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Percy C. Buck

1871 - 1947 Person Name: Percy Carter Buck (1871-1947) Scripture: Psalm 33:1 Composer of "GONFALON ROYAL" in Church Hymnary (4th ed.)

1903 - 2000 Scripture: Psalm 33 Author of "When in Our Music God Is Glorified" in The Presbyterian Hymnal The name of the Rev. F. Pratt Green is one of the best-known of the contemporary school of hymnwriters in the British Isles. His name and writings appear in practically every new hymnal and "hymn supplement" wherever English is spoken and sung. And now they are appearing in American hymnals, poetry magazines, and anthologies. Mr. Green was born in Liverpool, England, in 1903. Ordained in the British Methodist ministry, he has been pastor and district superintendent in Brighton and York, and now served in Norwich. There he continued to write new hymns "that fill the gap between the hymns of the first part of this century and the 'far-out' compositions that have crowded into some churches in the last decade or more." --Seven New Hymns of Hope , 1971. Used by permission.

Herbert Howells

1892 - 1983 Person Name: Herbert Norman Howells (1892-1983) Scripture: Psalm 33:5 Composer of "MICHAEL" in Church Hymnary (4th ed.)

John Ambrose Lloyd

1815 - 1874 Person Name: John Ambrose Lloyd (1815-1874) Scripture: Psalm 33:5 Composer of "GROESWEN" in Church Hymnary (4th ed.)

Thomas Carlyle

1795 - 1881 Person Name: Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scripture: Psalm 33:16 Translator of "A safe stronghold our God is still" in Church Hymnary (4th ed.) Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881) was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era. He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator. Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was expected to become a preacher by his parents, but while at the University of Edinburgh he lost his Christian faith. Calvinist values, however, remained with him throughout his life. His combination of a religious temperament with loss of faith in traditional Christianity, made Carlyle's work appealing to many Victorians who were grappling with scientific and political changes that threatened the traditional social order. He brought a trenchant style to his social and political criticism and a complex literary style to works such as The French Revolution: A History (1837). Dickens used Carlyle's work as a primary source for the events of the French Revolution in his novel A Tale of Two Cities. --en.wikipedia.org ======================== Carlyle, Thomas, the Essayist and Historian, is known to hymnody solely through his translation of Luther's "Ein feste Burg," q.v. He was born near Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, Dec. 4, 1795, and died at Chelsea, Feb. 5, 1881. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Saint Patrick

372 - 466 Person Name: Patrick Scripture: Psalm 33 Author (attributed to) of "I Bind unto Myself Today" in Glory to God Patrick, St., the 2nd Bishop and Patron Saint of Ireland, was the son of Calpurnius, a deacon, and grandson of Potitus, a presbyter, and great grandson of Odissus, a deacon, was born most probably near Dumbarton, in North Britain, in 372. According to his epistle to Coroticus, his father was also a decurio, a member of the local town council, and a Roman by descent. Hence probably the name Patricius. St. Patrick alludes in Coroticus, § 5, to his having been originally a freeman, and of noble birth. His birthplace is termed in his Confession, § 1, Bannavem Taberniæ. Some have identified that place with Boulogne-sur-Mer, in France. His mother's name was Concessa, said to have been sister of St. Martin of Tours. According to Tirechan's Collections (circa A.D. 690), Patrick had four names—-(1) Magonus, which Tirechan explains by clarus, illustrious; (2) Sucat (Succetus), god of war, or brave in war, said to have been his baptismal name; (3) Patricius; and (4) Cothraige (Cothrighe), given because he had been a slave to four masters. At the age of 16 he was carried off with many others to Ireland, and sold as a slave. There he remained six years with Milcho, or Miliuc. He was engaged in feeding cattle (pecora), though the later writers say that he fed swine. In his captivity he became acquainted with the Irish language. His misfortunes were the means of leading him to Christ, and be devoted himself to prayer, and often frequented, for that purpose, the woods on Mount Slemish. Having escaped after six years, he spent some years with his parents, and then was stirred up, when still a youth (puer), to devote himself to the evangelisation of Ireland. According to Secundinus's Hymn (St. Sechnall), which is probably not much later than the age of St. Patrick himself, the saint received his apostleship "from God," like St. Paul. No reference is made in that hymn, or in the later so-called Hymn of St. Fiacc, to any commission received from Pope Celestine, as is asserted by later writers. St. Patrick does not in his own writings allude to the external source whence he obtained ordination, and, as he speaks of his Roman descent, it would be strange for him not to have mentioned his Roman consecration, if it had been a fact. From some “sayings" of his, preserved on a separate page of the Book of Armagh, it is probable that he travelled through Gaul and Italy, and that he was ordained in Gaul as deacon, priest, and, afterwards, as bishop. He was probably a bishop when he commenced his missionary labours in Ireland. There were, however, Christians in Ireland before that period. Palladius, the senior Patrick, who preceded our saint by a few years, was, according to the chronicle of Prosper (the secretary of Pope Celestine), "ordained and sent to the Scots (the Irish) believing in Christ, by Pope Celestine, as their first bishop." Palladius's mission was a failure, while that of the second Patrick, which was quite independent of the former, was successful in a high degree. Its success, however, has been greatly exaggerated; for St. Patrick, in the close of his Confession, or autobiography, written in old age, speaks of the high probability of his having to lay down his life as a martyr for Christ. The date of St. Patrick's mission is not certain, but the internal evidence of his writings indicate that it was most probably about A.D. 425. The day and month of his death (March 17), but not the year [466] is mentioned in the Book of Armagh. St. Patrick's claim to a record in this Dictionary is associated with the celebrated hymn or “Breastplate," a history of which we now subjoin. 1. St. Patrick's Irish Hymn is referred to in Tirechan's Collections (A.D. 690). It was directed to be sung in "all monasteries and churches through the whole of Ireland," "canticum ejus scotticum semper canere," which is a proof that it was at that time universally acknowledged to be his composition. That regulation was very naturally lost sight of when the old Celtic Church lapsed into the Roman, (a) The expressions used in the hymn correspond entirely with the circumstances under which St. Patrick visited Tara. (b) Moreover, although all the ancient biographies of St. Patrick (with the exception of his own Confession, and of Secundinus's Hymn) speak of him as a worker of miracles, and as having performed miracles at Tara, there is no trace of such a fact in St. Patrick's Hymn, (c) Further, the phrase, "creator of doom," which twice occurs in it, according to the most approved translation, curiously corresponds with another fact that, "my God's doom," or “the doom," or "judgment of my God," was, according to the ancient biographies, one of St. Patrick's favourite expressions. 2. The first notice of the existence at the present time of an ancient manuscript copy of St. Patrick's "Hymn or Breastplate," was made known by the late Dr. Petrie in his Memoir of Tara, published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1839, vol. xviii. Dr. Petrie gave the original in Irish characters, an interlineary Latin version and an English translation by himself, together with copious notes. Dr. Petrie found the original in the Liber Hymnorum, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (iv. E. 4, 2, fol. 19 b). “The tradition respecting its primary use by the saint is that he recited it on Easter Sunday, when proceeding to encounter the droidical fire-worshippers, with their pagan king, Laoghaire, and his court, at Tara, the royal residence." (Lyra Hibernica Sacra, 1878, p. 2.) 3. Dr. Todd in his work, S. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, 1864, gives a metrical rendering of the “Breastplate” which begins:— "I bind to myself today, The strong power of an invocation of the Trinity, The faith of the Trinity in Unity, The Creator of the elements." The translation, which extends to 78 lines, was mainly the work of Dr. Whitley Stokes. A more correct version by the same scholar is given in the Rolls's edition of the Tripartite Life, 1887; and that revised version, with a few modifications, accompanied with critical notes, explanatory of the alterations made on the former version, is given in the 2nd and 3rd editions of the Writings of St. Patrick, by Dr. V. H. H. Wright. Dr. Whitley Stokes, therefore, is to be regarded as the real translator from the original Irish. Dr. Petrie's translation, though highly meritorious as a first attempt, has been proved in many particulars to be erroneous. There is no mention of Tara in the hymn. An uncertainty yet exists as to the meaning of a few words. 4. In Dr. W. MacIlwaine's Lyra Hibernica Sacra, 1878, Dr. Todd's translation was repeated (with notes), together with a second translation by James Clarence Mangan, the opening lines of which are:— "At Tara to-day, in this awful hour, I call on the Holy Trinity! Glory to Him Who reigneth in power, The God of the elements, Father, and Son, And Paraclete Spirit, which Three are the One, The everlasting Divinity." 5. A popular version of the hymn for congregational use was written by Mrs. Cecil F. Alexander, for St. Patrick's Day, 1889, and sung generally throughout Ireland on that day. The opening lines are:— "I bind unto myself to-day The strong Name of the Trinity, By invocation of the same, The Three in One and One in Three. ”I bind this day to me for ever, By power of faith, Christ's Incarnation; His baptism in Jordan river; His death on Cross for my salvation; His bursting from the spiced tomb; His riding up the heav'nly way; His coming at the day of doom; I bind unto myself to-day." Mrs. Alexander's version is given, along with that of James Clarence Mangan, in the Appendix to the Writinqs of St. Patrick, edited by Dr. C. H. H. Wright (R.T.S.), 1889. 6. Another metrical version of this hymn was given in the Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette for April 5, 1889. It is by Joseph John Murphy, and the opening lines are:— "I bind as armour on my breast The Threefold Name whereon I call, Of Father, Son, and Spirit blest, The Maker and the Judge of all." 7. The translation in Stokes and Wright's edition of St. Patrick's writings was set to music as a cantata by Sir R. Stewart, and was performed for the first time in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, on St. Patrick's Day, 1888. 8. Mr. Thomas French, Assistant Librarian of Trinity College, Dublin, writes as follows respecting this hymn:— "The manuscript called the 'Liber Hymnorum' belonged to Archbishop Ussher, and forms one of the volumes of the Ussher Collection now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. There is no interlineary Latin translation in the original. It was given by Petrie in his account of the hymn 'for the satisfaction of the learned’ [The St. Patrick authorship is tradition only, so far as I know.] Dr. Todd in his S. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, p. 426, says ‘It is undoubtedly of great antiquity, although it may now be difficult, if not impossible, to adduce proof in support of the tradition that St. Patrick was its author.'...... Petrie and Todd make the age of the manuscript 9th or 10th century, Whitley Stokes 11th or 12th." We may add that St. Patrick's Latin works were published by Sir James Ware, 1656, in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandist Fathers, 1668, by Villanueva, 1835, and by others, as B. S. Nicholson, 1868, Miss Cusack, 1871, and, above all, by Dr. Whitley Stokes, in the Rolls' Edition of the Tripartite Life, 1887. The latter three works contain also translations. Translations of the whole, or a portion of St. Patrick's writings, have been published by Rev. T. Olden, 1876; Sir S. Ferguson, LL.D. Transactions of Royal Irish Academy, 1885, and more completely in the Writings of St. Patrick, edited by Prof. G. T. Stokes and Dr. C. H. H. Wright, 1st ed. 1887, 2nd ed. 1888, 3rd ed., edited, with notes critical and historical, and an introduction by Dr. C. H. H. Wright revised and enlarged. London: Religious Tract Society, 1889. [Rev. Charles H. H. Wright, D.D., Ph.D.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ==================== Patrick, St., p. 885, ii. (l) In the Oxford University Herald of April 6, 1889, is an anonymous paraphrase in 7 stanzas of 4 lines of a portion of "St. Patrick's Hymn," beginning- "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! May Thine overshadowing might Be as armour to my soul, Be my weapon in the fight." (2) Note concerning § 3, on p. 885, i., that Dr., W. Stokes's translation appeared in its original form in the Saturday Review, Sept. 5, 1857. In his Goidilica, Calcutta, 1866, p. 66, in an altered form to that of 1857 and 1864. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Samuel Sebastian Wesley

1810 - 1876 Person Name: Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1810-1876 Scripture: Psalm 33:1-3 Author (st. 1) of "Lead Me, Lord, Lead Me in Thy Righteousness" in Trinity Psalter Hymnal Samuel Sebastian Wesley (b. London, England, 1810; d. Gloucester, England, 1876) was an English organist and composer. The grandson of Charles Wesley, he was born in London, and sang in the choir of the Chapel Royal as a boy. He learned composition and organ from his father, Samuel, completed a doctorate in music at Oxford, and composed for piano, organ, and choir. He was organist at Hereford Cathedral (1832-1835), Exeter Cathedral (1835-1842), Leeds Parish Church (1842-1849), Winchester Cathedral (1849-1865), and Gloucester Cathedral (1865-1876). Wesley strove to improve the standards of church music and the status of church musicians; his observations and plans for reform were published as A Few Words on Cathedral Music and the Music System of the Church (1849). He was the musical editor of Charles Kemble's A Selection of Psalms and Hymns (1864) and of the Wellburn Appendix of Original Hymns and Tunes (1875) but is best known as the compiler of The European Psalmist (1872), in which some 130 of the 733 hymn tunes were written by him. Bert Polman

James Weldon Johnson

1871 - 1938 Scripture: Psalm 33:12 Author of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" in Glory to God James Weldon Johnson MA PhD USA 1871-1938. Born at Jacksonville, FL, he attended Clark University, Atlanta, GA, and also spent three months in the backwoods of Georgia., taking in the culture there. While in school he published a paper, ”The daily American newspaper”, which ran for a year until terminated for lack of funding. He graduated in 1894. He then taught at the largest school in Jacksonville, FL, eventually becoming principal and adding 9th & 10th grades there. While there he began preparing for the FL bar exam, taking it in 1897. In 1904 he became treasurer of the Colored Republican Club, becoming its president the following year. He became an author, activist, educator, lawyer, and diplomat. A musician from youth, he collaborated with his brother, Rosamond, also a musician, and Bob Cole to write Broadway songs, and they achieved some success. They also wrote an opera, “Tolosa”, satirizing the U.S. annexation of the Pacific islands. He became a writer and Civil Rights activist. He did the editorial page of the New York Age, an African-American newspaper. In 1916 he became active in the NAACP, and in 1917 he added many chapters to its southern membership. He was its executive secretary (essentially its operating officer) from 1920-1930. He was involved in the campaign to pass the Dyer Anti-lynching Bill. He wrote poems, novels, and anthologies, and collected poems and spirituals from black culture. He wrote the lyrics to the Negro National Anthem, “Lift every voice and sing”, in honor of Booker T Washington, who visited his school and heard the poem recited by 500 school children in his presence, paying tribute to Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. He participated in Theodore Roosevelt’s successful presidential campaign, and was rewarded by receiving an appointment as U.S. Consul to Venezuela (1906-1909), and later to Nicaragua (1909-1913). He married activist,Grace Elizabeth Nail during this period. They had collaborated on a screenwriting project. They had no children. In 1930, after years leading the NAACP, he became professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University ( a historically black university), Nashville, TN, where he lectured on a wide range of issues. In 1934 he was the first African-American professor hired at New York University, where he taught several classes in literature and culture. He published four works: “Autobiography of an Ex-colored man” (1920) “The book of American negro poetry” (1922/1931), “God’s trombones” (1927), and “Along this way” (1933). In 1938 he supported efforts by Ignatz Waghalter, a Polish-Jewish composer who had escaped the Nazis in Germany, to establish a classical orchestra of African-American musicians. He perished at Wiscasset, ME, while on vacation when the car his wife was driving was hit by a train. She was severely injured, but recovered. More than 2000 people attended his funeral. Several universities named buildings or departments in his honor, as is a community library in St. Petersburg, FL. In 1988 a U.S, postage stamp was printed in his honor. John Perry

J. Rosamond Johnson

1873 - 1954 Scripture: Psalm 33:12 Composer of "LIFT EVERY VOICE" in Glory to God John Rosamond Johnson USA 1873-1954. Born at Jacksonville, FL, brother of James Weldon Johnson, he was an important figure in black music. During the first part of the 20th century. With his brother and a partner, Bob Cole, he helped compose “The black national anthem”: “Lift every voice and sing”. He was a pianist, songwriter, producer, soldier, singer, and actor. He began playing the piano at age four, and he studied at the New England Conservatory and with Samuel Coleridge Taylor in London, England. By the turn of the century he was teaching school in the Jacksonville area. He was also music director at the Bethel Baptist Church there. He moved to New York City in 1900 and entered its musical life. With Bob Cole (and sometimes his brother) they created a vaudeville act, did songwriting, and produced several musicals. This lasted until Cole’s death in 1911. They also produced two musicals: “The shoo-fly regiment” (1907) and “The red moon” (1909), in which he did some acting as well. The shows were successful, but they lost money and returned to doing vaudeville. In 1912, he gave a piano “Concert of Negro Music” at Carnegie Hall. In 1912-13 he went to London and served as director of Oscar Hammerstein’s Grand Opera House. He also wrote music for a theatre review. Returning to the U.S. with his new wife, Nora Ethel Floyd, he was appointed as director of the New York Music School Settlement for Colored People, serving from 1914-1919. The Johnson’s had one son, Donald. When WW1 broke out, he received a commission as a 2nd Lt. In the 15th Regiment. After the war, he also helped his brother with some NAACP activities. He toured with his own groups, the Harlem Rounders and the Inimitable Five. In New York he met and worked with Oscar Hammerstein, who would help shape his career. He also performed in negro spiritual concerts in New York and Manhattan. He sang and played the part of a lawyer in the original production of “Porgy & Bess” (1935). In 1936 he served as music director for the musical, “Blackbirds”. He sang in the original production of Gershwin’s “Porgy & Bess”, taking roles in other dramatics as well. As an editor he collected important works of traditional African-American songs and compiled them, along with his brother, James: “The Book of American negro spirituals” (1925), and ‘The second Book of negro spirituals’ (1926). He also edited “Shoutsongs” (1936) and the folksong anthology “Rolling along in song” (1937). He co-produced 15 musicals. He continued composing songs and instructing young people in music, and serving as a theatre doctor for many plays until his death. He died in New York City. Six published collections. John Perry

Joseph Renville

1779 - 1846 Person Name: Joseph R. Renville (1779-1846) Scripture: Psalm 33 Author of "Many and Great, O God, Are Your Works" in Common Praise (1998) Joseph R. Renville’s mother was Dakota and his father, French. An explorer, fur trader, and Congregational minister, Renville helped found the Lac qui Parle Mission in Minnesota in 1835. This song, which is also known as the “Dakota Hymn,” was sung by thirty-eight Dakota prisoners of war as they were led to execution at Mankato, Mennesota, on December 26, 1862. This song was first published in the Dakota Indian Hymnal (1916). Sing! A New Creation