When starting a new business venture, first things first: write the business plan! And so it was on January 8, 1989 that I began the task in earnest. My sights were dead on about creating exquisite Christmas music collections. Here I come Reader’s Digest and Time-Life!
I was determined to go one better than both of these direct marketing titans by assembling a more eclectic, larger, and inclusive Christmas music and carol collections. And it would be packaged with a wonderful book with the fascinating stories behind each Christmas carol, instrumental piece, and holiday song.
The question: What should I title my grand collection? After scribbling down a number of variations, I settled upon “A Christmas Festival of Great Music, Songs, and Carols” as the working title.
My business plan’s mission statement was “To form a Sub-chapter S Corporation for the purpose of launching ‘A CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL OF GREAT MUSIC, SONGS & CAROLS,’ a combination Christmas book/audio product, and to make it the best-selling product in its niche market that will produce significant profit margins and an annual investment return of 20-25%.” I envisioned my ne plus ultra collection was going to sell like hotcakes! Revenues were anticipated to run into the millions and the collection would be sold throughout the Christian world – especially in North America and Europe.
After the blueprint of action was completed, I planned on launching eleven distinct collections. The initial focus was to develop the deluxe collection that would be comprised of one hundred and eighty-five titles. After its projected launch into the Christmas music market, ten smaller collections including material from the deluxe model were to follow. There was a problem with this business model, however, and it would rear its head in the future.
In the meantime, the agenda called for doing the requisite research on the origins and stories of Christmas music. It was done the old fashion way with pen, pencil, and paper, and typewriter before I conceded to modernism and purchased a computer. And it was during this phase of eleven years when the Music Department staff of the Free Library of Philadelphia found a frequent visitor parked in their midst.
SPECIAL PERSON OF THE DAY - James Ramsey Murray (March 7, 1841 – March 10, 1905)
James Ramsey Murray was the likely composer of the more familiar music for the Christmas carol Away in a Manger. The tender lullaby was once thought to have been composed by Martin Luther (1483-1546), the great German religious reformer, and it was often referred to as Luther’s Cradle Hymn. However, by the 1940s it was proven conclusively that the music had actually been composed by James Ramsey Murray, supposedly the same person who perpetrated the myth of Luther’s Cradle Hymn. Murray, who might also have used the pseudonym of Mueller, a name totally untraceable yet found in association with “Away in a Manger” in many hymnals, probably allowed his fanciful imagination to get the better of him, certainly not the first time that someone got enthusiastic about the Christmas experience, and his lullaby was included in an 1887 Cincinnati collection called Dainty Songs for Lads and Lasses.
Born in Andover, Massachusetts, Murray studied at the Musical Institute in North Reading of his home state, along with Lowell Mason, a composer noted for his association with the carol Joy to the World. During the Civil War Murray served as an army musician, and after the war he worked in Chicago for the Root and Cady publishing house as editor of the Song Messenger. He remained with that company until the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, after which he returned to Andover to teach music in the public schools. It was also in Chicago where Charles H. Gabriel, the music director of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, discovered another version of Away in a Manger in 1892.
Eventually Murray moved to Cincinnati where he was editor of music books, including the Musical Visitor, published by the John Church Company. It was while there he came upon Away in a Manger, which was probably composed in the mid-19th century and passed down orally through the years.
Today Murray rests in peace in Section 71, Lot 207 at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.
James R. Murray grave
