Introduction

Biography

Robert was the son of Eras­tus Gil­more Mc­Cutch­an and Mar­ga­ret An­der­son Edie. He mar­ried twice: to Car­rie Burns Sharp (1904, Cla­ri­nda, Io­wa), and Lau­ra Cowles (af­ter 1940, Pa­sa­dena, Ca­li­for­nia).

A not­ed hym­nol­o­gist, he stu­died at Park Col­lege, Park­ville, Mis­sou­ri, and Simp­son College, In­di­an­o­la, Io­wa (BM 1904).

He went on to teach voice at Bak­er Uni­ver­si­ty in Bald­win, Kan­sas, and found­ed the con­ser­va­to­ry of mu­sic there in 1910.

After fur­ther stu­dy in Ger­ma­ny and France, in 1911 he be­came dean of mu­sic at De­Pauw Uni­ver­si­ty in Green­cas­tle, In­di­ana, serv­ing there 26 years.

Works

McCutchan helped com­pile the 1936 Me­tho­dist Hym­nal. His oth­er works in­clude:

• Better Mu­sic in Our Church­es, 1925
• Music in Wor­ship, 1927
• American Jun­ior and Church School Hym­nal, 1928
• The Del­uge of New Hym­nals (re­print from M.T.N.A. Pro­ceed­ings, 1933)
• American Church Mu­sic Com­po­sers of the Ear­ly Nine­teenth Cen­tu­ry, Church His­to­ry, Sep­tem­ber 1933
• The Con­gre­ga­tion’s Part in the Of­fice of Mu­sic Wor­ship (North­west­ern Uni­ver­si­ty, 1934)
• Our Hym­no­dy (New York: The Me­tho­dist Book Con­cern, 1937)
• Aldersgate, 1738–1938, 1938
• Hymns in the Lives of Men (New York: Ab­ing­don-Cokes­bu­ry Press, 1943)
• Hymns of the Am­er­ican Fron­tier, 1950
• Hymn Tune Names: Their Sourc­es and Sig­nif­i­cance, 1957