MEALY, NORMAN.
Research material on British Library hymn collection, ca. 1980-1987.

MANUSCRIPT NUMBER 253

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CITATION:  Norman Mealy Research material on British Library hymn collection, MSS 253, Archives and Manuscripts Dept., Pitts Theology Library, Emory University. 

Norman Carleton Mealy was born on June 22, 1923 in Troy, New York.  He received his Bachelor of Science degree in music from the State University of New York at Potsdam, did post-graduate work at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, and studied music analysis and musicology at the University of California at Berkeley.  Mealy also attended the Episcopal Theological Seminary, Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1975 from the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York City.  He was ordained as a deacon in the Episcopal Church in 1959 and as a priest in 1960.

Dr. Mealy served as the Director of Music at Saint Mark's Episcopal Church in Berkeley from 1947 to 1961.  He was on the faculty of the Music Extension Department of the University of California at Berkeley from 1949 to 1952 and a Professor of Church Music at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific from 1952 to 1987, in addition to serving on the faculty of the Graduate Theological Union.  Mealy was active in developing new music within the Episcopal Church, serving on the Standing Commission on Church Music for fifteen years and as a liaison to the Liturgical Commission, as well as the Chairman of the Committee on Service Music for ten years.  He collaborated on several Episcopal Church publications, including "Hymns and carols" (1966); "Songs for liturgy and more hymns and spiritual songs" (1971); "Book of Canticles" (1979); and "The Hymnal" (1982).  Mealy also co-authored "Sing for joy; a songbook for young children" (1961) with his wife, Margaret; "Skier's song book," (1950) with David Wyckoff Kemp; and  "Music, dance, and religion: the performing arts in worship" (1985) and "Performer as priest and prophet: restoring the intuitive in worship through music and dance" (1988) with the dancer, Judith Rock.

Norman Mealy died on March 12, 1987.  He was survived by his wife, Margaret Williams Mealy, and three sons, David, Mark, and Robert.

This collection consists of handwritten and photocopied notes compiled by Dr. Mealy during two sabbaticals to research eighteenth century hymnals at the British Library in London, England.  The material was collected during the early to mid-1980s and analyzes hymnals published between 1539 and 1795, with the bulk between 1700 and 1795, with an emphasis on collections edited by John Wesley.  The collection is composed of index cards and material from notebooks.  The cards are either photocopied forms or handwritten notes and contain the tune title, composer, hymnal in which it appears, and date of publication.  The majority of cards also include the pattern and opening musical score of the tune.  They are arranged by the numerical pattern of the opening tune, alphabetically by composer, and chronologically by publication date.  There are also subgroups of cards with hymns composed by John Peck in 1810, as well as cards that are incomplete or were not filed.  A last group of undersized cards lists hymn titles from compilations edited by John Wesley.

The notebook material consists of photocopied cards and handwritten notes arranged by composer or hymnal title.

CONTAINER LISTING

Box             Description                                                    Dates

                Index cards
                   Arranged by numerical pattern of opening tune
1                      11 11 to 12 4-7                                         1542-1790               
2                      13 11 to 14 1-7                                         1539-1790
3                      15 11 to 51 22                                          1542-1795
4                      51 23 to 71-77                                          1542-1790
5                  Arranged alphabetically by composer or title                1553-1854
                   Arranged chronologically by composer or title               1565-ca. 1800
                   James Peck compositions                                     1810
                   Incomplete                                                  1547-1790
                   Unfiled                                                     1562-1793
                   John Wesley collections with hymn title lists               n.d.
    
                Notebook material
6                  Arranged by composer
                       Stephen Addington to Johann Christian Jacobi            1562-1787
7                      John Frederick Lampe to John Wesley                     1658-1972
                   Arranged by hymnal title                                    1539-1775