BETHANY
BETHANY, named after the village near Jerusalem, is a suitably dramatic tune for the song text. It was composed by Henry Smart (b. Marylebone, London, England, 1813; d. Hampstead, London, 1879), a capable composer of church music who wrote some very fine hymn tunes (REGENT SQUARE, 354, is the best-known). He originally com posed BETHANYfor the text Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken”; it was first published in Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867). Though Smart favored unison singing, which works well, especially with all the stops pulled out and the tempo increased on stanza 2, the harmonization is quite accessible to part singing. (Note: this BETHANY should not be confused with one composed by Lowell Mason in 1856 and first pub lished as a setting for “Nearer, My God, to Thee.”) Smart gave up a career in the legal profession for one in music. Although largely selftaught, he became proficient in organ playing and composition, and he was a music teacher and critic. Organist in a number of London churches, including St. Luke’s, Old Street (1844-1864), and St. Pancras (1864-1869), Smart was famous for his extemporiza tions and for his accompaniment of congregational singing. He became completely blind at the age of fifty-two, but his remarkable memory enabled him to continue playing the organ. Fascinated by organs as a youth, Smart designed organs for impor tant places such as St. Andrew Hall in Glasgow and the Town Hall in Leeds. He com posed an opera, oratorios, part-song
Stanza Arc
The narrative or theological arc traced by this tune's stanzas: Progressive surrender to divine love: rest in God's embrace, yield earthly light, accept joy through suffering, embrace redemptive death leading to resurrection life