Bringing In The Sheaves: A Song History

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"Bringing in the Sheaves" is a gospel song by Knowles Shaw (1834–1878), whose words are dated 1874.[1] Its harvest imagery draws on Psalm 126.[1][2] Born in Ohio, Shaw spent his youth in Rush County, Indiana, fiddling for local dances. According to Hymnary.org's biography, his conversion came at one of those dances, and he quit playing before the piece was finished. He became a preacher in the Christian Church, was known as the "singing evangelist," and reportedly baptized more than 11,000 people. He also compiled several songbooks. He died on June 7, 1878, in a railroad accident while traveling from Dallas to McKinney, Texas.[3] He was buried at Rushville, Indiana.[4][5]

Black-and-white photograph of a field of wheat sheaves stood in shocks in central Ohio

Ben Shahn, Wheat in shock, central Ohio, 1938. Farm Security Administration photograph. Library of Congress. No known restrictions.

Shaw wrote a melody for his own words, but the tune sung almost everywhere today is by George A. Minor.[2][6] Sources differ on its date: the Cyber Hymnal edition at Hymnary.org credits it to 1880, while Hymnary.org's tune index lists 1874.[6][7] Minor (1845–1904) lived in Richmond, Virginia, where he led the Sunday school singing at First Baptist Church, wrote several Sunday school hymns and worked in the piano trade.[8]

Hymnary.org counts the text in some 849 hymnals and Minor's tune in about 585, and the pairing still appears in books published in the last decade, among them the Mennonite Church Hymnal (2017) and Our Great Redeemer's Praise (2022).[1][7] The song also made its way into concert music: Charles Ives drew on it in the second movement of his Symphony No. 2.[9] For mountain dulcimer players, an arrangement in DAD tuning appears in Stephen Seifert's Join the Jam: Gospel Edition.[10][11]

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Sources

  1. Hymnary.org: "Bringing in the Sheaves" (text page).
  2. Hymntime.com (The Cyber Hymnal): "Bringing in the Sheaves".
  3. Hymnary.org: "Knowles Shaw".
  4. Wikipedia: "Knowles Shaw".
  5. The Restoration Movement: "Life of Knowles Shaw, the Singing Evangelist" (William Baxter, 1879).
  6. Hymnary.org: "The Cyber Hymnal #643: Bringing in the Sheaves".
  7. Hymnary.org: "Bringing in the Sheaves" (tune by George A. Minor).
  8. Hymnary.org: "George A. Minor".
  9. Houston Symphony: "Ives’ Symphony No. 2".
  10. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam Gospel Edition".
  11. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam Gospel Edition" (sample PDF with contents).