Читать книгу Sisters In Song; Women Hymn Writers - Leslie Clay - Страница 22

1892-1980

“Let All Things Now Living”

“Little Drummer Boy”

Katherine was born in St. Joseph, Missouri and wrote her first piece of music at age fifteen. After graduating from St. Joseph High School, she studied music at Wellesley College. Wellesley kept her on as an assistant in the music department, teaching music theory and piano. I wonder if she ever met her elder fellow instructor Katherine Lee Bates, the author of “America the Beautiful”? In any event, many of Davis’s 600 plus compositions were written for the choirs at other schools where she also taught.

Her most famous work, “The Little Drummer Boy” was composed and published in 1941 under the pseudonym C.R.W. Robertson. This was after decades of music composition. One version of the story’s origin says that she wrote the song while trying to take a nap. The song became famous when it was recorded by the Trapp Family Singers. Since then it has appeared in more than 200 versions in seven languages. She published “Let All Things Now Living” under another pseudonym, John Crowley. It has since become a favorite Thanksgiving hymn.