Dwelling In Beulah Land: A Song History

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"Dwelling in Beulah Land" is a gospel song whose words and music C. Austin Miles wrote in 1911.[1][2] Miles (1868–1946), born in Lakehurst, New Jersey, trained as a pharmacist before turning to gospel songwriting in 1892, and he spent 37 years with the Hall-Mack Publishing Company, supplying songs at first and then serving as its editor and manager.[3] The earliest hymnal in Hymnary.org's index to carry the song is Offering of Praise, a 1911 Hall-Mack collection from Philadelphia edited by J. L. Hall and Miles himself.[4]

Painting of a wide valley with a winding river, wooded hills and distant mountains under a bright sky

Thomas Cole, View on the Catskill—Early Autumn, oil on canvas, 1836–37. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.

The title takes its name from Isaiah 62:4, the only verse in the Bible where "Beulah" appears.[5] Hymnary.org counts the song in 188 hymnals.[1] The Traditional Ballad Index notes that it shares a number of lines with an older song, "Is This Not the Land of Beulah?", which probably served as a minor inspiration, and that, as far as the index's editor knows, it has never been collected from oral tradition.[5] Its melody was adapted for "God Bless Fiji," the national anthem adopted when Fiji became independent in 1970.[6] Helen Schneyer recorded it for Folk-Legacy in 1974, and later recordings include those by Swan Arcade (1986) and Keith Kendrick (2006), who learned it through Suzie Adams from Schneyer's singing.[7]

Neal Walters and Heidi Cerrigione, members of the band The Doofus, include it in Occasional Number 2, a collection of eighteen traditional gospel favorites arranged for autoharp rather than dulcimer.[8]

Our book that contains the song "Dwelling In Beulah Land"

Sources

  1. Hymnary.org: "Far away the noise of strife upon my ear is falling".
  2. Hymnary.org: "Dwelling in Beulah Land" (tune).
  3. Hymnary.org: "C. Austin Miles".
  4. Hymnary.org: "Offering of Praise".
  5. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Dwelling in Beulah Land".
  6. The Fiji Times: "Our national anthem and identity".
  7. Mainly Norfolk: "Dwelling in Beulah Land".
  8. The Doofus: "Occasional Number 2 - 18 Traditional Gospel Favorites For Autoharp".
  9. Image: Thomas Cole, View on the Catskill—Early Autumn, oil on canvas, 1836–37. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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