Beulah Land (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I've reached the land of corn and wine, And all its riches freely mine... Oh, Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land... My heav'n, my home forevermore." The singer rejoices at being at home with the Savior
AUTHOR: Words: Edgar Page Stites / Music: John R. Sweney (1837-1899)
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (source: Morgan, p. 157)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 365, "Beulah Land" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 264, "Beulah Land Mazurka" (1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 156-157, "Beulah Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4899
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Saskatchewan" (tune)
cf. "Dakota Land" (tune)
cf. "O Prairie Land" (tune)
cf. "Kansas Land" (tune, form)
cf. "Kansas Fool" (tune)
cf. "Grand Idaho" (tune)
cf. "Webfoot Land" (tune, theme)
cf. "Harvest Land" (tune, theme)
cf. "Bering Sea" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Bering Sea (File: HGam113)
O Prairie Land (File: Macl013)
NOTES [433 words]: The name "Beulah," used in Isaiah 62:4, means "married"; it isn't really an appropriate name for a country, but this is not evident from the King James Version. The usage in this song appears to derive instead from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress: "As a tranquil land where pilgrims pause before crossing the River of Death in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (pt. 2) Beulah assumed a visibility unprecedented in either Jewish or Christian commentary.... Also on the strength of Bunyan's influence, but modified by later Protestant typology, Beulah figures in gospel songs and American spirituals as a synonym for Heaven itself" (Jeffrey, p. 87).
In its own right, this probably doesn't qualify as a folk song, but it has inspired two folk parodies (all lumped by Roud), so I include it for reference purposes. It should not be confused with "Dwelling in Beulah Land," sung by Helen Schneyer.
The authorship is a matter of dispute. Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook lists it as by Edgar Page and John R. Sweeney (three e's). However, Morgan says the words are by Edgar P. Stites and the music by John R. Sweney (two e's). And Morgan has a biography of Stites. Julian, p. 1685, would seem to explain this confusion; it reports that Ira D. Sankey, in different places, credited the words to Edgar Page and E. P. Stites, and such was Sankey's influence that his attribution to Page "stuck" even though it is likely that this is merely a transcription error for Edgar Page Stites.
Only one of eight hymnals I checked contained the piece, and hymnals are generally a poor source of authorship information anyway, but it listed Stites and Sweney as the authors. So does EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 389, so I'm going with that spelling.
EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 388, calls Sweney "[o]ne of the most popular song leaders of his day, the author of more than a thousand hymns, and compiler of more than sixty collections of songs." According to p. 389, he directed the regimental band of the Third Delaware in the civil war, and after the war was a professor of music at the Pennsylvania Military Academy as well as music director of a Presbyterian church.
EncycAmericanGospelMusic adds that "'Beulah Land' was sung by Ira D. Sankey at Sweney's funeral. Its melody... is essentially the same as that of several earlier secular songs, including 'Maryland, My Maryland,' 'Sweet Genevieve, and the German traditional carol 'Tannenbaum.'"
EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 389, says that Stites was the cousin of another writer of religious songs, Eliza Hewitt, who also supplied lyrics to be set by Sweney. - RBW
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