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William Booth saw music as a means to an end. Christian music should attract people and speak the message of salvation to their hearts.

To Booth, music in and of itself had no moral force. The spiritual power of the associated texts, regardless of the tunes chosen (the contrast ranged from revivalist hymns to tavern-room ballads), made all the difference. Booth’s approach to music was direct, simple, and practical. He advocated music that is attractive, carries a solid message, and, in the process, avoids the dangers of “sophisticated” church music making.

At its Fourth International Congress (1914), held two years after the founder’s death, The Salvation Army could boast 1,674 brass bands (26,000 players) and 13,000 “songsters” (choir members) in 56 countries. The brass and vocal music of The Salvation Army was becoming a vast repertoire of published literature unmatched in the twentieth century by any other Protestant denomination. Today, many Army musicians and composers hold professional status at the top of their fields, and the best of their bands and songster brigades are truly excellent.

This was not part of William Booth’s early vision for “salvation music.” As in so much of Salvation Army history, growth occurred with no true human planning. Followers of Booth caught his dream of evangelizing the world and developed musical endeavors to aid in this holy task. Booth provided administrative controls, many times improvising as he and his staff kept pace with the phenomenal explosion of musical activity that accompanied the growth of his mission.

Beginning in 1865, William Booth’s East London Christian Mission used musical tactics that would become inseparable from the idea of a “Salvation Army” (particularly with the addition of brass bands in 1878). Writing in his journal in the fall of 1865, Booth described his pioneer work and the role of music in it:

“Evening [Service], from half past five to seven. Mile-end-road; excellent service. Hundreds appeared to listen with undivided attention. The Word was with power. Every sentence seemed to penetrate the hearts of the listening throng. We then formed a procession and sang down White-chapel Road to the Room [a rented ‘Dancing Room’]. We had an efficient band of singers, and as we passed along the spacious and crowded thoroughfare, singing, ‘We’re bound for the land of the pure and the holy,” the people ran from every side. From the adjacent gin palaces the drinkers came forth to hear and see; some in mockery joined our ranks, some laughed and sneered, some were angry, the great majority looked on in wonder, while others turned and accompanied us, as on we went, changing our song to ‘There is a Fountain filled with blood,’ and then to ‘With a turning from sin, let repentance begin.’ ”

Booth’s Christian Mission, as it was called by September of 1869, grew large enough by the early 1870s for Booth and his wife, Catherine, to compile several hymnbooks: The Christian Mission Hymnbook, Hymns for Special Services, The Penny Revival Hymn Book, and The Children’s Mission Hymn Book. In 1876 The Christian Mission Hymn Book contained 531 standard hymns, spirituals, and songs set to popular and national tunes.

In 1878, the Fry family brass quartet aided Army evangelists in the city of Salisbury. Brass bands sprang up within the next few years all over the country—a natural consequence of the musical interests of many of the converts. There was no systematic organization at first. While William Booth cautiously pondered the impact of this new evangelistic tool, his enthusiastic followers went forward.

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