Amzi Chapin

Amzi Chapin was an American cabinetmaker, singing-school teacher, composer, and early shape-note musician born in Massachusetts in 1768. He worked first in the cabinetmaking trade and then became an itinerant teacher of sacred singing. Musicological research places him in Virginia and North Carolina from 1791 to 1795, in Kentucky from 1795, and later in western Pennsylvania, where he farmed and continued teaching. He and his older brother Lucius were among the singing masters who helped carry New England sacred-music practice west of the Alleghenies.

Chapin married Hannah Power in 1800. In 1831 the family moved to Northfield, Ohio, where local historical records identify him among the founders of a Presbyterian congregation. He died there in 1835. Tunes associated with his name circulated through the developing southern and trans-Appalachian shape-note tradition, sometimes under changing names and uncertain attributions.

TWENTY-FOURTH is a notable example of that attribution problem. Its first known printing in 1812 credited Lucius Chapin, which led many later hymnals, including The United Methodist Hymnal, to retain Lucius's name. However, an 1812 letter from Lucius to Andrew Law attributes the same tune, then called ORANGE, to Amzi. Modern scholarship therefore gives Amzi the stronger claim. The melody later circulated under names including PRIMROSE.