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'Joyfully Our Voice We Raise' |
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Click here to listen to the entire song 'Joyfully Our Voice We Raise'
Joyfully our voice we raise O holy Joseph, hear our prayer, Hearken to our hymns of praise And take us to your special care. Gratefully we bring to thee Our tribute sweet of thanks and love. Graciously vouchsafe to be Our guide secure to realms above.
Refrain: Hail! Hail! Hail! Holy Joseph hail! Bend from thy throne and bless our tranquil vale.
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Pioneer BVM composers. Who are they, our music mentors from the past? When, where and why did they compose? What was the fire that burned within them so they became, without planning it, the living stones on which their younger Sisters could build? The search for answers has been an adventure. What follows is a sketch of music composition during the community’s pioneer years in America from 1843 to 1860, after the growing community of 19 left all they had begun in Philadelphia to help build the church in the Iowa Territory. The search begins in Dubuque in the BVM Archives at Mount Carmel. Fifteen large file boxes preserve manuscripts and published music of 30 BVMs, living and deceased—hundreds of pieces of music, many yellowed with age, dozens of duplicates, items with no composer’s name, copies and arrangements of older music, copies of copies, and a few original manuscripts. Religious music predominates, but there are also string quartets, piano solos, ensemble music, cantatas, rhythm band music and other “secular” music. There are even a few songs that “swing.” This is an eclectic collection, fascinating but daunting—there is so much music! And a complex question arises—Who can be called a BVM composer? Besides being a BVM, what else is required before someone can be named to this seemingly elite group? There is no easy answer. But criteria are needed, so this working description has been devised as a guide. A BVM composer is (1) a BVM (2) who has created at least two pieces of new music, with or without a text, (3) for instrument(s) or voice(s), with or without accompaniment, (4) which has been performed or listened to repeatedly over a period of time (at least five years), and (5) which may or not be copyrighted and commercially published. The first BVM who meets these criteria is Joseph O’Reilly (1816-1887), the eleventh member of the community. The second is Mary Editha Flannagan (1858-1939). There is such a difference between Joseph’s output and Editha’s (more than 600 pieces!) that it seems best to focus on Joseph as the first identifiable BVM composer, and examine her works and the circumstances in which she composed them.
Philadelphia was a cultural mecca. In this stimulating environment Frances and Eliza O’Reilly studied music. Frances (Francis #9) was 17 in 1839 when she became the ninth member of the community. The next year Eliza, then 24, joined her, and on St. Joseph’s Day, 1841, she received her religious name, Joseph (#11). It is easy to imagine that there was plenty of music in the Philadelphia convent after the two O’Reillys came, and that not all of it was religious. Both Sisters taught music at Sacred Heart Academy. When the decision was made to leave Philadelphia for the Iowa frontier, Joseph and Francis went with the first group of five. They reached Dubuque in June 1843. One month later St. Mary’s Academy opened, and the two again taught music. Two years later Francis died. Dubuque was not Philadelphia, but life was exciting as well as rough in the frontier town. Lead mining had attracted a motley crowd of hopefuls, some unschooled, some Harvard graduates. Singing school sessions, a library, a school for young ladies, a newspaper, a theater—all were operative when the Sisters arrived. After a number of women joined the community and more boarders wanted to attend the Sisters’ school, a real Motherhouse and a larger Academy were needed. St. Joseph’s Prairie, eight miles from Dubuque, was chosen for the expansion site, and Joseph moved there with the first group. Breaking sod, growing food for the table, caring for livestock as well as the students—and teaching—all had to be done. The Sisters were busy. At first only piano lessons were offered for an extra fee. Then guitar, melodeon (reed organ) and harp were added. The music department changed with the times. Not until 1859 did Joseph leave the Prairie. Except for a few interludes, Joseph was superior and principal at St. Paul’s, Burlington and St. Agatha’s, Iowa City. In 1881 she returned to her beloved Prairie, and died there six years later, seven months before Mother Clarke.
Both had lived
to see the small circle of friends in Philadelphia become a thriving
religious community teaching thousands of young people from Chicago to
California. It must have been a dizzying sight.
The Music
Although unknown outside the BVM congregation, these three pieces have been sung, copied and re-copied for many years. Joseph also wrote music for Reception ceremonies, an undetermined number of hymn texts, and other poetry. “Star-crowned Virgin” is sometimes attributed to Joseph. Apparently she did not write it; the hymn was published in 1905 by C.F. Summy Company, Chicago. The music is by Marcella Reilly; the words came from The Catholic News. Two hymn texts, without music, were definitely written by Joseph. The refrain of “Evening Hymn to Mary”—“Bright Star of the Prairie, Look down on the wild,/O bend to St. Joseph’s, And list to thy child.”—suggests it was written while Joseph was living at the Prairie. The other hymn, “Sunbeam of Heaven,” was written two years before Joseph’s death. Flannagan, who knew Joseph, copied the words into one of her own notebooks with a notation: “Her last composition ’85.” The last four lines refer to the anti-clerical movements confronting Leo XIII in Italy and elsewhere. “Bid all troubles to cease In the Church, and instead / Send the Angel of Peace To her dear holy head.”
First
Performances The Motherhouse community had waited all day for the official announcement. They were finishing Vespers when Fathers Trevis and Laurent, friends of Father Donaghoe and the Sisters, rushed in through the chapel’s back door and told the Sister at the organ they had just received word from Rome. She sent someone to ask Donaghoe if the community should sing the Te Deum. He was puzzled by the request, but agreed. When the visitors gave him the great news, he joyfully proclaimed it to all present, “the organ pealed,” and they sang the Te Deum with “great rejoicing.” That evening everyone gathered in the community room where Mary’s statue had been decorated and surrounded by lights. All sang the Magnificat, and Donaghoe spoke. Then the Sisters sang the new hymn which Joseph had composed for the occasion: “Hail, Star of the Morning.” Joseph wrote the hymn so that anyone who could sing would have been able to join in by the end of the first stanza. One can imagine the fervor and emotion by end of the fourth stanza!
Bishop Loras
was in Iowa City that day, but he heard about the celebration and wrote
Donaghoe: A pencilled notation in the Archives indicates 1859 as the year of composition for “Hymn to St. Joseph—Joyfully Our Voice We Raise.” Perhaps Joseph composed it before she left the Prairie in July 1859, for two lines seem to refer to that spot: “Bend from thy throne and bless our tranquil vale” and “Cherish with thy charity her children in the far, far West.” It might also have been sung for the May visit of Donaghoe’s friend, Archbishop John Hughes of New York. He knew the prophecy about the children of the “far, far West,” and would have recognized the allusion. “St. Joseph’s Old Home” has little to connect it with an event, but two lines—”The home of our Father, our guide and our friend, / Seems sweetly familiar to us once again”—suggest the song was composed sometime after Father Donaghoe’s death in January 1869. The song is still sung when BVMs reminisce about “The Old Days.”
Joseph “had a
way with words” and taught English as well as music, depending on the need.
Someone suggested to Mary Frances that Joseph could write the story of the
community from its beginnings. Mary Frances, who routinely avoided the
public eye, politely refused: “God knows it all, and that will be enough.”
The Texts Joseph liked variety; the three pieces use different keys, meters, structures and voice combinations. The arrangements suggest she was familiar with part-songs for girls and young women. The hymns are suitable for festive occasions; the song is nostalgic and reflective. All three sound “American,” not “Irish.” The hymn tunes are fun to sing—rhythmic, not difficult, with memorable effects. Joseph wrote good melodies. If extant copies are copies of the originals, they show she knew how to harmonize. The music shows some similarities to parlor songs of the era. Joseph probably knew that style—who could avoid it in the schools?—and she probably had a “good ear.” The four hymn texts—two with music and two without—are carefully crafted. They use vocabulary and sentiment typical of the period. The theology is correct, expressed appropriately for non-theologians. The sinfulness and misery found in some hymns of the era are absent.
The hymns exude
a personal love for Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the church. Great trust and gentle
affection are evident. There is no focus on “I” or “me.” Altogether,
Joseph’s hymn texts seem better than many selected by Donaghoe for the
prayer and hymn collections he published in Philadelphia and Dubuque.
Conclusions Wherever she landed—Dubuque, the Prairie Academy and Motherhouse, Burlington, Iowa City—Joseph used what was at hand to overcome the innumerable challenges of frontier life, new school systems, and a brand new religious community. Faith, hope and love could not be book virtues in such circumstances, nor could the goal of doing everything “for God’s glory and the salvation of souls”—with the Virgin Mary’s help—be merely theoretical. Creative work requires time to think, gestate ideas and experiment, so time had to be squeezed out of packed days of being teacher, principal, superior and BVM if Joseph were to write something new. Without the support and encouragement of Mother Clarke and Fr. Donaghoe she might not have written a thing, for she was obedient, and time to create had to be provided. Their love for music and poetry, their understanding of its necessity in both school and convent, made Joseph’s compositions possible. Joseph wrote more music than we now have. It is unfortunate so little survived the bugs, mice and cleaning sprees of the past century. Yet these few pieces have brightened lives ever since she wrote them. Today they give us all a glimpse of the life and spirit of BVM beginnings, and every BVM musician and composer has built on what Joseph unknowingly founded. The opening statement of our BVM Constitutions declares: “Ours is a pioneer heritage.” Joseph O’Reilly, the first BVM composer, shows us one facet of that heritage. She paid a price for it. Gratefully, joyfully, our voices we raise! About the author: Bertha Fox, BVM (Dolorose) is a retired professor of music at Clarke College. Her specialization is in music history. Note: Georgia Ann Lange, BVM (Georgelle) has made a complete inventory of each box of music in the Mount Carmel Archives, making it possible to navigate through the materials. Return
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The Eleventh
BVM