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James Weldon Johnson

1871 - 1938 Person Name: James Weldon Johnson, 1871-1938 Scripture: Exodus 19:3-6 Author of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" in Moravian Book of Worship James Weldon Johnson MA PhD USA 1871-1938. Born at Jacksonville, FL, he attended Clark University, Atlanta, GA, and also spent three months in the backwoods of Georgia., taking in the culture there. While in school he published a paper, ”The daily American newspaper”, which ran for a year until terminated for lack of funding. He graduated in 1894. He then taught at the largest school in Jacksonville, FL, eventually becoming principal and adding 9th & 10th grades there. While there he began preparing for the FL bar exam, taking it in 1897. In 1904 he became treasurer of the Colored Republican Club, becoming its president the following year. He became an author, activist, educator, lawyer, and diplomat. A musician from youth, he collaborated with his brother, Rosamond, also a musician, and Bob Cole to write Broadway songs, and they achieved some success. They also wrote an opera, “Tolosa”, satirizing the U.S. annexation of the Pacific islands. He became a writer and Civil Rights activist. He did the editorial page of the New York Age, an African-American newspaper. In 1916 he became active in the NAACP, and in 1917 he added many chapters to its southern membership. He was its executive secretary (essentially its operating officer) from 1920-1930. He was involved in the campaign to pass the Dyer Anti-lynching Bill. He wrote poems, novels, and anthologies, and collected poems and spirituals from black culture. He wrote the lyrics to the Negro National Anthem, “Lift every voice and sing”, in honor of Booker T Washington, who visited his school and heard the poem recited by 500 school children in his presence, paying tribute to Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. He participated in Theodore Roosevelt’s successful presidential campaign, and was rewarded by receiving an appointment as U.S. Consul to Venezuela (1906-1909), and later to Nicaragua (1909-1913). He married activist,Grace Elizabeth Nail during this period. They had collaborated on a screenwriting project. They had no children. In 1930, after years leading the NAACP, he became professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University ( a historically black university), Nashville, TN, where he lectured on a wide range of issues. In 1934 he was the first African-American professor hired at New York University, where he taught several classes in literature and culture. He published four works: “Autobiography of an Ex-colored man” (1920) “The book of American negro poetry” (1922/1931), “God’s trombones” (1927), and “Along this way” (1933). In 1938 he supported efforts by Ignatz Waghalter, a Polish-Jewish composer who had escaped the Nazis in Germany, to establish a classical orchestra of African-American musicians. He perished at Wiscasset, ME, while on vacation when the car his wife was driving was hit by a train. She was severely injured, but recovered. More than 2000 people attended his funeral. Several universities named buildings or departments in his honor, as is a community library in St. Petersburg, FL. In 1988 a U.S, postage stamp was printed in his honor. John Perry

J. Rosamond Johnson

1873 - 1954 Person Name: J. Rosamund Johnson, 1873-1954 Scripture: Exodus 19:3-6 Composer of "ANTHEM" in Moravian Book of Worship John Rosamond Johnson USA 1873-1954. Born at Jacksonville, FL, brother of James Weldon Johnson, he was an important figure in black music. During the first part of the 20th century. With his brother and a partner, Bob Cole, he helped compose “The black national anthem”: “Lift every voice and sing”. He was a pianist, songwriter, producer, soldier, singer, and actor. He began playing the piano at age four, and he studied at the New England Conservatory and with Samuel Coleridge Taylor in London, England. By the turn of the century he was teaching school in the Jacksonville area. He was also music director at the Bethel Baptist Church there. He moved to New York City in 1900 and entered its musical life. With Bob Cole (and sometimes his brother) they created a vaudeville act, did songwriting, and produced several musicals. This lasted until Cole’s death in 1911. They also produced two musicals: “The shoo-fly regiment” (1907) and “The red moon” (1909), in which he did some acting as well. The shows were successful, but they lost money and returned to doing vaudeville. In 1912, he gave a piano “Concert of Negro Music” at Carnegie Hall. In 1912-13 he went to London and served as director of Oscar Hammerstein’s Grand Opera House. He also wrote music for a theatre review. Returning to the U.S. with his new wife, Nora Ethel Floyd, he was appointed as director of the New York Music School Settlement for Colored People, serving from 1914-1919. The Johnson’s had one son, Donald. When WW1 broke out, he received a commission as a 2nd Lt. In the 15th Regiment. After the war, he also helped his brother with some NAACP activities. He toured with his own groups, the Harlem Rounders and the Inimitable Five. In New York he met and worked with Oscar Hammerstein, who would help shape his career. He also performed in negro spiritual concerts in New York and Manhattan. He sang and played the part of a lawyer in the original production of “Porgy & Bess” (1935). In 1936 he served as music director for the musical, “Blackbirds”. He sang in the original production of Gershwin’s “Porgy & Bess”, taking roles in other dramatics as well. As an editor he collected important works of traditional African-American songs and compiled them, along with his brother, James: “The Book of American negro spirituals” (1925), and ‘The second Book of negro spirituals’ (1926). He also edited “Shoutsongs” (1936) and the folksong anthology “Rolling along in song” (1937). He co-produced 15 musicals. He continued composing songs and instructing young people in music, and serving as a theatre doctor for many plays until his death. He died in New York City. Six published collections. John Perry

Norma De Waal Malefyt

Person Name: Norma de Waal Malefyt Scripture: Exodus 19:4 Harmonizer of "ON EAGLES' WINGS" in Songs for Life Norma de Waal Malefyt is Resource Development Specialist in Congregational Song for the Worship Institute. Her responsibilities include developing training resources and curriculum for the Worship Institute web site, publication series, and training events. She serves as a presenter at events sponsored by the Worship Institute, including academic courses, the annual Calvin Symposium on Worship, and other training events. Norma enjoys participating in worship especially in the areas of worship planning and music leadership and in developing those gifts in others. She graduated from Calvin College with degrees in music education and organ performance. She returns to the college setting after serving in parish music ministry. --worship.calvin.edu/

Cyril Alington

1872 - 1955 Person Name: C. A. Alington, 1872-1955 Scripture: Exodus 19:5-6 Author of "Ye that know the Lord is gracious" in Common Praise Educated at Trinity College, Oxford, England, Cyril A. Alington (b. Ipswich, England, 1872; d. St. Leonards, Hertfordshire, England, 1955) was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1901. He had a teaching career that included being headmaster at Shrewsbury School and Eton College. He was dean of Durham from 1933-1951 as well as chaplain to the king of England. His writings include literary works and Christianity in England, Good News (1945). Many of his hymns appeared in various twentieth-century editions of the famous British hymnal, Hymns Ancient and Modern. Bert Polman

Rowland Hugh Prichard

1811 - 1887 Person Name: R. H. Pritchard, 1811-1887 Scripture: Exodus 19:5-6 Composer of "HYFRYDOL" in Common Praise 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

Gracia Grindal

b. 1943 Person Name: Gracia Grindal, 1943- Scripture: Exodus 19:1-8 Author of "We Sing to You, O God" in Common Praise (1998) Gracia Grindal (b. Powers Lake, ND, 1943). Grindal was educated at Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minnesota; the University of Arkansas; and Luther-Northwestern Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota, where she has served since 1984 as a professor of pastoral theology and communications. From 1968 to 1984 she was a professor of English and poet-in-residence at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. Included in her publications are Sketches Against the Dark (1981), Scandinavian Folksongs (1983), Lessons in Hymnwriting (1986, 1991), We Are One in Christ: Hymns, Paraphrases, and Translations (1996), Good News of Great Joy: Advent Devotions for the Home (1994 with Karen E. Hong), Lina Sandell, the Story of Her Hymns (2001 with John Jansen), and A Revelry of Harvest: New and Selected Poems (2002). She was instrumental in producing the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and The United Methodist Hymnal (1989). Bert Polman

Jessie Seymour Irvine

1836 - 1887 Person Name: Jesse Seymour Irvine Scripture: Exodus 19:4 Composer of "CRIMOND" in The New Century Hymnal Jessie Seymour Irvine United Kingdom 1836-1887. Born at Dunnottar, Kincardineshire, Scotland, the daughter of a parish minister of the Church of Scotland who served at Dunottar, Peterhead, and Crimond in Aberdeenshire, she became an organist, in training at the town of Banff. In 1871, while living in Crimond, she composed a tune for the metrical version of Psalm 23 as an exercise for a composition class. It was first performed at evening worship at Auchterless Parish Church. Not satisfied with her own work, she asked for help to reharmonize it from musician, David Grant, from Aberdeen. At the time, Grant was collaborating with associates compiling hymns and metrical Psalms from across north Scotland intending to publish them in a new hymnal. “The Northern Psalter” was published in 1872, became popular, and over 70,000 copies were sold. For years the hymn tune was credited to Grant, but Jessie’s sister wrote a letter to the hymnal editors claiming her sister wrote the tune, harmonized by Grant. She is now credited by most as the original composer. She died in Aberdeen, Scotland. She is commemorated by a set of four etched glass panels installed inside Crimond Parish Church in 2002. The hymn was played at Princess Elizabeth’s wedding (later Queen Elizabeth) to Philip Mountbatten in 1947. John Perry

T. C. L. Pritchard

1885 - 1960 Scripture: Exodus 19:4 Harmonizer of "CRIMOND" in The New Century Hymnal Thomas Cuthbertson Leithead Pritchard

Richard Proulx

1937 - 2010 Person Name: Richard Proulx, 1937- Scripture: Exodus 19:1-8 Composer of "CAMANO" in Common Praise (1998) Richard Proulx (b. St. Paul, MN, April 3, 1937; d. Chicago, IL, February 18, 2010). A composer, conductor, and teacher, Proulx was director of music at the Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, Illinois (1980-1997); before that he was organist and choirmaster at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church in Seattle, Washington. He contributed his expertise to the Roman Catholic Worship III (1986), The Episcopal Hymnal 1982, The United Methodist Hymnal (1989), and the ecumenical A New Hymnal for Colleges and Schools (1992). He was educated at the University of Minnesota, MacPhail College of Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota, St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, and the Royal School of Church Music in England. He composed more than 250 works. Bert Polman

Moises Andrade

1948 - 2009 Scripture: Exodus 19:4 Author of "Awit sa Dapit-Hapon (When Twilight Comes)" in Lift Up Your Hearts Moises Andrade- Date of birth: September 23, 1948. Date ordained: December 10, 1972. Date of death: February 23, 2009. Rector and Parish Priest (2001-2009) - National Shrine and Parish of Our Lady of Fatima, Valenzuela City; Chancellor - the Diocese of Malolos (Bulacan province).