The Power & Pathos of the Pentatonic scale at averyfineline

The Power & Pathos of the Pentatonic scale

Or, as Wentley Phipps puts it elsewhere in this Gaither/Homecoming appearance, where he tells a story about the black-and-white origins of “Amazing Grace,” “just the black notes.” If you haven’t already seen it, it’s worth watching, especially for his evocative lecture/sermon/set up. I have no idea how solid his music history or musicology is, but it’s a great story.

And: this may be the first time that Gaither has gotten such a high-profile billing on one of the blogosphere’s most-read blogs. Granted, Sullivan doesn’t seem to know what he’s dealing with, but then that could be said of most outsiders’ encounter with gospel music, no?

Spoiler: For those who don’t mind reality getting in the way of Phipps’ fantasy, see David Bruce Murray’s fact-checking on the “Amazing” story Phipps tells.

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Musicscribe Blog » An “Amazing” Yarn! on 21 Apr 2008 at 3:22 pm

[…] copying and pasting a response I made to a recent Doug Harrison post. Doug ran across the “too good not to pass along” YouTube video of Wentley Phipps […]

Comments

David Bruce Murray wrote:

John Newton was converted to Christianity in 1748, when he gave up his slave trading. The lyrics to “Amazing Grace” were written in 1772…24 years later. John Newton died in 1807. The tune (New Brittain) was first associated with the lyrics to “Amazing Grace” in the 1830s in an American tune book.

For more info, see:
http://www.markrhoads.com/amazingsite/TunePages/NewBritain.htm

When you consider that short of using a time machine, John Newton wasn’t alive to heard his lyrics sung to the tune we now associate with “Amazing Grace,” it’s pretty obvious that there is no history to back up Phipps’ yarn. At best, Phipps himself was duped and passed the story along out of ignorance. At worst, he made it up whole cloth and tried to dupe the rest of us. He tells a good story, but it’s the sort of story that belongs on Snopes.com.

As a matter of fact, there is an “Amazing Grace” article on Snopes.com with some good background information…though it doesn’t address the Phipps fable directly.
http://www.snopes.com/religion/amazing.asp

Another aspect of Phipps’ tale that is humorous is his attempt to associate a single race with the pentatonic scale. How convenient that on the piano the notes happen to be black! The fact of the matter is that the pentatonic scale is commonly used in many forms of folk music…be it Asian, white or black based folk music. It’s a universally accepted musical scale.

Posted 21 Apr 2008 at 3:03 pm ¶
irishlad wrote:

I remember watching Mr Phipps’ histronic performance-worthy of a golden globe at least- when the video was released and thinking to myself how ott it was but hey, 10/10 for a superb master class in theatrical drama.

Posted 21 Apr 2008 at 4:39 pm ¶
irishlad wrote:

#2 histronic should have read histrionic. Sorry.

Posted 21 Apr 2008 at 5:25 pm ¶
David Bruce Murray wrote:

irishlad,
Yes, you have to watch out for those typos when you’re exposing fiction posing as fact. People will dismiss your efforts as meaningless if one letter is out of place.

Posted 21 Apr 2008 at 8:40 pm ¶
C.W. G. wrote:

I say, give the guy a break - he didn’t say that much that would indicate that he was trying to dupe anyone - and sometime to make a true story interesting in the telling , you have to add some color - and I don’t think anyone could have done it better.

Posted 22 Apr 2008 at 4:29 am ¶
David Bruce Murray wrote:

The entire point of his story is tied to John Newton hearing a slave sing a melody to which he set the words of “Amazing Grace.”

That goes beyond “adding color.”

(I’m ignoring the racial undertones of that statement.)

Posted 22 Apr 2008 at 2:33 pm ¶
Mark Rhoads wrote:

I posted the following on David Murray’s blog. It’s pertinent for this conversation as well:

We love to hear romanticized and often fabricated stories of how hymns and tunes came into being. Mr. Phipps’ “yarn” fits this description precisely. Yarns about origins make us feel good, but our greatest source of genuine feeling should the words of this hymn which contain the truth of the Gospel.

In reality the origin of most hymns and tunes is rather mundane. “Amazing Grace” was one of hundreds of hymns (he only wrote the words) Newton wrote and published in Olney Hymns 1779. It was barely known in England until the mid 20th century. From the early 19th and well into the 20th century American revivalists found it useful and sang it to a number of different tunes until we finally settle on the now familiar tune called NEW BRITAIN. David has referred to my website which documents some of the story. Here’s the home page

http://markrhoads.com/amazingsite/index.htm

Posted 22 Apr 2008 at 3:54 pm ¶

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