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J. E. Seddon

1915 - 1983 Person Name: James E. Seddon, 1915-83 Hymnal Number: 767 Author of "Church of God, Elect and Glorious" in Worship Supplement 2000 James E. Seddon (b. Ormskirk, Lancashire, England, 1915; d. London, England, 1983) received his musical training at the London College of Music and Trinity College in London and his theological training at the Bible Churchmen's Theological College (now Trinity College) in Bristol. He served various Anglican parishes in England from 1939 to 1945 as well as from 1967 to 1980. Seddon was a missionary in Morocco from 1945 to 1955 and the home secretary for the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society from 1955 to 1967. Many of his thirty hymns are based on missionary themes; he wrote some in Arabic while he lived in Morocco. Seddon joined other Jubilate Group participants to produce Psalm Praise (1973) and Hymns for Today's Church (1982). Bert Polman

Carolina Sandell

1823 - 1903 Person Name: Caroline V. Sandell Berg, 1832-1903 Hymnal Number: 785 Author of "Children of the Heavenly Father" in Worship Supplement 2000 Caroline W. Sandell Berg (b. Froderyd, Sweden, 1832; d. Stockholm, Sweden, 1903), is better known as Lina Sandell, the "Fanny Crosby of Sweden." "Lina" Wilhelmina Sandell Berg was the daughter of a Lutheran pastor to whom she was very close; she wrote hymns partly to cope with the fact that she witnessed his tragic death by drowning. Many of her 650 hymns were used in the revival services of Carl O. Rosenius, and a number of them gained popularity particularly because of the musical settings written by gospel singer Oskar Ahnfelt. Jenny Lind, the famous Swedish soprano, underwrote the cost of publishing a collection of Ahnfelt's music, Andeliga Sänger (1850), which consisted mainly of Berg's hymn texts. Bert Polman

Christopher M. Idle

b. 1938 Person Name: Christopher M. Idle, b. 1938 Hymnal Number: 798 Author of "God, We Praise You" in Worship Supplement 2000 Christopher Martin Idle (b. Bromley, Kent, England, 1938) was educated at Elthan College, St. Peter's College, Oxford, and Clifton Theological College in Bristol, and was ordained in the Church of England. He served churches in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria; London; and Oakley, Suffolk; and recently returned to London, where he is involved in various hymnal projects. A prolific author of articles on the Christian's public responsibilities, Idle has also published The Lion Book of Favorite Hymns (1980) and at least one hundred of his own hymns and biblical paraphrases. Some of his texts first appeared in hymnals published by the Jubilate Group, with which he is associated. He was also editor of Anglican Praise (1987). In 1998 Hope Publishing released Light Upon the River, a collection of 279 of his psalm and hymn texts, along with suggested tunes, scripture references, and commentary. Bert Polman

John Stainer

1840 - 1901 Person Name: John Stainer, 1840-1901 Hymnal Number: 705 Composer of "CROSS OF JESUS" in Worship Supplement 2000

Henry J. Gauntlett

1805 - 1876 Person Name: Henry J. Gauntlett, 1805-76 Hymnal Number: 710 Composer of "IRBY" in Worship Supplement 2000 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 Goss

1800 - 1880 Person Name: John Goss, 1800-80 Hymnal Number: 711 Composer of "HUMILITY" in Worship Supplement 2000 John Goss (b. Fareham, Hampshire, England, 1800; d. London, England, 1880). As a boy Goss was a chorister at the Chapel Royal and later sang in the opera chorus of the Covent Garden Theater. He was a professor of music at the Royal Academy of Music (1827-1874) and organist of St. Paul Cathedral, London (1838-1872); in both positions he exerted significant influence on the reform of British cathedral music. Goss published Parochial Psalmody (1826) and Chants, Ancient and Modern (1841); he edited William Mercer's Church Psalter and Hymn Book (1854). With James Turle he published a two-volume collection of anthems and Anglican service music (1854). Bert Polman

Ralph Vaughan Williams

1872 - 1958 Person Name: R. Vaughan Williams, 1872-1958 Hymnal Number: 763 Composer of "KING'S WESTON" in Worship Supplement 2000 Through his composing, conducting, collecting, editing, and teaching, Ralph Vaughan Williams (b. Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, England, October 12, 1872; d. Westminster, London, England, August 26, 1958) became the chief figure in the realm of English music and church music in the first half of the twentieth century. His education included instruction at the Royal College of Music in London and Trinity College, Cambridge, as well as additional studies in Berlin and Paris. During World War I he served in the army medical corps in France. Vaughan Williams taught music at the Royal College of Music (1920-1940), conducted the Bach Choir in London (1920-1927), and directed the Leith Hill Music Festival in Dorking (1905-1953). A major influence in his life was the English folk song. A knowledgeable collector of folk songs, he was also a member of the Folksong Society and a supporter of the English Folk Dance Society. Vaughan Williams wrote various articles and books, including National Music (1935), and composed numerous arrangements of folk songs; many of his compositions show the impact of folk rhythms and melodic modes. His original compositions cover nearly all musical genres, from orchestral symphonies and concertos to choral works, from songs to operas, and from chamber music to music for films. Vaughan Williams's church music includes anthems; choral-orchestral works, such as Magnificat (1932), Dona Nobis Pacem (1936), and Hodie (1953); and hymn tune settings for organ. But most important to the history of hymnody, he was music editor of the most influential British hymnal at the beginning of the twentieth century, The English Hymnal (1906), and coeditor (with Martin Shaw) of Songs of Praise (1925, 1931) and the Oxford Book of Carols (1928). Bert Polman

E. O. Excell

1851 - 1921 Person Name: Edwin O. Excell Hymnal Number: 777 Arranger of "NEW BRITAIN" in Worship Supplement 2000 Edwin Othello Excel USA 1851-1921. Born at Uniontown, OH, he started working as a bricklayer and plasterer. He loved music and went to Chicago to study it under George Root. He married Eliza Jane “Jennie” Bell in 1871. They had a son, William, in 1874. A member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he became a prominent publisher, composer, song leader, and singer of music for church, Sunday school, and evangelistic meetings. He founded singing schools at various locations in the country and worked with evangelist, Sam Jones, as his song leader for two decades. He established a music publishing house in Chicago and authored or composed over 2,000 gospel songs. While assisting Gypsy Smith in an evangelistic campaign in Louisville, KY, he became ill, and died in Chicago, IL. He published 15 gospel music books between 1882-1925. He left an estate valued at $300,000. John Perry

César Malan

1787 - 1864 Person Name: Henri A. César Malan Hymnal Number: 786 Composer of "HENDON" in Worship Supplement 2000 Rv Henri Abraham Cesar Malan, 1787-1864. Born in Geneva, Switzerland, into a bourgeois family that moved to Switzerland to escape religious persecution during the French Revolution, he attended the university in Marseilles, France, intending to become a businessman. Although having some grounding in religious faith by his mother, he decided to attend the Academy at Geneva (founded by Calvin) in preparation for ministry. He was ordained in 1810, after being appointed a college master (teaching Latin) in 1809. Malan was in accord with the National Church of Geneva as a Unitarian, but the Reveil Movement caused him to become a dissident (evangelical) instead of a proponent of the Reformed Church (believing works, not faith, was what mattered). In 1811 he married (wife’s name not found). They had at least two children (one son was Solomon, referenced below). From 1813 on Malan slowly became an evangelical, after being given an understanding of true salvation through grace (not works) in 1816 by two German Lutherans from Geneva. He became saved upon this realization and was so changed that he burned his prized collection of classical authors and manuscripts. In 1817 he preached around Geneva, and one sermon in particular, “Man only justified by faith alone” created a firestorm and brought him into conflict with religious authorities of the region. From then on he wished to help reform the national church from within, but the forces of the Venerable Company were too strong for him and excluded him from the pulpits and caused his dismissal from his regentsship at the college in 1818. Others in agreement with Malan were Charles Spurgeon, Robert Wilcox, Robert Haldane, and Henry Drummond. In 1820 he built a chapel in his garden and obtained the license of the State for it as a separatist place of worship. He preached in that chapel 43 years. In 1823 he was formally deprived of his status as a minister of the national Church. Various events caused his congregation to diminish over the next few years, and he began long tours of evangelization subsidized by religious friends in his land, Belgium, France, England and Scotland. He often preached to large congregations. Malan also authorized a hymn book, “Chants de Sion” (1841). A strong Calvinist, Malan lost no opportunity to evangelize. On one occasion an old man he visited pulled Malan’s hymnal out and told him he had prayed to see the author of it before he died. On a visit to England Malan also inspired author, Charlotte Elliott, to write the hymn lyrics for “Just as I am”, when seeking an answer to her conversion she asked and he advised her to come to Christ ‘just as she was’. Malan published a score of books and also produced many religious tracts and pamphlets largely on questions in dispute between the National and evangelical churches of Rome. He also wrote articles in the “Record” and in American reviews. His hymns were set to his own melodies. He was an artist, a mechanic, a carpenter, a metal forger, and a printer. He had his own workshop, forge and printing press. One of his greatest joys was the meeting of the evangelical alliance at Geneva in 1861 which helped change church views. He retired to his home, Vandoeuvres, in the countryside near Geneva in 1857, dying there seven years later.. He was honored by a visit from the Queen of Holland two years before his death. He is mainly remembered as a hymn writer, having written 1000+ hymn lyrics and tunes. One son, Solomon, a gifted linguist and theologian, became Vicar of Broadwindsor. About a dozen of his hymns appeared translated in the publication “Friendly visitor” (1826). He was an author, creator, composer, editor, correspondent, contributor, translator, owner, and performer. John Perry ================= Malan, Henri Abraham César. The family of Malan traces its origin to the valleys of Piedmont. A branch of it settled at Mérindol, in Dauphiné, but was driven from France by the persecutions that followed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Pierre Malan [Cesar's father], after seeing his sister fall a victim to persecution, left Mérindol (1714), and arrived at Geneva (1722). Henri Abraham César Malan was born at Geneva in 1787. After an education at the College, he went to Marseilles, with the intention of learning business: but, soon after, entered the Academy at Geneva, as a preparation for the ministry, to which he was ordained in 1810. He had been appointed one of the masters at the College in the previous year. The National Church of Geneva was at that time almost Unitarian, and Malan's convictions were in accord with it. But the great movement known as the Réveil, of which the first products were the dissident church of Bourg de Four and at a later date that founded by Malan himself, and which finally imbued the whole Swiss Church with its spirit, was silently preparing itself. The germ of the movement may be traced in the Société des Amis (1810), of which Empeytaz and A. Bost were leaders; and in Malan's independent attainment to the doctrines of the Divinity of the Saviour and the free gifts of salvation through Him (1816). But the human agency, which gave it force, and determined its Calvinistic direction, was the visit of Robert Haldane (in the autumn of 1816), to whom not only these pioneers of the movement, but F. Monod, E. Rieu, Guers, Gonthier, Merle d'Aubigné, and others, always pointed as their spiritual father. Empeytaz and others sought to attain enfranchisement by the establishment of the "petite Eglise of Bourg de Four." Malan wished to reform the national Church from within: and a sermon at Geneva, which brought on him the obloquy of the professors and theologians that composed his audience, and which Haldane characterized as a republication of the Gospel, was his first overt act (Jan. 19, 1817). But the opposing forces were far too strong for him. The Venerable Company excluded him from the pulpits, and achieved his dismissal from his regentship at the College (1818). In 1820 he built a chapel (Chapelle du Temoignage) in his garden, and obtained the licence of the State for it, as a separatist place of worship. In 1823 he was formally deprived of his status as a minister of the national Church. The seven years that succeeded were the palmy days of the little chapel. Strangers, especially from England, mingled with the overflowing Swiss congregation. But (in 1830) a secession to Bourg de Four, and then the foundation of the Oratoire and the Société Evangelique, which in 1849 absorbed the congregation of Bourg de Four under the title of the Église Evangélique, thinned more and more the number of his adherents. His burning zeal for the conversion of souls found a larger outlet in long tours of evangelization, subsidized by religious friends, in his own land and Belgium and France, and also in Scotland and England, where he had friends among many religious bodies, and where he preached to large congregations. The distinguishing characteristic of these tours was his dealing with individuals. On the steamboat or the diligence, in the mountain walk, at the hotel, no opportunity was lost. On one occasion an old,man whom he visited drew from under his pillow a copy of his great hymnbook, Chants de Sion, 1841, and told him how he had prayed to see the author of it before he died. It is as the originator of the modern hymn movement in the French Reformed Church that Malan's fame cannot perish. The spirit of his hymns is perpetuated in the analysis of Christian experience, the never-wearied delineation of the hopes and fears, the joys and sorrows of the believer's soul, which are still the staple of French Protestant hymns. To this was added, in Malan himself, a marked didactic tone, necessitated by the great struggle of the Réveil for Evangelical doctrine; and an emphatic Calvinism, expressing itself with all the despondency of Newton and Cowper, but, in contrast with them, in bright assurance, peace and gladness. French criticism has pronounced his hymns unequal, and full of literary defects; but their unaffected freshness and fervent sincerity are universally allowed. In the Chants de Sion, hymns 20, ”Hosanna! Béni soit"; 165, “Mon coeur joyeux, plein d'espérance"; 199, "Du Rocher de Jacob"; 200, "Agneau de Dieu"; 239, "Trois fois Jehovah," are in every Protestant French hymnbook; and several others are very widely used. Besides his hymns Malan produced numberless tracts and pamphlets on the questions in dispute between the National and Evangelical Churches and the Church of Rome, as well as articles in the Record and in American reviews. He was a man of varied acquirements. His hymns were set to his own melodies. He was an artist, a mechanic: his little workshop had its forge, its carpenter's bench, its printing press. To the end of his life his strong Calvinism, and his dread of mere external union in church government, kept him distinct from all movements of church comprehension, though freely joining in communion with all the sections of Evangelical thought in Geneva and Scotland. At one time there seemed a prospect of his even rejoining the national Church, which had driven him from her. One of his greatest joys was the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance at Geneva (1861). He left no sect; one of his latest orders was the demolition of his decayed chapel, in which he had preached for 43 years. He died at Vandoeuvres, near Geneva, in 1864, leaving a numerous family, one of whom, the Rev. S. C. Malan, D.D., sometime Vicar of Broadwindsor, is well known as a linguist and a theologian of the English Church. To English readers Malan is chiefly known as a hymn-writer through translations of his "Non, ce n'est pas mourir" (q.v.): "It is not death to die", &c. About a dozen of his hymns appear in a translated form in the Friendly Visitor for 1826. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/César_Malan

Joseph Haydn

1732 - 1809 Person Name: Franz Joseph Haydn, 1732-1809 Hymnal Number: 798 Composer of "AUSTRIA" in Worship Supplement 2000 Franz Joseph Haydn (b. Rohrau, Austria, 1732; d. Vienna, Austria, 1809) Haydn's life was relatively uneventful, but his artistic legacy was truly astounding. He began his musical career as a choirboy in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, spent some years in that city making a precarious living as a music teacher and composer, and then served as music director for the Esterhazy family from 1761 to 1790. Haydn became a most productive and widely respected composer of symphonies, chamber music, and piano sonatas. In his retirement years he took two extended tours to England, which resulted in his "London" symphonies and (because of G. F. Handel's influence) in oratorios. Haydn's church music includes six great Masses and a few original hymn tunes. Hymnal editors have also arranged hymn tunes from various themes in Haydn's music. Bert Polman