Anthony Johnson Showalter

Anthony Johnson Showalter was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, on May 1, 1858. He learned music in singing schools and private classes led by his father, then continued his training at normal music schools in Virginia and Pennsylvania. He began teaching singing schools while still in his teens and became an influential teacher of shape-note and gospel music throughout the American South and Southwest. Dalton, Georgia, became the center of his work as a composer, editor, publisher, and director of normal music institutes.

Showalter founded a substantial music-publishing enterprise, edited The Music Teacher and Home Magazine, and wrote instructional books on harmony, theory, notation, and singing. His own 1904 biographical sketch also identifies him as a longtime elder and choir leader of First Presbyterian Church in Dalton. Modern scholarship recognizes his importance not only as a composer but also as an educator who helped sustain the southern singing-school tradition.

His best-known composition is the tune now called SHOWALTER. In a 1924 recollection, he explained that Deuteronomy 33:27 came to mind while he was writing words of consolation to two bereaved former pupils. He wrote the refrain’s words and music, then asked Elisha A. Hoffman to provide the stanzas. Their hymn appeared in 1887 and became Showalter’s most enduring contribution to congregational song.