The Gibble Quartet

A trio of the older Lloyd B. and Ruth M. Gibble children was formed as a result of requests for special music at worship services at the Second Church of the Brethren, York, PA. Our parents were contacted to learn whether the oldest siblings of the then six Gibble children would sing in church on an occasional basis. The oldest children were taking piano lessons at that time and could read music. They also sang in the Junior Chorus at church. There was an agreement reached and a "Gibble Trio" was formed. They performed regularly at the Worship Services as a trio at Second Church and many other Churches of the Brethren in the York, Adams and Lancaster County, PA areas. June was age 9, Marvin-7 and Lawrence-6 when they organized. They could all read music and interpret the writer's feelings and their voices blended well.

Three years later, when Wilbur became 6 years of age, the group reorganized into a quartet format. More music was available for quartets, and more requests were made for them to sing at other churches. As the boys' voices matured, various shifts were made to music arrangements and pitches were adjusted to provide quality music. The quartet evolved to its final make up. June sang First Tenor; Wilbur sang Second Tenor; Lawrence sang First Bass; and Marvin sang Second Bass.

The quartet continued until Marvin went into Brethren Volunteer Service in 1958, leaving the area. In the ensuing years, the four members became involved in other musical groups and quartet music became largely a thing of the past.

The recording was made at the WNOW-AM Radio studios on S. Duke Street, probably in 1955. The radio station was hesitant to provide the recording service, but did so at our request. The 78 RPM master recording was not of a high quality, but our voices were captured, which was the dream of their Mother.

The quartet members, now in their 60s and 70s are still actively involved in music in other forms, singing in church groups and in community organizations.

The recording was edited by Jay Gibble to reduce the many background noises found on the original recording. We are indebted to Jay for his signal processing prowess, enhancing the recording to its present state.

Larry Gibble
January 28, 2006

The Music

Pictures

The members of the Gibble Quartet (recent photo)
Clockwise from 12:00: Larry, Wil, June, Marvin

The Gibble Quartet in the stylish 70's
From left to right: Larry, Wil, Marvin, June

O The Glory Did Roll

Source

I was kneeling one day asking God to forgive me
I was deep in despair, had no peace within
I surrendered my all unto Jesus my savior
then the glory came down I was saved from sin

O the glory did roll, I was happy and free
I had heard a sweet voice speaking pardon to me
such a wonderful joy I was given within
when the savior in love saved me from all sin

I will praise his dear name for the wonderful victory
and with joy in my heart all along the way
I am longing see heaven's glorious city
and to hear the Lord call "Come and live for aye"

O the glory did roll, I was happy and free
I had heard a sweet voice speaking pardon to me
such a wonderful joy I was given within

Rock of Ages Hide Thou Me

Source

Sometimes I feel discouraged and think my life in vain,
I'm tempted oft to murmer, to grumble and complain;
But when I think of Jesus and what He's done for me,
Then I cry, to the Rock of Ages, hide thou me.

O Rock of Ages, hide thou me,
There is no other refuge, none, none but thee;
Through this old world I wandered so far, far from thee,
Then I cry, to the Rock of Ages, hide thou me.

O Rock of Ages, hide thou me,
There is no other refuge, none, none but thee;
Through this old world I wandered so far, far from thee,
Then I cry, to the Rock of Ages, hide thou me.

Then I cry, to the Rock of Ages, hide thou me!

Jay's notes

Here are the cuts from the 78 RPM record. I found an old 78 record player, and recorded the tracks onto my MP3 player/recorder (for you recording weenies I recorded using WAV format so there was no MP3 compression during the acquisition process). I loaded the files (one per album side) onto my computer and edited them using GoldWave, to cut the files into tracks and to test various noise reduction algorithms. I ended up selecting a lowpass filter with cutoff frequency of 3200 Hz and a pretty steep falloff (a magic factor of 10 in the GoldWave editor). The filter removes most of the hiss, without muffling the vocals noticeably (although they're pretty muffled already on the original).

The third track "O The Glory Did Roll" is of lower quality compared to the others. I think that part got more use than the rest of the record, because it is such a catchy tune. During this cut the record clearly skipped at least once, and there are a few seconds where the sound is a little distorted. Sorry about that.

Enjoy!