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Johann Sebastian Bach

1685 - 1750 Person Name: J. S. Bach Harmonizer of "ERHALT UNS, HERR" in The Presbyterian Hymnal Johann Sebastian Bach was born at Eisenach into a musical family and in a town steeped in Reformation history, he received early musical training from his father and older brother, and elementary education in the classical school Luther had earlier attended. Throughout his life he made extraordinary efforts to learn from other musicians. At 15 he walked to Lüneburg to work as a chorister and study at the convent school of St. Michael. From there he walked 30 miles to Hamburg to hear Johann Reinken, and 60 miles to Celle to become familiar with French composition and performance traditions. Once he obtained a month's leave from his job to hear Buxtehude, but stayed nearly four months. He arranged compositions from Vivaldi and other Italian masters. His own compositions spanned almost every musical form then known (Opera was the notable exception). In his own time, Bach was highly regarded as organist and teacher, his compositions being circulated as models of contrapuntal technique. Four of his children achieved careers as composers; Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, and Chopin are only a few of the best known of the musicians that confessed a major debt to Bach's work in their own musical development. Mendelssohn began re-introducing Bach's music into the concert repertoire, where it has come to attract admiration and even veneration for its own sake. After 20 years of successful work in several posts, Bach became cantor of the Thomas-schule in Leipzig, and remained there for the remaining 27 years of his life, concentrating on church music for the Lutheran service: over 200 cantatas, four passion settings, a Mass, and hundreds of chorale settings, harmonizations, preludes, and arrangements. He edited the tunes for Schemelli's Musicalisches Gesangbuch, contributing 16 original tunes. His choral harmonizations remain a staple for studies of composition and harmony. Additional melodies from his works have been adapted as hymn tunes. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Anonymous

Composer of "ROCKINGHAM" in Chalice Hymnal 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.

Ronald F. Krisman

Person Name: Ronald F. Krisman, b. 1946 Harmonizer of "ERHALT UNS HERR" in Worship (4th ed.)

Fred Pratt Green

1903 - 2000 Person Name: Frederick Pratt Green Author of "O Christ, The Healer" in The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada The name of the Rev. F. Pratt Green is one of the best-known of the contemporary school of hymnwriters in the British Isles. His name and writings appear in practically every new hymnal and "hymn supplement" wherever English is spoken and sung. And now they are appearing in American hymnals, poetry magazines, and anthologies. Mr. Green was born in Liverpool, England, in 1903. Ordained in the British Methodist ministry, he has been pastor and district superintendent in Brighton and York, and now served in Norwich. There he continued to write new hymns "that fill the gap between the hymns of the first part of this century and the 'far-out' compositions that have crowded into some churches in the last decade or more." --Seven New Hymns of Hope , 1971. Used by permission.

Samuel Webbe

1740 - 1816 Person Name: Samuel Webbe, 1740 - 1816 Composer of "MELCOMBE" in The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada Samuel Webbe (the elder; b. London, England, 1740; d. London, 1816) Webbe's father died soon after Samuel was born without providing financial security for the family. Thus Webbe received little education and was apprenticed to a cabinetmaker at the age of eleven. However, he was determined to study and taught himself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, German, and Italian while working on his apprenticeship. He also worked as a music copyist and received musical training from Carl Barbant, organist at the Bavarian Embassy. Restricted at this time in England, Roman Catholic worship was freely permitted in the foreign embassies. Because Webbe was Roman Catholic, he became organist at the Portuguese Chapel and later at the Sardinian and Spanish chapels in their respective embassies. He wrote much music for Roman Catholic services and composed hymn tunes, motets, and madrigals. Webbe is considered an outstanding composer of glees and catches, as is evident in his nine published collections of these smaller choral works. He also published A Collection of Sacred Music (c. 1790), A Collection of Masses for Small Choirs (1792), and, with his son Samuel (the younger), Antiphons in Six Books of Anthems (1818). Bert Polman

Edward Miller

1735 - 1807 Harmonizer of "ROCKINGHAM" in Chalice Hymnal Edward Miller, Born in the United Kingdom. The son of a pavior (stone paver), Miller left home to study music at King's Lynn. He was a flautist in Handel's orchestra. In 1752 he published “Six Solos for the German Flute”. In 1756 he was appointed organist of St. George Minster Doncaster, continuing in that post for 50 years. He also gave pianoforte lessons. He published hymns and sonatas for harpsichord, 16 editions of “The Institues of Music”, “Elegies for Voice & Pianoforte”, and Psalms of David set to music, arranged for each Sunday of the year. That work had over 5000 subscribers. He published his thoughts on performance of Psalmody in the Church of England, addressed to clergy. In 1801 he published the Psalms of Watts and Wesley for use by Methodists, and in 1804 the history and antiques of Doncaster with a map. John Perry

David N. Johnson

1922 - 1987 Composer of "TYRANT HEROD" in Hymnal David Johnson (b. San Antonio, TX, 1922; d. Phoenix, AZ, 1987), former music department chairman at St. Olaf College, composed EARTH AND ALL STARS and published it in his Twelve Folksongs and Spirituals (1968). Johnson studied at Trinity, University, San Antonio, Texas, and received his master's and doctoral degrees in music from Syracuse University, New York. In addition to St. Olaf, he taught at Syracuse University; Alfred University, Alfred, New York; and Arizona State University. Johnson was organist at Syracuse University and organist and choir director at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Phoenix. His publications include Instruction Book for Beginning Organists and Organ Teacher's Guide; his compositions number over three hundred and include hymn tunes, varied harmonizations, and hymn preludes. Bert Polman

Robert Schumann

1810 - 1856 Person Name: Robert A. Schumann, 1810-1856 Composer of "CANONBURY" in Worship and Rejoice 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

Michael R. Greene

1961 - 2017 Arranger of "O WALY WALY" in Praise for the Lord (Expanded Edition)

Joseph Klug

1500 - 1552 Person Name: Joseph Klug, c. 1500-c. 1552 Composer of "ERHALT UNS, HERR" in Renew! Songs and Hymns for Blended Worship Born: Circa 1500, possibly at Nuremberg, Germany. Died: 1552, Wittenberg, Germany. Little is known of Klug, other than he was a publisher in Wittenberg. He was active from at least 1529 to 1552. His works include: Geistliche Lieder, edited by Martin Luther (Wittenberg, Germany: 1529) --www.hymntime.com/tch

Georg Joseph

1630 - 1668 Composer of "ANGELUS" in Church Hymnary (4th ed.) Born: Probably circa 1630, Breslau, Silesia (now Wrocław, Poland). Died: Circa 1668. A musician in the service of the Prince-Bishop of Breslau in last half of the 17th Century, Joseph collaborated published five hymn volumes with Johann Scheffler. Sources Erickson, p. 325 Stulken, p. 218 Music: ANGELUS --www.hymntime.com/tch

Ronald Arnatt

1930 - 2018 Person Name: Ronald Arnatt (b. 1930) Composer of "TRENT COLLEGE" in More Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Sydney H. Nicholson

1875 - 1947 Person Name: S. H. Nicholson, 1875-1947 Composer of "BOW BRICKHILL" in Common Praise Sydney H. Nicholson, (b. St. Marylebone, London, England, 1875; d. Ashford, Kent, England, 1947) was an organist and church music educator who greatly influenced English hymnody. Educated at Oxford's New College, the Royal College of Music in London, and in Frankfurt, Germany, he became organist at several famous cathedrals, including Westminster Abbey (1919-1928). Nicholson founded and administered the School of English Church Music at Chislehurst in 1927; this important institution, with branches throughout the English-speaking world, was renamed the Royal School of Church Music in 1945. Located in Canterbury after World War II, its headquarters were moved to Addington Palace, Croydon, in 1954. Nicholson was music adviser for the 1916 Supplement of Hymns Ancient and Modern and prepared the way for its 1950 edition. He wrote Church Music: a Practical Handbook (1920) and Quires and Places Where They Sing (1932) and composed operettas, anthems, and hymn tunes. In 1938 he was knighted for his contributions to church music. Bert Polman

Elkanah Kelsay Dare

1782 - 1826 Person Name: Elkanah Kelsay Dare (1782-1826) Composer (melody attributed to) of "KEDRON" in Wonder, Love, and Praise Elkanah Kelsey Dare (1782-1826) was born in New Jersey but moved to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania sometime before 1818. He was a Methodist [sic Presbyterian] minister and very possibly the music editor for John Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second (1813), a shaped-note collection that includes more than a dozen of his tunes. Emily Brink

Thomas Turton

1780 - 1864 Person Name: Thomas Turton, 1780-1864 Composer of "ELY" in Common Praise Turton, Thomas; b. 25 Feb. 1780 Yorkshire, England; d. 7 Jan. 1864 London; clergyman and scholar

David McCarthy

b. 1931 Composer of "INVERCARRY" in Together in Song

Richard W. Gieseke

Person Name: Richard Gieseke Composer of "KENTRIDGE" in The New Century Hymnal

Ian Kellam

b. 1933 Composer of "DAVANN" in Sing Praise to God Ian Kellam was born in Sheffield, England in 1933. As a young chorister he studied with Dr. Tustin Baker, organist at Sheffield Cathedral. He later studied with Herbert Sumsion at Gloucester Cathedral, and then with Howard Ferguson at the Royal Academy of Music in London. While there, he won the Langrish Award for choral writing, and in 1969, the Church of England Music Society prize for anthems. His first published pieces, written at age 16, were two Christmas carols for Solo Voice and Piano but, after a boyhood steeped in the traditions of church choral music, it is perhaps not surprising that much of his output seeks to further those traditions. To date his major writings comprise nine choral and orchestral cantatas and numerous smaller works: anthems, motets, carols, and settings of the morning and evening canticles. These include "The Southwark Service" (Magnificat and Nunc dimittis), commissioned for the 750th Anniversary of the founding of Southwark Cathedral, London, and the "Gloucester Te Deum", commissioned for the 13th Centenary Celebrations of the founding of Gloucester Cathedral. He has also composed song cycles, instrumental works, and much music for children, including two operas and shorter works. "Balaam", a setting of a long poem by Charles Causley, for Children's Choir and Harp, was commissioned as a companion piece to Britten's "A Ceremony of Carols" for a concert at the Aldeburgh Festival. He has written many theatre scores for the Royal Shakespeare Company in both Stratford-upon-Avon and in London, for productions at the Chichester Festival Theatre, and other open-air Shakespeare productions for the annual summer festivals at Ludlow Castle. Other venues include the Old Vic in London, the Comédie Français in Paris, the Moscow Arts Theatre, Broadway in New York, and numerous other worldwide locations. Writing for voice or voices, whether it be for a local children's choir, large choral society, solo song cycles, church and/or Cathedral choirs, or congregational singing, remains his chief pleasure and inspiration. Ian lives in a small 18th-century stone-built cottage in the Cotswolds of England, with two inseparable friends--a Jack Russell terrier and a large ginger tomcat. --www.morningstarmusic.com/

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