Eliakim Doolittle

Eliakim Doolittle (August 29, 1772 – April 1850)[1] was an American composer, schoolteacher, and singing teacher, the younger brother of Amos Doolittle, first cousin of composers Reuben Munson and Amos Munson, and uncle of senator James R. Doolittle.[1][2] His most well-known composition was the hymn tune "Exhortation",[3] a fuging tune that was first printed in The Musical Harmonist (Jenks 1800) and later included in The Sacred Harp.[4]

"Exhortation" as published in shape note form in William Hauser's The Hesperian Harp. "L.M." means long metre. The words here are by Isaac Watts.

Biography

Born in Cheshire, Connecticut, the son of Ambrose Doolittle and Martha Munson, he attended Yale University (then Yale College), gaining the reputation as a composer, but did not graduate, and became a school- and singing- teacher.[3][5][1] He married Hasadiah Fuller in 1811, with whom he had six children (one son and five daughters), and lived in Hampton, New York.[3]

His Psalm Singer's Companion (Doolittle 1806) was 41 compositions (covering 48 pages) of psalm music for four voices,[3][5] out of a total of 45 works that he composed.[6]

Such works included Solemnity, another hymn tune published in Asahel Benham's Social Harmony in 1798, and the war song The Hornet Stung The Peacock that celebrated the 1813 sinking of HMS Peacock.[7][8]

Later in life Doolittle suffered from what is now understood to be dementia; he was then living in Pawlet, Vermont,[3] where 19th-century chronicler of that village Hiel Hollister described him graphically as "nervous and sensitive, impulsive and excitable, in tattered garb, with untrimmed locks and beard, in a state bordering on insanity, [wandering] through our streets for many a year",[2][3] before entering the Washington County poorhouse in Argyle where he eventually died.[3]

References
  1. Britton, Lowens & Crawford 1990, p. 254.
  2. Hollister 1867, p. 71.
  3. Steel & Hulan 2010, p. 112.
  4. Hatchett 2003, p. 121.
  5. O'Brien 2008, p. 14.
  6. van Boer 2012, p. 164.
  7. Gleason & Becker 1981, p. 55.
  8. Lambert 2012.

Reference bibliography
  • Britton, Allen Perdue; Lowens, Irving; Crawford, Richard (1990). "Eliakim Doolittle". American sacred music imprints, 1698–1810: a bibliography. American Antiquarian Society.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Gleason, Harold; Becker, Warren (1981). Music Literature Outlines. 3 (2nd ed.). Frangipani Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Hatchett, Marion J. (2003). "Commentary on Tunes and Texts: Exhortation". A Companion to the New Harp of Columbia. University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 9781572332034.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Hollister, Hiel (1867). "Music". Pawlet for One Hundred Years. Albany, New York: J. Munsell. pp. 69–73.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Lambert, Andrew (2012). The Challenge - Britain Against America in the War of 1812. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-27319-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • O'Brien, Donald C. (2008). Amos Doolittle: Engraver of the New Republic. Oak Knoll Press. ISBN 9781584562061.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Steel, David Warren; Hulan, Richard H. (2010). "Biographical sketches of the composers". The Makers of the Sacred Harp. Music in American life. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252077609.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • van Boer, Bertil (2012). "Doolittle, Eliakim". Historical Dictionary of Music of the Classical Period. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810873865.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Further reading
  • Fawcett-Yeske, Maxine; Kroeger, Karl, eds. (2011). "Introduction to this volume". Eliakim Doolittle (1772–1850) and Timothy Olmsted (1759–1848): The Collected Works. Music of the New American Nation: Sacred Music from 1780 to 1820. 15. Routledge. pp. xxi–xxiv. ISBN 9781135623777.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Doolittle, Eliakim (1806). The Psalm Singer's Companion. New Haven.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Jenks, Stephen (1800). The Musical Harmonist, Containing Concise and Easy Rules of Music, Together with a Collection of the Most Approved Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Fitted to the Various Meters; Most of Which were Never Before Published. New Haven, Connecticut: Amos Doolittle.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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