David Williams Thornton
b. October 8, 1911
m. Lorna Peterson b.
February 5, 1911
He was the fifth child born to J B
and Eliza Willia Thornton while the family lived at
Greenfield, Illinois. Soon after the family journeyed to
Japan and remained there until 1926 when they returned to
St. Louis Missouri.
His missionary
father became the pastor of Hope Congregational Church and
he, in his latter teens, became the music director of the
same congregation.
Of his
numerous musical accomplishments I am best acquainted with
his Easter cantata, My Heart Is Glad, and we have
accumulated much of that history and some recordings.
With the
effort of Beth Provinse as historian and writer and the
gift of recordings and testimonials of some with first
hand experience in the first (1940) production we offer
the following accounts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The initial
presentation was presented from manuscript. Bernadine
Mellow, as I recall, furnished a copy of the program
handout with scriptural text and annotation, I have not
seen a copy of the manuscript. To see the program handout,
go to: 1940 Presentation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In 1944, while Uncle
David was in the service, Albert Scholin published the work
from the manuscript which was used at the 1940 presentation at
Hope Congregational Church. I purchased a copy online that was
used in making the music available for this effort. ($12.00 as
I recall, from Amazon)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1959 - Albert
Scholin, director of music at Trinity Presbyterian Church of
St Louis, passed away and Uncle David was asked to take the
position vacated by his death. His first accomplishment at
that station was to orchestrate the cantata and it was
presented that Easter at Trinity with full orchestral
accompaniment. .... [One description as to the value of
ochestration I found states: "Great
orchestration
turns a line drawing into a 3D sculpture without detracting
from the elegance and clarity of the underlying idea —
rather, it makes the idea clearer."] ......... I am
not qualified to judge the work of any composer, but can
testify to the clarity & power of the spiritual message
Uncle David engineered in this work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The history and audio of the 1962
performance is available on the website maintained by Dan
Thornton at: 1962
Presentation
The vinyl record used
for this history was made available as a gift from Tom &
Vicki King. Tom's mother had retained the record and passed it
to her son, which was digitized by professional studio's. Tom
King was located through the Marquess family who had the
pleasure of hearing Tom King sing the tenor solo rendition
of "Fear Not Ye - For He Is Risen" at their Methodist
Church in Hopkinsville, KY.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The work quickly
became known and was used nationwide. I read an account of
it's being used in Florida and we know it was used on several
occasions by Purdue Univ. with as many as 350 voices
participating.
In searching the internet for a
copy of MHIG, as published by the Scholin Music Co., I found
the cantata had been presented in Seattle, Easter 1964
............
If I
remember correctly, Tom Thornton has the Seattle Opera House
performance on vinyl? It is possible I scanned this
image from that cover?
At the time I located the Seattle site, this "Opera
House" presentation was available on U-Tube for download - in
four separate recordings. These I copied and edited into Side
A and Side B as well as a single track recording. I will add
them to the offering if necessary, but the 1964 presentation
is available today as a single on U-Tube at: Seattle
does MHIG - 1964
I first found
the work on the website of Bud Tutmark, the director, but
today I checked the Tutmark website and the files are no
longer available for free download, but the work is available
from them for $$$ (a lot of dollars). Not to worry - If you
cannot download it from U-Tube I can make it available to you
for free, if you like, but, in my opinion, the presentations
recorded in St. Louis are much better.
Images
captured of The Opera House program:
Dedication
Side A
list Side B list
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If God
wills, the next post in regards to the "MHIG story" will be
the 1972 production of the cantata presented at "Hope Church
on Brown Road".
