THE TUNE.
Both Kozeluck and J.E. Gould, besides Louis M. Gottschalk and Dr. Henry John Gauntlett, have tried their skill in fitting music to this hymn, but only Gottschalk and Kozeluck approach the mood into which its quiet words charm a pious and reflective mind. Possibly its frequent association with “Holley,” composed by George Hews, may influence a hearer's judgement of other melodies but there is something in that tune that makes it cling to the hymn as if by instinctive kinship.
Others may have as much or more artistic music but “Holley” in its soft modulations seems to breathe the spirit of every word.
It was this tune to which a stranger recently heard a group of mill-girls singing Bishop Doane's verses. The lady, a well-known Christian worker, visited a certain factory, and the superintendent, after showing her through the building, opened a door into a long work-room, where the singing of the 546 / 484 girls delighted and surprised her. It was sunset, and their hymn was—
Softly now the light of day.
Several of the girls were Sunday-school teachers, who had encouraged others to sing at that hour, and it had become a habit.
“Has it made a difference?” the lady inquired.
“There is seldom any quarrelling or coarse joking among them now,” said the superintendent with a smile.
Dr. S.F. Smith's hymn of much the same tone and tenor—
Softly fades the twilight ray
Of the holy Sabbath day,
—is commonly sung to the tune of “Holley.”
George Hews, an American composer and piano-maker, was born in Massachusetts 1800, and died July 6, 1873. No intelligence of him or his work or former locality is at hand, beyond this brief note in Baptie, “He is believed to have followed his trade in Boston, and written music for some of Mason's earlier books.”