David W. Music

David Wayne Music (born January 28, 1949) is an American composer, writer and former professor of church music. He served on the faculties of both his alma maters, California Baptist College and the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, before spending 18 years at Baylor University. His publications have included edited collections of primary sources, monographs on the history of American hymnody, and works on the hymnwriter Isaac Watts. He has also composed works for choirs, recorder, organ and piano. In 2010, he was named a Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.

Early life and education David Wayne Music was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma, on January 28, 1949. His father, Joseph Hopwood Musick, was a pastor with degrees from Baylor University and the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS). His mother, Menita Corine Cullins Music, was a school teacher, who had also studied at SWBTS, where she and Joseph met.

David Music grew up sharing his parents' Christian faith, and he sang in the youth choir of the church his father pastored in Huntington Park, California. His interest in pursuing a vocation in church music was stimulated during a conference he attended as a teenager, where he was inspired by the worship leader, Gene Bartlett.

He completed a BA in music at California Baptist College in 1970. While at Highland Heights, he won the 1980 Norman W. Cox Award "The Introduction of Musical Instruments into Baptist Churches in America." From 2002 until his retirement in 2020, Music was Professor of Church Music at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he served as graduate program director in the School of Music from 2003 to 2012.

Publications Music has edited two collections of primary sources relating to congregational hymn singing. The first, Hymnology: A Collection of Source Readings, was published by The Scarecrow Press in 1996. This includes excerpts from various writings, such as hymnbook prefaces, letters, diaries and theological works, from the second century to the 1960s. Charles Webb, in Church History described this as a "valuable resource" for "both the serious hymnological scholar and the interested 'person in the pew.

This was followed by Instruments in Church: A Collection of Source Documents, published in 1998. This includes sources discussing the use of instruments in congregational worship, from the Old Testament to the 20th century. Lutheran composer and lecturer Carl Schalk described this as an "excellent work" containing "a helpful, useful, and stimulating collection of source documents."

Music has co-written a few books on American hymnody. This includes "I Will Sing the Wondrous Story": A History of Baptist Hymnody in North America, written with Paul A. Richardson and published by Mercer University Press in 2008. This book details the history of congregational singing in Baptist churches, from the earliest American Baptist groups to the present day. It includes discussions of hymnwriters, hymnbooks, music styles, and doctrine. Reviewing the book for The Hymn, Beverly Howard described this as a "definitive work on the history of Baptist hymnody", which is a must-have' for collections in college, university, and seminary libraries."

Music has contributed to a variety of journals, and was editor of The Hymn for six years . He has also written articles for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and The New Grove Dictionary of American Music. He served on the committees for two hymnals: The Baptist Hymnal (1991) and Celebrating Grace (2010). He was also named an Outstanding Professor for Research by Baylor University.

Personal life Music married Doris (née Fugate) in 1971; the couple had met while they were both students at California Baptist College. They have three children.