Amazing Grace

Much has been written about the amazing origins of the hymn, "Amazing Grace", which was written by John Newton, a prominent 18th century slave ship captain turned clergyman. However, I thought the musical composition that the words were eventually put to required some attention too. Its mysterious origin and its growth in popularity over four thousand miles from where it was written, is truly amazing.

Hymns were often distributed as text only publications in the 19th century, meant to supplement sermons which usually followed a thematic calendar different denominations. It allowed congregations the freedom to adapt lyrics to tunes of their choosing. This is why many hymns share the same melody.

Amazing Grace was first printed in Olney Hymns in Three Books, a collection of hymns published in London in 1779. The publication was named after Olney, a town in England, where Newton was a minister. It was a small town populated by necessitous families. Newton wrote his hymns to connect to and be appreciated by the common man. It soon appeared in other hymnals across England, but it found a special place on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

By the year 1793, it had made its way into most major hymnals all over America. Its interdenominational appeal caused its popularity to rise rapidly during the Great Awakening of the 1820's and 1830's, a widespread religious movement. Another stanza was later added to Newton's original poem and eventually set to a melody which is the one we associate the hymn with today.

The original authorship of the melody is unknown. The first known instance of Newton's lines being put to a melody was in A Companion to the Countess of Huntingdon's Hymns, a songbook published in London in 1808 where it was set to the tune "Hephzibah" by English composer John Husband. An evangelist named William Walker made refinements to an amalgamation of two melodies, Gallaher and St. Mary, and then adapted Newton's text to it. He called this new melody "New Britain", and in 1835, included it in his widely used songbook, Southern Harmony. This songbook went on to sell over six hundred thousand copies and by the end of the Civil War in 1865, Amazing Grace had attained the anthem-like status it holds today.