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G. W. Kitchin

1827 - 1912 Person Name: George W. Kitchin, 1827-1912 Hymnal Number: 884 Author of "Lift High the Cross" in RitualSong A scholar and Anglican clergyman, George W. Kitchin (b. Naughton, Suffolk, England, 1827; d. Durham, England, 1912) spent most of his life in academic institutions. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, England, he was ordained in the Church of England in 1852. He served initially as a headmaster in Twyford, Hampshire, and then as a tutor at Oxford (1863-1883). Later he served as Dean of Winchester Cathedral from 1883 to 1894 and of Durham Cathedral from 1894 to 1912; Kitchin was also chancellor of Durham University the last few years of his life. His publications include A Life of Pope Pius II (1881), a three volume work entitled A History of France (1877), and archeological writings. Bert Polman

Samuel Medley

1738 - 1799 Person Name: Samuel Medley, 1738-1799 Hymnal Number: 582 Author of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" in RitualSong Medley, Samuel, born June 23, 1738, at Cheshunt, Herts, where his father kept a school. He received a good education; but not liking the business to which he was apprenticed, he entered the Royal Navy. Having been severely wounded in a battle with the French fleet off Port Lagos, in 1759, he was obliged to retire from active service. A sermon by Dr. Watts, read to him about this time, led to his conversion. He joined the Baptist Church in Eagle Street, London, then under the care of Dr. Gifford, and shortly afterwards opened a school, which for several years he conducted with great success. Having begun to preach, he received, in 1767, a call to become pastor of the Baptist church at Watford. Thence, in 1772, he removed to Byrom Street, Liverpool, where he gathered a large congregation, and for 27 years was remarkably popular and useful. After a long and painful illness he died July 17, 1799. Most of Medley's hymns were first printed on leaflets or in magazines (the Gospel Magazine being one). They appeared in book form as:— (1) Hymns, &c. Bradford, 1785. This contains 42 hymns. (2) Hymns on Select Portions of Scripture by the Rev. Mr. Medley. 2nd ed. Bristol. W. Pine. 1785. This contains 34 hymns, and differs much from the Bradford edition both in the text and in the order of the hymns. (3) An enlargement of the same in 1787. (4) A small collection of new Hymns, London, 1794. This contains 23 hymns. (5) Hymns. The Public Worship and Private Devotion of True Christians Assisted in some thoughts in Verse; principally drawn from Select Passages of the Word of God. By Samuel Medley. London. Printed for J. Johnson. 1800. A few of his hymns are also found in a Collection for the use of All Denominations, published in London in 1782. Medley's hymns have been very popular in his own denomination, particularly among the more Calvinistic churches. In Denham's Selections there are 48, and in J. Stevens's Selections, 30. Their charm consists less in their poetry than in the warmth and occasional pathos with which they give expression to Christian experience. In most of them also there is a refrain in the last line of each verse which is often effective. Those in common use include:— 1. Come, join ye saints, with heart and voice. (1800). Complete in Christ. 2. Death is no more among our foes. Easter. 3. Eternal Sovereign Lord of all. (1789). Praise for Providential Care. 4. Far, far beyond these lower skies. (1789). Jesus, the Forerunner. 5. Father of mercies, God of love, whose kind, &c. (1789.) New Year. 6. Great God, today Thy grace impart. Sermon. 7. Hear, gracious God! a sinner's cry. (1789). Lent. 8. In heaven the rapturous song began. Christmas. 9. Jesus, engrave it on my heart. (1789). Jesus, Needful to all. 10. Mortals, awake, with angels join. (1782). Christmas. 11. My soul, arise in joyful lays. (1789). Joy in God. 12. Now, in a song of grateful praise. Praise to Jesus. In the Gospel Magazine, June, 1776. 13. O could I speak the matchless worth. (1789.) Praise of Jesus. 14. O for a bright celestial ray. Lent. 15. O God, Thy mercy, vast and free. (1800). Dedication of Self to God. 16. O let us tell the matchless love. Praise to Jesus. 17. O what amazing words of grace. (1789). Foutain of Living Waters. 18. Saints die, and we should gently weep. (1800). Death and Burial. From his "Dearest of Names, Our Lord and King." 19. See a poor sinner, dearest Lord. Lent. 20. Sing the dear Saviour's glorious fame. (1789). Jesus the Breaker of bonds. In 1800 a Memoir of Medley was published by his son, which is regarded by members of the family now living as authoritative. But in 1833 appeared another Memoir by Medley's daughter Sarah, to which are appended 52 hymns for use on Sacramental occasions. These she gives as her father's. But 8 of them are undoubtedly by Thos. Kelly, published by him in 1815, and reprinted in subsequent editions of his Hymns. The remainder are by Medley. Nearly all of these 52 hymns (both Medley's and Kelly's) have been altered in order to adapt them to Sacramental use. In Sarah Medley's volume, Kelly's hymns all follow one another, and three of them are in a metre which Medley apparently never used. What could have been Sarah Medley's motive in all this it is hard to divine. She is said to have been a clever, though unamiable woman, and was herself the author of a small volume of Poems published in 1807. In the Memoir she does not conceal her hatred of her brother. [Rev. W. R. Stevenson, M.A.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Julia Ward Howe

1819 - 1910 Person Name: Julia W. Howe, 1819-1910 Hymnal Number: 869 Author of "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" in RitualSong Born: May 27, 1819, New York City. Died: October 17, 1910, Middletown, Rhode Island. Buried: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Howe, Julia, née Ward, born in New York City in 1819, and married in 1843 the American philanthropist S. G. Howe. She has taken great interest in political matters, and is well known through her prose and poetical works. Of the latter there are Passion Flower, 1854; Words of the Hour, 1856; Later Lyrics, 1866; and From Sunset Ridge, 1896. Her Battle Hymn of the Republic, "eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord," was written in 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War, and was called forth by the sight of troops for the seat of war, and published in her Later Lyrics, 1806, p. 41. It is found in several American collections, including The Pilgrim Hymnal, 1904, and others. [M. C. Hazard, Ph.D.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907) ============================ Howe, Julia Ward. (New York, New York, May 27, 1819--October 17, 1910). Married Samuel Gridley Howe on April 26, 1843. She was a woman with a distinguished personality and intellect; an abolitionist and active in social reforms; author of several book in prose and verse. The latter include Passion Flower, 1854; Words of the Hours, 1856; Later Lyrics, 1866; and From a Sunset Ridge, 1896. She became famous as the author of the poem entitled "Battle Hymn of the Republic," which, in spite of its title, was written as a patriotic song and not as a hymn for use in public worship, but which has been included in many American hymn books. It was written on November 19, 1861, while she and her husband, accompanied by their pastor, Rev. James Freeman Clarke, minister of the (Unitarian) Church of the Disciples, Boston, were visiting Washington soon after the outbreak of the Civil War. She had seen the troops gathered there and had heard them singing "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave" to a popular tune called "Glory, Hallelujah" composed a few years earlier by William Steffe of Charleston, South Carolina, for Sunday School use. Dr. Clarke asked Julie Howe if she could not write more uplifting words for the tune and as she woke early the next morning she found the verses forming in her mind as fast as she could write them down, so completely that later she re-wrote only a line or two in the last stanza and changed only four words in other stanzas. She sent the poem to The Atlantic Monthly, which paid her $4 and published it in its issue for February, 1862. It attracted little attention until it caught the eye of Chaplain C. C. McCable (later a Methodist bishop) who had a fine singing voice and who taught it first to the 122nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry regiment to which he was attached, then to other troops, and to prisoners in Libby Prison after he was made a prisoner of war. Thereafter it quickly came into use throughout the North as an expression of the patriotic emotion of the period. --Henry Wilder Foote, DNAH Archives

George Frideric Handel

1685 - 1759 Person Name: George F. Handel, 1685-1759 Hymnal Number: 524 Composer of "ANTIOCH" in RitualSong George Frideric Handel (b. Halle, Germany, 1685; d. London, England, 1759) became a musician and composer despite objections from his father, who wanted him to become a lawyer. Handel studied music with Zachau, organist at the Halle Cathedral, and became an accomplished violinist and keyboard performer. He traveled and studied in Italy for some time and then settled permanently in England in 1713. Although he wrote a large number of instrumental works, he is known mainly for his Italian operas, oratorios (including Messiah, 1741), various anthems for church and royal festivities, and organ concertos, which he interpolated into his oratorio performances. He composed only three hymn tunes, one of which (GOPSAL) still appears in some modern hymnals. A number of hymnal editors, including Lowell Mason, took themes from some of Handel's oratorios and turned them into hymn tunes; ANTIOCH is one example, long associated with “Joy to the World.” Bert Polman

George William Warren

1828 - 1902 Person Name: George W. Warren, 1828-1902 Hymnal Number: 966 Composer of "NATIONAL HYMN" in RitualSong George W. Warren (b. Albany, NY, 1828; d. New York, 1902) received his general education at Racine College in Wisconsin, but as a musician he was largely self-trained. An organist in a number of Episcopal churches, he played the organ for thirty years (1870-1900) at St. Thomas Church in New York City. Warren composed anthems and liturgical service music; his hymn tunes were collected in Warren's Hymns and Tunes as Sung in St. Thomas Church (1888). Bert Polman

Franz Schubert

1797 - 1828 Person Name: Franz Schubert, 1797-1828 Hymnal Number: 449 Composer of "[Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen]" in RitualSong Franz Peter Schubert, 31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer. In a short lifespan of just 31 years, Schubert was a prolific composer, writing some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies (including the famous "Unfinished Symphony"), liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music. Appreciation of Schubert's music during his lifetime was limited, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades following his death. Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn, among others, discovered and championed his works in the 19th century. Today, Schubert is seen as one of the leading exponents of the early Romantic era in music and he remains one of the most frequently performed composers. Early life and education Schubert was born in Himmelpfortgrund (now a part of Alsergrund), Vienna, on 31 January 1797. His father, Franz Theodor Schubert, the son of a Moravian peasant, was a parish schoolmaster; his mother, Elisabeth Vietz, was the daughter of a Silesian master locksmith, and had also been a housemaid for a Viennese family prior to her marriage. Of Franz Theodor's fourteen children (one illegitimate child was born in 1783), nine died in infancy; five survived. Their father was a well-known teacher, and his school in Lichtental, a part of Vienna's 9th district, was well attended. He was not a musician of fame or with formal training, but he taught his son some elements of music. At the age of five, Schubert began receiving regular instruction from his father and a year later was enrolled at his father's school. His formal musical education also started around the same time. His father continued to teach him the basics of the violin, and his brother Ignaz gave him piano lessons. At the age of seven, Schubert began receiving lessons from Michael Holzer, the local church organist and choirmaster. Holzer's lessons seem to have mainly consisted of conversations and expressions of admiration and the boy gained more from his acquaintance with a friendly joiner's apprentice who used to take him to a neighboring pianoforte warehouse where he had the opportunity to practice on better instruments. He also played the viola in the family string quartet, with brothers Ferdinand and Ignaz on violin and his father on the cello. Schubert wrote many of his early string quartets for this ensemble. Schubert first came to the attention of Antonio Salieri, then Vienna's leading musical authority, in 1804, when his vocal talent was recognized. In October 1808, he became a pupil at the Stadtkonvikt (Imperial seminary) through a choir scholarship. At the Stadtkonvikt, Schubert was introduced to the overtures and symphonies of Mozart. His exposure to these pieces and various lighter compositions, combined with his occasional visits to the opera set the foundation for his greater musical knowledge. One important musical influence came from the songs of Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, who was an important Lied composer of the time, which, his friend Joseph von Spaun reported, he "wanted to modernize". Schubert's friendship with Spaun began at the Stadtkonvikt and endured through his lifetime. In those early days, the more well-to-do Spaun furnished the impoverished Schubert with manuscript paper. Meanwhile, his genius began to show in his compositions. Schubert was occasionally permitted to lead the Stadtkonvikt's orchestra, and Salieri decided to begin training him privately in musical composition and theory in these years. It was the first germ of that amateur orchestra for which, in later years, many of his compositions were written. During the remainder of his stay at the Stadtkonvikt he wrote a good deal of chamber music, several songs, some miscellaneous pieces for the pianoforte and, among his more ambitious efforts, a Kyrie (D. 31) and Salve Regina (D. 27), an octet for wind instruments (D. 72/72a, said to commemorate the 1812 death of his mother), a cantata for guitar and male voices (D. 110, in honor of his father's birthday in 1813), and his first symphony (D. 82). At the end of 1813, he left the Stadtkonvikt, and returned home for studies at the Normalhauptschule to train as a teacher. In 1814, he entered his father's school as teacher of the youngest students. For over two years, the young man endured the drudgery of the work, which he performed with very indifferent success. There were, however, other interests to compensate. He continued to receive private lessons in composition from Salieri, who did more for Schubert’s musical training than any of his other teachers. Salieri and Schubert would part ways in 1817. In 1814, Schubert met a young soprano named Therese Grob, the daughter of a local silk manufacturer. Several of his songs (Salve Regina and Tantum Ergo) were composed for her voice, and she also performed in the premiere of his first Mass (D. 105) in September 1814. Schubert intended to marry Grob, but was hindered by the harsh marriage consent law of 1815, which required the ability to show the means to support a family. In November 1816, after failing to gain a position at Laibach, Schubert sent Grob's brother Heinrich a collection of songs, which were retained by her family into the 20th century. One of Schubert's most prolific years was 1815. He composed over 20,000 bars of music, more than half of which was for orchestra, including nine church works, a symphony, and about 140 Lieder. In that year, he was also introduced to Anselm Hüttenbrenner and Franz von Schober, who would become his lifelong friends. Another friend, Johann Mayrhofer, was introduced to him by Spaun in 1814. Maynard Solomon suggested that Schubert was erotically attracted to men, a thesis that has, at times, been heatedly debated. Musicologist and Schubert expert Rita Steblin claimed that he was "chasing women". Supported by friends Significant changes happened in 1816. Schober, a student of good family and some means, invited Schubert to room with him at his mother's house. The proposal was particularly opportune, for Schubert had just made the unsuccessful application for the post of Kapellmeister at Laibach, and he had also decided not to resume teaching duties at his father's school. By the end of the year, he became a guest in Schober's lodgings. For a time, he attempted to increase the household resources by giving music lessons, but they were soon abandoned, and he devoted himself to composition. "I compose every morning, and when one piece is done, I begin another." During this year, he focused on orchestral and choral works, although he also continued to write Lieder. Much of this work was unpublished, but manuscripts and copies circulated among friends and admirers. In early 1817, Schober introduced Schubert to Johann Michael Vogl, a prominent baritone twenty years Schubert's senior. Vogl, for whom Schubert went on to write a great many songs, became one of Schubert's main proponents in Viennese musical circles. He also met Joseph Hüttenbrenner (brother to Anselm), who also played a role in promoting Schubert's music. These, and an increasing circle of friends and musicians, became responsible for promoting, collecting, and, after his death, preserving his work. In late 1817, Schubert's father gained a new position at a school in Rossau (not far from Lichtental). Schubert rejoined his father and reluctantly took up teaching duties there. In early 1818, he was rejected for membership in the prestigious Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, something that might have furthered his musical career. However, he began to gain more notice in the press, and the first public performance of a secular work, an overture performed in February 1818, received praise from the press in Vienna and abroad. Schubert spent the summer of 1818 as music teacher to the family of Count Johann Karl Esterházy at their château in Zseliz (then in Hungary, now in Slovakia). His duties were relatively light (teaching piano and singing to the two daughters, Marie and Karoline), and the pay was relatively good. As a result, he happily continued to compose during this time. It may have been at this time that he wrote one of his now world-famous compositions, the Marche militaire No. 1 in D major. Marie and Karoline both being his piano students, and the original score of "Marche Militaire" being a piano duet, lend credence to this view. On his return from Zseliz, he took up residence with his friend Mayrhofer. The respite at Zseliz led to a succession of compositions for piano duet. During the early 1820s, Schubert was part of a close-knit circle of artists and students who had social gatherings together that became known as "Schubertiaden". The tight circle of friends with which Schubert surrounded himself was dealt a blow in early 1820. Schubert and four of his friends were arrested by the Austrian police, who (in the aftermath of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars) were on their guard against revolutionary activities and suspicious of any gathering of youth or students. One of Schubert's friends, Johann Senn, was put on trial, imprisoned for over a year, and then permanently forbidden to enter Vienna. The other four, including Schubert, were "severely reprimanded", in part for "inveighing against [officials] with insulting and opprobrious language". While Schubert never saw Senn again, he did set some of his poems, "Selige Welt" and "Schwanengesang", to music. The incident may have played a role in a falling-out with Mayrhofer, with whom he was living at the time. He was nicknamed "Schwämmerl" by his friends, which Gibbs describes as translating to "Tubby" or "Little Mushroom". "Schwammerl" is Austrian (and other) dialect for mushroom; the umlaut makes it a diminutive. Musical maturity The compositions of 1819 and 1820 show a marked advance in development and maturity of style. The unfinished oratorio "Lazarus" (D. 689) was begun in February; later followed, amid a number of smaller works, by the 23rd Psalm (D. 706), the Gesang der Geister (D. 705/714), the Quartettsatz in C minor (D. 703), and the "Wanderer Fantasy" for piano (D. 760). Of most notable interest is the staging in 1820 of two of Schubert's operas: Die Zwillingsbrüder (D. 647) appeared at the Theater am Kärntnertor on 14 June, and Die Zauberharfe (D. 644) appeared at the Theater an der Wien on 21 August. Hitherto, his larger compositions (apart from his masses) had been restricted to the amateur orchestra at the Gundelhof, a society which grew out of the quartet-parties at his home. Now he began to assume a more prominent position, addressing a wider public. Publishers, however, remained distant, with Anton Diabelli hesitantly agreeing to print some of his works on commission. The first seven opus numbers (all songs) appeared on these terms; then the commission ceased, and he began to receive the meager pittances which were all that the great publishing houses ever paid him. The situation improved somewhat in March 1821 when Vogl sang "Der Erlkönig" at a concert that was extremely well received. That month, Schubert composed a variation on a waltz by Anton Diabelli (D. 718), being one of the fifty composers who contributed to Vaterländischer Künstlerverein. The production of the two operas turned Schubert's attention more firmly than ever in the direction of the stage, where, for a variety of reasons, he was almost completely unsuccessful. All in all, he produced seventeen stage works, each of them failures which were quickly forgotten. In 1822, Alfonso und Estrella was refused, partly owing to its libretto. Fierrabras (D. 796) was rejected in the fall of 1823, but this was largely due to the popularity of Rossini and the Italian operatic style, and the failure of Carl Maria von Weber's Euryanthe. Die Verschworenen (The Conspirators, D. 787) was prohibited by the censor (apparently on the grounds of its title), and Rosamunde (D. 797) was withdrawn after two nights, owing to the poor quality of the play for which Schubert had written incidental music. Of these works, the two former are written on a scale which would make their performances exceedingly difficult (Fierrabras, for instance, contains over 1,000 pages of manuscript score), but Die Verschworenen is a bright attractive comedy, and Rosamunde contains some of the most charming music that Schubert ever composed. In 1822, he made the acquaintance of both Weber and Beethoven, but little came of it in either case. Beethoven is said to have acknowledged the younger man's gifts on a few occasions, but some of this is likely legend and in any case he could not have known the real scope of Schubert's music – especially not the instrumental works – as so little of it was printed or performed in the composer's lifetime. On his deathbed, Beethoven is said to have looked into some of the younger man's works and exclaimed, "Truly, the spark of divine genius resides in this Schubert!" but what would have come of it if he had recovered we can never know. Last years and masterworks Despite his preoccupation with the stage, and later with his official duties, Schubert found time during these years for a significant amount of composition. He completed the Mass in A flat (fr) (D. 678) and, in 1822, embarked suddenly on a work which more decisively than almost any other in those years showed his maturing personal vision, the "Unfinished Symphony" in B minor. The reason he left it unfinished after two movements and sketches some way into a third remains an enigma, and it is also remarkable that he did not mention it to any of his friends even though, as Brian Newbould notes, he must have felt thrilled by what he was achieving. The event has been debated endlessly without resolution. In 1823 Schubert, in addition to Fierrabras, also wrote his first song cycle, Die schöne Müllerin (D. 795), setting poems by Wilhelm Müller. This series, together with the later cycle "Winterreise" (D. 911, also setting texts of Müller in 1827) is widely considered one of the pinnacles of Lieder. He also composed the song Du bist die Ruh ("You are stillness/peace") D. 776 during this year. Also in that year, symptoms of syphilis first appeared. In 1824, he wrote the variations for flute and piano on "Trockne Blumen", from the cycle Die schöne Müllerin, and several string quartets. He also wrote the Arpeggione Sonata (D. 821), at a time when there was a minor craze over that instrument. In the spring of that year he wrote the Octet in F (D. 803), "A Sketch for a Grand Symphony"; and in the summer went back to Zseliz. There he became attracted to Hungarian musical idiom, and wrote the Divertissement à la hongroise (D. 818) for piano duet and the String Quartet in A minor (D. 804). It has been said that he held a hopeless passion for his pupil, the Countess Karoline Eszterházy, but the only work he dedicated to her was his Fantasie in F minor (D. 940) for piano duet. The setbacks of previous years were compensated for by the prosperity and happiness of 1825. Publication had been moving more rapidly; the stress of poverty was for a time lightened; and in the summer he had a pleasant holiday in Upper Austria, where he was welcomed with enthusiasm. It was during this tour that he produced his "Songs from Sir Walter Scott". This cycle contains Ellens dritter Gesang (D. 839), a setting of Adam Storck's German translation of Scott's hymn from The Lady of the Lake, which is widely, though mistakenly, referred to as "Schubert's Ave Maria". It opens with the greeting Ave Maria, which recurs in the refrain; the entire Scott/Storck text in Schubert's song is frequently substituted with the complete Latin text of the traditional Ave Maria prayer. In 1825, Schubert also wrote the Piano Sonata in A minor (Op. 42, D. 845), and began the "Great" C major

Edward Perronet

1721 - 1792 Person Name: Edward Perronet, 1726-1792 Hymnal Number: 632 Author of "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" in RitualSong Edward Perronet was the son of the Rev. Vincent Perronet, Vicar of Shoreham, Kent. For some time he was an intimate associate of the Wesleys, at Canterbury and Norwich. He afterwards became pastor of a dissenting congregation. He died in 1792. In 1784, he published a small volume, entitled "Occasional Verses, Moral and Social;" a book now extremely rare. At his death he is said to have left a large sum of money to Shrubsole, who was organist at Spafield's Chapel, London, and who had composed the tune "Miles Lane" for "All hail the power of Jesus' Name!" --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872. ------ Perronet, Edward. The Perronets of England, grandfather, father, and son, were French emigres. David Perronet came to England about 1680. He was son of the refugee Pasteur Perronet, who had chosen Switzerland as his adopted country, where he ministered to a Protestant congregation at Chateau D'Oex. His son, Vincent Perronet, M.A., was a graduate of Queen's College, Oxford, though his name is not found in either Anthony Woods's Athenae Oxonienses nor his Fasti, nor in Bliss's apparatus of additional notes. He became, in 1728, Vicar of Shoreham, Kent. He is imperishably associated with the Evangelical Revival under the Wesleys and Whitefield. He cordially cooperated with the movement, and many are the notices of him scattered up and down the biographies and Journals of John Wesley and of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon. He lived to the venerable age of ninety-one; and pathetic and beautiful is the account of John Wesley's later visits to the white-haired saint (b. 1693, d. May 9, 1785).* His son Edward was born in 1726. He was first educated at home under a tutor, but whether he proceeded to the University (Oxford) is uncertain. Born, baptized, and brought up in the Church of England, he had originally no other thought than to be one of her clergy. But, though strongly evangelical, he had a keen and searching eye for defects. A characteristic note to The Mitre, in referring to a book called The Dissenting Gentleman's answer to the Rev. Mr. White, thus runs:—"I was born, and am like to die, in the tottering communion of the Church of England; but I despise her nonsense; and thank God that I have once read a book that no fool can answer, and that no honest man will". The publication of The Mitre is really the first prominent event in his life. A copy is preserved in the British Museum, with title in the author's holograph, and manuscript notes; and on the fly-leaf this:— "Capt. Boisragon, from his oblig'd and most respectful humble servt. The Author. London, March 29th, 1757." The title is as follows:— The Mitre; a Sacred Poem (1 Samuel ii. 30). London: printed in the year 1757. This strangely overlooked satire is priceless as a reflex of contemporary ecclesiastical opinion and sentiment. It is pungent, salted with wit, gleams with humour, hits off vividly the well-known celebrities in Church and State, and is well wrought in picked and packed words. But it is a curious production to have come from a "true son" of the Church of England. It roused John Wesley's hottest anger. He demanded its instant suppression; and it was suppressed (Atmore's Methodist Memorial, p. 300, and Tyerman, ii. 240-44, 264, 265); and yet it was at this period the author threw himself into the Wesleys' great work. But evidences abound in the letters and journals of John Wesley that he was intermittently rebellious and vehement to even his revered leader's authority. Earlier, Edward Perronet dared all obloquy as a Methodist. In 1749 Wesley enters in his diary: "From Rochdale went to Bolton, and soon found that the Rochdale lions were lambs in comparison with those of Bolton. Edward Perronet was thrown down and rolled in mud and mire. Stones were hurled and windows broken" (Tyerman's Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., 3 vols., 1870 ; vol. ii. 57). In 1750 John Wesley writes: ”Charles and you [Edward Perronet] behave as I want you to do; but you cannot, or will not, preach where I desire. Others can and will preach where I desire, but they do not behave as I want them to do. I have a fine time between the one and the other. I think Charles and you have in the general a right sense of what it is to serve as sons in the gospel; and if all our helpers had had the same, the work of God would have prospered better both in England and Ireland. I have not one preacher with me, and not six in England, whose wills are broken to serve me" (ibid. ii. 85, and Whitehead's Life of Wesley, ii. 259). In 1755 arrangements to meet the emergency created by its own success had to be made for Methodism. As one result, both Edward and Charles Perronet broke loose from John Wesley's law that none of his preachers or "helpers" were to dispense the Sacraments, but were still with their flocks to attend the parish churches. Edward Perronet asserted his right to administer the Sacraments as a divinely-called preacher ibid. ii. 200). At that time he was resident at Canterbury, "in a part of the archbishop's old palace" (ibid. ii. 230. In season and out of season he "evangelized." Onward, he became one of the Countess of Huntingdon's "ministers" in a chapel in Watling Street, Canterbury. Throughout he was passionate, impulsive, strong-willed; but always lived near his divine Master. The student-reader of Lives of the Wesleys will be "taken captive" by those passages that ever and anon introduce him. He bursts in full of fire and enthusiasm, yet ebullient and volatile. In the close of his life he is found as an Independent or Congregational pastor of a small church in Canterbury. He must have been in easy worldly circumstances, as his will shows. He died Jan. 2, 1792, and was buried in the cloisters of the great cathedral, Jan. 8. His Hymns were published anonymously in successive small volumes. First of all came Select Passages of the Old and New Testament versified; London: Printed by H. Cock, mdcclvi. … A second similar volume is entitled A Small Collection of Hymns, &c, Canterbury: printed in the year dcclxxxii. His most important volume was the following:— Occasional Verses, moral and sacred. Published for the instruction and amusement of the Candidly Serious and Religious. London, printed for the Editor: And Sold by J. Buckland in Paternoster Row; and T. Scollick, in the City Road, Moorfields, mdcclxxxv. pp. 216 (12°). [The British Museum copy has the two earlier volumes bound up with this.] The third hymn in this scarce book is headed, “On the Resurrection," and is, ”All hail the power of Jesus' name". But there are others of almost equal power and of more thorough workmanship. In my judgment, "The Lord is King" (Psalm xcvi. 16) is a great and noble hymn. It commences:— “Hail, holy, holy, holy Loud! Let Pow'rs immortal sing; Adore the co-eternal Word, And shout, the Lord is King." Very fine also is "The Master's Yoke—the Scholar's Lesson," Matthew xi. 29, which thus opens:— O Grant me, Lord, that sweet content That sweetens every state; Which no internal fears can rent, Nor outward foes abate." A sacred poem is named "The Wayfaring Man: a Parody"; and another, "The Goldfish: a Parody." The latter has one splendid line on the Cross, "I long to share the glorious shame." "The Tempest" is striking, and ought to be introduced into our hymnals; and also "The Conflict or Conquest over the Conqueror, Genesis xxxii. 24". Still finer is "Thoughts on Hebrews xii.," opening:— "Awake my soul—arise! And run the heavenly race; Look up to Him who holds the prize, And offers thee His grace." "A Prayer for Mercy on Psalm cxix. 94," is very striking. On Isaiah lxv. 19, is strong and unmistakable. "The Sinner's Resolution," and "Thoughts on Matthew viii. 2," and on Mark x. 51, more than worthy of being reclaimed for use. Perronet is a poet as well as a pre-eminently successful hymnwriter. He always sings as well as prays. It may be added that the brief paraphrase after Ovid given below, seems to echo the well-known lines in Gray's immortal elegy:— "How many a gem unseen of human eyes, Entomb'd in earth, a sparkling embryo lies; How many a rose, neglected as the gem, Scatters its sweets and rots upon its stem: So many a mind, that might a meteor shone, Had or its genius or its friend been known; Whose want of aid from some maternal hand, Still haunts the shade, or quits its native land." [Rev. A. B. Grosart, D.D., LL.D.] * Agnew's Protestant Exiles from France in the Reign of Louis XIV. confounds Vincent the father with Edward his son. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

William Watkins Reid

1923 - 2007 Person Name: William W. Reid, b. 1923 Hymnal Number: 834 Author of "O God of Every Nation" in RitualSong William W. Reid, Jr. (1923-2007), after graduating from Oberlin College and Seminary and Yale Divinity School served for more than fifty years as pastor in the Wyoming Conference in rural and inner-city Methodist churches. He served on the Executive Committee of The Hymn Society of America. He was involved in social issues, serving as a councilman and county commissioner. His hymns are widely published in hymnals of many denominations. Mary Louise VanDyke =============================== William W. Reid, Jr. is pastor of the Methodist Church Circuit at Carverton, Pennsylvania. He previously served in a similar capacity at Camptown in the same State. He is a graduate of the Yale Divinity School and Oberlin College. He served during World War II in the Medical Corps and was held prisoner by the Germans for eight months. He is the author of several hymns including those in "Fourteen New Rural Hymns" and "Twelve New World Order Hymns" published by the Hymn Society. ----Fifteen New Christian Education Hymns, 1959. Used by permission. ================================ William Watkins Reid, Jr., is currently pastor of Central United Methodist Church, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Wyoming Annual Conference and has been active on its Social Concerns, Town and Country, and Evangelism boards, and on the Pennsylvania Council of Churches. ----Twelve New Lord’s Day Hymns, 1968. Used by permission. ================================ [Reid] is an executive committee member of the Hymn Society of America, and is the author of a number of hymns that have been published in hymnals in the United States, Canada, England, and in South Africa. As a council man he is concern with the ecology of Wyoming Valley (Penn. and N.Y.) and with the rebuilding of Wilkes-Barre after the disastrous flood of 1972. --16 New Hymns on the Stewardship of the Environment [Ecology] , 1973. Used by permission.

Lloyd Stone

1912 - 1993 Person Name: Lloyd Stone, 1912-1993 Hymnal Number: 964 Author (st. 1-2) of "This Is My Song" in RitualSong Lloyd Stone (1912 – 1993) was born in California and attended the University of Southern California as a music major, with the intent of becoming a teacher. Instead, he joined a circus bound for Hawaii and remained there for the rest of his life, writing poems and songs. This is his best known work; stanzas 1 and 2 were written in 1934 when Lloyd was 22 years old. Often combined with several additional verses by Georgia Harkness, the poem is typically sung to the tune Finlandia, composed by Jean Sibelius. Lloyd also wrote a musical based on Joyce Kilmer’s poem, "Trees," and several books of Hawaii-themed poems. Said one reviewer, "[Stone] does not sing of the palms and the surf, but of the earthy human beauty which is the heritage of the islands." --www.yourdailypoem.com/

John Ireland

1879 - 1962 Person Name: John Ireland, 1879-1962 Hymnal Number: 572 Composer of "LOVE UNKNOWN" in RitualSong John Ireland (1879-1962) studied at Durham University in England and became a church organist, choirmaster, editor, and lecturer, eventually teaching at the Royal College of Church Music. He was a gifted composer of music for voice, piano, organ, chamber music, and orchestra that were recognized for their excellence during his lifetime; LOVE UNKNOWN was his only hymn tune, found today in numerous hymnals. Emily Brink