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John Francis Wade

1711 - 1786 Person Name: John Francis Wade, c1711-1786 Topics: Hymns for the Church Year Christmas Composer of "ADESTE FIDELES" in CPWI Hymnal John Francis Wade (b. England, c. 1711; d. Douay, France, 1786) is now generally recognized as both author and composer of the hymn "Adeste fideles," originally written in Latin in four stanzas. The earliest manuscript signed by Wade is dated about 1743. By the early nineteenth century, however, four additional stanzas had been added by other writers. A Roman Catholic, Wade apparently moved to France because of discrimination against Roman Catholics in eighteenth-century England—especially so after the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. He taught music at an English college in Douay and hand copied and sold chant music for use in the chapels of wealthy families. Wade's copied manuscripts were published as Cantus Diversi pro Dominicis et Festis per annum (1751). Bert Polman

Delores Dufner

b. 1939 Person Name: Delores Dufner, 1939- Topics: General Hymns Church/Fellowship/Mission Author of "Let us bring the gifts that differ" in CPWI Hymnal Delores Dufner is a member of St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota, with Master's Degrees in Liturgical Music and Liturgical Studies. She is currently a member and a Fellow of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, the National Pastoral Musicians (NPM), the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), and the Monastic Worship Forum. Delores is a writer of liturgical, scripturally based hymn and song texts which have a broad ecumenical appeal and are contracted or licensed by 34 publishers in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and China. She has received more than 50 commissions to write texts for special occasions or needs and has published over 200 hymns, many of which have several different musical settings and appear in several publications. She is the author of three hymn collections: Sing a New Church (1994, Oregon Catholic Press), The Glimmer of Glory in Song (2004, GIA Publications), and And Every Breath, a Song (2011, GIA Publications). Delores, the middle child of five, was born and raised on a farm in the Red River Valley of North Dakota. She attended a one-room country school in which she learned to read music and play the tonette, later studying piano and organ. Delores was a school music teacher, private piano and organ instructor, and parish organist/choir director for twelve years. She served as liturgy coordinator for her religious community of 775 members for six years and as Director of the Office of Worship for the Diocese of St. Cloud, Minnesota for fifteen years. She subsequently worked as a liturgical music consultant for the Diocese of Ballarat, Victoria in southeast Australia for fifteen months. At present, she is preparing a fourth hymn collection and assisting with liturgy planning and music leadership at the monastery. Delores Dufner

Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen

1670 - 1739 Person Name: Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen, 1670-1739 Topics: Hymns for the Church Year Sunday Composer of "LÜBECK" in CPWI Hymnal Freylinghausen, Johann Anastasius, son of Dietrich Freylinghausen, merchant and burgomaster at Gandersheim, Brunswick, was born at Gandersheim, Dec. 2, 1670. He entered the University of Jena at Easter, 1689. Attracted by the preaching of A. H. Francke and J. J. Breithaupt, he removed to Erfurt in 1691, and at Easter, 1692, followed them to Halle. About the end of 1693 he returned to Gandersheim, and employed himself as a private tutor. In 1695 he went to Glaucha as assistant to Francke; and when Francke became pastor of St. Ulrich's, in Halle,1715, Freylinghausen became his colleague, and in the same year married his only daughter. In 1723 he became also sub-director of the Paedagogium and the Orphanage; and after Francke's death in 1727, succeeded him as pastor of St. Ulrich's and director of the Francke Institutions. Under his fostering care these Institutions attained their highest development. From a stroke of paralysis in 1728, and a second in 1730, he recovered in great measure, but a third in 1737 crippled his right side, while the last, in Nov., 1738, left him almost helpless. He died on Feb. 12, 1739, and was buried beside Francke (Koch, vi. 322-334; Allgemine Deutsche Biographie, vii. 370-71; Bode, pp. 69-70; Grote's Introduction, &c.) Almost all Freylinghausen's hymns appeared in his own hymnbook, which was the standard collection of the Halle school, uniting the best productions of Pietism with a good representation of the older "classical" hymns. This work, which greatly influenced later collections, and was the source from which many editors drew not only the hymns of Pietism, but also the current forms of the earlier hymns (as well as the new "Halle" melodies, a number of which are ascribed to Freylinghausen himself) appeared in two parts, viz.:— i. Geistreiches Gesang-Buch, den Kern alter und neuer Lieder...in sich haltend &c, Halle. Gedrucktund verlegt im Waysen-Hause, 1704 [Hamburg], with 683 hymns and 173 melodies. To the second edition, 1705 [Rostock University], an Appendix was added with Hymns 684-758, and 21 melodies. Editions 3-18 are practically the same so far as the hymns are concerned, save that in ed. 11, 1719 [Berlin], and later issues, four hymns, written by J. J. Rambach at Freylinghausen's request, replaced four of those in eds. 1-10. ii. Neues Geistreiches Gesangbuch,&c, Halle . . . 1714 [Berlin], with 815 hymns and 154 melodies. In the 2nd edition, 1719 [Rostock University], Hymns 816-818, with one melody, were added. In 1741 these two parts were combined by G. A. Francke, seven hymns being added, all but one taken from the first edition, 1718, of the so-called Auszug, which was compiled for congregational use mainly from the original two parts: and this reached a second, and last, edition in 1771. So far as the melodies are concerned, the edition of 1771 is the most complete, containing some 600 to 1582 hymns. (Further details of these editions in the Blätter für Hymnologie, 1883, pp. 44-46, 106-109; 1885, pp. 13-14.) A little volume of notes on the hymns and hymnwriters of the 1771 edition, compiled by J. H. Grischow and completed by J. G. Kirchner, and occasionally referred to in these pages, appeared as Kurzgefasste Nachricht von ältern und ncuern Liederverfassern at Halle, 1771. As a hymnwriter Freylinghausen ranks not only as the best of the Pietistic school, but as the first among his contemporaries. His finest productions are distinguished by a sound and robust piety, warmth of feeling depth of Christian experience, scripturalness, clearness and variety of style, which gained for them wide acceptance, and have kept them still in popular use. A complete edition of his 44 hymns, with a biographical introduction by Ludwig Grote, appeared as his Geistliche Lieder, at Halle, 1855. A number of them, including No. v., are said to have been written during severe attacks of toothache. Two (“Auf, auf, weil der Tag erschienen"; "Der Tag ist hin") are noted under their own first lines. i. Hymns in English common use: -- i. Monarche aller Ding. God's Majesty. 1714, as above, No. 139, in 11 stanzas of 6 lines, repeated in Grote, 1855, p. 88, and as No. 38 in the Berlin Geistliche Lieder, ed. 1863. A fine hymn of Praise, on the majesty and love of God. Translated as:— Monarch of all, with lowly fear, by J. Wesley, in Hymns & Sacred Poems, 1739 (P. Works, 1868-1872, vol. i. p. 104), in 8 stanzas of 4 lines, from st. i., ii., v.-vii., ix.-xi. Repeated in full in the Moravian Hymnbook, 1754, pt. i., No. 456 (1886, No. 176); and in J. A. Latrobe's Collection, 1841. The following forms of this translation are also in common use:-- (1) To Thee, 0 Lord, with humble fear, being Wesley's st. i., iii.-v., vii., viii. altered as No. 156 in Dr. Martineau's Hymns for Christian Church & Home, 1840, and repeated in Miss Courtauld's Psalms, Hymns & Anthems, 1860, and in America in the Cheshire Association Unitarian Collection, 1844. (2) Thou, Lord, of all the parent art, Wesley's, st. iii.-v., vii. altered in the College Hymnal, N. Y., 1876. (3) Thou, Lord, art Light; Thy native ray, Wesley's st. iv., v., vii., in Hymns of the Spirit, 1864. ii. 0 reines Wesen, lautre Quelle. Penitence. Founded on Psalm li. 12, 1714, as above, No. 321, in 7 stanzas of 8 lines, repeated in Grote, 1855, p. 41, and in Bunsen's Versuch, 1833, No. 777 (ed. 1881, No. 435). The only translation in common use is:— Pure Essence: Spotless Fount of Light. A good and full translation by Miss Winkworth in the first series of her Lyra Germanica, 1855, p. 43, and in her Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 113. iii. Wer ist wohl wie du. Names and offices of Christ. One of his noblest and most beautiful hymns, a mirror of his inner life, and one of the finest of the German "Jesus Hymns." 1704, as above, No. 66, in 14 st. of 6 l., repeated in Grote, 1855, p. 33, and is No. 96 in the Berlin Geistliche Lieder, ed. 1863. The translations in common use are: 1. 0 Jesu, source of calm repose, by J. Wesley, being a free translation of st. i., iii., v., viii., xiii. First published in his Psalms & Hymns, Charlestown, 1737 (Poetical Works, 1868-1872, vol. i. p. 161). Repeated in full as No. 462 in pt. i. of the Moravian Hymnbook, 1754. In the 1826 and later editions (1886, No. 233) it begins, "Jesus, Thou source." The original form was included as No. 49 in the Wesley Hymns & Spiritual Songs , 1753, and, as No. 343, in the Wesley Hymnbook, 1780 (1875, No. 353). Varying centos under the original first line are found in Mercer's Church Psalter & Hymn Book, 1855-1864; Kennedy , 1863; Irish Church Hymnal, 1869-1873; J. L. Porter's Collection, 1876, &c. It has also furnished the following centos:— (1) Messiah! Lord! rejoicing still, being Wesley's st. iv.-vi. altered in Dr. Martineau's Collection of Hymns for Christian Worship, 1840. (2) Lord over all, sent to fulfil, Wesley's st. iv., iii., v., vi. in the American Methodist Episcopal Hymnbook, 1849. 2. Who is like Thee, Who? a translation of st. i., ii., v., vii., x., xiii., as No. 687, in pt. i. of the Moravian Hymnbook, 1754. Translations of st. xi., xiv. were added in 1789, and the first line altered in 1801(1886, No. 234), to "Jesus, who with Thee." The translations of st. i., ii., x., xiv., from the 1801, altered and beginning, "Jesus, who can be," are included in America in the Dutch Reformed Hymns of the Church, 1869; Hymns & Songs of Praise, N. Y., 1874; and Richards's Collection, N.Y., 1881. 3. Who is there like Thee, a good translation of st. i., ii., viii., xiv., by J. S. Stallybrass, as No. 234 in Curwen's Sabbath Hymnbook, 1859, repeated in the Irish Church Hymnal, 1873, and in W. F. Stevenson's Hymns for Church & Home, 1873. 4. Who is, Jesus blest, a translation of stanzas i., ii., v., vi., xii., xiv., by M. Loy, in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880. 5. Who, as Thou, makes blest, a good translation, omitting st. vii., ix., x., contributed by Dr. F. W Gotch to the Baptist Magazine, 1857. Repeated in the 1880 Supplement to the Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858. The translations not in common use are: — (1) "Whither shall we flee," by Miss Dunn, 1857, p. 55. (2) "Who has worth like Thine," in the U. P. Juvenile Miss. Magazine, 1857, p. 217. (3) "Thou art First and Best," by Miss Winkworth, 1869, p. 267. ii. Hymns translated into English but not in common use:— iv. Herr und Gott der Tag und Nächte. Evening. 1705, as above, No. 755, in 6 stanzas, Grote, p. 105. Translated by H. J. Buckoll, 1842, p. 106, beginning with stanza. ii. v. Mein Herz, gieb dioh rufrieden. Cross and Consolation. First in the Halle Stadt Gesangbuch, 1711, No. 503, in 11 stanzas; repeated 1714, No. 450, and in Grote, p. 71. Translated by Dr. G. Walker, 1860, p. 86. vi. 0 Lamm, das keine Sünde je beflecket. Passiontide. 1714, No. 85, in 19 stanzas, Grote, p. 14. Translated as, (1) "Lamb, for Thy boundless love I praises offer," of st. xii. as stanza i. of No. 1023 in the Supplement of 1808 to the Moravian Hymn Book, 1801 (1849, No. 121). (2) "O Lamb, whom never spot of sin defiled," in the British Magazine, June, 1838, p. 625. vii. 0 Lamm, das meine Sündenlast getragen. Easter Eve. 1714, No. 95, in 8 stanzas; Grote, p. 23. Translated as "Christ Jesus is that precious grain," a translation of st. v. by F. W. Foster, as No. 71 in the Moravian Hymnbook, 1789 (1886, No. 921). viii. Zu dir, Herr Jesu, komme ich. Penitence. Founded on St. Matthew xi. 28-30. 1714, as above, No. 306, in 4 stanzas; Grote, p. 39. Translated by Dr. H. Mills, 1845 (1856, p. 80). [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

John Goss

1800 - 1880 Person Name: John Goss, 1800-1880 Topics: The Christian Life Discipleship and Consecration; The Christian Life Courage, Conflict, and Victory; The Christian Life Brotherly Love and Service; The Church The Gospel Call; Hymns for the Young Discipleship and Consecration; The Church The Sacraments - Baptism Adapter of "ARMAGEDDON" in The Book of Praise 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

Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane

1830 - 1869 Person Name: Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane, 1830-1869 Topics: Hymns for the Church Year Good Friday Author of "Beneath the cross of Jesus" in CPWI Hymnal Clephane, Elizabeth Cecilia, third daughter of Andrew Clephane, Sheriff of Fife, was born at Edinburgh, June 18, 1830, and died at Bridgend House, near Melrose, Feb. 19, 1869. Her hymns appeared, almost all for the first time, in the Family Treasury, under the general title of Breathings on the Border. In publishing the first of these in the Treasury, the late Rev. W. Arnot, of Edinburgh, then editor, thus introduced them:— "These lines express the experiences, the hopes, and the longings of a young Christian lately released. Written on the very edge of this life, with the better land fully, in the view of faith, they seem to us footsteps printed on the sands of Time, where these sands touch the ocean of Eternity. These footprints of one whom the Good Shepherd led through the wilderness into rest, may, with God's blessing, contribute to comfort and direct succeeding pilgrims." The hymns, together with their dates,are:— 1. Beneath the cross of Jesus. Family Treasury, 1872, p. 398, 2. Mine eyes for ever closed. Family Treasury, 1872, p. 398. 3. Who climbeth up too nigh. Family Treasury, 1872, p. 552. 4. Into His summer garden. Family Treasury, 1873, p. 245. 5. From my dwelling midst the dead. Family Treasury, 1873, p. 365. 6. The day is drawing nearly done. Family Treasury, 1873, p. 389. 7. Life-light waneth to an end. Family Treasury, 1874, p. 595. 8. There were ninety and nine that safely lay. Family Treasury, 1874, p. 595. Of these Nos. 1 and 8 are in common use. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

James Nicholson

1828 - 1896 Person Name: James Nicholson (c. 1828-1876) Topics: Book Four: Occasional Selections, Gospel Songs and Hymns; The Church Travail and Renewal Author of "Lord Jesus, I Long to Be Perfectly Whole" in The Christian Hymnary. Bks. 1-4 James L Nicholson United Kingdom/USA 1828-1876. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to the United States around age 25. He lived in Philadelphia, PA, worked as a postal clerk, and was a member of the Wharton Street Methodist Episcopal Church there for about 20 years, where he taught Sunday school, led singing in church, and assisted in evangelical work. This was also hymn writer, William J Kirkpatrick’s, church. Around 1871 he moved to Washington, DC, and worked as a postal clerk there. In addition to his hymn writing, he also wrote several books, one on birds and their care, one on forensic medicine. He died in Washington, DC, but was buried in Philadelphia, PA. John Perry =============== Nicholson, James, an American Methodist minister, is the author of (1) "Dear [Lord] Jesus I long to be perfectly whole" (Holiness desired); and (2) "There's a beautiful land on high " (Heaven), both of which are in I. D. Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos, 1878. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Charles V. Stanford

1852 - 1924 Person Name: Charles Villiers Stanford Topics: The Church at Worship Special Days, Seasons, Occasions: Praise of God through Music; Adoration and Praise; Arts and Literature; Arts and Literature; Christian Experience; Church Anniversaries; Creation; Creativity; God Adoration and Praise; Hallelujah; Music and Singing; Opening Hymns; Service Music Sending Forth/Commissioning; Proper 5 Year A; Easter 5 Year B; Proper 5 Year B; Proper 15 Year B; Christmas 1 Year C; Epiphany 8 Year C Composer of "ENGELBERG" in Voices United Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Irish composer, teacher and conductor. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was educated at the University of Cambridge before studying music in Leipzig and Berlin. He was instrumental in raising the status of the Cambridge University Musical Society, attracting international stars to perform with it. While still an undergraduate, Stanford was appointed organist of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1882, aged 29, he was one of the founding professors of the Royal College of Music, where he taught composition for the rest of his life. From 1887 he was also the professor of music at Cambridge. As a teacher, Stanford was sceptical about modernism, and based his instruction chiefly on classical principles as exemplified in the music of Brahms. Among his pupils were rising composers whose fame went on to surpass his own, such as Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. As a conductor, Stanford held posts with the Bach Choir and the Leeds triennial music festival. Stanford composed a substantial number of concert works, including seven symphonies, but his best-remembered pieces are his choral works for church performance, chiefly composed in the Anglican tradition. He was a dedicated composer of opera, but none of his nine completed operas has endured in the general repertory. Some critics regarded Stanford, together with Hubert Parry and Alexander Mackenzie, as responsible for a renaissance in English music. However, after his conspicuous success as a composer in the last two decades of the 19th century, his music was eclipsed in the 20th century by that of Edward Elgar as well as former pupils. Stanford was born in Dublin, the only son of John James Stanford and his second wife, Mary, née Henn. John Stanford was a prominent Dublin lawyer, Examiner to the Court of Chancery in Ireland and Clerk of the Crown for County Meath. His wife was the third daughter of William Henn, Master of the High Court of Chancery in Ireland. Both parents were accomplished amateur musicians; John Stanford was a cellist and a noted bass singer who was chosen to perform the title role in Mendelssohn's Elijah at the Irish premiere in 1847. Mary Stanford was an amateur pianist, capable of playing the solo parts in concertos at Dublin concerts. The young Stanford was given a conventional education at a private day school in Dublin run by Henry Tilney Bassett, who concentrated on the classics to the exclusion of other subjects. Stanford's parents encouraged the boy's precocious musical talent, employing a succession of teachers in violin, piano, organ and composition. Three of his teachers were former pupils of Ignaz Moscheles, including his godmother Elizabeth Meeke, of whom Stanford recalled, "She taught me, before I was twelve years old, to read at sight. … She made me play every day at the end of my lesson a Mazurka of Chopin: never letting me stop for a mistake. … By the time I had played through the whole fifty-two Mazurkas, I could read most music of the calibre my fingers could tackle with comparative ease." One of the young Stanford's earliest compositions, a march in D♭ major, written when he was eight years old, was performed in the pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Dublin three years later. At the age of nine, Stanford gave a piano recital for an invited audience, playing works by Beethoven, Handel, Mendelssohn, Moscheles, Mozart and Bach. One of his songs was taken up by the University of Dublin Choral Society and was well received. In the 1860s Dublin received occasional visits from international stars, and Stanford was able to hear famous performers such as Joseph Joachim, Henri Vieuxtemps and Adelina Patti. The annual visit of the Italian Opera Company from London, led by Giulia Grisi, Giovanni Matteo Mario and later Thérèse Tietjens, gave Stanford a taste for opera that remained with him all his life. When he was ten, his parents took him to London for the summer, where he stayed with his mother's uncle in Mayfair. While there he took composition lessons from the composer and teacher Arthur O'Leary, and piano lessons from Ernst Pauer, professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM). On his return to Dublin, his godmother having left Ireland, he took lessons from Henrietta Flynn, another former Leipzig Conservatory pupil of Moscheles, and later from Robert Stewart, organist of St Patrick's Cathedral, as well as from a third Moscheles pupil, Michael Quarry. During his second spell in London two years later, he met the composer Arthur Sullivan and the musical administrator and writer George Grove, who later played important parts in his career. John Stanford hoped that his son would follow him into the legal profession but accepted his decision to pursue music as a career. However, he stipulated that Stanford should have a conventional university education before going on to musical studies abroad. Stanford tried unsuccessfully for a classics scholarship at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, but gained an organ scholarship, and later a classics scholarship, at Queens' College. By the time he went up to Cambridge he had written a substantial number of compositions, including vocal music, both sacred and secular, and orchestral works (a rondo for cello and orchestra and a concert overture). Stanford immersed himself in the musical life of the university to the detriment of his Latin and Greek studies. He composed religious and secular vocal works, a piano concerto, and incidental music for Longfellow's play A Spanish Student. In November 1870 he appeared as piano soloist with the Cambridge University Musical Society (CUMS), and quickly became its assistant conductor and a committee member. The society had declined in excellence since its foundation in 1843. Its choir consisted solely of men and boys; the lack of women singers severely limited the works that the society could present. Stanford was unable to persuade the members to admit women, and so he staged what The Musical Times called "a bloodless revolution." In February 1872 he co-founded a mixed choir, the Amateur Vocal Guild, whose performances immediately put those of the CUMS singers in the shade. The members of CUMS rapidly changed their minds, and agreed to a merger of the two choirs, with women given associate membership of the society. The conductor of the combined choir was John Larkin Hopkins, who was also organist of Trinity College. He became ill, and handed over the conductorship to Stanford in 1873. Stanford was also appointed Hopkins's deputy organist at Trinity, and moved from Queens' to Trinity in April 1873. In the summer of that year Stanford made his first trip to continental Europe. He went to Bonn for the Schumann Festival held there, where he met Joachim and Brahms. His growing love of the music of Schumann and Brahms marked him as a classicist at a time when many music-lovers were divided into the classical or the modernist camps, the latter represented by the music of Liszt and Wagner. Stanford was not constrained by the fashion for belonging to one camp or the other; he immensely admired Die Meistersinger though he was unenthusiastic about some of Wagner's other works. After leaving Bonn he returned home by way of Switzerland and then Paris, where he saw Meyerbeer's Le prophète. Hopkins's illness proved fatal, and after his death the Trinity authorities invited Stanford to take over as organist of the college. He accepted with the proviso that he was to be released each year for a spell of musical study in Germany. The fellows of the college resolved on 21 February 1874: Two days after his appointment, Stanford took the final examinations for his classics degree. He ranked 65th of 66, and was awarded a third-class degree. On the recommendation of Sir William Sterndale Bennett, former professor of music at Cambridge and now director of the Royal Academy of Music, Stanford went to Leipzig in the summer of 1874 for lessons with Carl Reinecke, professor of composition and piano at the Leipzig Conservatory. The composer Thomas Dunhill commented that by 1874 it was "the tail-end of the Leipzig ascendancy, when the great traditions of Mendelssohn had already begun to fade." Nevertheless, Stanford did not seriously consider studying anywhere else. Neither Dublin nor London offered any comparable musical training; the most prestigious British music school, the RAM, was at that time hidebound and reactionary. He was dismayed to find in Leipzig that Bennett had recommended him to a German pedant no more progressive than the teachers at the RAM. Stanford said of Reinecke, "Of all the dry musicians I have ever known he was the most desiccated. He had not a good word for any contemporary composer… He loathed Wagner … sneered at Brahms and had no enthusiasm of any sort." Stanford's biographer Paul Rodmell suggests that Reinecke's ultra-conservatism may have been unexpectedly good for his pupil "as it may have encouraged Stanford to kick against the traces." During his time in Leipzig Stanford took piano lessons from Robert Papperitz (1826–1903), organist of the city's Nikolaikirche, whom he found more helpful. Among Stanford's compositions in 1874 was a setting of part one of Longfellow's poem "The Golden Legend." He intended to set the entire poem, but gave up, defeated by Longfellow's "numerous but unconnected characters." Stanford ignored this and other early works when assigning opus numbers in his mature years. The earliest compositions in his official list of works are a four-movement Suite for piano and a Toccata for piano, which both date from 1875. After a second spell in Leipzig with Reinecke in 1875, which was no more productive than the first, Stanford was recommended by Joachim to study in Berlin the following year with Friedrich Kiel, whom Stanford found "a master at once sympathetic and able … I learnt more from him in three months, than from all the others in three years." Returning to Cambridge in the intervals of his studies in Germany, Stanford had resumed his work as conductor of CUMS. He found the society in good shape under his deputy, Eaton Faning, and able to tackle demanding new works. In 1876 the society presented one of the first performances in Britain of the Brahms Requiem. In 1877 CUMS came to national attention when it presented the first British performance of Brahms's First Symphony. During the same period, Stanford was becoming known as a composer. He was composing prolifically, though he later withdrew some of his works from these years, including a violin concerto which, according to Rodmell, suffered from "undistinguished thematic material." In 1875 his First Symphony won the second prize in a competition held at the Alexandra Palace for symphonies by British composers, although he had to wait a further two years to hear the work performed. In the same year Stanford directed the first performance of his oratorio "The Resurrection," given by CUMS. At the request of Alfred Tennyson, he wrote incidental music for Tennyson's drama Queen Mary, performed at the Lyceum Theatre, London in April 1876. In April 1878, despite the disapproval of his father, Stanford married Jane Anna Maria Wetton, known as Jennie, a singer whom he had met when she was studying in Leipzig. They had a daughter, Geraldine Mary, born in 1883 and a son, Guy Desmond, born in 1885. In 1878 and 1879 Stanford worked on his first opera, The Veiled Prophet, to a libretto by his friend William Barclay Squire. It was based on a poem by Thomas Moore with characters including a virgin priestess and a mystic prophet, and a plot that culminates in poisoning and stabbing. Stanford offered the work to the opera impresario Carl Rosa, who refused it and suggested that the composer should try to have it staged in Germany: "Its success will (unfortunately) have much greater chances here if accepted abroad." Referring to the enormous popularity of Sullivan's comic operas, Rosa added, "If the work was of the Pinafore style it would be quite another matter." Stanford had greatly enjoyed Sullivan's Cox and Box, but The Veiled Prophet was intended to be a serious work of high drama and romance. Stanford had made many useful contacts during his months in Germany, and his friend the conductor Ernst Frank got the piece staged at the Königliches Schauspiel in Hanover in 1881. Reviewing the premiere for The Musical Times, Stanford's friend J A Fuller Maitland wrote, "Mr. Stanford's style of instrumentation … is built more or less on that of Schumann; while his style of dramatic treatment bears more resemblance to Meyerbeer than to that of any other master." Other reviews were mixed, and the opera had to wait until 1893 for its English premiere. Stanford nevertheless continued to seek operatic success throughout his career. In his lifelong enthusiasm for opera he differed strikingly from his contemporary Hubert Parry, who made one attempt at composing opera and then renounced the genre. By the early 1880s, Stanford was becoming a major figure in the British musical scene. His only major rivals were seen as Sullivan, Frederic Hymen Cowen, Parry, Alexander Mackenzie and Arthur Goring Thomas. Sullivan was by this time viewed with suspicion in high-minded musical circles for composing comic rather than grand operas; Cowen was regarded more as a conductor than as a composer; and the other three, though seen as promising, had not so far made a clear mark as Stanford had done. Stanford helped Parry in particular to gain recognition, commissioning incidental music from him for a Cambridge production of Aristophanes' The Birds and a symphony (the "Cambridge") for the musical society. At Cambridge Stanford continued to raise the profile of CUMS, as well as his own, by securing appearances by leading international musicians including Joachim, Hans Richter, Alfredo Piatti and Edward Dannreuther. The society attracted further attention by premiering works by Cowen, Parry, Mackenzie, Goring Thomas and others. Stanford was also making an impression in his capacity as organist of Trinity, raising musical standards and composing what his biographer Jeremy Dibble calls "some highly distinctive church music" including a Service in B♭ (1879), the anthem "The Lord is my shepherd" (1886) and the motet Justorum animae (1888). In the first half of the 1880s, Stanford collaborated with the author Gilbert à Beckett on two operas, Savonarola, and The Canterbury Pilgrims. The former was well received at its premiere in Hamburg in April 1884, but received a critical savaging when staged at Covent Garden in July of the same year. Parry commented privately, "It seems very badly constructed for the stage, poorly conceived and the music, though clean and well-managed, is not striking or dramatic." The most severe public criticism was in The Theatre, whose reviewer wrote, "The book of Savonarola is dull, stilted, and, from a dramatic point of view, weak. It is not, however, so crushingly tiresome as the music fitted to it. Savonarola has gone far to convince me that opera is quite out of [Stanford's] line and that the sooner he abandons the stage for the cathedral, the better for his musical reputation." The Canterbury Pilgrims had been premiered in London in April 1884, three months before Savonarola was presented at Covent Garden. It had a better reception than the latter, though reviews pointed out Stanford's debt to Die Meistersinger, and complained of a lack of emotion in the love music. George Grove agreed with the critics, writing to Parry, "Charlie's music contains everything but sentiment. Love not at all – that I heard not a grain of. … And I do think that there might be more tune. Melody is not a thing to be avoided surely." In 1896 a critic wrote that the opera had "just such a 'book' as would have suited the late Alfred Cellier. He would probably have made of it a charming light English opera. But Dr. Stanford has chosen to use it for the exemplification of those advanced theories which we know him to hold, and he has given us music which would incline us to think that Die Meistersinger had been his model. The effect of the combination is not happy." In 1883, the Royal College of Music was set up to replace the short-lived and unsuccessful National Training School for Music (NTSM). Neither the NTSM nor the longer-established Royal Academy of Music had provided adequate musical training for professional orchestral players, and the founder-director of the college, George Grove, was determined that the new institution should succeed in doing so. His two principal allies in this undertaking were the violinist Henry Holmes and Stanford. In a study of the founding of the college, David Wright notes that Stanford had two main reasons for supporting Grove's aim. The first was his belief that a capable college orchestra was essential to give students of composition the chance to experience the sound of their music. His second reason was the severe contrast between the competence of German orchestras and the performance of their British counterparts. He accepted Grove's offer of the posts of professor of composition and (with Holmes) conductor of the college orchestra. He held the professorship for the rest of his life; among the best known of his many pupils were Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Ireland, Frank Bridge and Arthur Bliss. Stanford was never an easy-going teacher. He insisted on one-to-one tutorials, and worked his pupils hard. One of them, Herbert Howells, recalled, "Corner any Stanford pupil you like, and ask him to confess the sins he most hated being discovered in by his master. He will tell you 'slovenliness' and 'vulgarity.' When these went into the teacher's room they came out, badly damaged. Against compromise with dubious material or workmanship Stanford stubbornly set his face." Another pupil, Edgar Bainton, recalled: Stanford's teaching seemed to be without method or plan. His criticism consisted for the most part of "I like it, my boy," or "It's damned ugly, my boy" (the latter in most cases). In this, perhaps, lay its value. For in spite of his conservatism, and he was intensely and passionately conservative in music as in politics, his amazingly comprehensive knowledge of musical literature of all nations and ages made one feel that his opinions, however irritating, had weight. To Stanford's regret, many of his pupils who achieved eminence as composers broke away from his classical, Brahmsian precepts, as he had himself rebelled against Reinecke's conservatism. The composer George Dyson wrote, "In a certain sense the very rebellion he fought was the most obvious fruit of his methods. And in view of what some of these rebels have since achieved, one is tempted to wonder whether there is really anything better a teacher can do for his pupils than drive them into various forms of revolution." The works of some of Stanford's pupils, including Holst and Vaughan Williams, entered the general repertory in Britain, and to some extent elsewhere, as Stanford's never did. For many years after his death it seemed that Stanford's greatest fame would be as a teacher. Among his achievements at the RCM was the establishment of an opera class, with at least one operatic production every year. From 1885 to 1915 there were 32 productions, all of them conducted by Stanford. In 1887 Stanford was appointed professor of music at Cambridge in succession to Sir George Macfarren who died in October of that year. Up to this time, the university had awarded music degrees to candidates who had not been undergraduates at Cambridge; all that was required was to pass the university's music examinations. Stanford was determined to end the practice, and after six years he persuaded the university authorities to agree. Three years' study at the university became a prerequisite for sitting the bachelor of music examinations. During the last decades of the 19th century, Stanford's academic duties did not prevent him from composing or performing. He was appointed conductor of the Bach Choir, London, in 1885, succeeding its founding conductor Otto Goldschmidt. He held the post until 1902. Hans von Bülow conducted the German premiere of Stanford's Irish Symphony in Hamburg in January 1888, and was sufficiently impressed by the work to programme it in Berlin shortly afterwards. Richter conducted it in Vienna, and Mahler later conducted it in New York. For the Theatre Royal, Cambridge, Stanford composed incidental music for productions of Aeschylus's The Eumenides (1885), and Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannos (1887). The Times said of the former, "Mr. Stanford's music is dramatically significant, as well as beautiful in itself. It has, moreover, that quality so rare among modern composers – style." In both sets of music Stanford made extensive use of leitmotifs, in the manner of Wagner; the critic of The Times noted the Wagnerian character of the prelude to Oedipus. In the 1890s, Bernard Shaw writing as "Corno di Bassetto", music critic of The World, voiced mixed feelings about Stanford. In Shaw's view, the best of Stanford's works displayed an uninhibited, Irish, character. The critic was dismissive of the composer's solemn Victorian choral music. In July 1891, Shaw's column was full of praise for Stanford's capacity for spirited tunes, declaring that Richard D'Oyly Carte should engage him to succeed Sullivan as the composer of Savoy operas. In October of the same year, Shaw attacked Stanford's oratorio Eden, bracketing the composer with Parry and Mackenzie as a mutual admiration society, purveying "sham classics": [W]ho am I that I should be believed, to the disparagement of eminent musicians? If you doubt that Eden is a masterpiece, ask Dr Parry and Dr Mackenzie, and they will applaud it to the skies. Surely Dr Mackenzie’s opinion is conclusive; for is he not the composer of Veni Creator, guaranteed as excellent music by Professor Stanford and Dr Parry? You want to know who Parry is? Why, the composer of "Blest Pair of Sirens," as to the merits of which you only have to consult Dr Mackenzie and Professor Stanford. To Fuller Maitland, the trio of composers lampooned by Shaw were the leaders of an English musical renaissance (although neither Stanford nor Mackenzie was English). This view persisted in some academic circles for many years. Stanford returned to opera in 1893, with an extensively revised and shortened version of The Veiled Prophet. It had its British premiere at Covent Garden in July. His friend Fuller Maitland was by this time the chief music critic of The Times, and the paper's review of the opera was laudatory. According to Fuller Maitland The Veiled Prophet was the best novelty of an opera season that had also included Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Bizet's Djamileh and Mascagni's I Rantzau. Stanford's next opera was Shamus O'Brien (1896), a comic opera to a libretto by George H. Jessop. The conductor was the young Henry Wood, who recalled in his memoirs that the producer, Sir Augustus Harris, managed to quell the dictatorial composer and prevent him from interfering with the staging. Stanford attempted to give Wood lessons in conducting, but the young man was unimpressed. The opera was successful, running for 82 consecutive performances. The work was given in German translation in Breslau in 1907; Thomas Beecham thought it "a colourful, racy work", and revived it in his 1910 opéra comique season at His Majesty's Theatre, London. At the end of 1894, Grove retired from the Royal College of Music. Parry was chosen to succeed him, and although Stanford wholeheartedly congratulated his friend on his appointment, their relations soon deteriorated. Stanford was known as a hot-tempered and quarrelsome man. Grove had written of a board meeting at the Royal College "where somehow the spirit of the d----l himself had been working in Stanford all the time – as it sometimes does, making him so nasty and quarrelsome and contradictious as no one but he can be! He is a most remarkably clever and able fellow, full of resource and power – no doubt of that – but one has to purchase it often at a very dear price." Parry suffered worse at Stanford's hands with frequent rows, deeply upsetting to the highly-strung Parry. Some of their rows were caused by Stanford's reluctance to accept the authority of his old friend and protégé, but on other occasions Parry seriously provoked Stanford, notably in 1895 when he reduced the funding for Stanford's orchestral classes. In 1898, Sullivan, ageing and unwell, resigned as conductor of the Leeds triennial music festival, a post which he had held since 1880. He believed that Stanford's motive for accepting the conductorship of the Leeds Philharmonic Society the previous year was to position himself to take over the festival. Stanford later felt obliged to write to The Times, denying that he had been party to a conspiracy to oust Sullivan. Sullivan was by then thought to be a dull conductor of other composers' music, and although Stanford's work as a conductor was not without its critics, he was appointed in Sullivan's place. He remained in charge until 1910. His compositions for the festival included "Songs of the Sea" (1904), "Stabat Mater" (1907) and "Songs of the Fleet (1910)." New works by other composers presented at Leeds during Stanford's years in charge included pieces by Parry, Mackenzie, and seven of Stanford's former pupils. The best-known new work from Stanford's time is probably Vaughan Williams's A Sea Symphony, premiered in 1910. In 1901 Stanford returned once again to opera, with a version of Much Ado About Nothing, to a libretto by Julian Sturgis that was exceptionally faithful to Shakespeare's original. The Manchester Guardian commented, "Not even in the Falstaff of Arrigo Boito and Giuseppe Verdi have the characteristic charm, the ripe and pungent individuality of the original comedy been more sedulously preserved." Despite good notices for the opera, Stanford's star was waning. In the first decade of the century, his music became eclipsed by that of a younger composer, Edward Elgar. In the words of the music scholar Robert Anderson, Stanford "had his innings with continental reputation in the latter decades of the nineteenth century, but then Elgar bowled him out." When Elgar was struggling for recognition in the 1890s, Stanford had been supportive of his younger colleague, conducting his music, putting him forward for a Cambridge doctorate, and proposing him for membership of the exclusive London club, the Athenaeum. He was, however, put out when Elgar's success at home and abroad eclipsed his own, with Richard Strauss (whom Stanford detested) praising Elgar as the first progressive English composer. When Elgar was appointed professor of music at Birmingham University in 1904, Stanford wrote him a letter that the recipient found "odious". Elgar retaliated in his inaugural lecture with remarks about composers of rhapsodies, widely seen as denigrating Stanford. Stanford later counter-attacked in his book A History of Music, writing of Elgar, "Cut off from his contemporaries by his religion and his want of regular academic training, he was lucky enough to enter the field and find the preliminary ploughing done." Though bitter about being sidelined, Stanford continued to compose. Between the turn of the century and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 his new works included a violin concerto (1901), a clarinet concerto (1902), a sixth and a seventh (and last) symphony (1906 and 1911), and his second piano concerto (1911). In 1916 he wrote his penultimate opera, The Critic. It was a setting of Sheridan's comedy of the same name, with the original text left mostly intact by the librettist, Lewis Cairns James. The work was well received at the premiere at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London, and was taken up later in the year by Beecham, who staged it in Manchester and London. The First World War had a severe effect on Stanford. He was frightened by air-raids, and had to move from London to Windsor to avoid them. Many of his former pupils were casualties of the fighting, including Arthur Bliss, injured, Ivor Gurney, gassed, and George Butterworth, killed. The annual RCM operatic production, which Stanford had supervised and conducted every year since 1885, had to be cancelled. His income declined, as the fall in student numbers at the college reduced the demand for his services. After a serious disagreement at the end of 1916, his relationship with Parry deteriorated to the point of hostility. Stanford's magnanimity, however, came to the fore when Parry died two years later and Stanford successfully lobbied for him to be buried in St Paul's Cathedral. After the war, Stanford handed over much of the direction of the RCM's orchestra to Adrian Boult, but continued to teach at the college. He gave occasional public lectures, including one on "Some Recent Tendencies in Composition", in January 1921 which was belligerently hostile to most of the music of the generation after his own. His last public appearance was on 5 March 1921 conducting the Royal Choral Society in his new cantata, At the Abbey Gate. Reviews were polite but unenthusiastic. The Times said, "we could not feel that the music had enough emotion behind it", The Observer thought it "quite appealing even though one feels it to be more facile than powerful." In September 1922, Stanford completed the sixth Irish Rhapsody, his final work. Two weeks later he celebrated his 70th birthday; thereafter his health declined. On 17 March 1924 he suffered a stroke and on 29 March he died at his home in London, survived by his wife and children. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 2 April and his ashes were buried in Westminster Abbey the following day. The orchestra of the Royal College of Music, conducted by Boult, played music by Stanford, ending the service with a funeral march that he had written for Tennyson's Becket in 1893. The grave is in the north choir aisle of the Abbey, near the graves of Henry Purcell, John Blow and William Sterndale Bennett. The Times said, "the conjunction of the music of Stanford with that of his great predecessors showed how thoroughly as composer he belonged to their line." Stanford's last opera, The Travelling Companion, composed during the war, was premiered by amateur performers at the David Lewis Theatre, Liverpool in 1925 with a reduced orchestra. The work was given complete at Bristol in 1928 and at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, in 1935. Stanford received many honours, including honorary doctorates from Oxford (1883), Cambridge (1888), Durham (1894), Leeds (1904), and Trinity College, Dublin (1921). He was knighted in 1902 and in 1904 was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, Berlin. In Stanford's music the sense of style, the sense of beauty, the feeling of a great tradition is never absent. His music is in the best sense of the word Victorian, that is to say it is the musical counterpart of the art of Tennyson, Watts and Matthew Arnold. Stanford composed about 200 works, including seven symphonies, about 40 choral works, nine operas, 11 concertos and 28 chamber works, as well as songs, piano pieces, incidental music, and organ works. He suppressed most of his earliest compositions; the earliest of works that he chose to include in his catalogue date from 1875. Throughout his career as a composer, Stanford's technical mastery was rarely in doubt. The composer Edgar Bainton said of him, "Whatever opinions may be held upon Stanford's music, and they are many and various, it is, I think, always recognised that he was a master of means. Everything he turned his hand to always 'comes off.'" On the day of Stanford's death, one former pupil, Gustav Holst, said to another, Herbert Howells, "The one man who could get any one of us out of a technical mess is now gone from us." After Stanford's death most of his music was quickly forgotten, with the exception of his works for church performance. His Stabat Mater and Requiem held their place in the choral repertoire, the latter championed by Sir Thomas Beecham. Stanford's two sets of sea songs and the song "The Blue Bird" were still performed from time to time, but even his most popular opera, Shamus O'Brien came to seem old fashioned with its "stage-Irish" vocabulary. However, in his 2002 study of Stanford Dibble writes that the music, increasingly available on disc if not in live performance, still has the power to surprise. In Dibble's view, the frequent charge that Stanford is "Brahms and water" was disproved once the symphonies and concertos, much of the chamber music and many of the songs became available for reappraisal when recorded for compact disc. In 2002, Rodmell's study of Stanford included a discography running to 16 pages. The criticism most often made of Stanford's music by writers from Shaw onwards is that his music lacks passion. Shaw praised "Stanford the Celt" and abominated "Stanford the Professor", who reined in the emotions of the Celt. In Stanford's church music, the critic Nicholas Temperley finds "a thoroughly satisfying artistic experience, but one that is perhaps lacking in deeply felt religious impulse." In his operas and elsewhere, Grove, Parry and later commentators found music that ought to convey love and romance failing to do so. Like Parry, Stanford strove for seriousness, and his competitive streak led him to emulate Sullivan not in comic opera, for which Stanford had a real gift, but in oratorio in what Rodmell calls grand statements that "only occasionally matched worthiness with power or profundity." --excerpts from en.wikipedia.org

Gustav Holst

1874 - 1934 Person Name: Gustav Theodore Holst, 1874-1934 Topics: Hymns for the Church Year Christmas Composer of "CRANHAM" in CPWI Hymnal Gustav Holst (b. Chelteham, Gloucestershire, England, September 21, 1874, d. London, England, May 25, 1934) was a renowned British composer and musician. Having studied at Cheltenham Grammar School, he soon obtained a professional position as an organist, and later as choirmaster. In 1892, Holst composed a two-act operetta, which so impressed his father that he borrowed the money to send Holst to the Royal College of Music. Severe neuritis in his right hand later caused him to give up the keyboard, and Holst turned to the trombone and composing. In 1895 Holst met Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the two became lifelong friends. Vaughan Williams helped Holst land his first job as a singing teacher. Holst became very interested in Indian and Hindu culture, and composed a number of operas translated from Sanksrit myths. These were not received well in England, however. Holst is best known for his composition, The Planets, as well as

Ruth C. Duck

b. 1947 Person Name: Ruth Duck Topics: The Church at Worship Opening and Morning Hymns Author of "Moved by the Gospel, Let Us Move" in Voices United

Daniel C. Roberts

1841 - 1907 Topics: Church Anniversaries and Dedications; Memorial Day; Pilgrimage and Conflict; Processional Hymns Author of "God of All Ages, Whose Almighty Hand" in Rejoice in the Lord Daniel C. Roberts (b. Bridgehampton, Long Island, NY, 1841; d. Concord, NH, 1907) Educated at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, served in the union army during the Civil War. He was ordained in the Episcopal Church as a priest in 1866 and ministered to several congregations in Vermont and Massachusetts. In 1878 he began a ministry at St. Paul Church in Concord, New Hampshire, that lasted for twenty-three years. Serving for many years president of the New Hampshire State Historical Society, Roberts once wrote, "I remain a country parson, known only within my small world," but his hymn "God of Our Fathers" brought him widespread recognition. Bert Polman ================= Roberts, Daniel C., D.D., of the Prot. Episcopal Church in America, b. at Bridge Hampton, L.I., Nov. 5, 1841, and graduated at Gambler College, 1857. After serving for a time as a private in the Civil War, he was ordained in 1866. He is at present (1905) Rector of Concord, N.H. His hymn, "God of our fathers, Whose almighty hand " (National Hymn), was written in 1876 for the "Centennial" Fourth of July celebration at Brandon, Vermont. In 1892 it was included in the Protestant Episcopal Hymnal, and again in Sursum Corda, 1898. [Rev. L. F. Benson, D.D.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

1090 - 1153 Person Name: Bernard of Clairvaux, 1091-1153 Topics: Hymns for the Church Year Passion and Holy Week Author of "O sacred head, surrounded" in CPWI Hymnal Bernard of Clairvaux, saint, abbot, and doctor, fills one of the most conspicuous positions in the history of the middle ages. His father, Tecelin, or Tesselin, a knight of great bravery, was the friend and vassal of the Duke of Burgundy. Bernard was born at his father's castle on the eminence of Les Fontaines, near Dijon, in Burgundy, in 1091. He was educated at Chatillon, where he was distinguished for his studious and meditative habits. The world, it would be thought, would have had overpowering attractions for a youth who, like Bernard, had all the advantages that high birth, great personal beauty, graceful manners, and irresistible influence could give, but, strengthened in the resolve by night visions of his mother (who had died in 1105), he chose a life of asceticism, and became a monk. In company with an uncle and two of his brothers, who had been won over by his entreaties, he entered the monastery of Citeaux, the first Cistercian foundation, in 1113. Two years later he was sent forth, at the head of twelve monks, from the rapidly increasing and overcrowded abbey, to found a daughter institution, which in spite of difficulties and privations which would have daunted less determined men, they succeeded in doing, in the Valley of Wormwood, about four miles from the Abbey of La Ferté—itself an earlier swarm from the same parent hive—on the Aube. On the death of Pope Honorius II., in 1130, the Sacred College was rent by factions, one of which elected Gregory of St. Angelo, who took the title of Innocent II., while another elected Peter Leonis, under that of Anacletua II. Innocent fled to France, and the question as to whom the allegiance of the King, Louie VI., and the French bishops was due was left by them for Bernard to decide. At a council held at Etampes, Bernard gave judgment in favour of Innocent. Throwing himself into the question with all the ardour of a vehement partisan, he won over both Henry I., the English king, and Lothair, the German emperor, to support the same cause, and then, in 1133, accompanied Innocent II., who was supported by Lothair and his army, to Italy and to Rome. When Lothair withdrew, Innocent retired to Pisa, and Bernard for awhile to his abbey of Clairvaux. It was not until after the death of Anacletus, the antipope, in January, 1138, and the resignation of his successor, the cardinal-priest Gregory, Victor II., that Innocent II., who had returned to Rome with Bernard, was universally acknowledged Pope, a result to which no one had so greatly contributed as the Abbot of Clairvaux. The influence of the latter now became paramount in the Church, as was proved at the Lateran Council of 1139, the largest council ever collected together, where the decrees in every line displayed the work of his master-hand. After having devoted four years to the service of the Pope, Bernard, early in 1135, returned to Clairvaux. In 1137 he was again at Rome, impetuous and determined as ever, denouncing the election of a Cluniac instead of a Clairvaux monk to the see of Langres in France, and in high controversy in consequence with Peter, the gentle Abbot of Cluny, and the Archbishop of Lyons. The question was settled by the deposition by the Pope of the Cluniac and the elevation of a Clairvaux monk (Godfrey, a kinsman of St. Bernard) into his place. In 1143, Bernard raised an almost similar question as to the election of St. William to the see of York, which was settled much after the same fashion, the deposition, after a time, if only for a time, of William, and the intrusion of another Clairvaux monk, Henry Murdac, or Murduch, into the archiepiccopal see. Meantime between these two dates—in 1140—the condemnation of Peter Abilaid and his tenets, in which matter Bernard appeared personally as prosecutor, took place at a council held at Sens. Abelard, condemned at Sens, appealed to Rome, and, resting awhile on his way thither, at Cluny, where Peter still presided as Abbot, died there in 1142. St. Bernard was next called upon to exercise his unrivalled powers of persuasion in a very different cause. Controversy over, he preached a crusade. The summer of 1146 was spent by him in traversing France to rouse the people to engage in the second crusade; the autumn with a like object in Germany. In both countries the effect of his appearance and eloquence was marvellous, almost miraculous. The population seemed to rise en masse, and take up the cross. In 1147 the expedition started, a vast horde, of which probably not a tenth ever reached Palestine. It proved a complete failure, and a miserable remnant shared the flight of their leaders, the Emperor Conrad, and Louis, King of France, and returned home, defeated and disgraced. The blame was thrown upon Bernard, and his apology for his part in the matter is extant. He was not, however, for long to bear up against reproach; he died in the 63rd year of his age, in 1153, weary of the world and glad to be at rest. With the works of St. Bernard, the best ed. of which was pub. by Mabillon at Paris in the early part of the 18th cent. (1719), we are not concerned here, except as regards his contributions, few and far between as they are, to the stores of Latin hymnology. There has been so much doubt thrown upon the authorship of the hymns which usually go by his name,—notably by his editor, Mabillon himself,—that it is impossible to claim any of them as having been certainly written by him; but Archbishop Trench, than whom we have no greater modern authority on such a point, is satisfied that the attribution of them all, except the "Cur mundus militat," to St. Bernard is correct. "If he did not write," the Archbishop says, "it is not easy to guess who could have written them; and indeed they bear profoundly the stamp of his mind, being only inferior in beauty to his prose." The hymns by which St. Bernard is best known as a writer of sacred poetry are: (1.) "Jesu duicis memoria," a long poem on the " Name of Jesus"—known as the "Jubilus of St. Bernard," and among mediaeval writers as the " Rosy Hymn." It is, perhaps, the best specimen of what Neale describes as the "subjective loveliness " of its author's compositions. (2.) "Salve mundi Salutore," an address to the various limbs of Christ on the cross. It consists of 350 lines, 50 lines being addressed to each. (3.) "Laetabundus, exultet fidelis chorus: Alleluia." This sequence was in use all over Europe. (4.) "Cum sit omnis homo foenum." (5.) " Ut jucundas cervus undas." A poem of 68 lines, and well known, is claimed for St. Bernard by Hommey in his Supplementum Patrum, Paris, 1686, p. 165, but on what Archbishop Trench, who quotes it at length, (Sac. Lat. Poetry, p. 242,) deems " grounds entirely insufficient." (6.) " Eheu, Eheu, mundi vita," or " Heu, Heu, mala mundi vita." A poem of nearly 400 lines, is sometimes claimed for St. Bernard, but according to Trench, “on no authority whatever." (7.) “O miranda vanitas." This is included in Mabillon's ed. of St. Bernard's Works. It is also attributed to him by Rambach, vol. i. p. 279. Many other hymns and sequences are attributed to St. Bernard. Trench speaks of a " general ascription to him of any poems of merit belonging to that period whereof the authorship was uncertain." Hymns, translated from, or founded on, St. Bernard's, will be found in almost every hymnal of the day, details of which, together with many others not in common use, will be found under the foregoing Latin first lines. -John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church

J. A. P. Schulz

1747 - 1800 Person Name: Johann Abraham Schulz, 1747-1800 Topics: Hymns for the Young Worship; The Church The Lord's Day Composer of "DRESDEN" in The Book of Praise Johann Abraham Peter Schulz Germany 1747-1800. Born at Luneburg, Germany, son of a baker, he attended St Michaelis school in Luneburg and studied organ, then the Johanneum from 1759-1764. In 1765 he was a student of composer, Johann Kimberger, and then taught in Berlin himself. In 1768 Kimberger recommended Schulz for the position of music teacher and accompanist to the Polish Princess Sapieha Woiwodin von Smolensk. Schulz moved to Berlin and traveled with her for three years performing throughout Europe, where he came in contact with many new musical ideas. He married Catharina Maria Gercken, and they had a daughter, Celle. He served as the conductor of the French Theatre in Berlin from 1776-1780. From 1786-1787 he was the Kapellmeister of Prince Henry in Rheinsberg. He began writing operas in 1785 and became musical director of the Berlin French theatre. Schulz went on to serve as Court Kapellmeister in Copenhagen from 1787-1795 before returning to Berlin. In Copenhagen the music library burned down, and he had a breakdown in health from trying to save it. His health suffered further from the effects of a shipwreck he experienced in 1796. Schulz wrote seven operas, stage music, oratorios, and cantatas, as well as piano pieces, folk songs, and church music. He also wrote articles on music theory for Johann Georg Sulzer’s ‘Allgemeine Theorie der schonen Kunste’ in four volumes. He died at Schwedt an der Oder, Germany. John Perry

Samuel Crossman

1623 - 1684 Person Name: Samuel Crossman, 1624-1683 Topics: Hymns for the Church Year Passion and Holy Week Author of "My song is love unknown" in CPWI Hymnal Crossman, Samuel , B.D. From A. Wood's Athenae Oxonienses (1720, vol. ii. p. 730) we gather all that is known of this hymnwriter. Wood says concerning him:— "Samuel Crossman, Bachelor of Divinity of Cambridge, and Prebendary of Bristol, son of Samuel Crossman, of Bradfield Monachorum, in Suffolk. He hath written and published several things, as The Young Man's Monitor, &c, London, 1664, 8vo., and several sermons, among which are two sermons preached in the Cathedral of Bristol, 30th Jan., 1679, and 30th Jan., 1680, being the days of public humiliation for the execrable murder of King Charles I, printed at London, 1681, &c.; also a sermon preached 23rd April, 1680, in the Cathedral Church of Bristol, before the Gentlemen of the Artillery Company newly raised in that City, printed at London, 1680, &c; and, "An Humble Plea for the quiet rest of God's Ark," preached before Sir Joh. Moore, Lord Mayor of London, at St. Mildred's Church in the Poultrey, 5th February, 1681, London, 1682, 4to, &c. He died 4th February, 1683, aged 69 years, and was buried in the South Aisle of the Cathedral Church in Bristol" [of which he had been appointed Dean a few weeks before]. Crossman's contributions to hymnody were given in a small pamphlet entitled:— The Young Man's Meditation, or some few Sacred Poems upon Select Subjects, and Scriptures. By Samuel Crossman, B.D. London, Printed by J. H., &c, 1664. This pamphlet, which was reprinted by D. Sedgwick, London, 1863, contains 9 sacred poems. Of these the following are in common use:— 1. My life's a shade, my days. Resurrection. This is in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, together with a chorus to each stanza of 4 Lines. It is sometimes given as "Life is a shade, my days," as in Kennedy, 1863. 2. Sweet place, sweet place alone, Pt. i. Jerusalem on high, Pt. ii. These two parts form one poem on Heaven. The most popular portion is Pt. ii. This is given in numerous collections in Great Britain and America. Part i. is not so extensively used. From the two parts the cento "Earth's but a sorry tent," in the Dutch Reformed Hymns of the Church, N. Y. 1869, is also taken. 3. Farewell, poor world, I must be gone. Death anticipated. This is given in the Comprehensive Rippon, 1844, and in a few of the older American hymnbooks. 4. My song is love unknown. In the Anglican Hymnbook, 1863 -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

C. Hubert H. Parry

1848 - 1918 Person Name: C. Hubert H. Parry, 1848-1918 Topics: Alleluias; Biblical Names and Places Israel; Biblical Names and Places Zion; Church Year All Saints' Day; Church Year Easter; Church Year Trinity Sunday; Elements of Worship Praise and Adoration; Endurance; God as Creator; God as King; God's Sovereignty; God's Triumph; God's Word; God's Justice; God's Name; God's People (flock, sheep); Grace; Hymns of Praise; Joy; Judgment; Justice; Musical Instruments; Occasional Services; Occasional Services; Rulers; Unity and Fellowship; Worship; Year A, Ordinary Time after Pentecost, September 4-10; Year C, All Saints' Day, November 1 Composer of "LAUDATE DOMINUM" in Psalms for All Seasons Charles Hubert Hastings Parry KnBch/Brnt BMus United Kingdom 1848-1918. Born at Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, England, son of a wealthy director of the East India Company (also a painter, piano and horn musician, and art collector). His mother died of consumption shortly after his birth. His father remarried when he was three, and his stepmother favored her own children over her stepchildren, so he and two siblings were sometimes left out. He attended a preparatory school in Malvern, then at Twyford in Hampshire. He studied music from 1856-58 and became a pianist and composer. His musical interest was encouraged by the headmaster and by two organists. He gained an enduring love for Bach’s music from S S Wesley and took piano and harmony lessons from Edward Brind, who also took him to the ‘Three Choirs Festival in Hereford in 1861, where Mendelssohn, Mozart, Handel, and Beethoven works were performed. That left a great impression on Hubert. It also sparked the beginning of a lifelong association with the festival. That year, his brother was disgraced at Oxford for drug and alcohol use, and his sister, Lucy, died of consumption as well. Both events saddened Hubert. However, he began study at Eton College and distinguished himself at both sport and music. He also began having heart trouble, that would plague him the rest of his life. Eton was not known for its music program, and although some others had interest in music, there were no teachers there that could help Hubert much. He turned to George Elvey, organist of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and started studying with him in 1863. Hubert eventually wrote some anthems for the choir of St George’s Chapel, and eventually earned his music degree. While still at Eton, Hubert sat for the Oxford Bachelor of Music exam, the youngest person ever to have done so. His exam exercise, a cantata: “O Lord, Thou hast cast us out” astonished the Heather Professor of Music, Sir Frederick Ouseley, and was triumphantly performed and published in 1867. In 1867 he left Eton and went to Exeter College, Oxford. He did not study music there, his music concerns taking second place, but read law and modern history. However, he did go to Stuttgart, Germany, at the urging of Henry Hugh Pierson, to learn re-orchestration, leaving him much more critical of Mendelssohn’s works. When he left Exeter College, at his father’s behest, he felt obliged to try insurance work, as his father considered music only a pastime (too uncertain as a profession). He became an underwriter at Lloyd’s of London, 1870-77, but he found the work unappealing to his interests and inclinations. In 1872 he married Elizabeth Maude Herbert, and they had two daughters: Dorothea and Gwendolen. His in-laws agreed with his father that a conventional career was best, but it did not suit him. He began studying advanced piano with W S Bennett, but found it insufficient. He then took lessons with Edward Dannreuther, a wise and sympathetic teacher, who taught him of Wagner’s music. At the same time as Hubert’s compositions were coming to public notice (1875), he became a scholar of George Grove and soon an assistant editor for his new “Dictionary of Music and Musicians”. He contributed 123 articles to it. His own first work appeared in 1880. In 1883 he became professor of composition and musical history at the Royal College of Music (of which Grove was the head). In 1895 Parry succeeded Grove as head of the college, remaining in the post the remainder of his life. He also succeeded John Stainer as Heather Professor of Music at the University of Oxford (1900-1908). His academic duties were considerable and likely prevented him from composing as much as he might have. However, he was rated a very fine composer, nontheless, of orchestrations, overtures, symphonies, and other music. He only attempted one opera, deemed unsuccessful. Edward Elgar learned much of his craft from Parry’s articles in Grove’s Dictionary, and from those who studied under Parry at the Royal College, including Ralph Vaughn Williams, Gustav Holst, Frank Bridge, and John Ireland. Parry had the ability when teaching music to ascertain a student’s potential for creativity and direct it positively. In 1902 he was created a Baronet of Highnam Court in Gloucester. Parry was also an avid sailor and owned several yachts, becoming a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1908, the only composer so honored. He was a Darwinian and a humanist. His daughter reiterated his liberal, non-conventional thinking. On medical advice he resigned his Oxford appointment in 1908 and produced some of his best known works. He and his wife were taken up with the ‘Suffrage Movement’ in 1916. He hated to see the WW1 ravage young potential musical talent from England and Germany. In 1918 he contracted Spanish flu during the global pandemic and died at Knightsscroft, Rustington, West Sussex. In 2015 they found 70 unpublished works of Parry’s hidden away in a family archive. It is thought some may never have been performed in public. The documents were sold at auction for a large sum. Other works he wrote include: “Studies of great composers” (1886), “The art of music” (1893), “The evolution of the art of music” (1896), “The music of the 17th century” (1902). His best known work is probably his 1909 study of “Johann Sebastian Bach”. John Perry

Bob Hurd

b. 1950 Person Name: Bob Hurd, b. 1950 Topics: Biblical Names and Places David; Biblical Names and Places Israel; Biblical Names and Places Jerusalem; Church Year Advent; Church Year Lent; Church Year Pentecost; Daily Prayer Midday Prayer; Elements of Worship Gathering; Faith; Freedom; God Trust in; God as Refuge; God's Safety; God's Will; God's Forgiveness; God's Friendship; God's Glory; God's House; God's Judgments; God's Justice; God's law; God's Love; God's Presence; Grace; Gratitude; Healing; Hymns of Praise; Jesus Christ Friend of Sinners; Jesus Christ Incarnation; Love; Occasional Services Dedication / Consecration / Anniversary; Occasional Services Dedication / Consecration / Anniversary; Peace; People of God / Church Family of God; Prayer; Processions; Rejoicing; Rest; Songs of Zion; Temple; Temptation And Trial; The Incarnation; Unity and Fellowship; Unity of the Church; Worship; Year A, Advent, 1st Sunday Author of "Let Us Go Rejoicing" in Psalms for All Seasons

Stopford A. Brooke

1832 - 1916 Topics: Alleluias; Angels; Biblical Names and Places Israel; Church Year Christmas; Earth; Elements of Worship Gathering; Elements of Worship Praise and Adoration; God Light from; God as King; God's Sovereignty; God's Will; God's Word; God's Greatness; God's Name; God's People (flock, sheep); Hymns of Praise; Life Stages Family; Life Stages Old Age; Life Stages Youth; Mercy; New Creation; Occasional Services Christian Marriage; Occasional Services Thanksgving Day / Harvest Festival; People of God / Church Citizens of Heaven; Rulers; The Creation; Year A, B, C, Christmas, 1st Sunday; Year C, Easter, 5th Sunday Author of "Let the Whole Creation Cry" in Psalms for All Seasons Brooke, Stopford Augustus, M.A., was born at Letterkenny, Donegal, Nov. 14, 1832, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating B.A. 1856; M.A. 1858. He carried off the Downes prize and the Vice-Chancellor's prize for English verse. On taking Holy Orders he was successively Curate of St. Matthew's, Marylebone, 1857-59; of Kensington, 1860-63; Chaplain to the British Embassy at Berlin, 1863-65; Minister of St. James's Chapel, York Street, London, 1866-75; and of Bedford Chapel, 1876. He was also appointed Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen, in 1872. In 1865 he published the Life and Letters of the late F. W. Robertson; in 1874, Theology in the English Poets; in 1876, Primer of English Literature, &c. On seceding from the Church of England in 1881, he published for the use of his congregation, Christian Hymns, a collection of 269 pieces. Of these he is the author of:— 1. Immortal Love, within Whose righteous will. Resignation and Prayer for Guidance. No. 183, in 4 stanzas of 6 lines. It has a strong likeness to Card. Newman's "Lead, kindly light," is in the same metre, and might be called a companion hymn thereto. It was repeated in Horder's Congregational Hymns, 1884. 2. It fell upon a summer day. Christ blessing little children. No. 250, in 10 stanzas of 4 lines. 3. It is finished, all the pain. Good Friday. No. 80, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines. 4. Let the whole creation cry. Invitation to Praise God. An imitation of Ps. 148. It is No. 47, in 10 stanzas of 4 lines, and is of special merit. In st. iv., 11. 3, 4 are from another source. 5. Mysterious Spirit, unto Whom. Rest and Joy in God. Based on a translation by J. G. Whittier from Lamartine. It is No. 159, in 3 stanzas of 8 lines. It was repeated in Horder's Congregational Hymns, 1884. 6. Now that day its wings has furled. Evening. No. 13, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines. 7. 0 God, Whose love is near. Divine protection desired. No. 103, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines. This is Toplady's "Your harps, ye trembling Saints" re-written, only st. i. and iv. being absolutely by Mr. Brooke. 8. 0 that Thou would'st the heavens rend And comfort, &c. Peace desired. No. 149, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. The first line is from C. Wesley; also stanzas ii., 1. 4, but the rest of the hymn is original. 9. 0 Who is this that on a tree. Good Friday. No. 79, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines. 10. Oft as we run the weary way. Heavenly Witnesses of the struggles of Men. No. 188, in 6 stanzas of 6 lines. 11. Still the night, holy the night. Christmas Carol. No. 55, in 3 stanzas of 8 lines. It is a translation from the German, and is noticed under Mohr, Joseph. 12. Through the starry midnight dim. Christmas. No. 53, in 6 stanzas of 3 lines, and the refrain "Hallelujah." 13. When the Lord of Love was here. Life of Christ. No. 66, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines. It has passed into The Norwood Hymnal; and with the omission of st. vi. and the transposition of st. iv. and v. into Horder's Congregational Hymns, 1884. This is his finest hymn. In addition, Mr. Brooke has made extensive alterations in the text of the hymns which he has adopted from other writers, and has also inserted in many instances additional stanzas into well-known lyrics, and thereby brought them, to some extent, into harmony with his theological views. His own compositions are marked by great freshness of thought and tenderness of expression. [Rev. W. Garrett Horder] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

John Page Hopps

1834 - 1911 Topics: Church, The Young, Hymns for the Author of "Father, Lead Me Day by Day" in The Hymnbook Hopps, John Page, was born in London, Nov. 6, 1834, and educated at the G. Baptist College, Leicester. Commencing public work in 1856, after a brief ministry at Hugglescote and Ibstock, in Leicestershire, he became colleague with George Dawson at the Church of the Saviour, Birmingham. From 1860 to 1876 he ministered to Unitarian congregations at Sheffield, Dukinfield, and Glasgow. Since 1876 he has preached in Leicester. Mr. Hopps has published many books and pamphlets, chiefly volumes of Sermons and Lectures. Most of his smaller works are controversial. In 1863 he commenced a monthly periodical called The Truthseeker. He has compiled the following hymnbooks for Congregational, Mission, or School purposes:— (1) Hymns for Public Worship and the Home, 1858; (2) Hymns of Faith and Progress, c. 1865; (3) Hymns for Public Worship, 1873; (4) One hundred Hymns for Sunday Schools, 1873; (5) Hymns, Chants and Anthems for Public Worship, 1877; (6) The Children's Hymn Book, 1879; (7) The Young People's Book of Hymns, 1881; (8) and six different editions of Hymns for Special Services (for Sunday afternoon and evening gatherings in the Temperance Hall and Floral Hall, Leicester). Mr. Hopps has himself written various hymns, some of considerable merit. Several have appeared in Congregational, Baptist, Unitarian and other collections. Among the best known are the following:— 1. Cold and cheerless, dark and drear. Winter. 2. Father, lead me day by day. Child's Prayer for Divine Guidance. 3. Father, let Thy kingdom come. God's Kingdom desired. 4. God bless the little children. Prayer for Children. 5. We praise Thee oft for hours of bliss. The blessings of Sorrow. These hymns are from his Hymns, Chants, and Anthems, &c. 1877, and the Hymns for Special Services. The most popular is No. 2. [Rev. W. R .Stevenson, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Swee-Hong Lim

b. 1963 Person Name: Swee Hong Lim Topics: The Church at Worship Departing; Assurance; Global Hymns; Worship-Departing Composer of "SOON TI" in Celebrating Grace Hymnal Dr. Swee Hong Lim is the Deer Park Assistant Professor of Sacred Music at Emmanuel College, and the Director of the Master of Sacred Music Program. He also serves as Director of the Chapel for the worship life of Emmanuel College. Before joining Emmanuel on July 1, 2012, Dr. Lim served as an Assistant Professor of Church Music at Baylor University. Prior to his work at Baylor, he served as a Lecturer of Worship, Liturgy, and Music at Trinity Theological College in Singapore. Swee Hong is widely utilized as a leader for global seminars and conferences dealing with sacred music. He currently serves as the Co-Moderator of the Worship Committee for the 10th General Assembly of the World Council of Churches for its meeting in Busan, South Korea (2013), and also served as a member of the Worship Planning Committee for the 2011 Ecumenical Peace Convocation sponsored by the World Council held in Jamaica. From 2008-2010, he chaired the Board of Worship and Music for the Trinity Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Singapore. Swee Hong holds a PhD in Liturgical Studies from Drew University, where his dissertation won the Helen LePage and William Hale Chamberlain Prize for Outstanding Dissertation. He also holds a Master of Arts in Sacred Music from Perkins School of Theology. He completed his undergraduate work in Church Music at the Asian Institute for Liturgy and Music in the Philippines. Swee Hong is well-published in global music, with his monograph, Giving Voice to Asian Christians, especially known among global musicians. He is also a prolific composer of hymnody. By Swee Hong Lim, From: http://www.emmanuel.utoronto.ca/about/faculty/lim.htm, 24 June 2014.

Jakob Hintze

1622 - 1702 Topics: Alleluias; Angels; Biblical Names and Places Israel; Church Year Christmas; Earth; Elements of Worship Gathering; Elements of Worship Praise and Adoration; God Light from; God as King; God's Sovereignty; God's Will; God's Word; God's Greatness; God's Name; God's People (flock, sheep); Hymns of Praise; Life Stages Family; Life Stages Old Age; Life Stages Youth; Mercy; New Creation; Occasional Services Christian Marriage; Occasional Services Thanksgving Day / Harvest Festival; People of God / Church Citizens of Heaven; Rulers; The Creation; Year A, B, C, Christmas, 1st Sunday; Year C, Easter, 5th Sunday Composer of "SALZBURG" in Psalms for All Seasons Partly as a result of the Thirty Years' War and partly to further his musical education, Jakob Hintze (b. Bernau, Germany, 1622; d. Berlin, Germany, 1702) traveled widely as a youth, including trips to Sweden and Lithuania. In 1659 he settled in Berlin, where he served as court musician to the Elector of Brandenburg from 1666 to 1695. Hintze is known mainly for his editing of the later editions of Johann Crüger's Praxis Pietatis Melica, to which he contributed some sixty-five of his original tunes. Bert Polman

Gerhardt Tersteegen

1697 - 1769 Topics: The Church at Worship Opening and Morning Hymns Author of "God, Reveal Your Presence" in Voices United Tersteegen, Gerhard, a pious and useful mystic of the eighteenth century, was born at Mörs, Germany, November 25, 1697. He was carefully educated in his childhood, and then apprenticed (1715) to his older brother, a shopkeeper. He was religiously inclined from his youth, and upon coming of age he secured a humble cottage near Mühlheim, where he led a life of seclusion and self-denial for many years. At about thirty years of age he began to exhort and preach in private and public gatherings. His influence became very great, such was his reputation for piety and his success in talking, preaching, and writing concerning spiritual religion. He wrote one hundred and eleven hymns, most of which appeared in his Spiritual Flower Garden (1731). He died April 3, 1769. Hymn Writers of the Church by Charles S. Nutter and Wilbur F. Tillett, 1911 ==================================================== Gerhardt Tersteegen or ter Stegen, was born at Moers, Netherlands [sic. Germany] , November 25, 1697. He was destined for the Reformed ministry, but after his father's death when the boy was only six, his mother was unable to send him to the university. He studied at the Gymnasium in Moers, and then earned a meager living as a silk weaver, sharing his frugal daily fare with the poor. Malnutrition and privation undermined his health to such an extent that he suffered a serious depression for some five years, following which he wrote a new covenant with God, signing it in his own blood. A strong mystic, he did not attend the services of the Reformed Church after 1719. Although forming no sect of his own, he became well known as a religious teacher and leader. His house was known as "The Pilgrim's Cottage" -- a retreat for men seeking a way of life, while he himself was known as "the physician of the poor and forsaken." Barred from preaching in his own country until 1750, he visited Holland annually from 1732 to 1755, holding meetings. In addition to his other labors he carried on a tremendous correspondence. Overwork resulted in physical breakdown, so that during the latter years of his life he could speak only to small gatherings. He died at Muhlheim on April 3, 1769. One of the three most important of Reformed hymn writers, he is also regarded as the chief representative of the mystics. He wrote 111 hymns. His important Geisliches Blumengartlein was published in 1729. H.E. Govan published The Life of Gerhard Tersteegen, with selctions from his writings, in 1902. --The Hymnal 1940 Companion =========================== Tersteegen, Gerhard, son of Heinrich Tersteegen (otherwise ter Stegen or zur Stiege), merchant at Mörs (Meurs), in Rhenish Prussia, was born at Mors, Nov. 25, 1697. His parents intended that he should become a minister of the Reformed Church in Germany. His father however died in 1703, and his mother found that after giving him a thorough classical training in the Latin school at Mörs she was unable to afford the cost of his University course. He was accordingly apprenticed, in 1713, to his brother-in-law, a merchant at Mühlheim on the Ruhr, and in 1717 started in business on his own account, at Mühlheim. As he found his time much broken up, and his opportunities of meditation few, he gave up his business in 1719; and, after a short trial of linen weaving, took up the easier and much more lucrative occupation of weaving silk ribbons. During the years 1719-24 he passed through a period of spiritual depression, at the end of which his faith in the reconciling grace of Christ became assured (see No. xxxiv. below), and on Maundy Thursday, 1724, he wrote out a solemn covenant with God which he signed with his own blood. Previous to this, even before 1719, he had ceased to attend the ordinary services of the Reformed Church; and also absented himself from Holy Communion on the ground that he could not in conscience communicate along with open sinners. About the beginning of 1725 he began to speak at the prayer meetings which had been held at Mühlheim, since 1710, by Wilhelm Hoffmann, who was a candidate of theology (licensed preacher) of the Reformed Church. Tersteegen soon became known as a religious teacher among the "Stillen im Lande," as the attenders on these meetings were called, and in 1728 gave up his handicraft in order to devote himself entirely to the translation of works by medieval and recent Mystics and Quietists, including Madame Guyon and others, and the composition of devotional books, to correspondence on religious subjects, and to the work of a spiritual director of the "awakened souls." From this date to his death he was supported by a small regular income which was subscribed by his admirers and friends. About 1727 a house at Otterbeck, between Mühlheim and Elberfeld, was set apart as a "Pilgerhütte," where the "awakened souls" could go into a spiritual retreat, under the direction of Tersteegen. This house, with accommodation for eight persons, was retained until about 1800. Tersteegen, however, did not confine himself to Mühlheim, but travelled over the district, addressing gatherings of like-minded Christians, giving special attention to Elberfeld, Barmen, Solingen, and Crefeld. From 1732 to 1755 he also went regularly every year to Holland, to visit his spiritual kinsfolk at Amsterdam and elsewhere. From 1730 to 1750 a law against conventicles was strictly enforced, and Tersteegen could not hold meetings except on his visits to Holland. During this period he removed to a house which had been Wilhelm Hoffmann's, where he preached, and provided food and simple medicines for the poor. After 1750 he resumed his public speaking until 1756, when he overstrained himself, and had to confine himself to the smallest gatherings absolutely. In 1769, dropsy set in, and after patient endurance for a season he died on April 3, 1769, at Mühlheim (Koch, vi. 46). Up to the end of his life Tersteegen remained outside the Reformed Church, but never set up a sect of his own. After his death his followers as a rule reunited themselves with it, especially when a less formal type of religion began to prevail therein. Tersteegen's most important hymnological work was his Geistliches Blümen-Gärtlein, of which many editions were published. Tersteegen ranks as one of the three most important hymnwriters associated with the Reformed Church in Germany, the other two being F. A. Lampe and Joachim Neander. He is however more closely allied, both as a Mystic and as a Poet, with Johann Scheffler than with either of his co-religionists. He almost equals Scheffler in power of expression and beauty of form, and if Scheffler has more pictorial grace, and a more vivid imagination, Tersteegen has more definiteness of teaching, a firmer grasp of the Christian verities, and a greater clearness in exposition. Inner union of the soul with God and Christ, the childlike simplicity and trust which this brings, renunciation of the world and of self, and daily endeavour to live as in the presence of God and in preparation for the vision of God, are the keynotes of his hymns. To his intense power of realising the unseen, his clear and simple diction, and the evident sincerity with which he sets forth his own Christian experience, his hymns owe much of their attractiveness and influence. During his lifetime they did not come much into use except through the Harfenspiel, as above, and they did not meet the taste of compilers during the Rationalistic period. But since Bunsen in his Yersuch, 1833, and Knapp in his Evangelischer Lieder-Schatz, 1837, brought his hymns once more into notice they have been received in greater or less measure into almost all the German hymnbooks, among the Lutherans as well as among the Reformed, the most popular of all being his “Gott ist gegenwärtig". A number of Tersteegen's hymns are noted under their own first lines. They appeared, almost all for the first time, in the successive editions of his Geistliches Blümen-Gärtlein, viz., in the 1st ed., 1729; 2nd ed., 1735; 3rd ed., 1738; 4th ed., 1745; 5th ed., 1751; 6th ed., 1757; 7th ed., 1768; and in each case (after 1729) in the Third Book of that work. Those which have passed into English are as follows:— i. Freue dich, du Kinder-Orden. Christmas. Translated as:— Little children, God above, 1858, p. 78. Another tr. is: "Children rejoice, for God is come to earth." By Miss Dunn, 1857, p. 30. ii. Jedes Herz will etwas lieben. Love to Christ. In the 4th ed., 1745, as above, Bk. iii., No. 70, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines, entitled "The Soul wishes to take Jesus as her best Beloved." Translated as:— 1. The heart of man must something love. A cento beginning with st. ii. “Though all the world my choice deride," is in Spurgeon's Our Own Hymn Book, 1866, and also in the Plymouth Collection, 1855, and other American hymnals. 2. Something every heart is loving. A full and good translation by Mrs. Bevan, in her Songs of Eternal Life, 1858, p. 58. iii. Jesu, der du bist alleine. Communion of Saints. In the 2nd ed., 1735, in 11 stanzas of 6 lines, entitled "Prayer on behalf of the brethren." Translated as:— Jesus, whom Thy Church doth own. By Miss Winkworth, omitting st. iii., in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858, p. 99. iv. Jesu, mein Erbarmer! höre. Lent or Penitence. In the 2nd ed., 1735, in 12 stanzas of 6 lines, entitled "In outward and inward sufferings and Temptations." Translated as:— Jesus, pitying Saviour, hear me. In full, by Miss Winkworth, in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858, p. 133. In her Christian Singer, 1869, p. 298, she gave st. ii., v., vi., beginning "Lost in darkness, girt with dangers." v. Nun so will ich denn mein Leben. Self-Surrender. Translated (omitting st. ii., iii., vi., x.) as:— 1. Lo! my choice is now decided. By Miss Cox, in her Sacred Hymns from the German, 1841, p. 125. Her translations of st. viii., ix., vii., altered and beginning, "One thing first and only knowing," are repeated in Hedge & Huntington's Hymns for the Church of Christ, Boston, U.S., 1853. 2. Now at last I end the strife. By Miss Winkworth, in herLyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858. vi. 0 liebe Seele! könntst du werden. The Childlike Spirit. Translated as:— Soul! couldst thou, while on earth remaining. In Miss Cox'sHymns from German, 1864, p. 197, it begins "Soul, while on earth thou still remainest." Other trs. are: (1) "Wouldst thou, my soul, the secret find." By Lady E. Fortescue, 1843, p. 47. (2) “Dear soul, couldst thou become a child." By Miss Winkworth, 1855, p. 22. vii. Siegesfürste, Ehrenkönig. Ascension. Translated as:— Conquering Prince and Lord of Glory, By Miss Winkworth, omitting st. ii., in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858, p. 48. viii. Wie gut ists, wenn man abgespehnt. Lent or Self-Renunciation. In the first edition, entitled "Of the sweetness of the hidden life of Christians." Translated as:— How sweet it is, when, wean'd from all. This is a good and full translation by S. Jackson, in his Life of Tersteegen, 1832 (1837, p. 417). Other hymns by Tersteegen which have been rendered into English are:— ix. Ach Gott, es taugt doch draussen nicht. On the Vanity of Earthly Things. Tr. as, "Ah God! the world has nought to please." By Miss Winkworth, 1869, p. 304. x. Ach, könnt ich stille sein. Peace in God. Translated as (1) "Oh! could I but be still." By Mrs. Bevan, 1859, p. 134. (2) "Ah, could I but be still." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 77. xi. Allgenugsam Wesen. God's All-sufficiency . The trs. are (1) "Thou All-sufficient One! Who art." By Miss Warner, 1858, p. 601, repeated in Hymns of the Ages, Boston, U.S., 1865, p. 163. (2) "Thou, whose love unshaken." xii. Bald endet sich mein Pilgerweg. Eternal Life. Translated as “Weary heart, be not desponding." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 84. xiii. Berufne Seelen! schlafet nicht. Lent. The translations are (1) "Ye sleeping souls, awake From dreams of carnal ease." By S. Jackson, in his Life of Tersteegen, 1832 (1837, p, 413). (2) "Sleep not, 0 Soul by God awakened." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 98. xiv. Das äussre Sonnenlicht ist da. Morning. Tr. as (1) "The World's bright Sun is risen on high." By H. J. Buckoll, 1842, p. 51. (2) "The outer sunlight now is there." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 75. xv. Das Kreuz ist dennoch gut. Cross and Consolation. Translated as "The Cross is ever good." By Mrs. Findlater in Hymns from the Land of Luther, 1862, p. 72 (1884, p. 234). xvi. Die Blümlein klein und gross in meines Herren Garten. On the Graces of the New Testament. The trs. are (l) "Flowers that in Jesu's garden have a place." By Miss Dunn in her translation of Tholuck's Stunden, 1853, p. 114. (2) "Full many flowers, in my Lord's garden blooming." By Dr. R. Menzies in his translation of Tholuck's Stunden, 1870, p. 182. xvii. Die Liebe will was gauzes haben.Entire Consecration. Tr. as "Love doth the whole—not part—desire." By Miss Warner, 1869, p. 12. xviii. Für dich sei ganz mein Herz und Leben. Consecration to Christ. The trs. are (1) "Constrain'd by love so warm and tender." By R. Massie in the British Herald, April, 1865, p. 55. (2) "My soul adores the might of loving." By Mrs. Edmund Ashley in the British Herald, Sept., 1867, p. 136, repeated in Reid's Praise Book, 1872, No. 582. xix. Grosser Gott, in dem ich schwebe. God's Presence. Translated as "God, in Whom I have my being." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 81. xx. Jauchzet ihr Himmel! frohlocket ihr englische Chören. Christmas. Tr. as "Triumph, ye heavens! rejoice ye with high adoration." xxi. Jesu, den ich meine. Life in Christ. Tr. as ”Jesus, whom I long for." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 92. xxii. Jesus-Nam, du höchster Name. The Name of Jesus. Translated as "Jesu's name, thou highest name." By S. Jackson in his Life of Tersteegen, 1832 (1837, p. 415). xxiii. Liebwerther, süsser Gottes-Wille. Resignation to the Will of God. The translations are (1) "Thou sweet beloved Will of God." By Mrs. Bevan, 1858, p. 14. (2) “Will of God, all sweet and perfect." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 96. xxiv. Mein ganzer Sin. Lent. Turning to God. Tr. as "My whole desire Doth deeply turn away." By Miss Warner, 1869, p. 30. xxv. Mein Gott, mein Gott, mein wahres Leben. Self-Dedication. Tr. as "My God, my God, my life divine!" By S. Jackson in his Life of Tersteegen, 1832 (1837, p. 414). xxvi. Mein Herz, ein Eisen grob und alt. Cross and Consolation. Tr. as "A rough and shapeless block of iron is my heart." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 79. xxvii. Mein'n ersten Augenblick. Morning. Tr. as "Each moment I turn me." xxviii. Nun lobet alle Gottes Sohn. Praise to Christ. Tr. as "Give glory to the Son of God." By Mrs. Bevan, 1858, p. 75. xxix. 0 Jesu, König, hoch zu ehren. Self-surrender. Tr. as “0 Jesus, Lord of majesty." By Miss Winkworth, 1858, p. 136. xxx. So gehts von Schritt zu Schritt. For the Dying. Tr. as "Thus, step by step, my journey to the Infinite." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 105. xxxi. So ist denn doch nun abermal ein Jahr. New Year. Tr. as "Thus, then another year of pilgrim-life." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 73. xxxii. Sollt ich nicht gelassen sein. Cross and Consolation. Tr. as “Should I not be meek and still." By Mrs. Bevan, 1858, p. 45. xxxiii. Von allen Singen ab. Turning to God. Tr. as "From all created things." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 100. xxxiv. Wie bist du mir so innig gut. The Grace of Christ. Written in 1724 at the close of his time of spiritual despondency. “This state of spiritual darkness continued five years; until at length whilst on a journey to a neighbouring town, the day-spring from on high again visited him; and the atoning mercy of Jesus Christ was made so deeply and convincingly apparent to him, that his heart was set entirely at rest. On this occasion he composed that beautiful hymn, &c." Translated as “How gracious, kind, and good, My great High Priest art Thou" (st. i.-v.), No. 74 in Dr. Leifchild's Original Hymns, 1842. xxxv. Wiederun ein Augenblick. The Flight of Time. Tr. as: (1) “Of my Time one Minute more." (2) "One more flying moment." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 26. xxxvi. Willkomm'n, verklarter Gottes Sohn. Easter. This is translated as "O Glorious Head, Thou livest now." By Miss Winkworth, 1855, p. 89. Repeated in Schaff’s Christ in Song, 1870. The first Book of the Blumen-Gärtlein contains short poems, more of the nature of aphorisms than of hymns. In the ed. of I76S there are in all 568 pieces in Book i., and of these Miss Winkworth has translated Nos. 429, 474, 565, 573, 575, 577 in her Christian Singers, 1869. Others are tr. by Lady Durand, in her Imitations from the German of Spitta and Terstsegen, 1873, as above, and by S. Jackson, in his Life of Tersteegen, 1832. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] -- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================== See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church

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