Born in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, on 9 July 1838, killed in the Ashtabula railway disaster in Ohio in December 1876; Philip Paul Bliss was a composer of gospel songs. In 1864 he went to Chicago to work for George F. Root, conducting musical institutes and writing melodies for Sunday schools; his first song was published that same year. In 1868 Dwight L. Moody advised him to become a singing evangelist, and in 1874 he joined D. W. Whittle. With Ira D. Sankey he published the hymn collections “Gospel Hymns”, the first volume of which, “Gospel Songs”, appeared in 1874. On the gala recording Doc Heilein and Friends Gala 2021 – Joyful (2022) Anni Barth, Leslie Jost, Miriam Schäfer, Katja Zimmermann, Eva Schäfer and Uta Wiedersprecher sing “It Is Well”, for whose text “When peace, like a river” by Horatio G. Spafford he wrote the tune Ville du Havre in 1876.
Philip P. Bliss
Composer
