E. O. Excell

Edwin Othello Excell (December 13, 1851 – June 10, 1921), commonly known as E. O. Excell, was a prominent American publisher, composer, song leader, and singer of music for church, Sunday school, and evangelistic meetings during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some of the significant collaborators in his vocal and publishing work included Sam P. Jones, William E. Biederwolf, Gipsy Smith, Charles Reign Scoville, J. Wilbur Chapman, W. E. M. Hackleman, Charles H. Gabriel and D. B. Towner.

His 1909 stanza selection and arrangement of "Amazing Grace" became the most widely used and familiar setting of that hymn by the second half of the twentieth century. The influence of his sacred music on American popular culture through revival meetings, religious conventions, circuit chautauquas, and church hymnals was substantial enough by the 1920s to garner a satirical reference by Sinclair Lewis in the novel Elmer Gantry.

Excell compiled or contributed to about ninety secular and sacred song books and is estimated to have written, composed, or arranged more than two thousand of the songs he published. The music publishing business he started in 1881 and that eventually bore his name was the highest volume producer of hymnbooks in America at the time of his death.

Birth and Death Data: Born December 13, 1851 (Uniontown), Died June 10, 1921 (Chicago)

Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1907 - 1929

Roles Represented in DAHR: composer, bass vocal

= Recordings are available for online listening.
= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.

Recordings

Company Matrix No. Size First Recording Date Title Primary Performer Description Role Audio
Victor E-4841 8-in. 9/27/1907 Let the Saviour in Haydn Quartet Male vocal quartet, unaccompanied composer  
Victor B-4841 10-in. 9/27/1907 Let the Saviour in Haydn Quartet Male vocal quartet, unaccompanied composer  
Victor B-13755 10-in. 9/11/1913 How sweet is his love Homer A. Rodeheaver Male vocal solo, with organ composer  
Victor BVE-36224 10-in. 9/13/1926 I do, don't you Pace Jubilee Singers Mixed vocal chorus and female vocal soloist composer  
Columbia 80333 10-in. 5/1/1922 Will your heart ring true? Gipsy Smith Male vocal solo, with orchestra composer  
Columbia W149520 10-in. 12/4/1929 The way to Glory Land Corley Family Mixed vocal ensemble, with guitar composer  
OKeh 8629 10-in. 4/14/1924 I know a great Saviour, I do Emma E. Beacham Female vocal solo, with piano composer  
OKeh W402774 10-in. 6/28/1929 The way to Glory Land Stamps Quartet Male vocal quartet, with piano composer  

Citation

Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "Excell, E. O.," accessed April 19, 2024, https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/110009.

Excell, E. O.. (2024). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved April 19, 2024, from https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/110009.

"Excell, E. O.." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2024. Web. 19 April 2024.

DAHR Persistent Identifier

URI: https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/110009

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