Baptists are an evangelical Christian denomination whose name is derived from the distinctive doctrine of believers' baptism, usually administered by means of total immersion. Traditional Baptist beliefs also include the authority of the Bible, the soul-competency of the individual believer, a symbolic interpretation of the Lord's Supper, and the autonomy of the local church (although churches have often joined together in voluntary associations and conventions). In most other doctrines Baptists are similar to other mainstream evangelical groups. From modest beginnings in the 17th century Baptists have grown into one of the world's largest evangelical Christian denominations; in 1994 their numbers were estimated at over 37 million worldwide (Wardin, 1995, p.8).
DAVID W. MUSIC
(iii) The 19th and 20th centuries.
Baptist church music, §1: Great Britain
The earliest English Baptist churches grew out of 17th-century Separatism. In 1607 John Smyth, the pastor of a Separatist congregation at Gainsborough, led his flock to Amsterdam to avoid persecution. Smyth came under the influence of continental Anabaptist ideas and, in about 1609, rebaptized himself and others of his congregation. Smyth died in 1612 and his followers Thomas Helwys and John Murton led many of his congregation back to England, where they formed the first Baptist church on English soil. While in Amsterdam these Baptists had adopted the Arminian belief in general atonement; thus they and their followers became known as General Baptists.
A second Baptist group arose about 1638 when several members of a London Separatist church – called the Jacob-Lathrop-Jessey church after its succession of early pastors – rejected infant baptism and formed their own congregation. The ‘mother church’ eventually became a ‘union’ church of mixed Congregationalist and Baptist sentiments. Because of their Calvinistic views of a limited atonement the Baptists originating out of this congregation became known as Particular Baptists. General and Particular Baptists maintained distinct organizational structures until 1891, when they merged to form the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
Like most 17th-century Separatists English Baptists rejected the use of choirs and musical instruments in the church, but some went even further and repudiated the practice of congregational song. In The Differences of the Churches of the Seperation (sic), published in Amsterdam in 1608, John Smyth claimed that ‘singing a psalme is a part of spirituall worship’ but that it must proceed from the spirit and not be read from a book. This was amplified in his Certayne Demaundes from the Auncyent Brethren of the Seperation (c1608/9), to suggest that ‘in a Psalme one onely must speak’ and that the use of ‘meter, Rithme, and tune’ quenched the Holy Spirit. Thus singing was to be allowed only if done by an individual through the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit without using preset forms. The impracticality of this was evident to Henry Ainsworth, who pointed out that if Smyth and his congregation truly believed that singing is ‘an ordinary part of worship, why perform they it not’ (A Defence of the Holy Scriptures, 1609). Smyth's views, which were further enlarged upon in Thomas Grantham's massive Christianismus primitivus (1678), seem to have held sway in most General Baptist churches until well into the 18th century, although there is evidence of singing by a few of these Baptists in the 17th century. In 1684, the General Baptist pastor John Reeve published Spiritual Hymns upon Solomon's Song (1684, 2/1693), which he suggested could be ‘sung in the ordinary tunes of the singing Psalms’. The matter of singing came before the General Assembly of the General Baptist Churches in England in 1689. At this time some churches were evidently using William Barton's Book of Psalms in Metre (1644), but the general conclusion of the body was that the churches should not ‘admit to such Carnall formalities’ (Whitley, 1909–10). In 1695 the London General Baptist churches in Paul's Alley and Turner's Hall united, agreeing to sing at the conclusion of morning worship and the Lord's Supper. In the following year, Richard Allen, the pastor of the united church, wrote An Essay to Prove Singing of Psalms with Conjoined Voices a Christian Duty (1696), perhaps in reaction to criticism for instituting this practice of singing. However, these early singers appear to have had few immediate imitators among the General Baptists.
Particular Baptist views on singing during the 17th century represent a curious blend of conservatism and radical innovation. There is no evidence of singing in Particular Baptist churches before 1650, and some early Particular Baptists wrote against the practice (e.g. Francis Cornwell, Edward Drapes and Thomas Collier). However, by the mid-1650s Particular Baptist writings in support of singing began to appear (William Kaye and Vavasor Powell) and some congregations had evidently adopted the practice. Psalmody was certainly practised early in the history of Bristol's Broadmead Baptist Church, for in 1671 a former sheriff complained that ‘he could hear us Sing Psalmes from our meeting-place, at his house in Hallier's Lane’. The pastor of Horselydown church in London, Benjamin Keach (1640–1704), instituted singing about 1673–5 at the conclusion of the Lord's Supper. In 1680 Hercules Collins, a pastor at Wapping, called singing ‘a Gospel-Ordinance’ (in his Orthodox Catechism), thus placing it on the same plane as the other two ordinances generally recognized by Baptists – baptism and the Lord's Supper. By 1691 between 20 and 30 Particular Baptist congregations in London were singing.
This growing acceptance of singing by Particular Baptists was not universally approved, however. In 1690 Isaac Marlow attacked Keach's use of singing by publishing A Brief Discourse Concerning Singing in the Public Worship of God in which he reiterated some of the ideas of John Smyth and put forward the Zwinglian notion that ‘singing’ as used in New Testament passages such as Colossians iii:16 did not indicate a vocal utterance but a ‘speaking’ in the heart. Keach defended his use of singing in The Breach Repaired in God's Worship (1691). These publications touched off a pamphlet war between Marlow and the supporters of Keach's position. By 1692 the issue had become so rancorous that the General Assembly of Particular Baptist churches took up the matter and proposed that several of the most vehement books be dropped from circulation; both sides were urged to exhibit more charitable behaviour. This action seems to have created a temporary lull in the controversy, although 22 members of Keach's church withdrew in 1693 and formed the Maze Pond church because of his use of singing. In 1696 Marlow undertook a response to Richard Allen's An Essay to Prove Singing of Psalms by publishing The Controversie of Singing Brought to an End. The title of Marlow's essay was perhaps wishful thinking, and the pamphlet war was now pursued with renewed vigour on both sides. From 1690 to 1698 at least 19 essays dealing directly with singing were published by Baptist authors. However, by 1699 the controversy was beginning to lose momentum, in part because the large majority of Particular Baptist churches and ministers favoured singing.
Ironically, at a time when some Particular Baptists rejected congregational singing altogether, and most Anglicans and Separatists restricted it to the metrical psalms (see Psalms metrical, §III, 1–2), some Particular Baptists approved the use of ‘hymns of human composure’ and wrote such pieces for use in worship. In 1654 Anna Trapnell, a Fifth Monarchy Baptist, published a collection of prayers and ‘spiritual songs’, The Cry of a Stone, although if the texts were actually used in services they were probably sung as solos rather than congregational hymns. A collection of lyric poetry by Katherine Sutton, A Christian Womans Experiences of the Glorious Working of God's Free Grace, was published in Rotterdam in 1663. In the meantime, the Particular Baptist Thomas Tillam had published three hymns in The Seventh-Day Sabbath (1657), one each for the Lord's Supper, Pentecost and the Sabbath. Poems that might have been intended or used for congregational singing appeared in scattered sources by Baptist authors during the 1660s, 1670s and 1680s – particularly in children's books by Abraham Cheare, Benjamin Keach and John Bunyan – but the publication of real significance was Keach's Spiritual Melody (1691), a collection of 283 texts that probably reflects some of the hymnic repertory used at the compiler's own church. The book included hymns by non-Baptists such as John Patrick, William Barton and John Mason – often in considerably altered form – as well as original contributions by Keach. Keach published three more collections of hymns, but most of his poetry was doggerel, and his hymnals do not seem to have had much influence outside his personal circle. Nevertheless, these collections are significant for being among the earliest English hymnals to provide a well-rounded body of material that was expressly designed for congregational use. If Keach's poetic abilities were limited, the same cannot be said for Joseph Stennett (1663–1713), a Seventh-Day Baptist whose Hymns in Commemoration of the Sufferings of Our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ (1697) and Hymns Composed for the Celebration of the Holy Ordinance of Baptism (1712) were written for the two Baptist ordinances.
Baptist church music, §1: Great Britain
Most General Baptist churches were still in a songless state at the dawn of the 18th century. The Virginia Street church in London began singing in 1722. A few other churches must have adopted singing soon after: a meeting of the General Assembly in 1733 agreed that ‘singing’ churches should not be disfellowshipped for this reason, but admonished such congregations to undertake ‘a serious Examination of the Scriptures’ on the subject (Whitley, 1909–10). The majority of General Baptist churches remained songless until after the middle of the century. In 1770 the New Connexion of General Baptists was formed under the influence of the Methodist revival and the first officially sanctioned General Baptist hymnal, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, was published in London in 1772. This was followed by Samuel Deacon's A New Composition of Hymns and Poems (1785, retitled Barton Hymns in its second edition of 1797), the General Baptist Association's Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1793), and John Deacon's A New and Large Collection of Hymns and Psalms (1800).
During the first third of the 18th century the majority of non-singing Particular Baptist churches began to admit the use of congregational song. Even the Maze Pond church introduced singing in 1733 when a prospective pastor insisted upon it as a condition of his acceptance of the post. A number of Baptists were active in the writing and publishing of hymns during the first half of the century; some of these and the dates of their collections were David Cully (1726), Anne Dutton (1734), Daniel Turner (1747), Benjamin Wallin (pastor at Maze Pond, 1750) and Edward Trivett (1755). The hymns of Isaac Watts were also popular among 18th-century English Baptists.
The ‘Golden Age’ of British Baptist hymnody began with the publication of Anne Steele's two-volume Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional (1760). Though intended for private rather than congregational use, Steele's texts were widely anthologized in subsequent hymnals. Among the better-known 18th-century English Baptist hymn writers who followed Steele's example were Edmund Jones, Benjamin Beddome, Robert Robinson, John Fawcett, Samuel Stennett, John Ryland, Samuel Medley, Joseph Swain, and the Welshmen David Williams and Benjamin Francis. The 18th-century Particular Baptist hymnals of greatest significance were John Ash and Caleb Evans's Collection of Hymns (1769) and John Rippon's Selection of Hymns (1787); these were eclectic collections that drew upon the works of both Baptist and non-Baptist authors. Rippon's hymnal, which was intended to be a supplement to Watts, achieved ten editions in 13 years and saw wide distribution in both England and America during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Rippon additionally published Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts Arranged by Dr. Rippon (1801), familiarly known as ‘Rippon's Watts’.
The 18th century also saw the beginnings of hymn writing and publishing among Welsh and Scottish Baptists. The most significant Welsh Baptist hymnal of this period was Benjamin Francis's Aleluia, which had editions in 1774 and 1786. William Sinclair's Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1751) was probably the first Scottish Baptist hymnal. The Scottish Baptist A Collection of Christian Hymns and Songs, initially published in 1786, was still in print in an enlarged edition as late as 1841.
All the Baptist hymnals mentioned to this point were words-only collections. The first British Baptist tune book, John Rippon's A Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1791), was important for its systematic provision of expression marks and tempo indications, its role as the largest musical companion to a particular hymnal, and its being one of the best examples of Dissenting psalmody of the period. Furthermore, the book proved to be widely popular, appearing in numerous editions through the early 19th century.
The music of most 18th-century Baptist churches was restricted to a cappella congregational singing, but in a few places Baptists formed choirs and instrumental ensembles. At St Mary's Church in Norwich, for example, a singing school was instituted that formed the nucleus of a church choir (1779–88). East Lancashire was the home of the Deighn Layrocks (Larks of Dean), a group of vocal and instrumental musicians and composers from the village of Dean, many of whom became Baptists in 1747. At various times these musicians formed the nucleus of a separate church (at Lumb) or sang in the choir at other churches. The Larks continued to be active until an organ purchased for the Lumb church in 1858 rendered their services unnecessary.
Baptist church music, §1: Great Britain
By the beginning of the 19th century congregational singing was common in nearly all British Baptist churches. Ironically, the Maze Pond church, which had been formed in the 17th century by those opposed to Benjamin Keach's introduction of singing, was in the mid-19th century ‘famed for the excellence of its congregational singing’ (Price, 1941, p.205).
The most important 19th-century General Baptist hymnals were The Hymn-Book of the New Connexion of General Baptists (1830, a revision of John Deacon's 1800 hymnal), The New Hymnbook (1851, ed. J.B. and J.C. Pike) and The Baptist Hymnal (1879, ed. W.R. Stevenson). Rippon's Selection held sway among Particular Baptists until the 1828 publication of John Haddon's A New Selection, which was itself displaced by Psalms and Hymns (1858). A ‘Psalms and Hymns Trust’ was established in 1860 to promote sales of the latter book. C.H. Spurgeon's Our Own Hymn Book (1866), a collection issued primarily for use in the compiler's Metropolitan Tabernacle, was also widely used, and many Particular Baptists employed Stevenson's New Connexion Baptist Hymnal (1879). Strict Calvinistic Particular Baptists sang from John Stevens's New Selection of Hymns (1809), William Gadsby's Selection of Hymns (1814) and David Denham's The Saints' Melody (1837). The American Methodist I.D. Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos (1873, and later editions) became popular in many English Baptist churches. Special mention must be made of Daniel Sedgwick, a Baptist who was one of the first Englishmen to undertake the systematic collection of material on hymnody for scholarly study.
Significant Welsh Baptist hymnals of the 19th century were Joseph Harris's Casgliad o hymnau (1821) and J.H. Roberts's Llawlyfr moliant (1880), edited on behalf of the Caernarvonshire Baptist Association by R.M. Jones and Spinther James. Scottish Baptists continued to sing from A Collection of Christian Hymns and Songs as well as from Duncan M'Dougall's Gaelic Hymns (1841) and Oliver Flett's Christian Hymnal (1871).
During the course of the 19th century British Baptist objections to choirs and instruments broke down almost completely. Many churches introduced a choir and bass viol (violoncello) or instrumental ensemble during the first half of the century. East Leake Baptist Church in Nottinghamshire used a bass viol from at least 1823, while at Beeston a bass viol and ‘clarionet’ accompanied the singing from 1838 to 1854. Few Baptist churches employed an organ before mid-century; two that did were the Particular Baptist Stone Chapel at Leeds, which was using such an instrument as early as 1817, and the George Street church in Nottingham (installed 1847). During the second half of the century the bass viol and instrumental ensembles began giving way to harmoniums and organs, and by the end of the century it was a rare Baptist church that did not possess a keyboard instrument. At the East Leake church the bass viol was replaced by a harmonium in 1868, while the Beeston congregation purchased a harmonium in 1854. Despite this proliferation of choirs and instruments some churches did not give up the practice of lining-out the congregational songs until quite late (for example, it was not abandoned at Beeston until 1863).
After the formation of The Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1891 it was felt that a new hymnbook was needed as an expression of denominational unity. The Psalms and Hymns Trust that had been founded in 1860 was given the exclusive right to publish hymnals for the denomination, the profits of which were to go towards Baptist charitable causes. The Trust issued the Baptist Church Hymnal in London in 1900, followed by the Baptist Church Hymnal: Revised Edition (1933), and the Baptist Hymn Book (1962). Later, the Trust published a supplement of 104 hymns, Praise for Today (1974), and a full hymnal Baptist Praise and Worship (1991). The Baptist Union of Wales (formed in 1866) published its first hymnal in 1915 under the editorship of H.C. Williams. R.S. Rogers, E.C. Jones and T.E. Jones were responsible for the Union's Y llawlyfr moliant newydd (1956).
The music of British Baptist churches in the late 20th century generally followed either a traditional or a more charismatic approach. The traditonal churches have continued to use hymns, hymnals, and the organ; few of these churches maintain choirs, the music being almost entirely congregational and instrumental. Baptist churches that follow a more charismatic style of worship (though usually without the characteristic hallmark of tongue-speaking) employ worship choruses and use the piano as the basic accompanying instrument.
(i) The 17th and 18th centuries.
(ii) The 19th and 20th centuries.
Baptist church music, §2: North America
The first Baptist church in America was founded in 1639 by Roger Williams at Providence, Rhode Island. In 1644 another church was formed at Newport, Rhode Island, and by 1700 there were 33 Baptist churches in the American colonies. While most British Baptist churches of the time were non-singing, there is evidence that several of the early Baptist churches in the colonies practised psalmody. In some cases singing was apparently abandoned when large numbers of non-singing English Baptists emigrated to the colonies and joined these churches. When objections to singing in Baptist worship began to die out in England during the early 18th century, many non-singing American churches adopted or reintroduced psalmody, while newly formed churches sang from their inception. According to Baptist historian Morgan Edwards, Delaware's Welsh Tract church ‘was the principal if not sole means of introducing singing’ into the Baptist churches of Middle Atlantic colonies.
British Baptists were not the only members of this communion to settle in the New World. In 1732 a German, Conrad Beissel, founded the Ephrata community, a Sabbatarian Baptist communal sect, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Unlike some of their British counterparts, the members of Beissel's group had no objections to singing, neither did they have any qualms about singing original hymns. Much of the music sung at Ephrata was written by Beissel himself in a rhythmically free, diatonic, chorale style that sometimes featured multiple choirs and antiphonal effects. The most important published hymnal of the Ephrata community was Das Gesäng der einsamen und verlassenen Turtel-Taube (1747).
The psalters and hymnals used by English-speaking Baptists in New England and the Middle Atlantic states during the 18th and early 19th centuries were mostly of British origin. Early Baptists probably used the Ainsworth or Sternhold and Hopkins psalters. After about 1740 many Baptists began singing from Tate and Brady's New Version of the Psalms. This was succeeded during the last third of the century by various editions of Isaac Watts's psalms and hymns, often supplemented by Rippon's Selection of Hymns (London, 1787, reprinted in New York and Elizabethtown, 1792). Earlier editions of Watts were replaced by ‘Rippon's Watts’, which was reprinted in Philadelphia in 1820. The ascendancy of Watts among New England Baptists was continued through James Winchell's An Arrangement of … Watts (1819). ‘Rippon's Watts’, continued in use in the Middle Atlantic states until the 1840s.
The earliest Baptist hymnal compiled in America, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, was published anonymously at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1766, but does not seem to have met with favour. Baron Stow and S.F. Smith's The Psalmist (1843) became the most widely used collection in the North, superseding both ‘Winchell's Watts’ and ‘Rippon's Watts’, and marking the turning away of Baptists from ‘Watts entire’, and from collections that were merely supplementary to Watts. Somewhat outside the mainstream of Baptist hymnody in the North was Joshua Smith's Divine Hymns (1791). This early collection of folk hymn texts had little impact on standard northern Baptist hymnals, but it did reach 12 editions. The collections noted above were words-only hymnals, but tunes for Baptist use were published in Morgan Edwards's The Customs of Primitive Churches (1768), Samuel Holyoke's The Christian Harmonist … for the Use of the Baptist Churches (1804), the anonymous Boston Collection of Sacred and Devotional Hymns (1808) and other scattered sources. Several New England psalmodists were associated with the denomination, including Oliver Holden, Oliver Brownson, J.C. Washburn and Oliver Shaw.
Baptist church music, §2: North America
During the 18th century Baptist hymnody appears to have followed much the same course in the North and South. By the turn of the 19th century, however, Baptists of the South had begun to rely increasingly upon the folk hymn. The most popular southern collections – all of which incorporated numerous folk hymn texts – included J. Mercer's The Cluster (3/1810), Starke Dupuy's Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1811), William Dossey's The Choice (1820) and S.S. Burdett's Baptist Harmony (1834). Three widely used southern shape-note folk hymn tune collections, William Walker's Southern Harmony (1835), B.F. White and E.J. King's Sacred Harp (1844) and J.G. McCurry's Social Harp (1855), were compiled by Baptists (see also Shape-note hymnody, §2). Controversies among Baptists caused a division of the denomination into Northern and Southern Baptist Conventions in 1845. A special edition of The Psalmist (1847) with a supplement by two Southern Baptist pastors, Richard Fuller and J.B. Jeter, saw some use in the South. The Baptist Psalmody (1850) of Basil Manly and Basil Manly jr gained immediate acceptance among Southern Baptists, holding much the same place that The Psalmist did among their Northern brethren.
The most important influence on late 19th-century Baptist hymnody was the emergence of the gospel song. Many prominent gospel songwriters were Northern Baptists (e.g. W.B. Bradbury, Robert Lowry and W.H. Doane). A few Northern collections such as E.H. Johnson's Sursum corda (1898) attempted to introduce hymnody of the English Oxford Movement. More widely accepted were books such as The Baptist Hymnal (1883) that attempted to balance liturgical hymnody with the gospel song. The New Baptist Hymnal, produced jointly by Northern and Southern Baptists in 1926, became popular in the North but did not find favour in the South. Two later hymnals of Northern Baptists (renamed the American Baptist Convention in 1950 and the American Baptist Churches in the USA in 1972), Christian Worship (1941) and Hymnbook for Christian Worship (1970), were jointly compiled with the Disciples of Christ.
Late 19th-century Southern Baptists wholeheartedly embraced the gospel song, which almost entirely replaced the folk hymn as the basis of their congregational singing. This emphasis on the gospel song continued well into the 20th century in such books as R.H. Coleman's The Modern Hymnal (1926) and The American Hymnal (1933), B.B. McKinney's The Broadman Hymnal (1940) and numerous informal songbooks. Later Southern Baptist hymnals, such as Baptist Hymnal (1956), Baptist Hymnal (1975) and The Baptist Hymnal (1991) have drawn from a wider range of hymnic styles and traditions. However, Baptist churches are free to use any hymnal they choose, and some employ collections from independent publishers or no hymnal at all. The strong status of hymnological scholarship among Southern Baptists is evident from the fact that the two most widely used college and seminary hymnology textbooks, W.J. Reynolds's A Survey of Christian Hymnody (1963, rev. 4/1999 by D.W. Music and M. Price) and Harry Eskew and H.T. McElrath's Sing with Understanding (1980, 2/1995), were written by members of this denomination. Companions for the 1956 and 1975 Baptist Hymnals were written by W.J. Reynolds (1964, 2/1967; and 1976), while a Handbook to The Baptist Hymnal was compiled by a group of writers and published in 1992.
Early hymnals published by and for Canadian Baptists included John Bowser's Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1807), John Buzzell's Free Will Baptist Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1823), The Canadian Baptist Hymn Book (1873) and The Canadian Baptist Hymnal (1888). In about 1902 The [Canadian] Baptist Church Hymnal (‘Canadian’ appears on the cover but not on the title page) was published in London; this was a reprint of the 1900 English Baptist Church Hymnal with a ‘Canadian Supplement’ of 26 hymns, a few of which had tunes by Canadian Baptist composers. In 1936 the Hymnary for Use in Baptist Churches, a slightly revised edition of the United Church of Canada's Hymnary (1930), was published in Toronto. Carol M Giesbrecht edited The Hymnal for the Baptist Federation of Canada in 1973.
Choirs were generally rejected in Baptist churches of the colonies until after 1770. The earliest record of Baptist choral singing in America dates from the year 1771, when a choir was formed at the First Baptist Church of Boston. Other urban churches in the North soon imitated this practice, and by 1820 most of the larger churches had instituted choirs. A few urban churches in the South formed choirs in the early 19th century, but even as late as 1868 some Southern Baptist churches were struggling with the propriety of admitting such ensembles. Early Baptist choirs were generally composed of volunteers who sat in the balcony facing the pulpit. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the influence of the English Oxford Movement prompted many Baptist churches to vest their choirs and place them in full view of the congregation. The second half of the 20th century saw a proliferation of children's, youth and senior adult choirs in Baptist churches.
Even more controversial than the use of choirs was the introduction of musical instruments. Despite considerable opposition, the bass viol began appearing in Baptist churches of the North shortly after 1800. In about 1819 an organ was installed in the Baptist church at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and the older, better-established New England Baptist churches soon began to acquire organs. Lingering objections to instruments prevented most Southern Baptist churches from acquiring organs until after 1850. Many churches made use of the melodeon as their first instrument, since these were generally cheaper to install and maintain than a pipe organ. Except for some conservative groups, most late 20th-century Baptist churches in the USA used some sort of instrument – usually organ and/or piano, sometimes an orchestra or pop ensemble, or sometimes pre-recorded tape or compact disc – in their services.
After World War I a few Baptist churches began to appoint staff members with some responsibility for music. Since the 1950s many of the larger Baptist churches have hired full-time ministers of music who are responsible for a church's entire music programme. The minister of music typically conducts or supervises choirs for different age groups, various types of instrumental ensemble, and the congregational singing. In smaller churches the minister of music is frequently a part-time or volunteer worker with more limited responsibilities.
Two important factors in the development of Southern Baptist church music during the 20th century were the establishment of the Church Music Department of the Baptist Sunday School Board in 1941 and the influence of music schools in several of the seminaries operated by the Southern Baptist Convention. The Church Music Department provides literature, music and training opportunities for church musicians, while the seminaries offer graduate-level instruction in sacred music.
From the 1970s onwards Baptist church music in America has been characterized by great variety. Some churches rely primarily on standard hymnody and choral or instrumental music of an artistic nature. Others, especially in the South, continue to emphasize the gospel song. Still others have dispensed with hymnals, choirs and organs in favour of ‘worship’ or ‘praise’ choruses printed on songsheets or displayed by overhead projectors. These are typically led by a ‘worship team’ of between four and eight singers and accompanied by a rhythm section with occasional participation by other instrumentalists. The worship team also provides ‘special music’, generally a ‘contemporary Christian’ song in pop style.
As is true of many denominations since the 1960s, the dichotomy between the ‘traditional’ and ‘contemporary’ in Baptist church music of North America, Great Britain and other English-speaking lands has led to much conflict within and between congregations, with those that prefer to remain rooted in traditional musical materials being accused of ‘cultural irrelevancy’ and those that employ pop music styles in their efforts to win converts being charged with ‘cultural accommodationism’. Throughout their history, Baptists have been a populist denomination with a zeal for numerical growth and no authoritative hierarchy to set standards, and they have often relied upon unsophisticated cultural materials (e.g. the gospel song) to carry their evangelistic message. On the other hand, they have also been a largely conservative group – both theologically and in other ways – that typically places little value on change (as evidenced by their continued use of of the gospel song long after it had ceased to be a popular style in the culture as a whole). Many Baptist churches attempt to reconcile this difficulty by blending the traditional and contemporary, with varying degrees of balance and success.
Historically, the American Baptist Churches in the USA and the Southern Baptist Convention have contained the largest numbers of Baptists in America, but there are also numerous smaller bodies. Many of these groups follow essentially the same music patterns as churches that are affiliated with the larger denominational organizations, but a few have maintained distinctive musical practices. Among these are the Primitive Baptists, who originated in the 1830s as a predestinarian reaction against the increasing Arminianism of the major bodies, and some congregations of Regular Baptists, particularly in Appalachia. These Baptists reject the use of choirs and musical instruments, relying exclusively on a cappella congregational singing which often consists of folk hymns that are lined-out and sung in the ‘old way’. The singing in Primitive Baptist churches typically begins about half an hour before the stated service time, with the songs chosen spontaneously at the time of singing. The two most widely used Primitive hymnals, Benjamin Lloyd's Primitive Hymns (1841/R) and D.H. Goble's Primitive Baptist Hymn Book (1887), are words-only collections. Some Primitive Baptist churches have adopted books with musical notation, particularly the Old School Hymnal (1920, 11/1983), which includes traditional Protestant hymns, tunes of the Mason/Hastings/Bradbury school, folk hymns and gospel songs.
Before the Civil War most black Baptists attended the same churches as whites and presumably sang the same congregational songs. After 1865 the number of African-American Baptist churches grew dramatically. In urban areas black Baptists relied primarily upon Northern Baptist hymnbooks such as The Baptist Hymnal (1883), while in rural congregations ‘Dr Watts singing’ – an unaccompanied style characterized by lining-out, slow tempos, embellishment of the melody and ‘surge’ singing – held sway. In 1895 black Baptists formed the National Baptist Convention, USA (NBCUSA), which began publishing songbooks in 1897 and issued its first major hymnal, the National Baptist Hymnal, in Nashville in 1903. While this contained a few hymns by African-Americans, the book was modelled largely on the 1883 Baptist Hymnal. Schisms in the Convention in 1916 and 1961 resulted in the formation of the National Baptist Convention of America (NBCA) and the Progressive National Baptist Convention, respectively. The former immediately began publishing songbooks, one of the most significant being National Jubilee Melodies (1916), a major collection of black spirituals. After founding a new publishing board, the NBCUSA issued Gospel Pearls (1921) – an important songbook containing a variety of standard hymns, spirituals and gospel songs by both white and black writers – and its first (and only) major hymnal, the Baptist Standard Hymnal (1924). The latter collection was reprinted in 1985 and remains in use in many churches. In 1977 the NBCA published the New National Baptist Hymnal, the volume now found most often in African-American Baptist churches. The Progressive National Baptist Convention has issued two hymnals, the Progressive Baptist Hymnal (1976) and the New Progressive Baptist Hymnal (1982), which were ‘special editions’ of the Southern Baptist Broadman Hymnal and NBCA's New National Baptist Hymnal, respectively.
By 1906 choirs were such a common feature in African-American Baptist churches that the NBCUSA published a National Anthem Series of 14 choral pieces by African-American composers, all of whom were ‘choristers’ in Baptist churches. Black Baptist churches were heavily influenced by gospel music during the 1920s and 30s and this has continued to be a dominant style for choral and congregational music in the churches. Some rural African-American Baptist churches continue to sing exclusively in ‘Dr Watts’ style, while ‘upscale’ urban congregations employ mainly music from the European-American and black spiritual traditions accompanied by pipe organ or piano. Many churches use both of these styles in addition to black gospel music with Hammond organ and piano or instrumental ensemble accompaniment.
English and American Baptists were in the forefront of the modern missions movement. The earliest British Baptist missionary, William Carey (1761–1834), arrived in India in 1793; Adoniram Judson, the first Baptist missionary from America, began work in Burma in 1813. During the 19th century Baptists established congregations and institutions on several continents, particularly Asia, Africa and South America, but most of the numerical and musical growth in these areas has come since World War II.
Throughout much of the history of this missionary activity Baptists, like other denominations, translated Anglo-American hymns and transplanted these and Western musical styles to the lands in which they worked. Since the period of greatest missionary expansion coincided with extensive use of the gospel song in British and American Baptist churches, this type of music became standard for churches in other countries as well. The approach to church music in these countries is often similar to that of Baptist churches in England and the USA, although the musical style may be different: congregations sing hymns and/or choruses; ‘special music’ is presented by choirs, small ensembles, or soloists; and pianos, organs, guitars or indigenous instruments accompany or play independently. Baptist seminary and combined church choirs in these lands occasionally present larger works of the Western choral repertory such as Handel's Messiah and Théodore Dubois' Les sept paroles du Christ; these are often seen in the host country as significant cultural events. However, in recent years more emphasis has been placed by missionaries and nationals alike on the cultivation of indigenous church music.
A significant development in Baptist church music in many countries has been the appointment of music missionaries by the Foreign Mission Board (renamed the International Mission Board in 1997) of the Southern Baptist Convention. The first music missionaries, Don and Violet Orr, were sent to Colombia in 1951. Subsequently, music missionaries have been appointed to other Latin American countries, Africa, Asia and Europe. The main responsibility of music missionaries is usually to promote music in the churches or to teach in seminaries, but their work often features a variety of activities, including the formation of choirs and ensembles, giving concerts, leading conferences, and composing, editing and publishing music.
(i) Mexico, Central and South America.
Baptist church music, §3: Other countries
Since Spanish is the dominant language in Mexico, Central and South America, Baptist congregations in these areas often make use of the same hymnals, especially those published by the Spanish Baptist Publishing House in El Paso, Texas, including Himnos favoritos (1951), El nuevo himnario popular (1955) and Himnario bautista (1978). However, many Latin-American Baptist churches cannot afford to purchase a hymnal and rely instead on locally produced words-only collections or no hymnal at all. The publishing house also provides Spanish-language choral music and other resources for use by Latin-American Baptist choirs, instrumentalists and music leaders.
The most important Brazilian Baptist hymnal, Cantor cristão, was initially compiled by the missionary Solomon Ginsberg in 1891. This went through 36 editions (the last revision in 1971) and grew from 16 to 581 selections, 387 of which were from I.D. Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos. In 1991 Brazilian Baptists issued a new hymnal, Hinário para o culto cristão, under the general editorship of music missionary Joan Sutton. Among the 440 hymns were many adapted from or written in the style of Brazilian folk music. In 1957 a Church Music Department was organized by the Brazilian Baptist Convention under the direction of music missionary W.H. Ichter. One of the first publications of the department was a collection of anthems, Antemas corais, for use by Brazilian Baptist church choirs. These and similar publications have generally consisted of English-language works translated into Portuguese.
Baptist church music, §3: Other countries
Baptist churches in Africa use a wide variety of materials, in part because of the many different language groups and the strong social contrasts between city and country dwellers. Urban churches are likely to use ‘book music’, that is, hymnals containing translations of songs in the Western tradition. Examples of this ‘book music’ that have been produced by Baptists in Africa are Nyimbo za chigonjetso (Lilongwe, Malawi, 1970), Emo na, eja suine (Nigeria, n.d.), Sauti zetu mbinguni (Nairobi, 1983), and Baptist asore nnwom (Kumasi, Ghana, n.d., rev. 1980). These books are usually produced and priced inexpensively and contain words only. In rural areas Baptist congregations are more likely to sing ‘body music’, which is unwritten and features call and response patterns, hand-clapping, dancing, and accompaniment by traditional instruments such as the tambourine, kayamba and drum. Even when these congregations sing a Western hymn they are likely to adapt it to indigenous performing practice.
Baptist church music, §3: Other countries
The use and publication of hymnals varies considerably in the Baptist churches of Asia. Early Chinese Baptist hymnals were mainly published under the auspices of British Baptist missions. Gospel Hymns (Canton, 1903), a words-only collection to which tunes were added in 1907, was reprinted with many variations and minor revisions until 1935. Hymns of Praise (Shantung, words 1901, music 1910) was the most important Mandarin hymnal before Baptist Hymns of Praise (1932), which in turn gave way to New Hymns of Praise (1941). The formation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 closed the mainland to missionary and overtly Christian activity, but Baptist hymnological developments continued in Taiwan, Malaysia and Hong Kong. A significant Chinese Baptist hymnal, New Songs of Praise, was issued in Hong Kong in 1973 under the editorship of G. Chi and Southern Baptist music missionary L.G. McKinney. Intended to serve Mandarin, Cantonese and Swatow constituencies, the hymnal was published in an English edition in 1976, a Taiwanese version in 1978, and a combined Chinese-English edition in 1988. The hymnal includes many indigenous productions from Chinese and other Asian sources.
Elsewhere in Asia, Baptist churches often rely on ‘union’ hymnals, such as the Korean Chansonggah (1983), published by a consortium of denominations. A significant Baptist hymnal from Indonesia, Nyanyian Pujian, was published at Bandung in 1982.
Baptist church music, §3: Other countries
Although Baptist work began during the 19th century in most countries of Europe, numerical growth has been slow, particularly in areas dominated by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions. While almost all churches have traditionally employed instruments, and many of the larger ones have maintained choirs (some of them quite accomplished), hymnody continues to be the most important form of Baptist church music in Europe, as in other areas of the world. Germany – the source for the spread of Baptist principles into many other areas of Europe and the seat of one of the largest Baptist groups on the Continent – may be taken as an example. Early German Baptists sang Lutheran and Moravian chorales, in addition to hymns written by their own people, from collections such as Julius Köbner's Glaubenstimme (1849). A German edition of Bliss and Sankey's Gospel Hymns translated by the American Walter Rauschenbusch, Evangeliums-Lieder 1 und 2 (New York, 1897), became very popular and in the late 20th century was still being used in some German-speaking European congregations. An ‘official’ Baptist hymnal, Gemeindelieder, appeared in Wuppertal in 1978, supplemented by a collection of Neue Gemeindelieder in 1993.
In the Russian Empire, Baptist work was particularly difficult owing to repression by the tsarist regime. The Revolution of 1917 initially brought about more favourable treatment of Baptists and other evangelical Christians as the government sought to counteract the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church, but during the 1930s the Stalin government closed most of the churches and banished or imprisoned many of their ministers. Overt persecution eased during World War II, and after the war Baptist churches were allowed to exist in the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries, although they were subject to various limitations, including the printing of religious literature such as hymnals. Because of the scarcity of such books, congregational song was generally done from memory or with the aid of lining-out. Most churches featured an organ and choir, the latter often singing as many as four or five anthems (sometimes from manuscript) during the two-hour service. Since before the break up of the Soviet Union the typical musical style of Baptists in Russia and other Commonwealth of Independent States countries has been the gospel song accompanied by piano or organ and occasionally guitar; but the churches generally rejected rock-based music and the use of instruments such as saxophones and drums because they were considered to be inappropriate to the seriousness of worship. However, as contact with English-speaking Baptists has increased, Russian Baptist youth have discovered Christian rock, some of which is likely to make its way eventually into the churches.
Baptist church music, §3: Other countries
Baptists in Australia have typically relied upon British Baptist hymnals such as the Baptist Church Hymnal: Revised Edition (1933) and Baptist Hymn Book (1962). I.D. Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos was widely used, especially for the more informal evening services. Donald Crowhurst published an Australian Hymnal in 1967 which continues to be widely used in the churches. Australian Baptist congregations of the late 20th century have been greatly influenced by musical practices in Britain and America, and their music ranges from vested choirs singing traditional Western choral music with organ/piano accompaniment to pop ensembles leading charismatic-style choruses.
Baptist church music, §3: Other countries
H.S. Burrage: Baptist Hymn Writers and their Hymns (Portland, ME, 1888)
J. Julian: A Dictionary of Hymnology (London, 1892, 2/1907/R)
L.F. Benson: The English Hymn: its Development and Use in Worship (New York, 1915/R)
R.E. Keighton: ‘Baptist Hymnody’, The Chronicle, x (1947), 75–86, 97–102
W.J. Reynolds: A Survey of Christian Hymnody (New York, 1963, rev. 4/1999 by D.W. Music and M. Price)
H. Eskew and H.T. McElrath: Sing with Understanding (Nashville, TN, 1980, 2/1995)
A.W. Wardin, ed.: Baptists Around the World: a Comprehensive Handbook (Nashville, TN, 1995)
T. Crosby: The History of the English Baptists (London, 1740/R), iii, 266–71; iv, 298–301
J.J. Goadby: Bye-Paths in Baptist History (London, 1871/R), 317–49
J.S. Curwen: Studies in Worship Music (First Series) (London, 1880, 2/1888), 93–107, 426–30
W.T. Whitley, ed.: Minutes of the General Assembly of the General Baptist Churches in England (London, 1909–10), i, 27; ii, 18
A. Buckley: ‘The Deighn Layrocks’, Baptist Quarterly, iv (1928–9), 43–8
L.F. Benson: The Hymns of John Bunyan (New York, 1930)
F.W. Beckwith: ‘The Early Church at Leeds’, Baptist Quarterly, vi (1932–3), 116–24
W.T. Whitley: Congregational Hymn-Singing (London, 1933), 119–30
C. Bonner and W.T. Whitley, eds.: A Handbook to the Baptist Church Hymnal Revised (London, 1935)
O.A. Mansfield: ‘Rippon's Tunes’, Baptist Quarterly, viii (1936–7), 36–43
C. Bonner: Some Baptist Hymnists from the Seventeenth Century to Modern Times (London, 1937)
A.A. Reid: ‘The Tercentenary of Benjamin Keach, Baptist Preacher, London, England. I: Benjamin Keach, 1640’, The Chronicle, iii (1940), 147–60
G.W. Hughes: ‘The Tercentenary of Benjamin Keach, Baptist Preacher, London, England, II: He Taught us to Sing: the Story of Benjamin Keach’, The Chronicle, iii (1940), 160–63
C.B. Jewson: ‘St Mary's, Norwich. IV: The Church Takes Root, 1743–1788’, Baptist Quarterly, x (1941), 282–8
S.J. Price: ‘Maze Pond and the Matterhorn’, Baptist Quarterly, x (1941), 202–8
W.T. Whitley: ‘The First Hymnbook in Use’, Baptist Quarterly, x (1941), 369–75
W.T. Whitley: ‘The Tune Book of 1791’, Baptist Quarterly, x (1941), 434–43
H. Martin, ed.: A Companion to the Baptist Church Hymnal [Revised Edition] (London, 1953)
J.O. Barrett: ‘Hymns among the Baptists’, Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland Bulletin, iii (1954), 164–6
H. Wamble: ‘Benjamin Keach, Churchman’, Quarterly Review: a Survey of Southern Baptist Progress, xvi/2 (1956), 47–53
E.A. Payne: ‘Thomas Tillam’, Baptist Quarterly, xvii (1957), 61–6
R.H. Young: The History of Baptist Hymnody in England from 1612 to 1800 (diss., U. of S. California, 1959)
E.P. Winter: ‘The Administration of the Lord's Supper among the Baptists of the Seventeenth Century’, Baptist Quarterly, xviii (1960), 196–204
H. Martin: ‘The Baptist Contribution to Early English Hymnody’, Baptist Quarterly, xix (1962), 195–208
I. Mallard: ‘The Hymns of Katherine Sutton’, Baptist Quarterly, xx (1963), 23–33
H. Martin: ‘Daniel Sedgwick: a Baptist Pioneer of Hymnology’, Baptist Quarterly, xx (1964), 362–4
C.E. Spann: The Seventeenth Century English Baptist Controversy Concerning Singing (thesis, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX, 1965)
R.W. Thomson: ‘Anne Steele, 1716–1778’, Baptist Quarterly, xxi (1966), 368–71
K.R. Manley: John Rippon, D.D. (1751–1836) and the Particular Baptists (diss., Regents' Park College, London, 1967)
H. Martin, ed.: The Baptist Hymn Book Companion (London, 1962, rev. 2/1967 by R.W. Thomson)
H. Martin: ‘Benjamin Keach (1640–1704): Pioneer of Congregational Hymn Singing’, Church Musician, xviii/6 (1967), 8–11; xviii/7 (1967), 8–11
F.M.W. Harrison: ‘The Nottinghamshire Baptists: Mission, Worship & Training’, Baptist Quarterly, xxv (1974), 309–28
R.W. Thomson: ‘The Psalms and Hymns Trust and Praise for Today’, Baptist Quarterly, xxv (1974), 380–83
D.W. Music: ‘Psalmody and Hymnody in the Broadmead Baptist Church of Bristol, England’, Quarterly Review: a Survey of Southern Baptist Progress, xxxvii/4 (1976), 66–71
S.J. Rogal: ‘John Bunyan and English Congregational Song’, The Hymn, xxviii (1977), 118–25
E. Sharpe: ‘Bristol Baptist College and the Church's Hymnody’, Baptist Quarterly, xxviii (1979), 7–16
D.W. Music: ‘The Hymns of Benjamin Keach: an Introductory Study’, The Hymn, xxxiv (1983), 147–54
D.W. Music: ‘Congregational Singing in English Baptist Churches of the Seventeenth Century’, Quarterly Review: a Survey of Southern Baptist Progress, l/1 (1990), 72–8
D.W. Music: ‘John Bunyan and Baptist Hymnody’, Baptist History and Heritage, xxvii/2 (1992), 3–11
N. Clark: ‘Baptist Praise and Worship’, Baptist Quarterly, xxxv (1993), 95–100
J.H.Y. Briggs: The English Baptists of the Nineteenth Century (Didcot, 1994), 35–42
P. Westermeyer: ‘The Breach Repair'd’, The Hymn, xlvii/1 (1996), 10–16
M. Edwards: ‘History of the Baptists in Delaware’, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, ix (1885), 52
J.F. Sachse: The Music of the Ephrata Cloister (Lancaster, PA, 1903/R)
A.L. Stevenson: The Story of Southern Hymnology (Salem, VA, 1931/R), 1–15
G.P. Jackson: White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands (Chapel Hill, NC, 1933/R)
H.W. Foote: Three Centuries of American Hymnody (Cambridge, MA, 1940/R)
G.P. Jackson: White and Negro Spirituals (New York, 1943/R)
W. Dinneen: Music at the Meeting House, 1775–1958 (Providence, RI, 1958)
W.L. Hooper: Church Music in Transition (Nashville, TN, 1963), 102–34
‘Our Baptist Heritage in Church Music’, Church Musician, xiv/10 (1963), 14
H. Eskew: ‘Hymnody of our Forefathers’, Church Musician, xv/5 (1964), 5–8
H. Eskew: ‘Music of our Forefathers’, Church Musician, xv/6 (1964), 16–19
W.J. Reynolds: Hymns of our Faith: a Handbook for the Baptist Hymnal (Nashville, TN, 1964, 2/1967)
H. Eskew: ‘Music in the Baptist Tradition’, Review and Expositor, lxix (1972), 161–75
W.H. Tallmadge: ‘Baptist Monophonic and Heterophonic Hymnody in Southern Appalachia’, Yearbook for Inter-American Musical Research, xi (1975), 106–36
W.J. Reynolds: ‘Our Heritage of Baptist Hymnody in America’, Baptist History and Heritage, xi (1976), 204–17
W.J. Reynolds: Companion to Baptist Hymnal (Nashville, TN, 1976)
P.D. Hartman: ‘The Hymn Tradition of the Primitive Baptists’, Music Ministry, x/3 (1977), 2–5, 27
C.D. Duncan: A Historical Survey of the Development of the Black Baptist Church in the United States and a Study of Performance Practices Associated with Dr. Watts Hymn Singing: a Source Book for Teachers (diss., Washington U., 1979)
D.W. Music: ‘The Introduction of Musical Instruments into Baptist Churches in America’, Quarterly Review: a Survey of Southern Baptist Progress, xl/4 (1979), 55–62
H.T. McElrath: ‘Hymnody among Southern Baptists’, American Organist, xiv/5 (1980), 19
E.M. Huntley: ‘Hymnody in the National Baptist Convention’, American Organist, xiv/11 (1980), 20
B. Sutton: ‘Shape-Note Tune Books and Primitive Hymns’, EthM, xxvi (1982), 11–26
C.R. Brewster: The Cluster of Jesse Mercer (Macon, GA, 1983)
‘Church Music in Baptist History’, Baptist History and Heritage, xix/1 (1984) [complete issue]
I.H. Murrell: An Examination of Southern Ante-Bellum Baptist Hymnals and Tunebooks as Indicators of the Congregational Hymn and Tune Repertories of the Period with an Analysis of Representative Tunes (diss., New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 1984)
J.T. Titon: ‘Stance, Role, and Identity in Fieldwork among Folk Baptists and Pentecostals’, American Music, iii/1 (1985), 16–24
D.C. Measels: A Catalog of Source Readings in Southern Baptist Music: 1828–1890 (diss., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY, 1986)
Y. Robinson: The Ephrata Cloister and the Lititz Moravian Settlement, 1732–1820, and a Comparative Study of their Musical Cultures (diss., Juilliard School of Music, New York, 1986)
J.D. Baklanoff: ‘The Celebration of a Feast: Music, Dance, and Possession Trance in the Black Primitive Baptist Footwashing Ritual’, EthM, xxxi (1987), 381–94
D.W. Music: ‘Early Baptist Composers and Tunebooks in America’, Quarterly Review: a Survey of Southern Baptist Progress, xlvii/1 (1987), 68–75
J. Beckwith: ‘Tunebooks and Hymnals in Canada, 1801–1939’, American Music, vi (1988), 193–234
J.T. Titon: Powerhouse for God: Speech, Chant, and Song in an Appalachian Baptist Church (Austin, TX, 1988)
R.P. Drummond: A Portion for the Singers: a History of Music among Primitive Baptists since 1800 (Atwood, TN, 1989)
P.G.A. Griffin-Allwood, G.A. Rawlyk, and J.K. Zeman: Baptists in Canada, 1760–1990: a Bibliography of Selected Printed Resources in English (Hantsport, NS, 1989), 208–11
T.J. Studstill: The Life of Robert H. Coleman and his Influence on Southern Baptist Hymnody (diss., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX, 1991)
R.W. Rose: The Psalmist: a Significant Hymnal for Baptists in America during the Nineteenth Century (diss., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX, 1991)
J.V. Adams, ed.: Handbook to The Baptist Hymnal (Nashville, TN, 1992)
J.M. Spencer: Black Hymnody: a Hymnological History of the African-American Church (Knoxville, TN, 1992), 74–97
‘Shaping Influences on Baptist Church Music’, Baptist History and Heritage, xxvii/2 (1992) [complete issue]
H. Eskew, D.W. Music and P.A. Richardson: Singing Baptists: Studies in Baptist Hymnody in America (Nashville, TN, 1994)
B.B. Patterson: The Sound of the Dove: Singing in Appalachian Primitive Baptist Churches (Urbana, IL, 1995)
L.G. Davenport: Divine Song on the Northeast Frontier: Maine's Sacred Tunebooks, 1800–1830 (Lanham, MD, 1996), 110–11, 115–17, 124
H. Eskew: ‘Music in a Mexican Baptist Church’, Church Musician, xiv/9 (1963), 12–13
K.G. Greenlaw: Traditions of Protestant Hymnody and the Use of Music in the Methodist and Baptist Churches of Mexico (diss., U. of S. California, 1967)
J. Nordenhaug: ‘A Visit with Russian Baptists’, Baptist World, xiv/2 (1967), 4–6
M.F. Ellerbe: The Music Missionary of the Southern Baptist Convention: his Preparation and his Work (diss., Catholic U. of America, Washington DC, 1970)
T.W. Hunt: ‘Music in Missions’, Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists, iii (Nashville, TN, 1971), 1859–60; iv (1982), 2361–2
N. Corbitt: The History and Development of Music Used in the Baptist Churches on the Coast of Kenya: the Development of an Indigenous Church Music 1953–1984 (diss., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX, 1985)
I.L. de Paula: Early Hymnody in Brazilian Baptist Churches: its Sources and Development (diss., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX, 1985)
J.H. Barker: The Use of Indigenous Chinese Hymnody in Baptist Churches of Taiwan (diss., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, 1992)
A.W. Barrett: A Study of the Choral Music Tradition in Hungarian Baptist Churches (diss., U. of Iowa, 1992)
C.E. Spann: ‘A Tale of Two Hymnals: the Brazilian Baptist Cantor cristão (1891) and Hinário para o culto cristão (1991)’, The Hymn, xliii/4 (1992), 15–21
P.W. Blycker: A Critical Analysis of Selected Spanish-Language Hymnals Used by Evangelical Churches in Mesoamerica, 1952–1992 (diss., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX, 1997)