Restoring the Emma Smith Hymnal: Not Creating a Museum Piece

One of the questions I expect to hear from time to time is this:

"Why did you choose that tune?"

Sometimes the question will be even more pointed:

"Why didn't you use the original tune?"

They're fair questions.

When I began restoring the hymns of Emma Smith's 1835 hymnal, I assumed that finding the music would be the straightforward part of the project. Surely there would be a definitive list of original tunes, and all we would need to do would be match them to the texts.

I quickly discovered that history is rarely that simple.

Some hymns had well-established historical pairings. Others appeared with different tune names in different sources. Sometimes the same tune appeared under several names. Occasionally, no reliable historical pairing could be found at all.

There were even times when I traced a tune through multiple nineteenth-century tune books only to discover that it wasn't published until years—or even decades—after the Emma Smith hymnal. Although those melodies might have been beautiful, they simply didn't belong in an 1835 restoration. Who knew the same tune name could be used for several different melodies spanning a century? I didn't!

Very early in the project, I realized I needed something more than preferences.

I needed principles to weigh each decision by.

Restoring the Emma Smith Hymnal Began with Five Principles

1. Faithfulness to Emma Smith's Chosen Text

The words always came first. Every melody was chosen to support the meaning, emotion, and natural rhythm of the text. A hymn is first and foremost a testimony. The music should illuminate the message, never compete with it. I also stayed true to the spelling (even some strange ones). The purpose was to preserve Emma's work and make it singable to us now.

2. Historical Compatibility

Whenever possible, I selected tunes that were genuinely available during the early years of the Restoration. The musical world of the 1830s was wonderfully diverse. American collections such as Missouri Harmony and Southern Harmony were widely used throughout the frontier. At the same time, converts from Great Britain gradually brought new hymn traditions and more refined Victorian musical styles into the Church.

Rather than treating early Restoration music as though it belonged to a single tradition, I wanted the hymnal to reflect the rich variety of music that early Saints may actually have sung.

At the same time, I tried very hard not to pair an 1835 text with a tune that first appeared in 1845, 1855, or 1895 simply because it later became popular. If I knew a tune would not have been available to the Saints in 1835, I generally looked elsewhere.

3. Congregational Singability

Yes... I may have invented the word singability.

But I think it expresses something important.

Emma Smith's hymnal was never intended to become a museum artifact.

It was created to be sung.

These hymns were written for ordinary believers gathered in homes, schools, meetinghouses, and small branches—not professional choirs.

Whenever possible, I selected melodies that modern congregations could learn and sing with confidence while still preserving the spirit of early Restoration worship.

Because a hymnal that sits on a shelf has failed its purpose.

4. No Duplicate Tunes

Early hymnals often reused the same melody for several different texts. While that practice certainly has historical precedent, I chose, whenever practical, to give each hymn its own musical identity.

This not only enriches congregational worship but also introduces modern singers to the remarkable variety of early American sacred music.

5. Honoring the Diversity of Early Worship

One of the greatest joys of this project has been discovering just how rich and varied sacred music was during the early nineteenth century.

There was no single "Restoration sound."

The Saints sang folk hymns, frontier melodies, shape-note music, psalm tunes, revival songs, and increasingly, the more polished hymnody brought by converts from England.

My goal was not to favor one tradition over another, but to allow the hymnal itself to reflect the vibrant musical landscape of its own day.

Why I Sometimes Wrote a New Tune

Perhaps the most surprising decision made was this:

Occasionally, I chose to compose a new melody.

That decision was never made lightly.

In every case, I first searched for an appropriate historical tune. Sometimes I found several possibilities. Sometimes I found none that truly served the text. Sometimes all that I could find was a shape note tune that just didn't sit well with today's musical tendencies and preferences. These are difficult to read and sing for inexperienced groups. These were always sung acapella. I did include some of these, though.

There were occasions when the surviving melodies felt awkward with the poetry.

Sometimes the historical evidence was simply too uncertain. At other times, no suitable tune from the period could be identified or quite frankly -- would work with the meter.

When that happened, I faced a choice.

Should I force a melody onto the text simply because it was old? Or should I compose a melody that honored the words and allowed today's congregations to sing them naturally?

Again and again, I found myself returning to the same conviction:

The text deserved to be heard.

The newly composed melodies in this volume are not attempts to replace history.

They are offered only when history leaves us without a satisfying answer and only after careful research into the musical language of the period. My hope was to write melodies that feel at home beside the historic tunes rather than drawing attention to themselves.

Therefore, there are some hymns that have a shape note tune as well as an original tune. Hopefully this will add to the hymnal, not detract from it.

A Living Emma Smith Hymnal

My purpose has never been to recreate a museum exhibit. My purpose has been to restore a hymnal.

The early Saints didn't collect hymns to admire them. They sang them. In my research I found that they sang so enthusiastically that you could hear them from a half mile away! Singing was deeply rooted in their worship.

They learned doctrine through them.

They comforted one another with them.

They taught their children with them.

They worshipped Christ through them.

If this restoration succeeds, it will not be because every editorial decision satisfies every scholar.

It will be because families gather around a piano, congregations lift their voices together, children learn these hymns by heart, and once again these sacred words become part of the worship of God's people.

That has always been the goal.

What I Learned

Pairing words to tunes to try and recreate what they had in 1835 has been difficult. We are nearly 200 years later. I have grown to admire and respect Emma in a way I didn't know possible. I always thought highly of her. Doing this project has deepened my appreciation for her life, the sacrifices she made, and what she accomplished without a computer to help her.

Every hymn in this collection has a story. Some stories begin with a forgotten tune book. Others begin with a faded attribution in a nineteenth-century hymnal. Still others begin with a question that took days—or even weeks—to answer. But, every song Emma chose was for a purpose. She wanted people to immerse their lives in music that meant something.

I hope you'll join me here from time to time as I share some of those discoveries. The journey of restoring these hymns has been filled with surprises, and I'd love to bring you along for the adventure.