I received the following email from one of my readers today concerning my free arrangement of “Whispering Hope”.

“I am also a church pianist and I am writing to thank you for making your beautiful arrangement of Whispering Hope available free of charge on your website. I played it for yesterday’s “Hymn of the Week” feature on our church YouTube channel. By request I’ve been featuring a different hymn every week since the pandemic lock down began, and providing some background into the writing of each hymn. “

I found the story behind this song very intriguing!

Free Arrangement

Click on song title at bottom of article… to download FREE copy.

Whispering Hope….definitely an old hymn! My husband has been wanting me to arrange this hymn for a long time. He finally got his wish 🙂  I’ve written an early advanced piano arrangement of “Whispering Hope” which I’m offering for FREE to my church pianist readers.

I decided to read up on the composer of this song and was surprised at what I found. (in the numbered list below)

Septimus Winner, an American songwriter of the 19th century, was born in May 1827 and died of a heart attack in 1902.  He used the following stage names (pseudonymns) for his written poems and music: Alice Hawthorne, Percy Guyer, Mark Mason, Marion Florence, Leon Dore, Apsley Street, and Paul Stenton.

Septimus’ wife, Mary Ann, was a relative of Nathaniel Hawthorne which explains the generous use of the stage name, Alice Hawthorne.

See if you recognize the following songs written by Septimus Winner. (this will date some of you including myself)    🙂

1. Listen to the Mockingbird (Alice Hawthorne)

2. Oh Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone (lyrics only) *German folk tune

3. Carry Me Back to Tennessee (better known as Ellie Rhee)

4. Whispering Hope (1868)

I could not locate the story behind the writing of “Whispering Hope” so without further ado…click on the following song title to download your free early advanced arrangement of…

Whispering Hope

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