Gracia Grindal lecture on Hemlandssånger

Two listings of what appears to be the same talk ...

1. Gracia Grindal, "Swedish-American Spiritual Songbooks and Their Origins," Lecture given at Swedish Songfest, Luther Seminary, October 1992. http://hymnuts.luthersem.edu/lecture.htm

Excerpt: The Swedish pastors who were to take their places as the founders of the Augustana Synod, brought [Oscar] Ahnfelt's books with them and quickly began disseminating the tunes and texts among the Swedish pioneers by singing them for a variety of church occasions. Tufve Nilsson Hasselquist, the still point at the center of Augustana's history, is said to have sung them in church as he walked down the aisle, wearing a white linen coat. In 1856 he published a collection of 50 of Ahnfelt's song, which he called Femtio Andeliga Sånger, the first book of songs published by Swedes in America. Its popularity is attested to by the fact it was sold out by 1859. In addition to publishing the book he also published selections from the book in his monthly paper Det Rätta Hemlandet, which had as a Bible verse under the title Jeremiah 51:50 "Remember the Lord from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind." What better for a title for the book of songs later to be published than Hemlandssånger which it received in 1860 when Jonas Engberg of Chicago, published a book of 240 spiritual songs which he named Hemlandssånger. These were published, with psalmodikon markings, almost in their entirety, on the front page of every issue of Det Rätta Hemlandet until all of the tunes for the book had been published in 1863. Interesting to note, is that the tradition of publishing psalmodikon markings had begun with the 1846 version of the Wallin hymnal Den Svenska Psalmboken med alla psalmers melodier för första gånger fyrstämmigt tecknade med siffor, enligt Kongeliga Musikaliska Akademies meloditabell och Haeffners koralbok which certainly Esbjörn had with him as well as Syréen's songs. The publishing of these songs in such a manner tells us that the Swedish immigrants had taken to heart the teaching of Johan Dillner, who used the instrument to teach his choir the four parts of harmony in the Wallin hymnal. One still can find these primitive instruments in old barns out on Swedish and Norwegian farms in this area, much misunderstood, but a deeply significant part of the Swedish song tradition in this country. ...

2. "The Swedish-American Lutheran Tradition of Hymns and Song." Lecture given in October 1992 at the 100th anniversary of Hemlandssånger. http://hymnuts.luthersem.edu/hcompan/hymnal/hemlandsanger.htm

Same text, but with nice pix of the book and the title Hemlandssånger in italics throughout.