“With Wondering Awe” is a Christmas carol unique to the Latter-day Saint hymnal; but it is not of Latter-day Saint origin, and its author and composer have remained a mystery. The current hymnal indicates both words and music are anonymous, from Laudis Corona, a Catholic collection published at Boston in 1885. This attribution is somewhat puzzling, for as Karen Lynn Davidson notes in Our Latter-day Hymns, members of the General Music Committee were aware that this hymn had appeared earlier in the Deseret Sunday School Union Music Book (1884). It was also published in the December 15, 1883 issue of the Juvenile Instructor.
In searching for the origins of “With Wondering Awe,” members of the Music Committee apparently failed to investigate the contents of Laudis Corona. Clues suggesting an earlier publication date are scattered throughout the book, from the preface dated June 4, 1880, to the “Index by Numbers,” which hints at the existence of an earlier “smaller hymn book.” As it turns out, Laudis Corona was first published in New York City in 1880. The 1885 edition, published concurrently in Boston and New York, is a later reprint of the same book.
But this 1880 edition of Laudis Corona is actually an enlarged revision of a previously published collection, The New Sunday-School Hymn-Book (1879), hence the two numbers printed on each hymn: the larger number at the top left hand corner of each page is the page number in Laudis Corona, while the smaller number in parenthesis underneath the title refers to the hymn’s number in The New Sunday School Hymn-Book.
Ultimately, none of this matters because earlier sources for both the words and music have been found. One of these even includes author and composer names.
“With Wondering Awe” was first published, both words and music, in the December 1877 issue of the popular children’s magazine St. Nicholas, at the conclusion of a short play entitled “The Minstrel’s Carol: A Christmas Colloquy.” It was later printed on December 24, 1877, in the York Daily, a newspaper published at York, Pennsylvania. Here, the words are ascribed to L. V. Blake, and the music to William K. Bassford.
“With Wondering Awe” in the York Daily
The source from which this Christmas carol was borrowed, according to the York Daily, is “St. Nicholas for December.” But no author or composer names are given in St. Nicholas, and it is therefore not known from what source or by what means the above names were obtained; perhaps one of these men sent this song to the Pennsylvania newspaper himself.
The name L. V. Blake may have also come from the index to the fifth volume of St. Nicholas, in which “The Minstrel’s Carol” is credited to I. V. Blake (rather than L. V. Blake, as printed in the York Daily). This would suggest that the author of the play may have also written the words to the song included therein.
No information can be found concerning a nineteenth-century writer named either I. V. Blake or L. V. Blake. But perhaps both of these spellings are incorrect; the search for either name instead finds a hymnist named J. V. Blake.
James Vila Blake (1842-1925) was a well-known Unitarian minister from Chicago, and a published poet. So far, however, the only only evidence connecting James Vila Blake with “With Wondering Awe” is circumstantial: in the January 28, 1888 issue of Unity: Freedom, Fellowship and Character in Religion, a Unitarian periodical of which Blake was associate editor, an advertisement listing “Other Sunday School Helps For Sale” is printed, and among the items listed are some pamphlets written by J. V. Blake, and a play entitled The Minstrel’s Carol. A Short Christmas Drama. No author’s name is given for this play, however, and it is not known if this is the same play that was published years earlier in St. Nicholas.
The origin of William Bassford’s name in connection with “With Wondering Awe” is even more of a mystery. His name is nowhere to be found in the December 1877 issue of St. Nicholas.
William Kipp Bassford (1839-1902) was an American composer and organist from New York City. He is known to have composed a number of musical pieces expressly for children, and one of these, “Can a Little Child like Me,” was published in St. Nicholas in November 1877, only one month before the first appearance of “With Wondering Awe.”
Despite the uncertainty regarding the source for these names, there seems little reason to doubt these attributions, especially considering the close proximity of the original publication date of “With Wondering Awe” in St. Nicholas, to its republication date in the York Daily.
Notes:
*In the original, the last stanza of this hymn reads:
….The heavenly star
….Its rays afar
On every land is throwing
…And shall not cease
…Till holy peace
In all the earth is glowing.
….Hosanna, hosanna,
….Hosanna to His name!
The line “In all the earth is glowing” was later changed to “In all the earth is growing.” This change evidently occurred sometime after 1909, because the original line appears in early printings of Deseret Sunday School Songs (1909), while later printings give the altered line. It is not known whether or not this change was intentional, but “glowing” may have been changed to “growing” in order to more closely rhyme with “throwing.” In any case, “Till holy peace peace / In all the earth is glowing” presents a completely different picture than “Till holy peace / In all the earth is growing.” It is my hope this line will be changed back to the original in the next edition of the Latter-day Saint hymnal.
*When preparing the 1985 hymnal, the tune for “With Wondering Awe” was named LAUDIS CORONA by the General Music Committee. This is surprising, considering that at least some of the committee members were aware that the Catholic hymnbook Laudis Corona was not the original source for this hymn. Now that earlier non-Latter-day Saint sources for this hymn have been discovered, it will be necessary to rename this tune before the next edition of the hymnal is published.
*Willam Bassford’s song “Can a Little Child like Me,” with words by St. Nicholas editor Mary Mapes Dodge, was published in St. Nicholas in November 1877, and is included in the current Latter-day Saint Children’s Songbook. (page 9)
*James Vila Blake’s personal papers, including hundreds of unpublished poems, are housed at the archives of Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago. Unfortunately, as of November 2018, there is no finding aid, and the items in this collection are uncatalogued. According to John Leeker, Associate Director of Library and Archives, most of the items in this collection are post 1890. A future visit to this library may be the only way to find out whether or not it includes any information concerning either “With Wondering Awe” or “The Minstrel’s Carol.”
*Shortly after completing the first draft of this post I came across the following blog post concerning “With Wondering Awe”:
http://www.keepapitchinin.org/2015/12/15/with-wondering-awe/
The author of this post, Annie Tanner Thiriot, mentions the discovery of an advertisement in the London Musical Times for the sheet music to a song then recently published (1885), with the title “With Wondering Awe,” and “Written by F. E. Weatherly. Composed by Wells Ingram.” After searching through various online sources and finding another reference to this song, but without actually seeing the sheet music to verify that the words and music are the same as found in the Latter-day Saint hymnal, Thiriot concluded that the author of this text was Fred E. Weatherly (1848-1929), a songwriter best known for “Danny Boy” and “The Holy City,” and that the music was written by George Wells Ingram (1829-1875), a well-respected musician about whom little is known today. She does, however, include in her post the following caveat: “Perhaps the only way to make a final, 100% watertight attribution would be to visit the British Library and view the copy there since it is not available through their digital ordering service.”
After contacting the British Library and discovering that the words on the sheet music are the same as those found in the Latter-day Saint hymnal, I ordered a copy of the sheet music. What I found, however, was that although the advertisements for the song credit the words to Weatherly, he is not listed as their author on the sheet music. At the top of the first page where the author’s name would appear is a note that indicates the words were merely borrowed from a book edited by Weatherly. This note reads: “The Words from ‘The Children’s Illustrated Birthday Book’ Edited by F. E. Weatherley.”
“With wondering awe” (words only) is included in the first edition of The Illustrated Children’s Birthday-Book, published in London in 1880. On the title page, directly underneath the title, is written: “Edited, and in part written by F. E. Weatherly.” However, at the end of the book is printed the following notice: “Many of the foregoing Verses and Pictures have been selected from the pages of “S. NICHOLAS,” an American Magazine, Edited by Mrs. Mapes Dodge, and full of charming pictures and stories for children.”
It is clear, therefore, that Weatherly merely borrowed these words from the pages of St. Nicholas; he did not write them himself.
The melody is not the one found in the Latter-day Saint hymnal, and was probably composed by Charles Wells Ingram (not George Wells Ingram, who died in 1875), a composer about whom nothing is known. The British Library holds the sheet music for five of his songs, all published in 1885.
Sources:
Karen Lynn Davidson, Our Latter-day Saint Hymns: The Stories and the Messages (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1988), 222; The New Sunday-School Hymn-Book. Containing a Collection of Catholic Hymns Arranged for the Principal Seasons and Festivals of the Year (New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co., 1879), 28-29; Laudis Corona: The New Sunday School Hymn Book, Containing a Collection of Catholic Hymns, Arranged for the Principal Seasons and Festivals of the Year (New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co., 1880), 44; Laudis Corona: The New Sunday School Hymn Book, Containing a Collection of Catholic Hymns, Arranged for the Principal Seasons and Festivals of the Year (New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co., 1885), 44; Laudis Corona: The New Sunday School Hymn Book, Containing a Collection of Catholic Hymns, Arranged for the Principal Seasons and Festivals of the Year (Boston: Oliver Ditson & Co., 1885), 44; I. V. Blake, “The Minstrel’s Carol: A Christmas Colloquy,” St. Nicholas, December 1877, 155; “A Christmas Carol,” York (Pennsylvania) Daily, December 24, 1877, [3]; “Other Sunday School Helps For Sale,” Unity: Freedom, Fellowship and Character in Religion, January 28, 1888, 272.
Latter-day Saint Hymnology 