Phoebe Knapp ( Palmer; March 9, 1839 – July 10, 1908) was an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

for

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' d ...

s and an organist. She composed the music for over five hundred hymns.Wojciechowski, Jennifer. (2020)
Phoebe Palmer and the Holy Life
" ''Word & World,'' 40(4). p. 356.

Biography

Knapp was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Her parents were Walter C. Palmer and Phoebe (Worrall) Palmer. She married Joseph Fairchild Knapp, one of the founders and the second president of the

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, w ...

. He had a pipe organ installed in their apartment. Notably, her husband

copyrighted A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, e ...

all of the tunes she composed as she wrote them. She and her husband were members of the John Street Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City. The hymn writer

Fanny Crosby Frances Jane van Alstyne (née Crosby; March 24, 1820 – February 12, 1915), more commonly known as Fanny J. Crosby, was an American mission worker, poet, lyricist, and composer. She was a prolific hymnist, writing more than 8,000 hymns and go ...

was also a member of that church and a friend of Palmer. She wrote over 500

hymn tune A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part (or more) harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm (chords change frequently), with or without refrain ...

s. The most enduring melody she composed is that of the 1873 hymn "

Blessed Assurance "Blessed Assurance" is a well-known Christian hymn. The lyrics were written in 1873 by blind hymn writer Fanny Crosby to the music written in 1873 by Phoebe Knapp. History Crosby was visiting her friend Phoebe Knapp as the Knapp home was having ...

," for which Fanny Crosby wrote the text. Knapp and Crosby also collaborated on the

Palm Sunday Palm Sunday is the Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Its name originates from the palm bran ...

hymn "Open the Gates of the Temple." Another hymn by Fanny Crosby for which Knapp wrote the music is "Nearer the Cross." Other hymn tunes by Knapp include "Albertson," the tune for "Jesus Christ is Passing By" by J. Denham Smith, and for "When My Love to Christ Grows Weak" by John R. Wreford. Her tune "Consecration" has been matched to "My Spirit Soul and Body" by Mary Dagworthy James. Phoebe Palmer Knapp also wrote sacred choral and solo works. Knapp died in

Poland, Maine Poland is a town in Androscoggin County, Maine, United States. The population was 5,906 at the 2020 census. Set among rolling hills and numerous lakes, the town is home to Range Ponds State Park, which includes hiking trails and a pristine fr ...

References

External links

*
The Knapps Lived Here

Free MP3 file of Blessed Assurance at HymnsWithoutWords
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Knapp, Phoebe 1839 births 1908 deaths Methodists from New York (state) American Methodist hymnwriters Writers from New York (state) Composers of Christian music 19th-century American writers 19th-century American women writers American women hymnwriters Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century 19th-century American women musicians