Alfred Henry Ackley

Alfred Henry Ackley combined pastoral ministry with substantial musical training. After instruction from his musician father, he pursued further study in New York and at the Royal Academy of Music in London and became an accomplished cellist. His family connections also placed him close to the American gospel-song industry: his brother Bentley DeForest Ackley served for years with evangelist Billy Sunday and song leader-publisher Homer Rodeheaver, while Alfred himself worked with evangelistic campaigns and with Rodeheaver publishing projects.

For his 1933 resurrection hymn, Ackley wrote both text and music. The tune is now commonly identified as ACKLEY. Hymnary.org gives its meter as 7.6.7.6.7.6.7.4 with refrain and lists A-flat major on the tune authority record, although later hymnals frequently transpose it. The “Psalter Hymnal Handbook” describes the setting as a gospel song with straightforward harmony intended for part singing and recommends a two-pulse feel, with some flexibility near the end of the refrain.

The tune name itself appears to be later than the composition. Hymnological research notes that editors of the 1956 “Baptist Hymnal” assigned the name ACKLEY. The melody therefore belongs to the text from the beginning, but the formal tune name by which modern hymnals index it was a later editorial development.