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Anonymous

Person Name: Anon. Author of "Through the night of doubt and sorrow" in Praise and Thanks 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.

Thomas John Williams

1869 - 1944 Person Name: Thomas J. Williams, 1869-1944 Composer of "EBENEZER" in Evangelical Lutheran Worship Although his primary vocation was in the insurance business, Thomas John Williams (b. Ynysmeudwy, Glamorganshire, Wales, 1869; d. Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales, 1944) studied with David Evans at Cardiff and later was organist and choirmaster at Zion Chapel (1903-1913) and Calfaria Chapel (1913-1931), both in Llanelly. He composed a number of hymn tunes and a few anthems. Bert Polman

Arthur Sullivan

1842 - 1900 Person Name: A. S. Sullivan Composer of "LUX EOI" in The Church Hymnal Arthur Seymour Sullivan (b Lambeth, London. England. 1842; d. Westminster, London, 1900) was born of an Italian mother and an Irish father who was an army bandmaster and a professor of music. Sullivan entered the Chapel Royal as a chorister in 1854. He was elected as the first Mendelssohn scholar in 1856, when he began his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He also studied at the Leipzig Conservatory (1858-1861) and in 1866 was appointed professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music. Early in his career Sullivan composed oratorios and music for some Shakespeare plays. However, he is best known for writing the music for lyrics by William S. Gilbert, which produced popular operettas such as H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), The Mikado (1884), and Yeomen of the Guard (1888). These operettas satirized the court and everyday life in Victorian times. Although he composed some anthems, in the area of church music Sullivan is best remembered for his hymn tunes, written between 1867 and 1874 and published in The Hymnary (1872) and Church Hymns (1874), both of which he edited. He contributed hymns to A Hymnal Chiefly from The Book of Praise (1867) and to the Presbyterian collection Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867). A complete collection of his hymns and arrangements was published posthumously as Hymn Tunes by Arthur Sullivan (1902). Sullivan steadfastly refused to grant permission to those who wished to make hymn tunes from the popular melodies in his operettas. Bert Polman

Henry Thomas Smart

1813 - 1879 Person Name: H. Smart, 1812—79 Composer of "Through the night of doubt and sorrow" in The Lutheran Hymnary 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

Joseph Haydn

1732 - 1809 Person Name: Franz Joseph Haydn Composer of "AUSTRIAN HYMN" in Redemption Songs Franz Joseph Haydn (b. Rohrau, Austria, 1732; d. Vienna, Austria, 1809) Haydn's life was relatively uneventful, but his artistic legacy was truly astounding. He began his musical career as a choirboy in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, spent some years in that city making a precarious living as a music teacher and composer, and then served as music director for the Esterhazy family from 1761 to 1790. Haydn became a most productive and widely respected composer of symphonies, chamber music, and piano sonatas. In his retirement years he took two extended tours to England, which resulted in his "London" symphonies and (because of G. F. Handel's influence) in oratorios. Haydn's church music includes six great Masses and a few original hymn tunes. Hymnal editors have also arranged hymn tunes from various themes in Haydn's music. Bert Polman

John Stainer

1840 - 1901 Person Name: John Stainer, 1840-1901 Composer of "ALL FOR JESUS" in Complete Mission Praise

William Henry Monk

1823 - 1889 Person Name: W. H. Monk Arranger of "BENEDICTION" in Hymnal Amore Dei William H. Monk (b. Brompton, London, England, 1823; d. London, 1889) is best known for his music editing of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861, 1868; 1875, and 1889 editions). He also adapted music from plainsong and added accompaniments for Introits for Use Throughout the Year, a book issued with that famous hymnal. Beginning in his teenage years, Monk held a number of musical positions. He became choirmaster at King's College in London in 1847 and was organist and choirmaster at St. Matthias, Stoke Newington, from 1852 to 1889, where he was influenced by the Oxford Movement. At St. Matthias, Monk also began daily choral services with the choir leading the congregation in music chosen according to the church year, including psalms chanted to plainsong. He composed over fifty hymn tunes and edited The Scottish Hymnal (1872 edition) and Wordsworth's Hymns for the Holy Year (1862) as well as the periodical Parish Choir (1840-1851). Bert Polman

Lowell Mason

1792 - 1872 Composer of "HARWELL" in The Hymnal of the Evangelical Mission Covenant Church of America Dr. Lowell Mason (the degree was conferred by the University of New York) is justly called the father of American church music; and by his labors were founded the germinating principles of national musical intelligence and knowledge, which afforded a soil upon which all higher musical culture has been founded. To him we owe some of our best ideas in religious church music, elementary musical education, music in the schools, the popularization of classical chorus singing, and the art of teaching music upon the Inductive or Pestalozzian plan. More than that, we owe him no small share of the respect which the profession of music enjoys at the present time as contrasted with the contempt in which it was held a century or more ago. In fact, the entire art of music, as now understood and practiced in America, has derived advantage from the work of this great man. Lowell Mason was born in Medfield, Mass., January 8, 1792. From childhood he had manifested an intense love for music, and had devoted all his spare time and effort to improving himself according to such opportunities as were available to him. At the age of twenty he found himself filling a clerkship in a banking house in Savannah, Ga. Here he lost no opportunity of gratifying his passion for musical advancement, and was fortunate to meet for the first time a thoroughly qualified instructor, in the person of F. L. Abel. Applying his spare hours assiduously to the cultivation of the pursuit to which his passion inclined him, he soon acquired a proficiency that enabled him to enter the field of original composition, and his first work of this kind was embodied in the compilation of a collection of church music, which contained many of his own compositions. The manuscript was offered unavailingly to publishers in Philadelphia and in Boston. Fortunately for our musical advancement it finally secured the attention of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society, and by its committee was submitted to Dr. G. K. Jackson, the severest critic in Boston. Dr. Jackson approved most heartily of the work, and added a few of his own compositions to it. Thus enlarged, it was finally published in 1822 as The Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music. Mason's name was omitted from the publication at his own request, which he thus explains, "I was then a bank officer in Savannah, and did not wish to be known as a musical man, as I had not the least thought of ever making music a profession." President Winchester, of the Handel and Haydn Society, sold the copyright for the young man. Mr. Mason went back to Savannah with probably $500 in his pocket as the preliminary result of his Boston visit. The book soon sprang into universal popularity, being at once adopted by the singing schools of New England, and through this means entering into the church choirs, to whom it opened up a higher field of harmonic beauty. Its career of success ran through some seventeen editions. On realizing this success, Mason determined to accept an invitation to come to Boston and enter upon a musical career. This was in 1826. He was made an honorary member of the Handel and Haydn Society, but declined to accept this, and entered the ranks as an active member. He had been invited to come to Boston by President Winchester and other musical friends and was guaranteed an income of $2,000 a year. He was also appointed, by the influence of these friends, director of music at the Hanover, Green, and Park Street churches, to alternate six months with each congregation. Finally he made a permanent arrangement with the Bowdoin Street Church, and gave up the guarantee, but again friendly influence stepped in and procured for him the position of teller at the American Bank. In 1827 Lowell Mason became president and conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society. It was the beginning of a career that was to win for him as has been already stated the title of "The Father of American Church Music." Although this may seem rather a bold claim it is not too much under the circumstances. Mr. Mason might have been in the average ranks of musicianship had he lived in Europe; in America he was well in advance of his surroundings. It was not too high praise (in spite of Mason's very simple style) when Dr. Jackson wrote of his song collection: "It is much the best book I have seen published in this country, and I do not hesitate to give it my most decided approbation," or that the great contrapuntist, Hauptmann, should say the harmonies of the tunes were dignified and churchlike and that the counterpoint was good, plain, singable and melodious. Charles C. Perkins gives a few of the reasons why Lowell Mason was the very man to lead American music as it then existed. He says, "First and foremost, he was not so very much superior to the members as to be unreasonably impatient at their shortcomings. Second, he was a born teacher, who, by hard work, had fitted himself to give instruction in singing. Third, he was one of themselves, a plain, self-made man, who could understand them and be understood of them." The personality of Dr. Mason was of great use to the art and appreciation of music in this country. He was of strong mind, dignified manners, sensitive, yet sweet and engaging. Prof. Horace Mann, one of the great educators of that day, said he would walk fifty miles to see and hear Mr. Mason teach if he could not otherwise have that advantage. Dr. Mason visited a number of the music schools in Europe, studied their methods, and incorporated the best things in his own work. He founded the Boston Academy of Music. The aim of this institution was to reach the masses and introduce music into the public schools. Dr. Mason resided in Boston from 1826 to 1851, when he removed to New York. Not only Boston benefited directly by this enthusiastic teacher's instruction, but he was constantly traveling to other societies in distant cities and helping their work. He had a notable class at North Reading, Mass., and he went in his later years as far as Rochester, where he trained a chorus of five hundred voices, many of them teachers, and some of them coming long distances to study under him. Before 1810 he had developed his idea of "Teachers' Conventions," and, as in these he had representatives from different states, he made musical missionaries for almost the entire country. He left behind him no less than fifty volumes of musical collections, instruction books, and manuals. As a composer of solid, enduring church music. Dr. Mason was one of the most successful this country has introduced. He was a deeply pious man, and was a communicant of the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Mason in 1817 married Miss Abigail Gregory, of Leesborough, Mass. The family consisted of four sons, Daniel Gregory, Lowell, William and Henry. The two former founded the publishing house of Mason Bros., dissolved by the death of the former in 1869. Lowell and Henry were the founders of the great organ manufacturer of Mason & Hamlin. Dr. William Mason was one of the most eminent musicians that America has yet produced. Dr. Lowell Mason died at "Silverspring," a beautiful residence on the side of Orange Mountain, New Jersey, August 11, 1872, bequeathing his great musical library, much of which had been collected abroad, to Yale College. --Hall, J. H. (c1914). Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company.

Rowland Hugh Prichard

1811 - 1887 Composer of "HYFRYDOL" in Hymns of Hope and Courage Rowland H. Prichard (sometimes spelled Pritchard) (b. Graienyn, near Bala, Merionetshire, Wales, 1811; d. Holywell, Flintshire, Wales, 1887) was a textile worker and an amateur musician. He had a good singing voice and was appointed precentor in Graienyn. Many of his tunes were published in Welsh periodicals. In 1880 Prichard became a loom tender's assistant at the Welsh Flannel Manufacturing Company in Holywell. Bert Polman

Joseph Barnby

1838 - 1896 Composer of "ST. ANDREWS" in Services for Congregational Worship. The New Hymn and Tune Book Joseph Barnby (b. York, England, 1838; d. London, England, 1896) An accomplished and popular choral director in England, Barby showed his musical genius early: he was an organist and choirmaster at the age of twelve. He became organist at St. Andrews, Wells Street, London, where he developed an outstanding choral program (at times nicknamed "the Sunday Opera"). Barnby introduced annual performances of J. S. Bach's St. John Passion in St. Anne's, Soho, and directed the first performance in an English church of the St. Matthew Passion. He was also active in regional music festivals, conducted the Royal Choral Society, and composed and edited music (mainly for Novello and Company). In 1892 he was knighted by Queen Victoria. His compositions include many anthems and service music for the Anglican liturgy, as well as 246 hymn tunes (published posthumously in 1897). He edited four hymnals, including The Hymnary (1872) and The Congregational Sunday School Hymnal (1891), and coedited The Cathedral Psalter (1873). Bert Polman

S. Baring-Gould

1834 - 1924 Person Name: Sabine Baring-Gould Translator of "Through the night of doubt and sorrow" in The Hymnal Baring-Gould, Sabine, M.A., eldest son of Mr. Edward Baring-Gould, of Lew Trenchard, Devon, b. at Exeter, Jan. 28, 1834, and educated at Clare College, Cambridge, B.A. 1857, M.A. 1860. Taking Holy Orders in 1864, he held the curacy of Horbury, near Wakefield, until 1867, when he was preferred to the incumbency of Dalton, Yorks. In 1871 he became rector of East Mersea, Essex, and in 1881 rector of Lew Trenchard, Devon. His works are numerous, the most important of which are, Lives of the Saints, 15 vols., 1872-77; Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 2 series, 1866-68; The Origin and Development of Religious Belief, 2 vols., 1869-1870; and various volumes of sermons. His hymns, original and translated, appeared in the Church Times; Hymns Ancient & Modern, 1868 and 1875; The People's Hymnal, 1867, and other collections, the most popular being "Onward, Christian soldiers," "Daily, daily sing the praises," the translation "Through the night of doubt and sorrow," and the exquisite Easter hymn, "On the Resurrection Morning." His latest effort in hymnology is the publication of original Church Songs, 1884, of which two series have been already issued. In the Sacristy for Nov. 1871, he also contributed nine carols to an article on "The Noels and Carols of French Flanders.” These have been partially transferred to Chope's and Staniforth's Carol Books, and also to his Church Songs. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================== Baring-Gould, S., p. 114, i. Other hymns in common use are:— 1. Forward! said the Prophet. Processional. Appeared in the New Mitre Hymnal, 1874. 2. My Lord, in glory reigning. Christ in Glory. In Mrs. Brock's Children's Hymn Book, 1881. 3. Now severed is Jordan. Processional. Appeared in the S. Mary, Aberdeen, Hymnal, 1866, the People's Hymnal, 1867, &c. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

John Bacchus Dykes

1823 - 1876 Person Name: John Bacchus Dykes, 1823 - 1876 Composer of "ST. OSWALD" in The Hymnary for use in Baptist churches As a young child John Bacchus Dykes (b. Kingston-upon-Hull' England, 1823; d. Ticehurst, Sussex, England, 1876) took violin and piano lessons. At the age of ten he became the organist of St. John's in Hull, where his grandfather was vicar. After receiving a classics degree from St. Catherine College, Cambridge, England, he was ordained in the Church of England in 1847. In 1849 he became the precentor and choir director at Durham Cathedral, where he introduced reforms in the choir by insisting on consistent attendance, increasing rehearsals, and initiating music festivals. He served the parish of St. Oswald in Durham from 1862 until the year of his death. To the chagrin of his bishop, Dykes favored the high church practices associated with the Oxford Movement (choir robes, incense, and the like). A number of his three hundred hymn tunes are still respected as durable examples of Victorian hymnody. Most of his tunes were first published in Chope's Congregational Hymn and Tune Book (1857) and in early editions of the famous British hymnal, Hymns Ancient and Modern. Bert Polman

C. Hubert H. Parry

1848 - 1918 Person Name: Charles H. H. Parry Composer of "RUSTINGTON" in Anglican Hymns Old and New (Rev. and Enl.) Charles Hubert Hastings Parry KnBch/Brnt BMus United Kingdom 1848-1918. Born at Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, England, son of a wealthy director of the East India Company (also a painter, piano and horn musician, and art collector). His mother died of consumption shortly after his birth. His father remarried when he was three, and his stepmother favored her own children over her stepchildren, so he and two siblings were sometimes left out. He attended a preparatory school in Malvern, then at Twyford in Hampshire. He studied music from 1856-58 and became a pianist and composer. His musical interest was encouraged by the headmaster and by two organists. He gained an enduring love for Bach’s music from S S Wesley and took piano and harmony lessons from Edward Brind, who also took him to the ‘Three Choirs Festival in Hereford in 1861, where Mendelssohn, Mozart, Handel, and Beethoven works were performed. That left a great impression on Hubert. It also sparked the beginning of a lifelong association with the festival. That year, his brother was disgraced at Oxford for drug and alcohol use, and his sister, Lucy, died of consumption as well. Both events saddened Hubert. However, he began study at Eton College and distinguished himself at both sport and music. He also began having heart trouble, that would plague him the rest of his life. Eton was not known for its music program, and although some others had interest in music, there were no teachers there that could help Hubert much. He turned to George Elvey, organist of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and started studying with him in 1863. Hubert eventually wrote some anthems for the choir of St George’s Chapel, and eventually earned his music degree. While still at Eton, Hubert sat for the Oxford Bachelor of Music exam, the youngest person ever to have done so. His exam exercise, a cantata: “O Lord, Thou hast cast us out” astonished the Heather Professor of Music, Sir Frederick Ouseley, and was triumphantly performed and published in 1867. In 1867 he left Eton and went to Exeter College, Oxford. He did not study music there, his music concerns taking second place, but read law and modern history. However, he did go to Stuttgart, Germany, at the urging of Henry Hugh Pierson, to learn re-orchestration, leaving him much more critical of Mendelssohn’s works. When he left Exeter College, at his father’s behest, he felt obliged to try insurance work, as his father considered music only a pastime (too uncertain as a profession). He became an underwriter at Lloyd’s of London, 1870-77, but he found the work unappealing to his interests and inclinations. In 1872 he married Elizabeth Maude Herbert, and they had two daughters: Dorothea and Gwendolen. His in-laws agreed with his father that a conventional career was best, but it did not suit him. He began studying advanced piano with W S Bennett, but found it insufficient. He then took lessons with Edward Dannreuther, a wise and sympathetic teacher, who taught him of Wagner’s music. At the same time as Hubert’s compositions were coming to public notice (1875), he became a scholar of George Grove and soon an assistant editor for his new “Dictionary of Music and Musicians”. He contributed 123 articles to it. His own first work appeared in 1880. In 1883 he became professor of composition and musical history at the Royal College of Music (of which Grove was the head). In 1895 Parry succeeded Grove as head of the college, remaining in the post the remainder of his life. He also succeeded John Stainer as Heather Professor of Music at the University of Oxford (1900-1908). His academic duties were considerable and likely prevented him from composing as much as he might have. However, he was rated a very fine composer, nontheless, of orchestrations, overtures, symphonies, and other music. He only attempted one opera, deemed unsuccessful. Edward Elgar learned much of his craft from Parry’s articles in Grove’s Dictionary, and from those who studied under Parry at the Royal College, including Ralph Vaughn Williams, Gustav Holst, Frank Bridge, and John Ireland. Parry had the ability when teaching music to ascertain a student’s potential for creativity and direct it positively. In 1902 he was created a Baronet of Highnam Court in Gloucester. Parry was also an avid sailor and owned several yachts, becoming a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1908, the only composer so honored. He was a Darwinian and a humanist. His daughter reiterated his liberal, non-conventional thinking. On medical advice he resigned his Oxford appointment in 1908 and produced some of his best known works. He and his wife were taken up with the ‘Suffrage Movement’ in 1916. He hated to see the WW1 ravage young potential musical talent from England and Germany. In 1918 he contracted Spanish flu during the global pandemic and died at Knightsscroft, Rustington, West Sussex. In 2015 they found 70 unpublished works of Parry’s hidden away in a family archive. It is thought some may never have been performed in public. The documents were sold at auction for a large sum. Other works he wrote include: “Studies of great composers” (1886), “The art of music” (1893), “The evolution of the art of music” (1896), “The music of the 17th century” (1902). His best known work is probably his 1909 study of “Johann Sebastian Bach”. John Perry

John Zundel

1815 - 1882 Composer of "BEECHER" in Timeless Truths John Zundel; b. 1815, near Stuttgart, Germany; organist in Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1847 to 1878; d. Cannstadt, Germany, 1882 Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal, 1908

Bernhard Severin Ingemann

1789 - 1862 Person Name: Bernhard S. Ingemann Author of "Through the night of doubt and sorrow" in The Hymnal Ingemann, Bernhardt Severin, was born at Thor Kildstrup, Island of Falster, May 28, 1789. From 1822 to his death in 1862, he was Professor of the Danish Language and Literature at the Academy of Sorö, Zealand, Denmark. He was a poet of some eminence. His collected works were pub, in 1851, in 34 volumes. Seven of his hymns translated into English are given in Gilbert Tait's Hymns of Denmark, 1868. The only hymn by him in English common use is:— Igjennem Nat og Traengael. Unity and Progress. It is dated 1825, and is given in the Nyt Tillaeg til Evangelisk-christelig. Psalmebog, Copenhagen, 1859, No. 502. In its translated form as "Through the night of doubt and sorrow," by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, it has become widely known in most English-speaking countries. The translation was published in the People's Hymnal, 1861. It was greatly improved in Hymns Ancient & Modern, 1875, and has been specially set to music by several composers. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

W. H. Jude

1851 - 1922 Person Name: William Herbert Jude, 1851- Composer of "GALILEE (JUDE)" in The Book of Praise William Herbert Jude United Kingdom 1851-1922. Born at Westleton, Suffolk, England, his family moved to Norfolk. A precocious child, by age eight he was composing music for school plays. Educated at the Liverpool Organ School and East Liverpool College of Music, he became college principal for awhile. He married Catherine Helena Haigh. They had no children. He became a composer, editor, and organist. He was organist for the Blue Coat Hospital & School and Stretford Town Hall near Manchester, while teaching and lecturing. After 20 years there he was appointed organist at the Exeter Hall in London, a primary venue and Christian Centre owned by the YMCA on the Strand in London. As a recitalist, he was asked to “open” over 1000 new organs across the UK, Ireland, and Australia. He was considered the most brilliant organist of his day. He wrote at least two operettas: “Innocents abroad” (1882) and “The mighty deep” (1917). His compositions were frequently religious. He admired British evangelist, Rodney “Gipsy” Smith and published a collection of Smith’s favorite solos in 1903. He also supported the temperance movement. He toured Australia and New Zealand 1890-1894. In 1904 he served as editor for several musical periodicals, including “Monthly Hymnal”, “Minister of music”, and “The Higher life”. He also compiled several hymnbooks, including “Mission hymns” (1911”), and “Festival hymns” (1916). He wrote a number of works on music. He died in London. John Perry

W. Arnold

1768 - 1832 Person Name: William Arnold Composer of "MIDDLETON" in Book of Worship with Hymns and Tunes

Martin Shaw

1875 - 1958 Composer of "MARCHING" in Rejoice in the Lord Martin F. Shaw was educated at the Royal College of Music in London and was organist and choirmaster at St. Mary's, Primrose Hill (1908-1920), St. Martin's in the Fields (1920-1924), and the Eccleston Guild House (1924-1935). From 1935 to 1945 he served as music director for the diocese of Chelmsford. He established the Purcell Operatic Society and was a founder of the Plainsong and Medieval Society and what later became the Royal Society of Church Music. Author of The Principles of English Church Music Composition (1921), Shaw was a notable reformer of English church music. He worked with Percy Dearmer (his rector at St. Mary's in Primrose Hill); Ralph Vaughan Williams, and his brother Geoffrey Shaw in publishing hymnals such as Songs of Praise (1925, 1931) and the Oxford Book of Carols (1928). A leader in the revival of English opera and folk music scholarship, Shaw composed some one hundred songs as well as anthems and service music; some of his best hymn tunes were published in his Additional Tunes in Use at St. Mary's (1915). Bert Polman

Richard Hillert

1923 - 2010 Person Name: Richard W. Hillert, b. 1923 Arranger of "EBENEZER" in Evangelical Lutheran Worship Richard Hillert was born in Granton, Clark County, Wis., on March 14, 1923. There he attended parochial and public schools and later enrolled at Concordia Teachers College (now Concordia University Chicago), River Forest, where he received the Bachelor of Science degree in Education. He served as teacher and music director for parishes in St. Louis, Mo., Wausau, Wis., and Chicago and Westchester, Ill. He received both the Master of Music and the Doctor of Music degrees in composition from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. His teachers included Matthew Nathaniel Lundquist, Anthony Donato, Alan Stout, Arrand Parsons, Emil Nolte, and John Ohl. He studied composition with the Italian composer, Goffredo Petrassi, at Aaron Copland’s Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood, Mass. Richard Hillert was a noted Lutheran composer. He was Distinguished Professor of Music Emeritus at Concordia University Chicago, River Forest, Ill. He was best known for his work as a composer and teacher of composition. Among his most frequently performed liturgical works for congregation is Worthy Is Christ, with its antiphon, “This is the Feast of Victory” which was written as an alternate Song of Praise for inclusion in Setting One of the Holy Communion in Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982). "This is the Feast" is now widely published in more than 20 recent worship books of many denominations, most recently in Lutheran Service Book (2006) and Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006). Other major liturgical works include a setting of Evening Prayer (1984) and a Eucharistic Festival Liturgy (1983), which was first performed at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. He wrote liturgical pieces and hymns and served as music editor for Worship Supplement(1969) and Lutheran Book of Worship (1978). His compositions and publications include an array of pieces of liturgical music for congregation, choral motets, hymns and hymn anthems, psalm settings and organ works, concertatos, and cantatas, including settings of The Christmas Story According to Saint Luke and The Passion According to Saint John. He edited eleven volumes of the Concordia Hymn Prelude Series. Hillert's career as Professor of Music at Concordia (now Concordia University Chicago) spanned four decades, from 1959 to 1993. During this time he taught classes in music theory and composition, music literature, 20th century music, orchestration, keyboard instruction, comparative arts and liturgical worship. He served in various capacities in the music department, as chair in 1964-65 and from 1986–89, as coordinator of the Master of Church Music program, and as associate editor of the journal Church Music (1966–80). Non-liturgical compositions include symphonic works for orchestra (Symphony in Three Movements, Variations for Orchestra, Suite for Strings), chamber works for small orchestra and ensembles (Alternations for Seven Instruments, Divertimento I and II) as well as many works for keyboard, instrumental solos and songs. The latter include Sonata for Piano (1961), a violin sonata, and two sonatas for flute and keyboard. Major organ works include Prelude and Toccata, Ricercata, Passacaglia on Innocent Sounds, Partita on Picardy, and Partita on Atkinson. There are also concert works with sacred texts, such as Five Canticles from the Exodus (1958), Te Deum for two pianos, percussion, and wind instruments (1962), The Alleluiatic Sequence (1980), and Seven Psalms of Grace for baritone solo and chamber orchestra (1998). Extended choral works, many written for Concordia’s Kapelle conducted by Thomas Gieschen, include the Cantata: "May God Bestow on Us His Grace" (1964), "Motet for the Day of Pentecost" for choir, vibraphone, and prepared electronic tape (written for the round-the-world tour in 1969), "Motet for the Time of Easter" for double choir, percussion, and harp (1971), and "Agnus Dei" for three choirs and percussion instruments (1974). Richard Hillert authored numerous scholarly articles and reviews for the periodicals such as Church Music, CrossAccent, and Currents in Theology and Mission, and other professional books and journals. He received an honorary Doctor of Sacred Music degree from Valparaiso University, and honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from Concordia University at Seward, Nebraska, and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He was an honorary life member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. His former students throughout the land have careers as practicing church musicians, elementary and secondary school teachers, teachers in higher education, music editors and publishers, and composers. Richard Hillert was married to Gloria Bonnin Hillert. They had three children: Kathryn Brewer, Virginia and Jonathan Hillert. --en.wikipedia.org

David Evans

1874 - 1948 Harmonizer of "GWALIA" in The Hymnary for use in Baptist churches David Evans (b. Resolven, Glamorganshire, Wales, 1874; d. Rosllannerchrugog, Denbighshire, Wales, 1948) was an important leader in Welsh church music. Educated at Arnold College, Swansea, and at University College, Cardiff, he received a doctorate in music from Oxford University. His longest professional post was as professor of music at University College in Cardiff (1903-1939), where he organized a large music department. He was also a well-known and respected judge at Welsh hymn-singing festivals and a composer of many orchestral and choral works, anthems, service music, and hymn tunes. Bert Polman

James Langran

1835 - 1909 Composer of "DEERHURST" in Hymns of the Kingdom of God James Langran (b. St. Pancras, London, England, November 10, 1835; d. Tottenham, London, England, June 8, 1909) studied organ as a youth but did not receive his Bachelor of Music degree from Oxford until he was forty-nine years old. He had several organist positions–the longest was at St. Paul's Church, Tottenham, England, from 1870 to 1909. He also taught music at St. Katherine's Training College for Schoolmistresses (1878-1909). Music editor of theNew Mitre Hymnal　(1875), Langran composed around fifty hymn tunes and contributed several of them to early editions of Hymns Ancient and Modern. Bert Polman

Robert Schumann

1810 - 1856 Person Name: Schumann Composer of "GADE" in The Riverdale Hymn Book Robert Alexander Schumann DM Germany 1810-1856. Born at Swickau, Saxony, Germany, the last child of a novelist, bookseller, and publisher, he began composing music at age seven. He received general music instruction at the local high school and worked to create his own compositions. Some of his works were considered admirable for his age. He even composed music congruent to the personalities of friends, who took note of the anomaly. He studied famous poets and philosophers and was impressed with the works of other famous composers of the time. After his father’s death in 1826, he went to Leipzig to study law (to meet the terms of his inheritance). In 1829 he continued law studies in Heidelberg, where he became a lifelong member of Corps Saxo-Borussia Heidelberg. In 1830 he left the study of law to return to music, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. His teacher, Friedrich Wieck, assured him he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but an injury to his right hand (from a practicing method) ended that dream. He then focused his energies on composition, and studied under Heinrich Dorn, a German composer and conductor of the Leipzig opera. Schumann visited relatives in Zwickau and Schneeberg and performed at a concert given by Clara Wieck, age 13 at the time. In 1834 he published ‘A new journal for music’, praising some past composers and deriding others. He met Felix Mendelssohn at Wieck’s house in Leigzig and lauded the greatness of his compositions, along with those of Johannes Brahms. He also wrote a work, hoping to use proceeds from its sale towards a monument for Beethoven, whom he highly admired. He composed symphonies, operas, orchestral and chamber works, and also wrote biographies. Until 1840 he wrote strictly for piano, but then began composing for orchestra and voice. That year he composed 168 songs. He also receive a Doctorate degree from the University of Jena that year. An aesthete and influential music critic, he was one of the most regarded composers of the Romantic era. He published his works in the ‘New journal for music’, which he co-founded. In 1840, against the wishes of his father, he married Clara Wieck, daughter of his former teacher, and they had four children: Marie, Julie, Eugenie, and Felix. Clara also composed music and had a considerable concert career, the earnings from which formed a substantial part of her father’s fortune. In 1841 he wrote 2 of his 4 symphonies. In 1843 he was awarded a professorship in the Conservatory of Music, which Mendelssohn had founded in Leipzig that same year, When he and Clara went to Russia for her performances, he was questioned as to whether he also was a musician. He harbored resentment for her success as a pianist, which exceeded his ability as a pianist and reputation as a composer. From 1844-1853 he was engaged in setting Goethe’s Faust to music, but he began having persistent nervous prostration and developed neurasthenia (nervous fears of things, like metal objects and drugs). In 1846 he felt he had recovered and began traveling to Vienna, Prague, and Berlin, where he was received with enthusiasm. His only opera was written in 1848, and an orchestral work in 1849. In 1850 he succeeded Ferdinand Hiller as musical director at Dusseldorf, but was a poor conductor and soon aroused the opposition of the musicians, claiming he was impossible on the platform. From 1850-1854 he composed a wide variety of genres, but critics have considered his works during this period inferior to earlier works. In 1851 he visited Switzerland, Belgium, and returned to Leipzig. That year he finished his fourth symphony. He then went to Dusseldorf and began editing his complete works and making an anthology on the subject of music. He again was plagued with imaginary voices (angels, ghosts or demons) and in 1854 jumped off a bridge into the Rhine River, but was rescued by boatmen and taken home. For the last two years of his life, after the attempted suicide, Schumann was confined to a sanitarium in Endenich near Bonn, at his own request, and his wife was not allowed to see him. She finally saw him two days before he died, but he was unable to speak. He was diagnosed with psychotic melancholia, but died of pneumonia without recovering from the mental illness. Speculations as to the cause of his late term maladies was that he may have suffered from syphilis, contracted early in life, and treated with mercury, unknown as a neurological poison at the time. A report on his autopsy said he had a tumor at the base of the brain. It is also surmised he may have had bipolar disorder, accounting for mood swings and changes in his productivity. From the time of his death Clara devoted herself to the performance and interpretation of her husband’s works. John Perry

John E. Roe

1838 - 1871 Person Name: J. P. Roe Composer of "WESTON" in Songs of Praise and Prayer

William S. Bambridge

1842 - 1923 Composer of "ST ASAPH " in The Hymnal

Roger Mayor

b. 1951 Arranger of "ALL FOR JESUS" in Complete Mission Praise

H. B. K.

Person Name: H.B.K. Harmonizer of "[Through the night of doubt and sorrow]" in 50 Favorite Dutch Hymns

Johann Rosenmüller

1619 - 1684 Person Name: T. Rosenmüller Composer of "WORLD, FAREWELL! OF THE I'M WEARY" in Christian Hymns Johann Rosenmueller, b. about 1615, Kursachsen; d. 1686, Wolfenbuettel Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal, 1908

George C. Martin

1844 - 1916 Person Name: Sir G. C. Martin, 1844-1916 Composer of "KAWARTHA" in Methodist Hymn and Tune Book

R. DeWitt Mallary

1851 - 1911 Composer of "BEECROFT" in The New Laudes Domini Born: September 28, 1851. Died: January 29, 1911, Springfield, Massachusetts. Buried: Church on the Hill Cemetery, Lenox, Massachusetts. Music: ELMCROFT MALLARY SOJOURNER WORTHINGTON http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/m/a/l/mallary_rd.htm

B. Schumacher

1886 - 1978 Person Name: Bernhard Schumacher Composer of "BALTIMORE" in The Lutheran Hymnal Bernhard Schumacher wrote a 4th stanza to "Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds" which appears in Evangelical Lutheran Humnary, 1996, #180 and Lutheran Service Book, 2006, #867.

John Knowles Paine

1839 - 1906 Person Name: J. K. Paine Composer of "HARVARD HYMN" in The Church Hymnal

John Frederick Bridge

Person Name: J. Frederick Bridge Arranger of "PILGRIM BROTHERS" in The University Hymn Book See Bridge, Frederick, Sir, 1844-1924

Alfred Ernest Whitehead

1887 - 1974 Person Name: Alfred Whitehead Composer of "MONTREAL" in The Book of Common Praise Whitehead, Alfred. (Peterborough, England, July 10, 1887--April 1, 1974, Amherst, Nova Scotia). Anglican. A.R.C.O., 1909; University of Toronto, Mus.Bac., 1916; McGill University (Montreal), Mus.Doc., 1922; F.R.C.O., 1924. Organist, Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, 1922-1947; dean of music, Mount Allison University (Sackville, New Brunswick), 1947-1953. He composed over 400 works for organ and for choir, occasionally writing for the latter lyrics which proved equally suitable for congregational singing. These, however, remain incidental to his work in educating and inspiring young church musicians. --Hugh D. McKellar, DNAH Archives

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