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Louis Bourgeois

1510 - 1561 Scripture: Isaiah 44:23 Composer of "RENDEZ À DIEU" in Glory to God Louis Bourgeois (b. Paris, France, c. 1510; d. Paris, 1561). In both his early and later years Bourgeois wrote French songs to entertain the rich, but in the history of church music he is known especially for his contribution to the Genevan Psalter. Apparently moving to Geneva in 1541, the same year John Calvin returned to Geneva from Strasbourg, Bourgeois served as cantor and master of the choristers at both St. Pierre and St. Gervais, which is to say he was music director there under the pastoral leadership of Calvin. Bourgeois used the choristers to teach the new psalm tunes to the congregation. The extent of Bourgeois's involvement in the Genevan Psalter is a matter of scholarly debate. Calvin had published several partial psalters, including one in Strasbourg in 1539 and another in Geneva in 1542, with melodies by unknown composers. In 1551 another French psalter appeared in Geneva, Eighty-three Psalms of David, with texts by Marot and de Beze, and with most of the melodies by Bourgeois, who supplied thirty four original tunes and thirty-six revisions of older tunes. This edition was republished repeatedly, and later Bourgeois's tunes were incorporated into the complete Genevan Psalter (1562). However, his revision of some older tunes was not uniformly appreciated by those who were familiar with the original versions; he was actually imprisoned overnight for some of his musical arrangements but freed after Calvin's intervention. In addition to his contribution to the 1551 Psalter, Bourgeois produced a four-part harmonization of fifty psalms, published in Lyons (1547, enlarged 1554), and wrote a textbook on singing and sight-reading, La Droit Chemin de Musique (1550). He left Geneva in 1552 and lived in Lyons and Paris for the remainder of his life. Bert Polman

Merrill Dunlop

1905 - 2002 Person Name: Merrill Dunlap Scripture: Isaiah 44:22 Author of "My Sins Are Blotted Out, I Know!" in Hymns of Faith Merrill Everett Dunlop Born: May 9, 1905, Chicago, Illinois. Died: June 15, 2002. Dunlop was educated at Central YMCA College, Chicago (BA) and the Moody Bible Institute (graduated 1926). He played the piano and organ at Moody Church (1921-24), and served as director of music at the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle (1926-53). Burton Bosworth was his father-in-law. Dunlop wrote over 700 hymns and Gospel songs, and works including: Songs of a Christian, 1937 New Songs of a Christian, 1941 © The Cyber Hymnal™ (www.hymntime.net/tch)

Shirley Erena Murray

1931 - 2020 Person Name: Shirley Erena Murray, 1931- Scripture: Isaiah 44:1-8 Author of "Loving Spirit" in Common Praise (1998) Shirley Erena Murray (b. Invercargill, New Zealand, 1931) studied music as an undergraduate but received a master’s degree (with honors) in classics and French from Otago University. Her upbringing was Methodist, but she became a Presbyterian when she married the Reverend John Stewart Murray, who was a moderator of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. Shirley began her career as a teacher of languages, but she became more active in Amnesty International, and for eight years she served the Labor Party Research Unit of Parliament. Her involvement in these organizations has enriched her writing of hymns, which address human rights, women’s concerns, justice, peace, the integrity of creation, and the unity of the church. Many of her hymns have been performed in CCA and WCC assemblies. In recognition for her service as a writer of hymns, the New Zealand government honored her as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit on the Queen’s birthday on 3 June 2001. Through Hope Publishing House, Murray has published three collections of her hymns: In Every Corner Sing (eighty-four hymns, 1992), Everyday in Your Spirit (forty-one hymns, 1996), and Faith Makes the Song (fifty hymns, 2002). The New Zealand Hymnbook Trust, for which she worked for a long time, has also published many of her texts (cf. back cover, Faith Makes the Song). In 2009, Otaga University conferred on her an honorary doctorate in literature for her contribution to the art of hymn writing. I-to Loh, Hymnal Companion to “Sound the Bamboo”: Asian Hymns in Their Cultural and Liturgical Context, p. 468, ©2011 GIA Publications, Inc., Chicago

W. S. Rockstro

1823 - 1895 Person Name: William Smith Rockstro, 1823-1895 Scripture: Isaiah 44:1-8 Arranger of "OMNI DIE DIC MARIA" in Common Praise (1998) William Rockstro (Composer, Arranger) Born: January 5, 1823 - North Cheam, Surrey (baptisized at Modern Church), England Died: July 2, 1895 - London, England The English composer and writer on music, William Smith [Smyth] Rockstro (originally: Rackstraw), was distinguished as a student of modal music and an important contributor to the Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians. The form of his surname by which he was known was an older style resumed after 1846. He was successively pupil of John Purkis, the blind organist, of Sterndale Bennett, and at the Leipzig Conservatorium, where he studied from I845 to 1846. He enjoyed the special friendship and tuition of Felix Mendelssohn, and was with Moritz Hauptmann for theory and with Plaidy for pianoforte. For some years after his return to England, William Rockstro was active as a teacher and performer in London, being regular accompanist at the 'Wednesday concerts,' where Braham and other eminent singers were to be heard. At this period he wrote his most popular and beautiful song, Queen and huntress; and his pianoforte editions of classical and other operas led the way in popularising that class of music in an available form for the use of those who could not read full scores; and in his indications of the orchestral instruments above the music-staves he did much to point the way towards a general appreciation of orchestral colour. In the early 1860's he left London for Torquay on account of his mother's health and his own, and on her death in 1876 he became a Roman Catholic. William Rockstro had been organist and honorary precentor at All Saints' Church, Babbacombe, from 1867, and won a high position as a teacher. Re published, with T. F. Ravenshaw, a Festival Psalter, adapted to the Gregorian Tones, in 1863, and Accompanying Harmonies to the Ferial Psalter in 1869. These were the first fruits of his assiduous study of ancient music, on which he became the first authority of his time in England. A couple of textbooks on harmony (1881) and counterpoint (1882) had a great success, and in the latter part of the first edition of the Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians he wrote a large number of articles on musical archaeology generally. Later research has superseded his, but at the time he wrote, his contributions to such subjects as the music of the period which closed in 1600 were important. He was too ardent a partisan to be an ideal historian, but his History of Music for Young Students (1879) and his larger work, A General History of Music (1886), contain much that is of permanent value. His Life of Handel (1883) and Mendelssohn (1884) are fine examples of eulogistic biography, though they are hardly to be recommended as embodying a calmly critical estimate of either composer. In his larger History he showed that he was, nevertheless, not above owning himself in the wrong, and his recantation of certain excessive opinions expressed by him in the Dictionary against Wagner's later works was due to true moral courage. He conducted a concert of sacred music of the 16th and 17th centuries at the Inventions Exhibition of 1885, and in 1891 gave up Torquay for London, giving lectures at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music, and holding a class to counterpoint and plain-song at the latter institution. As a singing-master and teacher of the pianoforte his method of imparting instruction was remarkably successful. As a composer, William Rockstro never quite freed himself from the powerful influences engendered by his studies: the lovely madrigal, "O too cruel fair," was judged unworthy of a prize by the Madrigal Society on the ground that it was modelled too closely on Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina; and his oratorio, The Good Shepherd, produced at the Gloucester Festival of 1886 under his own direction, was found to bear too many traces of Mendelssohnian influence to deserve success. In 1891 he collaborated with Canon Scott Holland in writing the life of his old friend, Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt; an abbreviated edition came out in 1863, and with Otto Goldschmidt he wrote still a shorter book, Jenny Lind, her Vocal Art and Culture (partly reprinted from the biography). For many years his health had been bad, and he had many adverse circumstances to contend with. He fought bravely for all that he held best in art, and boundless enthusiasm carried him through. Source: Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1952 Edition; Author: J.A. Fuller Maitland; revised: H.C. Colles) Contributed by Aryeh Oron (July 2007) --www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/

Martin Luther

1483 - 1546 Person Name: Martin Luther, 1483-1546 Scripture: Isaiah 44:8 Author of "A Mighty Fortress" in Journeysongs (3rd ed.) Luther, Martin, born at Eisleben, Nov. 10, 1483; entered the University of Erfurt, 1501 (B.A. 1502, M.A.. 1503); became an Augustinian monk, 1505; ordained priest, 1507; appointed Professor at the University of Wittenberg, 1508, and in 1512 D.D.; published his 95 Theses, 1517; and burnt the Papal Bull which had condemned them, 1520; attended the Diet of Worms, 1521; translated the Bible into German, 1521-34; and died at Eisleben, Feb. 18, 1546. The details of his life and of his work as a reformer are accessible to English readers in a great variety of forms. Luther had a huge influence on German hymnody. i. Hymn Books. 1. Ellich cristlich lider Lobgesang un Psalm. Wittenberg, 1524. [Hamburg Library.] This contains 8 German hymns, of which 4 are by Luther. 2. Eyn Enchiridion oder Handbuchlein. Erfurt, 1524 [Goslar Library], with 25 German hymns, of which 18 are by Luther. 3. Geystliche Gesangk Buchleyn. Wittenberg, 1524 [Munich Library], with 32 German hymns, of which 24 are by Luther. 4. Geistliche Lieder auffs new gebessert. Wittenberg. J. Klug, 1529. No copy of this book is now known, but there was one in 1788 in the possession of G. E. Waldau, pastor at Nürnberg, and from his description it is evident that the first part of the Rostock Gesang-Buch, 1531, is a reprint of it. The Rostock Gesang-Buch, 1531, was reprinted by C. M. Wiechmann-Kadow at Schwerin in 1858. The 1529 evidently contained 50 German hymns, of which 29 (including the Litany) were by Luther. 5. Geistliche Lieder auffs new gebessert. Erfurt. A. Rauscher, 1531 [Helmstädt, now Wolfenbüttel Library], a reprint of No. 4. 6. Geistliche Lieder. Wittenberg. J. Klug, 1535 [Munich Library. Titlepage lost], with 52 German hymns, of which 29 are by Luther. 7. Geistliche Lieder auffs new gebessert. Leipzig. V. Schumann, 1539 [Wernigerode Library], with 68 German hymns, of which 29 are by Luther. 8. Geistliche Lieder. Wittenberg. J. Klug, 1543 [Hamburg Library], with 61 German hymns, of which 35 are by Luther. 9. Geystliche Lieder. Leipzig. V. Babst, 1545 [Gottingen Library]. This contains Luther's finally revised text, but adds no new hymns by himself. In pt. i. are 61 German hymns, in pt. ii. 40, of which 35 in all are by Luther. For these books Luther wrote three prefaces, first published respectively in Nos. 3, 4, 9. A fourth is found in his Christliche Geseng, Lateinisch und Deudsch, zum Begrebnis, Wittenberg, J. Klug, 1542. These four prefaces are reprinted in Wackernagel’s Bibliographie, 1855, pp. 543-583, and in the various editions of Luther's Hymns. Among modern editions of Luther's Geistliche Lieder may be mentioned the following:— Carl von Winterfeld, 1840; Dr. C. E. P. Wackernagel, 1848; Q. C. H. Stip, 1854; Wilhelm Schircks, 1854; Dr. Danneil, 1883; Dr. Karl Gerok, 1883; Dr. A. F. W. Fischer, 1883; A. Frommel, 1883; Karl Goedeke, 1883, &c. In The Hymns of Martin Luther. Set to their original melodies. With an English version. New York, 1883, ed. by Dr. Leonard Woolsey Bacon and Nathan H. Allen, there are the four prefaces, and English versions of all Luther's hymns, principally taken more or less altered, from the versions by A. T. Russell, R. Massie and Miss Winkworth [repub. in London, 1884]. Complete translations of Luther's hymns have been published by Dr. John Anderson, 1846 (2nd ed. 1847), Dr. John Hunt, 1853, Richard Massie, 1854, and Dr. G. Macdonald in the Sunday Magazine, 1867, and his Exotics, 1876. The other versions are given in detail in the notes on the individual hymns. ii. Classified List of Luther's Hymns. Of Luther's hymns no classification can be quite perfect, e.g. No. 3 (see below) takes hardly anything from the Latin, and No. 18 hardly anything from the Psalm. No. 29 is partly based on earlier hymns (see p. 225, i.). No. 30 is partly based on St. Mark i. 9-11, and xvi., 15, 16 (see p. 226, ii.). No. 35 is partly based on St. Luke ii. 10-16. The following arrangement, however, will answer all practical purposes. A. Translations from the Latin. i. From Latin Hymns: 1. Christum wir sollen loben schon. A solis ortus cardine 2. Der du bist drei in Einigkeit. O Lux beata Trinitas. 3. Jesus Christus unser Heiland, Der von. Jesus Christus nostra salus 4. Komm Gott Schopfer, heiliger Geist. Veni Creator Spiritus, Mentes. 5. Nun komm der Beidenheiland. Veni Redemptor gentium 6. Was flirchst du Feind Herodes sehr. A solis ortus cardine ii. From Latin Antiphons, &c.: 7. Herr Gott dich loben wir. Te Deum laudamus. 8. Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich. Dapacem, Domine 9. Wir glauben all an einen Gott. iii. Partly from the Latin, the translated stanzas being adopted from Pre-Reformation Versions: 10. Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott. 11. Mitten wir im Leben sind. Media vita in morte sumus. B. Hymns revised and enlarged from Pre-Reformation popular hymns. 12. Gelobet seist du Jesus Christ. 13. Gott der Vater wohn uns bei. 14. Gott sei gelobet und gebenedeiet. 15. Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist. C. Psalm versions. 16. Ach Gott vom Himmel, sieh darein. 17. Aus tiefer Noth schrei ich zu dir. 18. Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott. 19. Es spricht der Unweisen Mund wohl. 20. Es wollt uns Gott genädig sein. 21. War Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit. 22. Wohl dem, der in Gotten Furcht steht. D. Paraphrases of other portions of Holy Scripture. 23. Diess sind die heilgen zehn Gebot. 24. Jesaia dem Propheten das geschah. 25. Mensch willt du leben seliglich. 26. Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin. 27. Sie ist mir lieb die werthe Magd. 28. Vater unser im Himmelreich. E. Hymns mainly Original. 29. Christ lag in Todesbanden. 30. Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam. 31. Ein neues Lied wir heben an. 32. Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort. 33. Jesus Christus unser Heiland, Der den, 34. Nun freut euch lieben Christengemein. 35. Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her. 36. Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schaar. In addition to these — 37. Fur alien Freuden auf Erden. 38. Kyrie eleison. In the Blätter fur Hymnologie, 1883, Dr. Daniel arranges Luther's hymns according to what he thinks their adaptation to modern German common use as follows:— i. Hymns which ought to be included in every good Evangelical hymn-book: Nos. 7-18, 20, 22, 28, 29, 30, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38. ii. Hymns the reception of which into a hymn-book might be contested: Nos. 2, 3, 4, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 33. iii. Hymns not suited for a hymn-book: Nos. 1, 5, 6, 27, 31, 37. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Johann Sebastian Bach

1685 - 1750 Person Name: Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685-1750 Scripture: Isaiah 44:8 Adapter of "EIN' FESTE BURG" in Journeysongs (3rd ed.) 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)

Winfred Douglas

1867 - 1944 Person Name: C. Winfred Douglas, 1867-19444 Scripture: Isaiah 44:8 Arranger (attributed to) of "EIN' FESTE BURG" in Journeysongs (3rd ed.) Charles Winfred Douglas (b. Oswego, NY, 1867; d. Santa Rosa, CA, 1944), an influential leader in Episcopalian liturgical and musical life. Educated at Syracuse University and St. Andrews Divinity School, Syracuse, New York, he moved to Colorado for his health. There he studied at St. Matthew's Hall, Denver, and founded the Mission of the Transfiguration in Evergreen (1897). Ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1899, he also studied in France, Germany and England, where he spent time with the Benedictines of Solesmes on the Island of Wight from 1903 to 1906. For much of his life, Douglas served as director of music at the Community of St. Mary in Peekskill, New York, and had associations with cathedrals in Denver, Colorado, and Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He promoted chanting and plainsong in the Episcopal Church through workshops and publications such as The American Psalter (1929), the Plainsong Psalter (1932), and the Monastic Diurnal (1932). His writings include program notes for the Denver Symphony Orchestra, various hymn preludes; organ, as well as the book, Church Music in History and Practice (1937). He was editor of both the Hymnal 1916 and its significant successor, Hymnal 1940, of the Episcopal Church. Douglas's other achievements include a thorough knowledge of the life and culture of Hopi and Navajo natives, among whom he lived for a number of years. Bert Polman