Phoebe Knapp
{{short description|American hymnwriter}}
{{about|the 19th-century hymn-tune composer|the contemporaneous female Methodist evangelist associated with the holiness movement|Phoebe Palmer}}{{More citations needed|date=November 2024}}{{Infobox person
|name = Phoebe Knapp
|image = PHŒBE PALMER KNAPP A woman of the century (page 449 crop).jpg
|caption = Phoebe Palmer Knapp from A Woman of the Century
| birth_name = Phoebe Palmer
|birth_date = {{birth date|1839|03|09}}
|birth_place = New York City, U.S.
|death_date = {{death date and age|1908|07|10|1839|03|09}}
|death_place = Poland, Maine
|death_cause =
|resting_place =
|resting_place_coordinates =
|nationality = American
| occupation = composer of music for hymns, organist
|title =
|known_for = "Assurance" for Fanny Crosby's lyrics Blessed Assurance
|spouse = Joseph Fairchild Knapp
|children = Francis D. Knapp (June 23, 1857–July 7, 1857)
Antoinette Knapp (c. 1862–1948)
Joseph Palmer Knapp (1864 - 1951)
|parents = Walter C. Palmer and Phoebe Palmer
}}
Phoebe Knapp ({{nee}} Palmer; March 9, 1839 – July 10, 1908) was an American composer of music for hymns and an organist. She composed the music for over five hundred hymns.Wojciechowski, Jennifer. (2020) "[https://wordandworld.luthersem.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/40-4_Holiness_And_Discipleship/Phoebe%20Palmer%20and%20the%20Holy%20Life.pdf Phoebe Palmer and the Holy Life]." Word & World, 40(4). p. 356.
Biography
Knapp was born in New York City. Her parents were Walter C. Palmer and Phoebe (Worrall) Palmer. She married Joseph Fairchild Knapp, one of the founders and the second president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. He had a pipe organ installed in their apartment. Notably, her husband copyrighted all of the tunes she composed as she wrote them.{{Cite book |last=Blumhofer |first=Edith Waldvogel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9LWkw81bRXwC&pg=PA229 |title=Her Heart Can See: The Life and Hymns of Fanny J. Crosby |date=2005-05-12 |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-8028-4253-4 |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |pages=229 |language=en}}
She and her husband were members of the John Street Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City. The hymn writer Fanny Crosby was also a member of that church and a friend of Palmer.
She wrote over 500 hymn tunes. The most enduring melody she composed is that of the 1873 hymn "Blessed Assurance," for which Fanny Crosby wrote the text. Knapp and Crosby also collaborated on the Palm Sunday hymn "Open the Gates of the Temple." Another hymn by Fanny Crosby for which Knapp wrote the music is "Nearer the Cross."
Other hymn tunes by Knapp include "Albertson," the tune for "Jesus Christ is Passing By" by J. Denham Smith, and for "When My Love to Christ Grows Weak" by John R. Wreford. Her tune "Consecration" has been matched to "My Spirit Soul and Body" by Mary Dagworthy James. Phoebe Palmer Knapp also wrote sacred choral and solo works.
Knapp died in Poland, Maine.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{wikisource|Woman of the Century/Phœbe Palmer Knapp}}
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=Phoebe Palmer Knapp}}
- [http://spoonercentral.com The Knapps Lived Here]
- [http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/k/n/knapp_pp.htm MIDI files of some of her hymns at Cyber Hymnal]
- [http://www.hymnswithoutwords.com/hymns/Blessed_Assurance Free MP3 file of Blessed Assurance at HymnsWithoutWords]
- {{MutopiaComposer|KnappPP}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knapp, Phoebe}}
Category:Methodists from New York (state)
Category:American Methodist hymnwriters
Category:Writers from New York (state)
Category:Composers of Christian music
Category:19th-century American writers
Category:19th-century American women writers
Category:American women hymnwriters
Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century