Rev. Elkanah Kelsay Dare

American Methodist minister, freemason, educator, & musician. Dean of boys at Wilmington College, Delaware. All of his original compositions can be traced back to the popular Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1820.

In Irving Lowens introduction to the reproduction of Part Second, he proposes that Rev. Dare was the musical mind behind this shape-note hymnal. His reasons are sound:

  1. Its editor John Wyeth lacked musical training.
  2. Dare is the author of thirteen of the new tunes in the book.
  3. Wyeth quotes Dare at length in the introduction.

Timeline

born:
1782
died:
1826