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John T. Grape

1835 - 1915 Person Name: J. T. Grape Composer of "[I could not do without Thee]" in Windows of Heaven John Thomas Grape USA 1835-1915. Born at Baltimore, MD, he became a successful coal merchant. He married Sophia F MacCubbin, and they had one daughter, Agnes. He was a member of Monument St. Methodist Church in Baltimore, where he played the organ, directed the choir, and was active in the Sunday school. Later, he directed the choir at the Hartford Avenue Methodist Church. The hymn noted below was composed by Grape in 1868, with lyrics composed by Envina Mable Hall of the same church in 1865 while sitting in the choir loft during a sermon. Both words and music had been given to the pastor, Rev George W Schreck, at different times, and one day he remembered he had been given both. Grape's tune had a refrain, so Ms Hall, hearing it, then added words to her poem for that, and the hymn was complete. At Schreck's urging they sent the hymn to Professor Theodore Perkins, publisher of “Sabbath Carols” periodical, and it became popular. Grape died in Baltimore. John Perry

F. Melius Christiansen

1871 - 1955 Person Name: F. Melius Christiansen, 1871-1955 Arranger of "PASSION CHORALE" in Ambassador Hymnal F. Melius Christiansen (April 1, 1871-June 1, 1955) was a Norwegian-born violinist and choral conductor in the Lutheran choral tradition. Fredrik Melius Christiansen, the son of a Norwegian factory worker, was born in Eidsvold, municipality in Akershus county, Norway and emigrated to the United States at the age of 17. He settled in Washburn, Wisconsin. He studied at Augsburg College. In 1897, he returned to Europe to study three years at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Leipzig, Germany. In 1901, Christiansen was recruited by St. Olaf College president John N. Kildahl. The St. Olaf Choir was founded as an outgrowth of the St. John's Lutheran Church Choir in Northfield. For the next 30 years, Christiansen led the St. Olaf Choir, striving for perfect intonation, blend, diction and phrasing. He was a skilled conductor, directing bands and choirs alike. He assumed direction of the St. Olaf Band in 1903, and took the ensemble on tour to Norway in 1906 to play for King Haakon VII, making it the first college music ensemble to conduct a tour abroad. Though his first love was the violin, he received international fame as founding director of the St. Olaf Choir of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, USA from 1912 to 1944. Christiansen was considered a pioneer in the art of a cappella (unaccompanied) choral music. Christiansen composed and arranged over 250 musical selections and his choral techniques were spread throughout the U.S. by St. Olaf graduates. The great Christiansen choral tradition is a recognized feature of American Lutheranism. Four of Dr. Christiansen's children survived to adulthood two of them adding their own legacy to the Christiansen tradition of choral music in America. --en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Hans Leo Hassler

1564 - 1612 Person Name: Hans Leo Hassler, 1564-1612 Composer of "PASSION CHORALE" in Ambassador Hymnal Hans Leo Hassler Germany 1564-1612. Born at Nuremberg, Germany, he came from a family of famous musicians and received early education from his father. He then studied in Venice, Italy, with Andrea Gabrieli, uncle of Giovanni Gabrieli, his friend, with whom he composed a wedding motet. The uncle taught him to play the organ. He learned the polychoral style and took it back to Germany after Andrea Gabrieli's death. He served as organist and composer for Octavian Fugger, the princely art patron of Augsburg (1585-1601). He was a prolific composer but found his influence limited, as he was Protestant in a still heavily Catholic region. In 1602 he became director of town music and organist in the Frauenkirche in Nuremberg until 1608. He married Cordula Claus in 1604. He was finally court musician for the Elector of Saxony in Dresden, Germany, evenually becoming Kapellmeister (1608-1612). A Lutheran, he composed both for Roman Catholic liturgy and for Lutheran churches. He produced two volumns of motets, a famous collection of court songs, and a volume of simpler hymn settings. He published both secular and religious music, managing to compose much for the Catholic church that was also usable in Lutheran settings. He was also a consultant to organ builders. In 1596 he, with 53 other organists, had the opportunity to examine a new instrument with 59 stops at the Schlosskirche, Groningen. He was recognized for his expertise in organ design and often was called on to examine new instruments. He entered the world of mechanical instrument construction, developing a clockwork organ that was later sold to Emperor Rudolf II. He died of tuberculosis in Frankfurt, Germany. John Perry

Edmund S. Lorenz

1854 - 1942 Person Name: E. S. Lorenz Composer of "[I can not do without thee]" in All Hail Pseudonymns: John D. Cresswell, L. S. Edwards, E. D. Mund, ==================== Lorenz, Edmund Simon. (North Lawrence, Stark County, Ohio, July 13, 1854--July 10, 1942, Dayton, Ohio). Son of Edward Lorenz, a German-born shoemaker who turned preacher, served German immigrants in northwestern Ohio, and was editor of the church paper, Froehliche Botschafter, 1894-1900. Edmund graduated from Toledo High School in 1870, taught German, and was made a school principal at a salary of $20 per week. At age 19, he moved to Dayton to become the music editor for the United Brethren Publishing House. He graduated from Otterbein College (B.A.) in 1880, studied at Union Biblical Seminary, 1878-1881, then went to Yale Divinity School where he graduated (B.D.) in 1883. He then spent a year studying theology in Leipzig, Germany. He was ordained by the Miami [Ohio] Conference of the United Brethren in Christ in 1877. The following year, he married Florence Kumler, with whom he had five children. Upon his return to the United States, he served as pastor of the High Street United Brethren Church in Dayton, 1884-1886, and then as president of Lebanon Valley College, 1887-1889. Ill health led him to resign his presidency. In 1890 he founded the Lorenz Publishing Company of Dayton, to which he devoted the remainder of his life. For their catalog, he wrote hymns, and composed many gospel songs, anthems, and cantatas, occasionally using pseudonyms such as E.D. Mund, Anna Chichester, and G.M. Dodge. He edited three of the Lorenz choir magazines, The Choir Leader, The Choir Herald, and Kirchenchor. Prominent among the many song-books and hymnals which he compiled and edited were those for his church: Hymns for the Sanctuary and Social Worship (1874), Pilgerlieder (1878), Songs of Grace (1879), The Otterbein Hymnal (1890), and The Church Hymnal (1934). For pastors and church musicians, he wrote several books stressing hymnody: Practical Church Music (1909), Church Music (1923), Music in Work and Worship (1925), and The Singing Church (1938). In 1936, Otterbein College awarded him the honorary D.Mus. degree and Lebanon Valley College the honorary LL.D. degree. --Information from granddaughter Ellen Jane Lorenz Porter, DNAH Archives

L. L. Pickett

1859 - 1928 Composer of "[I could not do without Thee]" in Tears and Triumphs Rv Leander Lycurgus Pickett USA 1859-1928. Born at Burnsville, MS, he became a Methodist evangelist. He held meetings in several states and at Holiness campgrounds. After marrying Ludie, they served pastorates in northeast TX, and Columbia, SC, before moving to Wilmore, KY. Pickett married Pruvy Melviney Dorough in 1878, and they had a son, James, in 1880. After her death in 1887, he married Ludie in 1888. He was a renowned speaker, leader, minister, author, hymnwriter, and patriot, prominent in the Holiness Movement, and helped found Asbury College (now University), at Wilmore, KY, where he also served as the financial agent of the board of trustees for many years. The Picketts boarded m,inistry students attending Asbury, among whom was missionary E Stanley Jones. In 1905 a student prayer meeting at the Pickett home spilled out to the Asbury campus in a revival that spread around the town of Wilmore. Between 1891 and 1926 Pickett published 11 song books, some with others, including John Sweney, William J Kirkpatrick, John Bryant, Martin Knapp, Elisha A Hoffman, Burke Culpepper, William Marks, Benjamin Butts, and Robert McNeill. He died at Middlesboro, KY. John Perry

Sigismund Thalberg

1812 - 1871 Composer of "[I could not do without thee]" in Northfield Hymnal

C. C. Case

1843 - 1918 Composer of "[I could not do without thee]" in Westminster Sabbath School Hymnal, a collection of hymns and tunes for use in sabbath-schools and social meetings Charles Clinton Case USA 1843-1918. Born in Linesville, PA, his family moved to Gustavus, OH, when he was four. His father was an accomplished violinist, but a neighbor gave him a small violin when he was nine, and he mastered it before he could read music. At age 16 he went to singing school (without parental consent), borrowing the money from a neighbor. C. A. Bentley, a prominent conductor, was his first vocal music instructor, and William Bradbury's “Jubilee” was the school textbook. For three winters in a row, he attended Bentley's singing school, working his father's farm in the summer. He married Annie Williams. In 1866 he studied music in Boston with B. F. Baker. He also studied under George Root, Horatio Palmer, Philip Bliss, George Webb, and others, hymnwriters in their own right. Soon after, Case began teaching music, and when James McGranahan moved two miles from his home, they became friends. Case wrote and edited a number of Gospel song books in his life. 6 works. John Perry

Robert Lowry

1826 - 1899 Composer of "[I could not do without Thee]" in Joyful Lays Robert Lowry was born in Philadelphia, March 12, 1826. His fondness for music was exhibited in his earliest years. As a child he amused himself with the various musical instruments that came into his hands. At the age of seventeen he joined the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, and soon became an active worker in the Sunday-school as teacher and chorister. At the age of twenty-two he gave himself to the work of the ministry, and entered upon a course of study at the University of Lewisburg, Pa. At the age of twenty-eight he was graduated with the highest honors of his class. In the same year of his graduation, he entered upon the work of the ministry. He served as pastor at West Chester, Pa., 1851-1858; in New York City, 1859-1861; in Brooklyn, 1861-1869; in Lewisburg, Pa., 1869-1875. While pastor at Lewisburg, he was also professor of belles lettres in the University, and received the honorary degree of D. D. in 1875. He then went to Plainfield, N. J., where he became pastor of Park Avenue Church. In each of these fields his work was crowned with marked success. Dr. Lowry was a man of rare administrative ability, a most excellent preacher, a thorough Bible student, and whether in the pulpit or upon the platform, always a brilliant and interesting speaker. He was of a genial and pleasing disposition, and a high sense of humor was one of his most striking characteristics. Very few men had greater ability in painting pictures from the imagination. He could thrill an audience with his vivid descriptions, inspiring others with the same thoughts that inspired him. His melodies are sung in every civilized land, and many of his hymns have been translated into foreign tongues. While preaching the Gospel, in which he found great joy, was his life-work, music and hymnology were favorite studies, but were always a side issue, a recreation. In the year 1880, he took a rest of four years, visiting Europe. In 1885 he felt that he needed more rest, and resigned his pastorate at Plainfield, and visited in the South and West, also spending some time in Mexico. He returned, much improved in health, and again took up his work in Plainfield. On the death of Wm. B. Bradbury, Messrs. Biglow & Main, successors to Mr. Bradbury in the publishing business, selected Dr. Lowry for editor of their Sunday-school book, Bright Jewels, which was a great success. Subsequently Dr. W. Doane was associated with him in the issue of the Sunday-school song book, Pure Gold, the sales of which exceeded a million copies. Then came Royal Diadem, Welcome Tidings, Brightest and Best, Glad Refrain, Good as Gold, Joyful Lays, Fountain of Song, Bright Array, Temple Anthems, and numerous other volumes. The good quality of their books did much to stimulate the cause of sacred song in this country. When he saw that the obligations of musical editorship were laid upon him, he began the study of music in earnest, and sought the best musical text-books and works on the highest forms of musical composition. He possessed one of the finest musical libraries in the country. It abounded in works on the philosophy and science of musical sounds. He also had some musical works in his possession that were over one hundred and fifty years old. One of his labors of love some years ago was an attempt to reduce music to a mathematical basis. On the established fact that Middle C has two hundred and fifty-six vibrations per second, he prepared a scale and went to work on the rule of three. After infinite calculation and repeated experiments, he carried it far enough to discover that it would not work. A reporter once asked him what was his method of composition — "Do you write the words to fit the music, or the music to fit the words?" His reply was, "I have no method. Sometimes the music comes and the words follow, fitted insensibly to the melody. I watch my moods, and when anything good strikes me, whether words or music, and no matter where I am, at home or on the street, I jot it down. Often the margin of a newspaper or the back of an envelope serves as a notebook. My brain is a sort of spinning machine, I think, for there is music running through it all the time. I do not pick out my music on the keys of an instrument. The tunes of nearly all the hymns I have written have been completed on paper before I tried them on the organ. Frequently the words of the hymn and the music have been written at the same time." The Doctor frequently said that he regarded "Weeping Will Not Save Me" as the best and most evangelistic hymn he ever wrote. The following are some of his most popular and sweetest gospel melodies: "Shall We Gather at the River?," "One More Day's Work for Jesus," "Where is My Wandering Boy To-night?," "I Need Thee Every Hour," "The Mistakes of My Life," "How Can I Keep from Singing?," "All the Way My Saviour Leads Me," "Saviour, Thy Dying Love," "We're Marching to Zion," etc. "Shall We Gather at the River?" is perhaps, without question, the most widely popular of all his songs. Of this Mr. Lowry said: "It is brass band music, has a march movement, and for that reason has become popular, though for myself I do not think much of it." Yet he tells us how, on several occasions, he had been deeply moved by the singing of that hymn, "Going from Harrisburg to Lewisburg once I got into a car filled with half-drunken lumbermen. Suddenly one of them struck up, "Shall We Gather at the River?" and they sang it over and over again, repeating the chorus in a wild, boisterous way. I did not think so much of the music then as I listened to those singers, but I did think that perhaps the spirit of the hymn, the words so flippantly uttered, might somehow survive and be carried forward into the lives of those careless men, and ultimately lift them upward to the realization of the hope expressed in my hymn." "A different appreciation of it was evinced during the Robert Raikes' Centennial. I was in London, and had gone to meeting in the Old Bailey to see some of the most famous Sunday-school workers in the world. They were present from Europe, Asia, and America. I sat in a rear seat alone. After there had been a number of addresses delivered in various languages, I was preparing to leave, when the chairman of the meeting announced that the author of "Shall We Gather at the River?" was present, and I was requested by name to come forward. Men applauded and women waved their handkerchiefs as I went to the platform. It was a tribute to the hymn; but I felt, when it was over, that, after all, I had perhaps done some little good in the world, and I felt more than ever content to die when God called." On Children's Day in Brooklyn, in 1865, this song was sung by over forty thousand voices. While Dr. Lowry said, "I would rather preach a gospel sermon to an appreciative, receptive congregation than write a hymn," yet in spite of his preferences, his hymns have gone on and on, translated into many languages, preaching and comforting thousands upon thousands of souls, furnishing them expression for their deepest feelings of praise and gratitude to God for His goodness to the children of men. What he had thought in his inmost soul has become a part of the emotions of the whole Christian world. We are all his debtors. Rev. Robert Lowry, D. D., died at his residence in Plainfield, K J., November 25, 1899. Dead, yet he lives and his sermons in gospel song are still heard and are doing good. Dr. Lowry was a great and good man, and his life, well spent, is highly worthy of a place among the world's greatest gospel song and hymn writers. -- Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers ------- Lowry, Robert, D.D., son of Crozier Lowry, was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 12, 1826, and educated at Lewisburg University. Having received ordination as a Baptist Minister, his first charge was at West Chester, Pennsylvania. From thence he passed to New York City, and then to Brooklyn, N. Y. In 1876 he was appointed Professor of Rhetoric in his University. On resigning his Professorship he undertook the charge of the 2nd Baptist Church, New Jersey. Dr. Lowry has been associated with some of the most popular Sunday School hymn-books published in the States, including Happy Voices, 1865; Chapel Melodies, 1868; Bright Jewels, 1869; Pure Gold, 1871; Royal Diadem, 1873; Tidal Wave, 1874; Fountain of Song1877; Welcome Tidings, 1877, &c. Of Dr. Lowry's hymns those which have attained the widest circulation are:— 1. Jerusalem, for ever bright. Heaven. Appeared in the American Tract Society's Happy Voices, 1865, with music by the author. 2. Low in the grave He lay. Resurrection of Christ. Written in 1874 and published in Brightest and Best, 1875. 3. Marching on, marching on. Sunday School Battle Song. Appeared, with music by the author, in Happy Voices, 1865. 4. My home is in heaven, my rest is not here. In Happy Voices, 1865, with music by the author. 5. My life flows on in endless song. Joy in God. In Bright Jewels, 1869; the Royal Diadem, 1873, and others in America and Great Britain, with music by the author. 6. One more day's work for Jesus. Work for Christ. Published, with music by the author, in Bright Jewels, 1869. 7. Shall we gather at the river? Mutual recognition in the Hereafter. The origin of this hymn is thus set forth in E. W. Long's Illustrated History of Hymns and their Authors, Philadelphia, 1876, p. 64:— ”On a very hot summer day, in 1864, a pastor was seated in his parlour in Brooklyn, N. Y. It was a time when an epidemic was sweeping through the city, and draping many persons and dwellings in mourning. All around friends and acquaintances were passing away to the spirit land in large numbers. The question began to arise in the heart, with unusual emphasis, ‘Shall we meet again? We are parting at the river of death, shall we meet at the river of life?' ‘Seating myself at the organ,’ says he, ‘simply to give vent to the pent up emotions of the heart, the words and music of the hymn began to flow out, as if by inspiration:— ‘Shall we gather at the river, Where bright angel feet have trod?’" In 1865 the hymn and music were given in Happy Voices, No. 220, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines and a chorus. The hymn has since passed into a great number of hymnals in Great Britain and America. 8. Take the wings of the morning; speed quickly thy flight. Exhortation to Repentance. Written for, and published with music by the author in, the Royal Diadem, 1873. 9. Weeping will not save me. Salvation through Faith. Published in the Chapel Melodies, 1868. 10. What can wash away my stain? Precious Blood of Jesus. Given in the Welcome Tidings, 1877, with music by the author. 11. Where is my wandering boy tonight! The absent Child. In the Fountain of Song, 1877, together with music by the author. Most of these hymns are given in Mr. I. D. Sankey's Sacred Songs & Solos, Pts. i., ii. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Grace Weiser Davis

Composer of "[I could not do without Thee]" in Favorite Gospel Songs Grace Weiser Davis USA 1860-1933? Born near York, PA, she married judge James Nixon Davis in 1889. They attended the Asbury United Methodist Church in York. She became a Methodist evangelist. In 1900 she moved to Jersey City, NJ. She compiled several works, including: “Gems of gospel songs” (1885), “Favorite gospel songs” (1894) with Elisha A. Hoffman, “Childhood conversions” (1897). John Perry