The Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) movement took shape in the early 1840s as an offshoot of William Miller’s interdenominational Second Advent Movement (1836–43). In 1863 it was officially organized into a church with a theological emphasis on the second coming of Christ and the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath. From the beginning, these two doctrines shaped SDA music, first in its hymnody and, more recently, in a number of compositional works.

Singing played an important role

The Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) movement took shape in the early 1840s as an offshoot of William Miller’s interdenominational Second Advent Movement (1836–43). In 1863 it was officially organized into a church with a theological emphasis on the second coming of Christ and the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath. From the beginning, these two doctrines shaped SDA music, first in its hymnody and, more recently, in a number of compositional works.

Singing played an important role