Roger Wayne Wischmeier (b. Sioux City, IA, 1935) composed JUDSON in 1974. It was first sung on October 31, 1975, with James D. Cramer's text "I Sing the Goodness of the Lord" at Judson College, Elgin, Illinois, in a drama about Adoniram Judson, the first American missionary to Burma. Wischmeier comments, “The original text by Cramer provides a vivid sense of God's providence in spite of affliction. The paraphrase of Psalm 71 for the Psalter Hymnal has much of this same flavor.” The original version of the tune, which included a slightly different ending and an Amen, was included in a hymnal supplement prepared by Daniel Landes for a dissertation at Southern Baptist Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky.
An organist, music theorist, and church musician, Wischmeier teaches music at Sterling College, Kansas. He previously taught at Southern Baptist Seminary and Grace College of the Bible, Omaha, Nebraska. He attended the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and received his D.M.A. from Southern Baptist Seminary. Wischmeier was a founding member of the Fellowship of American Baptist Musicians and served as editor of their FABM Newsletter (1973-1977).
Intended for unison singing, JUDSON consists of four phrases, of which the first and third are identical and the second and fourth are similar. The harmonization requires clear articulation on the organ and a moderate tempo. This psalm favors antiphonal performance: the outer stanzas (1, 8) and the theme stanza (4) may be sung by every¬one; the other stanzas by alternating groups.
--Psalter Hymnal Handbook
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