—a daily walk of six miles in cold and storm and drifting snows, being required for two winters, in order to [obtain] Academic schooling. Having an acute ear for music, and a corresponding passion for the art, he began the study of the science “with a sixpenny gamut of four diminutive pages,” under a not very competent teacher. He next mastered an old book of psalmody and at length became the chorister of the village church. An elaborate treatise on music, bought at auction, came into his hands and was thoroughly studied and apprehended.
Having reached the age of manhood (1805), he offered himself as a singing-school teacher, but because of his imperfect sight (he was an albino), fruitlessly. The following winter (1806–7), however, he taught a singing-school at Bridgewater, Oneida Co., and another at Brookfield, Herkimer Co., and thus began the work of his life. Years passed on and other openings offered. One year was given to business pursuits, and four years to the care of his father’s farm. In 1816, he gave himself to the profession of music. A Musical Society (“the Handel and Burney”) had been formed in Oneida Co. Under their patronage, Mr. Hastings and Prof. Seth Norton compiled two pamphlet numbers of sacred music, which were subsequently enlarged, and having been united with the Springfield Collection, edited by Col. Solomon Warriner, were published (1822) as Musica Sacra. His Musical Reader was issued in 1817.
A winter (1816–7) spent in Troy, N.Y., served to develop a remarkable fluency in public speaking, and he became a popular lecturer on Music. He wrote, also, for the periodical press, and in 1822 published at Albany, N.Y., A Dissertation on Musical Taste, by which he became extensively known as a musical author.
From Troy he removed to Albany and became the precentor of the Rev. Dr. Chester’s church. Thence, in the autumn of 1823, he removed to Utica, N.Y., to become the editor of a religious periodical. He continued to edit the Western Recorder from January, 1824, until the latter part of 1832, advocating in its columns, with marked ability, his views of Sacred Music, and taking frequent opportunities to lecture by invitation, in various places, on his favorite theme. An Address, which he delivered before the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at Philadelphia, May 23, 1829, was published shortly after in the Biblical Repertory. He prepared (1830) for the American Sunday-School Union, The Union Minstrel, for the Use of Sabbath Schools and Juvenile Classes. The Rev. Joshua Leavitt of New York had just published The Christian Lyre, a Collection of Hymns and Tunes, which had appeared weekly in successive numbers of the New York Evangelist (of which he was the editor), designed for “Prayer-Meetings, and Revivals of Religion.” It had been received with great favor and extensive patronage. To counteract what was thought to be the injurious tendency of this publication in the matter of musical taste, Mr. Hastings, conjointly with Lowell Mason of Boston, issued [1831] a similar serial, which was published collectively [1832] as Spiritual Songs for Social Worship.
The fame of Mr. Hastings as a successful teacher of sacred music had now become widespread. Several churches of New York City united (1832) in a request that he would remove to New York and make it the centre of his operations. He complied, and removing thither, November, 1832, found a wide field for his art among the churches of the metropolis. A year later, he became the chorister of the Bleecker Street Presbyterian Church. He published (1834) The Mother’s Hymn-Book (145 hymns) … for the Use of Maternal Associations, and shortly after, his Mother’s Nursery Songs. He became the editor (1836) of a periodical called The Musical Magazine, from the 24 Numbers of which he compiled [1836] his Musical Miscellany. The Christian Psalmist, a hymn-book containing, in addition to Watts’ Psalms, 648 hymns from Watts and others, was compiled and published (1836) by the Rev. William Patton, D.D. of New York and himself—great liberties having been taken with the originals.
He prepared and published (1837) The Manhattan Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes and Anthems, . . . under the special Patronage of the New York Academy of Sacred Music, of which he was one of the most active and influential members. Three years later (1840), under the same Patronage, he issued The Sacred Lyre. Both of these works were received with much favor. To these he now added The New York Academy Collection of Anthems [Anthems, Motets, Sentences, Choruses, etc., 1836]. In 1842, he edited for the American Tract Society a volume of Sacred Songs for Family and Social Worship, containing 183 Tunes, and subsequently, their Songs of Zion.
With the late William B. Bradbury, a much younger man, and an ardent lover of sacred song, he united in the compilation and publication of The Psalmodist (1844), The New York Choralist (1847), The Mendelssohn Collection (1849), and The Psalmista (1851). These collections met with a large patronage.
He now gathered together the hymns that during the previous forty years he had composed, many of them to meet special wants, either of occasions or tunes, and published them (1850) in a volume entitled Devotional Hymns [199] and Religious Poems. One of the latter contains nearly 1,000 lines.
He edited (1852) The Presbyterian Psalmodist (a collection of about 500 tunes) and the Juvenile Psalmodist for the Presbyterian Board of Publication. He also assisted Messrs. Bradbury and Root in the compilation (1853) of The Shawm, a Library of Church Music. In 1854, he published the entertaining History of Forty Choirs, with the most of which he had been previously connected. He also published a Sunday-School Hymn and Tune Book. He united with his son, the Rev. Thomas S. Hastings, D.D., in the compilation and publication (1858) of Church Melodies, a Collection of [871] Psalms and Hymns with Appropriate Music. Finally, he gathered together such of his hymn tunes and other musical compositions as he desired to preserve, gave them a careful and thorough revision, and then (1860) issued them in a volume entitled Hastings’s Church Music, 235 pieces—not more than half, probably, of what he had composed. Among his publications were a volume on Sacred Praise, and another on Prayer. He was the author of about 600 hymns.
Dr. Hastings continued for forty years to reside in New York, contributing constantly to the periodical press. He was greatly beloved and universally honored as a noble Christian man, as well as an accomplished musician. He died at his home May 15, 1872, in his eighty-eighth year.
by Edwin Hatfield
The Poets of the Church (1884)
Featured Tunes:
Collections of Hymns:
Musica Sacra
1st ed. (1815): WorldCat
2nd ed. (1816): WorldCat
Rev. ed. (1818): Archive.org
2nd rev. ed. (1819): Archive.org
3rd rev. ed. (1822): Archive.org
4th rev. ed. (1823): Archive.org
5th rev. ed. (1825): WorldCat
6th rev. ed. (1827): Archive.org
7th rev. ed. (1828): HathiTrust
8th rev. ed. (1829): Archive.org
9th rev. ed. (1831): WorldCat
10th rev. ed. (1835): WorldCat
Juvenile Psalmody (1827): WorldCat
Spiritual Songs for Social Worship
1831: vol. 1 | vol. 2 | vol. 3 | vol. 4
1832: Archive.org
1833: Archive.org
1834: Archive.org
1836: Archive.org
1837: Archive.org
The Mother’s Hymn Book
1st ed. (1834): Archive.org
New ed., rev. & enl. (1849): PDF
3rd ed. (1859): Archive.org
The Union Minstrel (1834): PDF
Mother’s Nursery Songs
1st ed. (1835): Archive.org
New ed., rev. & enl. (1848): Archive.org
The Christian Psalmist (1836): Archive.org
Musical Miscellany, vols. 1 & 2 (1836): Archive.org
The Manhattan Collection (1837): Archive.org
The Sacred Lyre (1840): WorldCat
Sacred Songs for Family and Social Worship
1st ed. (1842): Archive.org
Rev. & Enl. (1855): Archive.org
The Psalmodist (1844): Google Books
Indian Melodies (1845): Archive.org
The New York Choralist (1847): Google Books
The Crystal Fount (1847): Archive.org
The Sunday School Lyre (1847): WorldCat
The Sacred Choralist (1847): WorldCat
The Mendelssohn Collection (1849): WorldCat
Congregational Harmony (1849): WorldCat
Devotional Hymns and Religious Poems (1850): Archive.org
Songs of Zion (1851) ? : WorldCat
Psalmista, or Choir Melodies (1851): Google Books
The Presbyterian Psalmodist (1852): Archive.org
The Shawm: A Library of Church Music (1853): PDF
Sabbath School Songs (1853): WorldCat
Selah: A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1856): Archive.org
The Presbyterian Juvenile Psalmodist (1856): Archive.org
Church Melodies (1858): Archive.org
Hastings’s Church Music (1860): Archive.org
Introits, or Short Anthems and Hymn Set Pieces (1865): WorldCat
see also:
The Sabbath School Singing Book (1843): WorldCat
Additional hymns, adopted by the General Synod of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in North America (1846): WorldCat
Psalms & Hymns (Dutch Reformed, 1847): Archive.org
Charles Robinson, Songs of the Church (1862): Archive.org
Charles Robinson, Songs for the Sanctuary (1865): Archive.org
Lyra Sacra Americana (1868): Archive.org
Edwin Hatfield, Church Hymn Book (1872): Archive.org
Other Works by Hastings:
The Musical Reader:
1st ed. (1817): WorldCat
Rev. ed. (1819): Archive.org
A New and Improved Violin Preceptor (1822): WorldCat
Flute Melodies (1822): WorldCat
Dissertation on Musical Taste
1st ed. (1822): Archive.org
2nd ed. (1853): Archive.org
Western Recorder (1824–1832): WorldCat
The Musical Magazine (1835–1837): WorldCat
Anthems, Motets, Sentences, Choruses, Trios, Duets, Solos, and Pieces for Miscellaneous Practice (NY Academy, 1836): WorldCat
Elements of Vocal Music (1839): WorldCat
“Sacred Music: source of the prevailing abuses in cultivation, and the only practical remedy,” The American Biblical Repository, Second Series (1844): Archive.org
The Chorus Glee Book (1851): HathiTrust
The History of Forty Choirs (1854): Archive.org
Sacred Praise: An Earnest Appeal to Christian Worshipers (1856): HathiTrust
Manuscripts:
Thomas Samuel Hastings Papers, Burke Library Archives, Union Theological Seminary:
https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/4492456
Related Resources:
Josiah Miller, “Thomas Hastings, Mus. Doc.,” Singers and Songs of the Church (London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1869), pp. 385–386: Archive.org
Thomas Hastings, 1784–1872 (NY: Anson D.F. Randolph, n.d.): WorldCat
Edwin Hatfield, “Thomas Hastings,” The Poets of the Church (1884), pp. 297–301: Archive.org
Samuel Duffield, English Hymns: Their Authors and History, 3rd ed., rev. (NY: Funk & Wagnalls, 1888), pp. 163–165: Archive.org
Frederick M. Bird, “Thomas Hastings,” A Dictionary of Hymnology, ed. John Julian (London, 1907), pp. 494–495, 1569: Google Books
Frank J. Metcalf, American Writers and Compilers of Sacred Music (New York, 1925), pp. 194–199.
M.B. Scanlon: “Thomas Hastings,” Musical Quarterly, vol. 32 (1946), pp. 265–77.
J.E. Dooley: Thomas Hastings: American Church Musician, dissertation (Florida State University, 1963).
L.M. Roth: Heaven, Harmony, and Home: Thomas Hastings’s and Joshua Leavitt’s Dueling Tunebooks, dissertation (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1996).
J.M. Jordan, Sacred Praise: Thomas Hastings on Church Music in Nineteenth-Century America, dissertation (Ft. Worth, TX: Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1999).
Hermine Weigel Williams, Thomas Hastings: An Introduction to His Life and Music (New York, 2005).
David W. Music, “The hymn tunes of Thomas Hastings,” Christian Sacred Music in the Americas, eds. Andrew Shenton & Joanna Smolko (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021).
Richard Crawford & David W. Music, “Thomas Hastings,” Grove Music Online:
https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2249707
Anne Bagnall Yardley, “Thomas Hastings,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/t/thomas-hastings
Thomas Hastings, Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/person/Hastings_Thomas