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Henry Thomas Smart

1813 - 1879 Person Name: Henry Smart Composer of "[Little children, Advent bids you]" in The New Children's Hymnal Henry Smart (b. Marylebone, London, England, 1813; d. Hampstead, London, 1879), a capable composer of church music who wrote some very fine hymn tunes (REGENT SQUARE, 354, is the best-known). Smart gave up a career in the legal profession for one in music. Although largely self taught, he became proficient in organ playing and composition, and he was a music teacher and critic. Organist in a number of London churches, including St. Luke's, Old Street (1844-1864), and St. Pancras (1864-1869), Smart was famous for his extemporizations and for his accompaniment of congregational singing. He became completely blind at the age of fifty-two, but his remarkable memory enabled him to continue playing the organ. Fascinated by organs as a youth, Smart designed organs for important places such as St. Andrew Hall in Glasgow and the Town Hall in Leeds. He composed an opera, oratorios, part-songs, some instrumental music, and many hymn tunes, as well as a large number of works for organ and choir. He edited the Choralebook (1858), the English Presbyterian Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867), and the Scottish Presbyterian Hymnal (1875). Some of his hymn tunes were first published in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861). Bert Polman

Anonymous

Person Name: Anon. Composer of "ST. CASIMIR" in Carmina for the Sunday School and Social Worship In some hymnals, the editors noted that a hymn's author is unknown to them, and so this artificial "person" entry is used to reflect that fact. Obviously, the hymns attributed to "Author Unknown" "Unknown" or "Anonymous" could have been written by many people over a span of many centuries.

Henry J. Gauntlett

1805 - 1876 Person Name: H. J. Gauntlett Composer of "MELBOURNE HALL" in The Book of Common Praise Henry J. Gauntlett (b. Wellington, Shropshire, July 9, 1805; d. London, England, February 21, 1876) When he was nine years old, Henry John Gauntlett (b. Wellington, Shropshire, England, 1805; d. Kensington, London, England, 1876) became organist at his father's church in Olney, Buckinghamshire. At his father's insistence he studied law, practicing it until 1844, after which he chose to devote the rest of his life to music. He was an organist in various churches in the London area and became an important figure in the history of British pipe organs. A designer of organs for William Hill's company, Gauntlett extended the organ pedal range and in 1851 took out a patent on electric action for organs. Felix Mendelssohn chose him to play the organ part at the first performance of Elijah in Birmingham, England, in 1846. Gauntlett is said to have composed some ten thousand hymn tunes, most of which have been forgotten. Also a supporter of the use of plainchant in the church, Gauntlett published the Gregorian Hymnal of Matins and Evensong (1844). Bert Polman

Berthold Tours

1838 - 1897 Composer of "ADVENT" in The Children's Hymn Book

Esther Wiglesworth

1827 - 1904 Person Name: E. Wiglesworth Author of "Little children, Advent bids you" in The New Children's Hymnal Wiglesworth, Esther, daughter of Thomas Wiglesworth, was born at 6 Bruce Terrace, Tottenham, Middlesex, in 1827, and is now (1891) Matron of the Magdalen Asylum, Streatham. She has composed a large number of small poetical works, and has contributed numerous hymns and poems to the periodical press. The works from which most of her hymns in common use are taken, are: Verses for the Sundays and Holidays of the Christian Seasons, 1863; (2) Verses for Christian Children, 1871; (3) Hymns for the Feasts, and other Verses, 1878; (4) Songs of Perseverance, 1885, &c. These hymns in common use include:— 1. Almighty Father, God of love. Morning. 2. Father, look upon Thy children. Confirmation. 3. God chooseth out the place. God the Guide. 4. God sets a still small voice. Conscience. 5. How beautiful is earth. Heaven. 6. Little children, Advent bids you. Advent. 7. O Fount of life and beauty. St. Barnabas. 8. Thou Who with dying lips For Orphans. 9. When we in holy worship. Divine Worship. Miss Wiglesworth's hymns are admirably suited, through their simplicity and tenderness, for the use of children. She d. Oct. 31, 1904. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)