Editing Millennial Praises

{{Short description|Early collection of Shaker hymns}}
{{Italic title}}
{{about|the hymns|the Millennial generation|Millennials}}
[[File:Millennial Praises 1812 cover.jpg|thumb|''Millennial Praises'' 1812 title page]]
[[File:Millennial Praises 1813.jpg|thumb|''Millennial Praises'' 1813 title page]]
[[File:Spiritual Wine hymn.jpg|thumb|''Spiritual Wine'' hymn by Issachar Bates]]
'''''Millennial Praises''''' is the first published collection of [[Shakers|Shaker]] [[Hymn|hymns]]. It was first printed by the Shakers in 1812.

== Background==
The Shakers began writing down their hymns as a means of conveying their religious philosophy to new converts.<ref name=gifts>{{cite book |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/books/9781613760956 |title=Project MUSE review of Millennial Praises &ndash; A Shaker Hymnal |date=2015 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press / The Milton S. Eisenhower Library |isbn=9781613760956 |access-date=June 30, 2015 }}</ref>{{sfn|Medlicott|2013|page=123}} Thousands of handwritten hymns were recorded in hundreds of manuscripts.{{sfn|Foley|2000|page=280}}

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Shakers began moving west from New York, into Ohio and Kentucky. By the first decade of the nineteenth century, there were at least five communities and as many as twenty in Ohio and Kentucky.{{sfn|Opdahl|2004|page=xxiv}}{{sfn|Medlicott|2013|page=125}} This western expansion brought about the idea for collecting the hymns into a printed book. The scribes could no longer keep up with the pace of copying new hymns that were being composed both at [[Mount Lebanon Shaker Society|New Lebanon]] in New York and in the western communities, where fully two-thirds of the hymns were being written.{{sfn|Medlicott|2013|page=124}} From this body of handwritten hymns were selected the 140 hymns published in ''Millennial Praises''.{{sfn|Chase|1992|page=205}}

==Description==
''Millennial Praises'' was the first published Shaker [[Hymnal|hymn book]].{{sfn|Medlicott|2013|page=123}}{{sfn|Miller|2003|page=41}}{{sfn|Sered|1996|page=248}}<ref name=hard_bound>{{cite web |url=http://www.passtheword.org/shaker-manuscripts/Millennial-Praises/mpraisesndex.htm |title=Millennia Praises containing a collection of gospel hymns |last1=Tallcott  |first1=Joseph |date=2015 |publisher=PasstheWORD |access-date=June 30, 2015 }}</ref> Many printed Shaker hymn books followed.{{sfn|Foster|1981|page=45}}  The ''Millennial Praises'' hymnal contained only the words of the 140 hymns, without any [[musical notation]].{{sfn|Chase|1992|page=205}}<ref name=UOM>{{cite web |url=http://www.umass.edu/umpress/title/millennial-praises |title=A Shaker Hymnal, A scholarly edition|last1=Goodwillie |first1=Christian |date= 2015|website=Millennial Praises |publisher=University of Massachusetts |access-date=June 30, 2015 |quote=In 1812–13, the Shakers published their first hymnal.}}</ref><ref name=NoTunes>{{cite web |url=http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/shakerhistory2.htm |title= The Simple Gifts of Shaker Music in America|last1=Hall|first1=Roger Lee |date=2015 |publisher=PineTree Productions |access-date=June 30, 2015 }}</ref> The hymns were about Christ, God, love, praise, work, and the growth of the Shaker communities.{{sfn|Miller|2003|page=41}} The hymns also conveyed the idea that males and females are equal &ndash; an idea connected to the value of [[celibacy]] in Shakerism.{{sfn|Foster|1981|page=45}} The first hymn in the ''Millennial Praises'' reflects the Shaker viewpoint that God is both male and female.{{sfn|Wergland|2011|page=43}} The Shakers claimed that nearly all the words in the hymn book were spiritual "gifts", and that only a few words were derived from other sources.{{sfn|Foley|2000|page=280}}

The first edition, compiled by Seth Y. Wells and edited by [[Richard McNemar]] of the [[Union Village Shaker settlement]], was titled ''Millennial Praises Parts I and II Containing a Collection of Gospel Hymns''.{{sfn|Goodwillie|2009|page=17}} It was printed at [[Hancock, Massachusetts]], in 1812.{{sfn|Chase|1992|page=205}}{{sfn|Williams|1971|page=44}} The 1813 edition, again published in Hancock, had four parts and was titled ''Millennial Praises, Containing a Collection of Gospel Hymns in Four Parts, adapted to the day of Christ's second appearing &ndash; composed for the use of his people''.{{sfn|Goodwillie|2009|page=17}} McNemar composed about 70 of the 140 hymns, and about a dozen were written by [[Issachar Bates]], a Shaker poet.{{sfn|Medlicott|2013|page=124}} In ''Spiritual Wine'' (see hymn illustration), Bates uses the drunkenness one gets from wine as a metaphor for the Shakers' philosophy of drunkenness through spiritual wine.{{sfn|Medlicott|2013|page=124}}

== Adaptation to music ==
About the time of the publication of ''Millennial Praises'', the Shakers began to record song melodies using different systems. The "letteral notations" for adaptation of the hymns to music were slowly developed over the next few decades. There were debates as to which system was the best to achieve uniformity among all the Shaker villages. They developed a "tone-ometer" to set a consistent pitch for the songs and a "mode-ometer" to set the tempo. In 1843 [[Isaac N. Youngs]] published his instruction manual, ''A Short Abridgement of the Rules of Music''. In 1847 Russell Haskell published his instruction manual, ''The Musical Expositor''.{{sfn|Opdahl|2004|page=xxiv}} The first hymn book published with musical notation, using many of the ''Millennial Praises'' hymns, was produced in 1852 by Henry Blinn under the title, ''A Sacred Repository of Hymns''.{{sfn|Chase|1992|page=205}}

== Gallery ==
*Hymn 1 of each of the four parts for the 1813 version. 
<gallery class="left" widths="180px" heights="200px">
File:Part I hymn I.jpg
File:Part II hymn I.jpg
File:Part III hymn I.jpg
File:Part IV hymn I.jpg
</gallery>

*"Mother" hymn is about Mother [[Ann Lee]]'s journey to America.<ref name=NoTunes/>
<gallery class="left" widths="180px" heights="200px">
File:Mother parts123.jpg
File:Mother parts 456.jpg
File:Mother parts 789.jpg
File:Mother parts 101112.jpg
</gallery>

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist|30em}}

===Sources===
*{{cite book |last=Chase|first=Gilbert|date=1992  |title=America's Music, from the Pilgrims to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5H75W2Gsz8AC&pg=PA205|publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=0252062752 }}
*{{cite book |last=Foley|first=Edward |date=2000 |title=Worship Music: A Concise Dictionary |publisher=Liturgical Press }}
*{{cite book |last=Foster  |first= Lawrence |date=1981|title=Religion and Sexuality: The Shakers, the Mormons, and the Oneida Community |url=https://archive.org/details/religionsexualit0000fost|url-access=registration  |publisher=University of Illinois Press  |isbn=0252011198 }}
*{{cite book |last=Goodwillie|first=Christian |date=2009 |title=Millennial Praises: A Shaker Hymnal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tjz_gNXVYT4C&pg=PA17|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press|isbn=978-1558496392 }}
* {{cite book |last=Hall|first=Roger |date=1992 |title=Love is Little: A Sampling of Shaker Spirituals |publisher=The World of Shaker}}
*{{cite book |last=Medlicott|first=Carol |date=2013  |title=Issachar Bates: A Shaker's Journey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rwBcqy6JFkoC&pg=PA123|publisher=UPNE |isbn=978-1611684346}}
*{{cite book |last=Miller|first=Page Putnam |date=2003|title=Landmarks of American Women's History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S7XthSt9aiIC&pg=PA41 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=0195145011 }}
*{{cite book |last=Opdahl|first=Robert C. |date= 2004 |title=A Shaker Musical Legacy |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=v6hQxV3fD_oC&pg=PR24|publisher=UPNE |isbn=1584653604 }}
*{{cite book |last=Sered|first= Susan Starr|date=1996 |title= Priestess, Mother, Sacred Sister: Religions Dominated by Women |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MrW3dIw0w6wC&pg=PA248 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0195104676 }}
*{{cite book |last=Wergland|first=Glendyne |date=2011 |title=Sisters in the Faith: Shaker Women and Equality of the Sexes |publisher= University of Massachusetts Press|isbn=978-1558498631 }}
*{{cite book |last=Williams |first=John S. |date=1971|title=The Shaker Museum  |location=Old Chatham, N.Y. |publisher=Eagle Printing & Binding Co. }}

== External links ==
{{Commons}}
* [http://www.hymnary.org/hymnal/MPPI1812 Each of the hymns of 1813 version with page scans]
* [http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/MillennialPraisesbookreview.htm Review of Millennial Praises - A Shaker Hymnal]
* [https://muse.jhu.edu/books/9781613760956 Project MUSE University of Massachusetts - Millennial Praises / A Shaker Hymnal]

[[Category:Shaker hymnals]]