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Will W. Slater

1885 - 1959 Scripture: James 3:5-10 Arranger of "[Angry words! O let them never]" in Praise for the Lord (Expanded Edition) William (Will) Washington Slater (1885 – 1959) is one of only a handful of Restoration/Stone-Campbell Movement hymn writers, editors, and publishers to have widespread success beyond the confines of the denomination he claimed as his own. His founding and association with the Eureka Publishing company, the Stamps-Baxter Company, the Firm Foundation Publishing House, and his own successful company, the Slater Company, yielded the sale of hundreds of thousands of song books and hymnals and helped to propagate many a hymnal that would come later with hymns and gospel songs from his pen. William Washington Slater was born February 2, 1885, in Logan County, near Ozark Arkansas. He was the son of William David and Melvina Elizabeth (Williams) Slater. He had six brothers and four sisters. The boys were John, Thomas, Dewey, Sanford, Charlie and Graden. The sisters were Lucy, Effie, Edna and Bonnie. When William was five years old, his family moved to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) settling near Sallisaw on a farm. His education was only to the 4th or 5th grade, but he did spend much time in studying and reading. He was baptized into Christ in 1901. He soon became interested in the study of music. He went to singing schools when he could. About 1903, on Saturdays, when other young men went to town to spend the day, William would put the saddle on an old mule and ride some 15 miles to study music and take voice lessons to become a better song leader. In 1906, he became associated with S. J. Oslin, of Stigler, Oklahoma, in teaching music and to study harmony. After that, he taught many singing schools in some 20 States. He began to study the Bible more every day and told his mother that he would like to be a preacher. His mother told him he would have to work hard and study the Bible every day but if he wanted to, he could make a good preacher. He did that. On June 5, 1910, he married Miss Nettie Washington. To this union, five children were born, four girls and one boy. Their oldest daughter, Pauline, died in 1914. The other three girls, Thelma Banowsky, Loraine Scott, and Ruth Scott live in Fort Worth, Texas. The son, J. Nelson Slater, lives in Dallas, Texas. Will Slater became associated with such great Restoration Movement preachers including E. M. Borden, Joe H. Blue, Rue Porter, J. Will Henley, J. B. Nelson, J. D. Tant, and a host of others. Slater sang in many gospel meetings with these men and he wrote many wonderful songs. While in a meeting with J. Will Henley at Atwood, Oklahoma, in 1912, one evening Henley preached a sermon on the home of the soul. Will took notes on the sermon and after service went to his room and before going to bed, he wrote the words for the song, "There's a Home for the Soul." The next day, he wrote the music for this song. One night in the meeting he got some others to help him to sing the song. When Henley got up to preach, with trembling voice and tears running down his cheeks, he said no man could receive a greater compliment than to have a song of that type written after one of his sermons. He said, "Brother Will, you may live long and write many great songs, but you will never write a greater song than this one. May the song live long and many thousands learn to sing and learn the great lesson therein. Thank you, brother Will, for this great song." "Brother Will" did live long and wrote many great songs. Later, he wrote the song, "Walking Alone at Eve." "Some say this was his best song, but I think 'Home of the Soul' is best," remarked Charlie Slater. In 1913, Will began to make a few talks in the country schoolhouse, trying to preach. About that same time, he went to Coal Hill, Arkansas, and did preach part time for the church there. In 1914, he came back to Oklahoma. The Slaters' first baby girl died and was buried near Sallisaw in Buffington Cemetery. In 1915, he went to Pourn, Oklahoma, near Muskogee, to do his first local work. Late in 1916, he went to Muskogee to do local work for the church there. While there, in 1917, his father passed from this life. Will moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1918, then to Beaumont, Texas, and then to Irving, Texas. He held many gospel meetings in 20 States. In August, 1959, he was at Crystal Springs, Arkansas, doing what he loved best-preaching and singing. On the evening of August 22, he had preached. After the sermon, as he often did, he asked the people to stay and sing a few songs. He was asked to sing the song, "This is Someone's Last Day." He talked some about this song title, exhorted the audience to note the truthfulness of it, not realizing it was his last day. After the service, he was preparing for bed in the home of one of the brethren when he became ill. He told the folks he needed a doctor. He died enroute to the hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas, on August 22, 1959. D.J. Bulls In Memoriam, by Gussie Lambert, c.1988, Shreveport, LA p.258-260

Fred Pratt Green

1903 - 2000 Person Name: Fred Pratt Green (1903-) Scripture: James 3:7-8 Author of "For the Fruit of All Creation" in Common Praise (1998) 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.

Walford Davies

1869 - 1941 Person Name: Henry Walford Davies, 1869-1941 Scripture: James 3:1-5 Composer of "GOD BE IN MY HEAD" in Together in Song

Christoph Peter

1626 - 1669 Person Name: Christoph Peter, 1626-69 Scripture: James 3:8-12 Arranger of "ACH GOTT UND HERR" in Together in Song Born: 1626 - Weida, Vogtland, Thuringia, Germany Died: December 4, 1669 - Guben Christoph Peter [Petraeus] was a German composer and music editor. His first appointment was as schoolmaster and Kantor at Grossenhain, Saxony. He moved in 1655 to Guben, where he was Kantor until his death. He worked closely there with the poet and civic official Johann Franck. 40 melodies in the latter’s Geistliches Sion (1672), the first part of his Teutsche Gedichte, are by Peter, and he referred to Peter’s skills in the second part, Irdischer Helicon (1674). Peter’s Andachts-Zymbeln is an anthology of chorales by various composers which also contains preliminary instructional matter, a letter of 1524 from Martin Luther to Spalatin, and testimonials to Peter from Franck and others. It may well be significant that he inscribed it to the mayor and corporation of Guben in the year in which he arrived at Guben and that he received rights of citizenship there early the following year. Precationis thuribulum (RISM 16691) consists of masses by Saxon composers based on familiar chorales and set for various combinations of voices and instruments with continuo. The Geistliche Arien includes settings of poems by, among others, Johann Franck, Johann Rist and Paul Gerhardt, and Peter explained that they are for solo voice (with instruments) ‘so that the words can be better understood’. --Bach Cantatas Website

Peter Cutts

1937 - 2024 Person Name: Peter Cutts, 1937- Scripture: James 3:7-8 Composer of "BRIDEGROOM " in Common Praise (1998)

Norman Cocker

1889 - 1953 Person Name: Norman Cocker, 1889-1953 Scripture: James 3:9 Composer of "RYBURN" in Common Praise

Richard Shephard

b. 1949 Person Name: Richard Shepherd, b. 1949 Scripture: James 3:9 Composer of "HESLINGTON" in Common Praise

C. Hubert H. Parry

1848 - 1918 Person Name: Charles Hubery Hastings Parry, 1848-1918 Scripture: James 3:7-8 Composer of "JERUSALEM" in Common Praise (1998) 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

Derek Williams

b. 1945 Person Name: Derek Williams, b. 1845 Scripture: James 3:9 Composer of "SAN ROCCO" in Common Praise

Thomas H. Troeger

1945 - 2022 Person Name: Thomas Henry Troeger, 1945- Scripture: James 3:8-12 Author of "As a chalice cast of gold" in Together in Song Thomas Troeger (1945-2022), professor of Christian communication at Yale Divinity school, was a well known preacher, poet, and musician. He was a fellow of Silliman College, held a B.A. from Yale University; B.D. Colgate Rochester Divinity School; S.T. D. Dickinson College, and was awarded an honorary D.D. from Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1970 and the Episcopal Church in 1999, and remained dually aligned with both traditions. Troerger led conferences and lectures in worship and preaching throughout North America, as well as in Denmark, Holland, Australia, Japan, and Africa. He served as national chaplain to the American Guild of Organists, and for at least three years he hosted the Season of Worship broadcast for Cokesbury. He was president of the Academy of Homiletics as well as Societas Homiletica. He had, as of 2009, written 22 books in the areas of preaching, poetry, hymnody, and worship. Many of his hymn texts are found in New Hymns for the Lectionary (Oxford, 1992), and God, You Made All Things for Singing (Oxford, 2009). Laura de Jong