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William Cowper

1731 - 1800 Person Name: W. Cowper Topics: Home and Personal Use Author of "Oh, for a closer walk with God" in The Hymnal, Revised and Enlarged, as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892 William Cowper (pronounced "Cooper"; b. Berkampstead, Hertfordshire, England, 1731; d. East Dereham, Norfolk, England, 1800) is regarded as one of the best early Romantic poets. To biographers he is also known as "mad Cowper." His literary talents produced some of the finest English hymn texts, but his chronic depression accounts for the somber tone of many of those texts. Educated to become an attorney, Cowper was called to the bar in 1754 but never practiced law. In 1763 he had the opportunity to become a clerk for the House of Lords, but the dread of the required public examination triggered his tendency to depression, and he attempted suicide. His subsequent hospitalization and friendship with Morley and Mary Unwin provided emotional stability, but the periods of severe depression returned. His depression was deepened by a religious bent, which often stressed the wrath of God, and at times Cowper felt that God had predestined him to damnation. For the last two decades of his life Cowper lived in Olney, where John Newton became his pastor. There he assisted Newton in his pastoral duties, and the two collaborated on the important hymn collection Olney Hymns (1779), to which Cowper contributed sixty-eight hymn texts. Bert Polman ============ Cowper, William, the poet. The leading events in the life of Cowper are: born in his father's rectory, Berkhampstead, Nov. 26, 1731; educated at Westminster; called to the Bar, 1754; madness, 1763; residence at Huntingdon, 1765; removal to Olney, 1768; to Weston, 1786; to East Dereham, 1795; death there, April 25, 1800. The simple life of Cowper, marked chiefly by its innocent recreations and tender friendships, was in reality a tragedy. His mother, whom he commemorated in the exquisite "Lines on her picture," a vivid delineation of his childhood, written in his 60th year, died when he was six years old. At his first school he was profoundly wretched, but happier at Westminster; excelling at cricket and football, and numbering Warren Hastings, Colman, and the future model of his versification. Churchill, among his contemporaries or friends. Destined for the Bar, he was articled to a solicitor, along with Thurlow. During this period he fell in love with his cousin, Theodora Cowper, sister to Lady Hesketh, and wrote love poems to her. The marriage was forbidden by her father, but she never forgot him, and in after years secretly aided his necessities. Fits of melancholy, from which he had suffered in school days, began to increase, as he entered on life, much straitened in means after his father's death. But on the whole, it is the playful, humorous side of him that is most prominent in the nine years after his call to the Bar; spent in the society of Colman, Bonnell Thornton, and Lloyd, and in writing satires for The Connoisseur and St. James's Chronicle and halfpenny ballads. Then came the awful calamity, which destroyed all hopes of distinction, and made him a sedentary invalid, dependent on his friends. He had been nominated to the Clerkship of the Journals of the House of Lords, but the dread of appearing before them to show his fitness for the appointment overthrew his reason. He attempted his life with "laudanum, knife and cord,"—-in the third attempt nearly succeeding. The dark delusion of his life now first showed itself—a belief in his reprobation by God. But for the present, under the wise and Christian treatment of Dr. Cotton (q. v.) at St. Albans, it passed away; and the eight years that followed, of which the two first were spent at Huntingdon (where he formed his lifelong friendship with Mrs. Unwin), and the remainder at Olney in active piety among the poor, and enthusiastic devotions under the guidance of John Newton (q. v.), were full of the realisation of God's favour, and the happiest, most lucid period of his life. But the tension of long religious exercises, the nervous excitement of leading at prayer meetings, and the extreme despondence (far more than the Calvinism) of Newton, could scarcely have been a healthy atmosphere for a shy, sensitive spirit, that needed most of all the joyous sunlight of Christianity. A year after his brother's death, madness returned. Under the conviction that it was the command of God, he attempted suicide; and he then settled down into a belief in stark contradiction to his Calvinistic creed, "that the Lord, after having renewed him in holiness, had doomed him to everlasting perdition" (Southey). In its darkest form his affliction lasted sixteen months, during which he chiefly resided in J. Newton's house, patiently tended by him and by his devoted nurse, Mrs. Unwin. Gradually he became interested in carpentering, gardening, glazing, and the tendance of some tame hares and other playmates. At the close of 1780, Mrs. Unwin suggested to him some serious poetical work; and the occupation proved so congenial, that his first volume was published in 1782. To a gay episode in 1783 (his fascination by the wit of Lady Austen) his greatest poem, The Task, and also John Gilpin were owing. His other principal work was his Homer, published in 1791. The dark cloud had greatly lifted from his life when Lady Hesketh's care accomplished his removal to Weston (1786): but the loss of his dear friend William Unwin lowered it again for some months. The five years' illness of Mrs. Unwin, during which his nurse of old became his tenderly-watched patient, deepened the darkness more and more. And her death (1796) brought “fixed despair," of which his last poem, The Castaway, is the terrible memorial. Perhaps no more beautiful sentence has been written of him, than the testimony of one, who saw him after death, that with the "composure and calmness" of the face there “mingled, as it were, a holy surprise." Cowper's poetry marks the dawn of the return from the conventionality of Pope to natural expression, and the study of quiet nature. His ambition was higher than this, to be the Bard of Christianity. His great poems show no trace of his monomania, and are full of healthy piety. His fame as a poet is less than as a letter-writer: the charm of his letters is unsurpassed. Though the most considerable poet, who has written hymns, he has contributed little to the development of their structure, adopting the traditional modes of his time and Newton's severe canons. The spiritual ideas of the hymns are identical with Newton's: their highest note is peace and thankful contemplation, rather than joy: more than half of them are full of trustful or reassuring faith: ten of them are either submissive (44), self-reproachful (17, 42, 43), full of sad yearning (1, 34), questioning (9), or dark spiritual conflict (38-40). The specialty of Cowper's handling is a greater plaintiveness, tenderness, and refinement. A study of these hymns as they stood originally under the classified heads of the Olney Hymns, 1779, which in some cases probably indicate the aim of Cowper as well as the ultimate arrangement of the book by Newton, shows that one or two hymns were more the history of his conversion, than transcripts of present feelings; and the study of Newton's hymns in the same volume, full of heavy indictment against the sins of his own regenerate life, brings out the peculiar danger of his friendship to the poet: it tends also to modify considerably the conclusions of Southey as to the signs of incipient madness in Cowper's maddest hymns. Cowper's best hymns are given in The Book of Praise by Lord Selborne. Two may be selected from them; the exquisitely tender "Hark! my soul, it is the Lord" (q. v.), and "Oh, for a closer walk with God" (q. v.). Anyone who knows Mrs. Browning's noble lines on Cowper's grave will find even a deeper beauty in the latter, which is a purely English hymn of perfect structure and streamlike cadence, by connecting its sadness and its aspiration not only with the “discord on the music" and the "darkness on the glory," but the rapture of his heavenly waking beneath the "pathetic eyes” of Christ. Authorities. Lives, by Hayley; Grimshaw; Southey; Professor Goldwin Smith; Mr. Benham (attached to Globe Edition); Life of Newton, by Rev. Josiah Bull; and the Olney Hymns. The numbers of the hymns quoted refer to the Olney Hymns. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================ Cowper, W. , p. 265, i. Other hymns are:— 1. Holy Lord God, I love Thy truth. Hatred of Sin. 2. I was a grovelling creature once. Hope and Confidence. 3. No strength of nature can suffice. Obedience through love. 4. The Lord receives His highest praise. Faith. 5. The saints should never be dismayed. Providence. All these hymns appeared in the Olney Hymns, 1779. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ===================== Cowper, W., p. 265, i. Prof. John E. B. Mayor, of Cambridge, contributed some letters by Cowper, hitherto unpublished, together with notes thereon, to Notes and Queries, July 2 to Sept. 24, 1904. These letters are dated from Huntingdon, where he spent two years after leaving St. Alban's (see p. 265, i.), and Olney. The first is dated "Huntingdon, June 24, 1765," and the last "From Olney, July 14, 1772." They together with extracts from other letters by J. Newton (dated respectively Aug. 8, 1772, Nov. 4, 1772), two quotations without date, followed by the last in the N. & Q. series, Aug. 1773, are of intense interest to all students of Cowper, and especially to those who have given attention to the religious side of the poet's life, with its faint lights and deep and awful shadows. From the hymnological standpoint the additional information which we gather is not important, except concerning the hymns "0 for a closer walk with God," "God moves in a mysterious way," "Tis my happiness below," and "Hear what God, the Lord, hath spoken." Concerning the last three, their position in the manuscripts, and the date of the last from J. Newton in the above order, "Aug. 1773," is conclusive proof against the common belief that "God moves in a mysterious way" was written as the outpouring of Cowper's soul in gratitude for the frustration of his attempted suicide in October 1773. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Lowell Mason

1792 - 1872 Person Name: Dr. Lowell Mason Topics: Home and Personal Use Composer of "[Forth in Thy Name, O Lord, I go]" in The Hymnal, Revised and Enlarged, as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892 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.

Robert Schumann

1810 - 1856 Person Name: R. Schumann Topics: General Home and Personal Use Composer of "HEATH" in The Church Hymnal 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

James Uglow

Topics: Home and Personal Use Composer of "[Great God, to Thee my evening song]" in The Hymnal, Revised and Enlarged, as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892

John Leland

1754 - 1841 Person Name: J. Leland Topics: General Home and Personal Use Author of "The day is past and gone" in The Church Hymnal Leland, John, an American Baptist minister, was born at Grafton, Massachusetts, on May 15th, 1754, and began to preach at the age of 20. From 1776 to 1790 he was in Virginia, and thereafter in Massachusetts, mostly at Cheshire. He died Jan. 14, 1841. His Sermons, Addresses, Essays and Autobiography were published by his niece, Miss L. F. Greene, at Lanesboro, Massachusetts, in 1845. His influence seems to have been equalled by his peculiarities. We hear of his "restless activity and roving disposition"; his "mad devotion to politics," wherein he had much local and temporary weight; his "ready wit and endless eccentricities;" as also of his high character. Of the hymns which have been ascribed to him, some on doubtful authority, the following are the most important:— 1. The day is past and gone, The evening, &c. Evening. This is in universal American use, and Leland's claim to the authorship has never been disputed, although it is supported by no known particulars. It was first made widely known by the invaluable Hartford Selection (Congregational) of 1799. Its first appearance, so far as known, was in Philomela, or, A Selection of Spiritual Songs, by George Roberts, Petersburg,1792, No. 82. 2. 0 when shall I see Jesus! The Christian Race. This vigorous lyric is ascribed by Dr. Hitchcock, in Hymns and Songs of Praise, 1874, to Leland. It has generally been regarded as anonymous, and is of uncertain date, cir. 1807, or probably earlier. 3. Christians, if your hearts are warm. Holy Baptism. Adult. The only hymn by Leland which can be authenticated by date and circumstances is this familiar doggerel:— "Christians, if your hearts are warm, Ice and snow can do no harm." Dr. Belcher says, in his Historical Sketches of Hymns, &c, 1859, that it was written for one of Leland's large baptisms in Virginia, 1779. [Rev. Frank M. Bird, M.A.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

R. S. Ambrose

1824 - 1908 Topics: General Home and Personal Use Composer of "AMBROSE" in The Church Hymnal Robert Steele Ambrose United Kingdom 1824-1908, Ambrose grew up in Chelmsford, attending the parish church of St. Mary the Virgin, where his father was organist. He received early musical training from his father and probably sang in the church choir. His family emigrated to upper Canada in 1837 and purchased land near Guelph, intending to farm it. But lacking training and experience, he found it too much of a challenge. He moved to Hamilton, Ontario, in 1845 to become an organist of Christ's Church, leaving Robert to run the farm. That same year, Robert became the organist at St. George's Church in Guelph and gave piano lessons to several local pupils. He wrote to his father complaining that he did not like farming, as plowing was too rough on his hands and interfered with his musical efforts. He moved to Kingston in 1847 and joined his brother teaching music. His brother, Charles, left there,and Robert took over his students. He took on pianoforte tuning, organist for St. George's Church and a choirmaster position to make ends meet. In 1863 Robert moved to Hamilton as organist and choir director of Church of the Ascension and stayed there 20 years. The following year he became music director for Wesleyan Female College. He stayed there 25 years, teaching hundreds of students over the years. He was also a prolific composer, having 100+ musical works (anthems and instrumentals). In recognition of his musical contributions, he was elected president of the Canadian Society of Musicians. John Perry

Henry J. Gauntlett

1805 - 1876 Person Name: H. J. Gauntlett, Mus. Doc. Topics: Home and Personal Use Composer of "[To Sion's hill I lift my eyes]" in The Hymnal, Revised and Enlarged, as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892 Henry J. Gauntlett (b. Wellington, Shropshire, July 9, 1805; d. London, England, February 21, 1876) When he was nine years old, Henry John Gauntlett (b. Wellington, Shropshire, England, 1805; d. Kensington, London, England, 1876) became organist at his father's church in Olney, Buckinghamshire. At his father's insistence he studied law, practicing it until 1844, after which he chose to devote the rest of his life to music. He was an organist in various churches in the London area and became an important figure in the history of British pipe organs. A designer of organs for William Hill's company, Gauntlett extended the organ pedal range and in 1851 took out a patent on electric action for organs. Felix Mendelssohn chose him to play the organ part at the first performance of Elijah in Birmingham, England, in 1846. Gauntlett is said to have composed some ten thousand hymn tunes, most of which have been forgotten. Also a supporter of the use of plainchant in the church, Gauntlett published the Gregorian Hymnal of Matins and Evensong (1844). Bert Polman

John B. Wilkes

1785 - 1869 Person Name: J. B. Wilkes Topics: Home and Personal Use Composer of "[Jesus, I live to Thee]" in The Hymnal, Revised and Enlarged, as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892 John Bernard Wilkes (1785-1869). Not to be confused with John Wilkes (?-1882).

Heinrich Albert

1604 - 1651 Topics: Home and Personal Use Composer of "[Through the day thy love has spared us]" in The Hymnal, Revised and Enlarged, as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892 Alberti, or Albert, Heinrich, son of Johann Albert, tax collector at Lobenstein, in Voigtland (Reuss), born at Lobenstein, June 28, 1604. After some time spent in the study of law at Leipzig, lie went to Dresden and studied music under his uncle Heinrich Schutz, the Court Capellmeister. He went to Konigsberg in 1626, and was, in 1631, appointed organist of the Cathedral. In 1636 he was enrolled a member of the Poetical Union of Konigsberg, along with Dach, Roberthin, and nine others. He died at Konigsberg, Oct. 6, 1651. His hymns, which exhibit him as of a pious, loving, true, and artistic nature, appeared, with those of the other members of the Union, in his Arien etliche theils geistliche, theils iceltliche zur Andacht, guten Sitten, Keuscher Liebe und Ehrenlust dienende Lieder, pub. separately in 8 pts., 1638-1650, and in a collected form, Konigsberg, 1652, including in all, 118 secular, and 74 sacred pieces. Of the 78 sacred melodies which he composed and published in these 8 pts., 7 came into German common use (Koch, iii. 191-197; Allg. Deutsche Biog., i. 210-212, the latter dating his death, 1655 or 1656). Two of his hymns have been translated into English, viz.: i. Der rauhe Herbst kommt wieder. [Autumn.] 1st pub. as above in pt. viii., 1650, No. 9, in 9 stanzas of 6 lines, entitled "On the happy departure, Sep. 2, 1048, of Anna Katherine, beloved little daughter of Herr Andreas Hollander," of Kneiphof. Included, as No. 731, in the Unverfalschter Leidersegen, 1851, omitting st. iii., viii., ix. The translations are:— (1) "The Autumn is returning," by Miss Manington, 1863, p. 175. (2) "Sad Autumn's moan returneth," in E. Massie's Sacred Odes, vol. ii. 1867, p. 1. ii. Gott des Himmels und der Erden. [Morning.] First pub. as above in pt. v. 1643, No. 4, in 7 stanzas of 6 lines, included as No. 459 in the Unv. L. S., 1851. Of this hymn Dr. Cosack, of Konigsberg (quoted in Koch,viii. 186), says:— "For two hundred years it is hardly likely that a single day has greeted the earth that has not, here and there, in German lands, been met with Alberti's hymn. Hardly another morning hymn can be compared with it, as far as popularity and intrinsic value are concerned, if simplicity and devotion, purity of doctrine and adaptation to all the circumstances of life are to decide." Sts. ii., iii., v. have been special favorites in Germany, st. v. being adopted by children, by brides, by old and young, as a morning prayer. The fine melody (in the Irish Church Hymnal called "Godesberg") is also by Alberti. Translations in common use:— 1. God, the Lord of what's created, in full in J. C. Jacobi's Div. Hymns 1720. p. 35. In his 2nd ed. 1732, p. 169, altered to—" God, the Lord of the Creation " ; and thence slightly altered as No. 478 in part i. of the Moravian Hymn Book, 1754, with a doxology as in the Magdeburg G. B., 1696. In 1789, No. 743, altered to—"God, omnipotent Creator"; with st. ii., iv., vii., omitted; st. iii., viii. being also omitted in the 1801 and later ed. In 1868, st. iii.—v. were included as No. 511 in the Pennsylvania Lutheran Ch. Bk., with st. ii., vi., vii. from A. T. Russell. 2. God, Thou Lord of Earth and Heaven, in full, by H. J. Buckoll in his H. from the German, 1842, p. 22. His translations of st. iv.-vi. beginning—" Now the morn new light is pouring," were included as No. 3 in the Rugby School Hymn Book, 1843 (ed. 1876, No. 4), and of st. v., vi., altered to "Jesus! Lord! our steps be guiding," as No. 130 in Dr. Pagenstecher's Collection, 1864. 3. God, who heaven and earth upholdest. A good tr. omitting st. iv. and based on Jacobi, by A. T. Russell, as No. 64 in the Dalston Hospital Collection, 1848. In his own Psalms & Hymns, 1851, No. 3, the translations of st. vi., vii. were omitted, and this was repeated as No. 218, in the New Zealand Hymnal, 1872. The Pennsylvania Lutheran Church Book takes st. i. partly from Miss Winkworth. 4. God who madest earth and heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. A good and full tr. by Miss Winkworth in her Lyra Germanica, 1st ser., 1855, p. 213 (later ed., p. 215, slightly altered). In full in R. M. Taylor's Par. Church Hymnal 1872, No. 27. A cento from st. i., 11.1-4; v., 11. 1-4; vi., 11. 1-4; with v., 11. 5, 6; and vii., 11. 5, 6, was included as No. 23 in the Irish Church Hymnal 1873. In 1868, included in L. Rehfuess' Church at Sea, p. 79, altered to—"Creator of earth and heaven." In 1863 it was altered in metre and given as No. 160 in the Chorale Book for England. From this Porter's Church Hymnal 1876, No. 54, omits st. iii. Also in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880, No. 293. 5. God who madest earth and heaven. A good translation omitting st. vii., and with st. i., 11. 1-4, from Miss Winkworth, contributed by R. Massie, as No. 501, to the 1857 ed. of Mercer's Church Psalms & Hymns (Ox. ed. 1864, No. 7, omitting st. v.). 6. God of mercy and of might. A good translation (omitting st. v., vi,) by Dr. Kennedy, as No. 811, in his Hymnologia Christiana, 1863, repeated in Dr. Thomas's Aug. Hymn Book 1866, No. 510; and, omitting the translations of st. vii., as No. 31, in Holy Song, 1809. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Samuel Rodigast

1649 - 1708 Person Name: Rev. Samuel Rodigast Topics: Home and Personal Use Author of "Whate'er my God ordains is right" in The Hymnal, Revised and Enlarged, as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892 Samuel Rodigast, son of Johann Rodigast, pastor at Groben near Jena, was born at Groben Oct. 19, 1649. He entered the University of Jena in 1668 (M.A. 1671), and was in 1676 appointed adjunct of the philosophical faculty. In 1680 he became conrector of the Greyfriars Gymnasium at Berlin. While in this position he refused the offers of a professorship at Jena and the Rectorships of the Schools at Stade and Stralsund. Finally, in 1698, he became rector of the Greyfriars Gymnasium, and held this post till his death. His tombstone in the Koster-Kirche in Berlin says he died "die xxix. Mart. a. MDCCVII . . . aetatis anno lix." ...Two hymns have been ascribed to him, on of which has passed into English, viz.:--"Whatever God ordains is right." --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)