BOURBON
A pentatonic (five-pitch) folk tune from the southern United States, BOURBON fits well with the penitential text of Psalm 38. The tune calls for unison singing, with accompani ment providing a firmly articulated rhythm. Like many pentatonic tunes, when unac companied it can be sung in canon after either one or two measures. Included in Columbian Harmony (1825), BOURBON was credited there to Freeman Lewis (1780-1859) and set to “’Twas on that Dark and Doleful Night,” a text often attributed to Isaac Watts. The tune appeared in several other nineteenth-century songbooks, among them Hauser’s Hesperian Harp (1848). The tune title presumably refers to the aristocratic French family whose descendents included Henry IV, Phillip V, and Charles III, and after which a Kentucky county is named. The harmonization (1958) is by Louise McAllister (b. Louisville, KY 1913; d. Richmond, VA, 1960). She spent her childhood in Louisville, where her father was a professor at Louisville Prebsyterian Theological Seminary. In 1925, when her father began teaching at Union Theological Seminary, she moved to Richmond, Virginia, and lived there the rest of her life. A pianist, composer, teacher, and writer, McAllister attended the Collegiate School in Richmond, Virginia, and Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, Virginia. She published many piano compositions and harmonizations of folk-hymn melodies. 167 THE PSALMS, BIBLE SONGS, AND HYMNS Liturgical Use: Serves well as a confession of sin, but may also be used in the context of sickness or other humbling circumstances—whenever God’s people want to cry out, “Come quickly to help me, O Lord, my Savior.”
Stanza Arc
The narrative or theological arc traced by this tune's stanzas: Human vulnerability (L) met by God's protective providence and eternal watchfulness (G), calling for trust and gratitude