The Volunteer Organist

"The Volunteer Organist" is a Christian music ballad written by William B. Gray and George Spaulding. Gray wrote the lyrics in 1892. Spaulding added the music, and it was first published in 1893. It was initially published under the pseudonyms W. B. Glenroy and Henry Lamb.

The song tells the story of a Sunday church service. The preacher informs the congregation that their usual organist is ill, and asks for a volunteer to play. A ragged-looking man staggers to the organ. The congregation assumes he is drunk, but he plays a beautiful melody that is more moving than the preacher's sermon. When he finishes, the organist gets up and leaves, while the congregation sits in amazed silence until the preacher asks them to pray.

The song was very popular and led to a variety of adaptations in other media. Gray used the story as the basis of a play in 1901, then used the script from the play as the basis for a novel in 1902. A silent movie of the story was released in 1913.

The expanded versions of the story are set it in a village in Vermont. They focus on the evils of drunkenness and are generally associated with the temperance movement.

External links

• Images of the sheet music from the Levy Sheet Music Collection at Johns Hopkins University
• The Volunteer Organist at Google Books – e-book of the novel