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Arthur Sullivan
1842 - 1900 Composer of "ST. PATRICK" in The Hymnal Arthur Seymour Sullivan (b Lambeth, London. England. 1842; d. Westminster, London, 1900) was born of an Italian mother and an Irish father who was an army bandmaster and a professor of music. Sullivan entered the Chapel Royal as a chorister in 1854. He was elected as the first Mendelssohn scholar in 1856, when he began his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He also studied at the Leipzig Conservatory (1858-1861) and in 1866 was appointed professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music. Early in his career Sullivan composed oratorios and music for some Shakespeare plays. However, he is best known for writing the music for lyrics by William S. Gilbert, which produced popular operettas such as H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), The Mikado (1884), and Yeomen of the Guard (1888). These operettas satirized the court and everyday life in Victorian times. Although he composed some anthems, in the area of church music Sullivan is best remembered for his hymn tunes, written between 1867 and 1874 and published in The Hymnary (1872) and Church Hymns (1874), both of which he edited. He contributed hymns to A Hymnal Chiefly from The Book of Praise (1867) and to the Presbyterian collection Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867). A complete collection of his hymns and arrangements was published posthumously as Hymn Tunes by Arthur Sullivan (1902). Sullivan steadfastly refused to grant permission to those who wished to make hymn tunes from the popular melodies in his operettas.
Bert Polman
Arthur Sullivan
Charles Wesley
1707 - 1788 Person Name: Rev. Charles Wesley (1708-1788) Author of "Master, Lord, to Thee we cry" in Carmina Sanctorum Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepened, and he became one of the first band of "Oxford Methodists."
In 1735 he went with his brother John to Georgia, as secretary to General Oglethorpe, having before he set out received Deacon's and Priest's Orders on two successive Sundays. His stay in Georgia was very short; he returned to England in 1736, and in 1737 came under the influence of Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians, especially of that remarkable man who had so large a share in moulding John Wesley's career, Peter Bonier, and also of a Mr. Bray, a brazier in Little Britain. On Whitsunday, 1737, [sic. 1738] he "found rest to his soul," and in 1738 he became curate to his friend, Mr. Stonehouse, Vicar of Islington, but the opposition of the churchwardens was so great that the Vicar consented that he "should preach in his church no more." Henceforth his work was identified with that of his brother John, and he became an indefatigable itinerant and field preacher. On April 8, 1749, he married Miss Sarah Gwynne. His marriage, unlike that of his brother John, was a most happy one; his wife was accustomed to accompany him on his evangelistic journeys, which were as frequent as ever until the year 1756," when he ceased to itinerate, and mainly devoted himself to the care of the Societies in London and Bristol. Bristol was his headquarters until 1771, when he removed with his family to London, and, besides attending to the Societies, devoted himself much, as he had done in his youth, to the spiritual care of prisoners in Newgate. He had long been troubled about the relations of Methodism to the Church of England, and strongly disapproved of his brother John's "ordinations." Wesley-like, he expressed his disapproval in the most outspoken fashion, but, as in the case of Samuel at an earlier period, the differences between the brothers never led to a breach of friendship. He died in London, March 29, 1788, and was buried in Marylebone churchyard. His brother John was deeply grieved because he would not consent to be interred in the burial-ground of the City Road Chapel, where he had prepared a grave for himself, but Charles said, "I have lived, and I die, in the Communion of the Church of England, and I will be buried in the yard of my parish church." Eight clergymen of the Church of England bore his pall. He had a large family, four of whom survived him; three sons, who all became distinguished in the musical world, and one daughter, who inherited some of her father's poetical genius. The widow and orphans were treated with the greatest kindness and generosity by John Wesley.
As a hymn-writer Charles Wesley was unique. He is said to have written no less than 6500 hymns, and though, of course, in so vast a number some are of unequal merit, it is perfectly marvellous how many there are which rise to the highest degree of excellence. His feelings on every occasion of importance, whether private or public, found their best expression in a hymn. His own conversion, his own marriage, the earthquake panic, the rumours of an invasion from France, the defeat of Prince Charles Edward at Culloden, the Gordon riots, every Festival of the Christian Church, every doctrine of the Christian Faith, striking scenes in Scripture history, striking scenes which came within his own view, the deaths of friends as they passed away, one by one, before him, all furnished occasions for the exercise of his divine gift. Nor must we forget his hymns for little children, a branch of sacred poetry in which the mantle of Dr. Watts seems to have fallen upon him. It would be simply impossible within our space to enumerate even those of the hymns which have become really classical. The saying that a really good hymn is as rare an appearance as that of a comet is falsified by the work of Charles Wesley; for hymns, which are really good in every respect, flowed from his pen in quick succession, and death alone stopped the course of the perennial stream.
It has been the common practice, however for a hundred years or more to ascribe all translations from the German to John Wesley, as he only of the two brothers knew that language; and to assign to Charles Wesley all the original hymns except such as are traceable to John Wesley through his Journals and other works.
The list of 482 original hymns by John and Charles Wesley listed in this Dictionary of Hymnology have formed an important part of Methodist hymnody and show the enormous influence of the Wesleys on the English hymnody of the nineteenth century.
-- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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Charles Wesley, the son of Samuel Wesley, was born at Epworth, Dec. 18, 1707. He was educated at Westminster School and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. In 1735, he took Orders and immediately proceeded with his brother John to Georgia, both being employed as missionaries of the S.P.G. He returned to England in 1736. For many years he engaged with his brother in preaching the Gospel. He died March 29, 1788. To Charles Wesley has been justly assigned the appellation of the "Bard of Methodism." His prominence in hymn writing may be judged from the fact that in the "Wesleyan Hymn Book," 623 of the 770 hymns were written by him; and he published more than thirty poetical works, written either by himself alone, or in conjunction with his brother. The number of his separate hymns is at least five thousand.
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872.
Charles Wesley
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
1815 - 1881 Person Name: Arthur P. Stanley Author of "He is gone: a cloud of light" in The Hymnal Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, Dean of Westminster, one of the most distinguished English Churchmen of the nineteenth century, was the son of Rev. Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, and was born at Alderly, in Cheshire, December 13, 1815. At the age of fourteen he became a pupil of Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, in whose famous school he displayed a strength of moral character which was a prophecy of the frank and courageous man that was to be. He took well-nigh all the honors at Oxford, where he graduated in 1837. Entering the ministry of the Church of England, he filled successively various positions of honor and responsibility until in 1855 he was appointed Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford. In 1864 he became Dean of Westminster. His marriage that same year to Lady Augusta Bruce, a personal friend and attendant of Queen Victoria, increased the freedom and intimacy of his already cordial relations with the royal family. He died July 18, 1881. He was a Churchman of broad and liberal views. His catholicity of spirit was one of his most notable characteristics. His contributions to theological literature are numerous and well known. His Life of Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, 1844, is one of the most successful volumes of biography in the English language. Among his historical writings his lectures on the Eastern Church, 1861, Jewish Church (two volumes), 1863-65, and the Church of Scotland, 1868, are accounted as of highest value. He is the author of about a dozen hymns, and of several translations. These, although of a high order of excellence, do not take rank with his prose writings, which for choice English diction, scholarly erudition, and Christian catholicity are not surpassed, perhaps, by anything in the religious literature of England in the nineteenth century.
Day of wrath, O dreadful day 599
He is gone; a cloud of light 170
O Master, it is good to be 131
From Hymn Writers of the Church by Charles S. Nutter, 1915
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Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, D.D., was born at Alderley, in Cheshire, Dec. 13, 1815. His father, Edward Stanley, was the son of Sir Edward Stanley of Alderley, and younger brother of the first Lord Stanley of Alderley, and was rector of the parish until 1837, when he became Bishop of Norwich. His mother, Catherine Stanley, was daughter of tho Rev. Oswald Leycester, Rector of Stoke-upon-Tern, Shropshire. Arthur Stanley received his early education under the superintendence of his father; but in 1829 he was sent to Rugby to be under the direct charge of Dr. Arnold, who bad been appointed to the head-mastership the year before, and of whom Mr. Stanley had been an early friend and admirer. Arthur Stanley bore the stamp of Rugby and of its great headmaster to the end of his life. In 1834 he went up to Oxford, having won a Balliol scholarship, the "blue ribbon of undergraduate life," and commenced a career of unusual brilliancy at the University. He gained the Newdigate prize for English Verse (the subject being The Gypsies); the Ireland scholarship (the highest test of Greek scholarship), and a First Class in Classical Honours, all in 1837. He won the Prize for the Latin Essay in 1839, the Prize for the English Essay, and the Ellerton Prize for the Theological Essay in 1840, and was in the same year elected to a Fellowship at University College.
He was then appointed College Tutor, and held that office for twelve years. In 1845-6 he was Select Preacher for the University. From 1850 to 1852 he was Secretary to the Oxford University Commissioners. In 1851 he was appointed Canon of Canterbury, and held that post until 1855, when he was elected Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford, to which a Canonry at Christ Church was attached. He was also chosen in 1858 Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of London, his fellow Rugbeian, Dr. Tait. These offices he held until 1863, when, on the elevation of Dean Trench to the Archbishopric of Dublin, he was appointed to the Deanery of Westminster. In the same year he married Lady Augusta Bruce, a sister of the Earl of Elgin, and a personal friend and attendant of Queen Victoria. This marriage brought him into still closer relation with the Court, at which he had before been so highly valued, that he had been twice chosen to accompany the Prinoe of Wales in his travels in the East. He was singularly happy in his married life, and felt the death of Lady Augusta, which occurred in 1876, as an irreparable loss. In 1872, he took part in the Old Catholic Congress at Cologne; and at the close of the same year he was again appointed Select Preacher, not, however, without considerable opposition being made to the appointment on account of the Dean's theological views; the vote, however, was carried by 349 against 287. In 1875 he was installed Lord Rector of the University of St. Andrews, having received the degree of LL.D. from that University four years previously. He died at the Deanery, Westminster, on July 18, 1881, after a short illness.
Dr. Stanley was a voluminous and very popular writer, his pure and picturesque style being singularly fascinating. The first work by which he became known to the literary world was the Life and Correspondence of Dr. Arnold, published in 1844. This is an almost perfect model of biography. Though the writer is distinctly a hero-worshipper, he never allows his worship to violate the rules of good taste, while he brings out all the points in his hero's character most vividly, and exercises a most wise discretion in permitting him, as far as possible, to tell his own tale. This was followed in 1850 by Memoirs of Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, and Catherine Stanley, which is very interesting both for its intrinsic merits, and also as a pious tribute of filial affection; but it does not reach the level of the Life of Arnold. In 1854 appeared the Epistles to the Corinthians, the value of which will be variously estimated according to the theological standpoint of the reader. But his next two works will command the admiration of all persons who are competent to judge. In his Historical Memorials of Canterbury, published in 1854, and Sinai and Palestine in connexion with their History, published in 1856, Dr. Stanley was again on his own proper ground where his almost unique powers of description had their full scope. The former was a very popular work, reaching a 6th edition in 1872; but Sinai and Palestine was still more warmly welcomed, and may be con¬sidered, with the Life of Dr. Arnold, as Dr. Stanley's chef-d'oeuvre.
Passing over for the present his sermons, we next come to his Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church, pub. in 1861; this also was very popular, reaching a 5th ed. in 1869. Then followed a series of Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church, in 2 volumes (1863-5). His next publication again showed him at his best. The Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey, pub. in 1867, may be regarded as a companion volume to the Historical Memorials of Canterbury, and is, at least, worthy of its predecessor.
Dr. Stanley attained great eminence as a preacher, especially in his own Abbey. His manner was most solemn and impressive, and his style of composition was exactly suited for a sermon. It is fair to add that sermons would also, of course, be the species of composition in which what many considered the most unsatisfactory features of Dr. Stanley's intellectual character, his vagueness of doctrine and extreme breadth of statement, were most conspicuous. He published several volumes of sermons and single sermons. The chief are: Sermons and Essays on the Apostolical Age (1846), Sermons preached in Canterbury Cathedral (1857), Sermons on the Unity of Evangelical and Apostolical Teaching (1859), Sermons in the East preached before the Prince of Wales (1863), Address and Sermons at St. Andrews, 1877.
The point of view from which this sketch naturally regards Dean Stanley as a writer is that from which he appears at the least advantage. Thirteen of his hymns which had been published singly have been incorporated in the Westminster Abbey Hymn Book, but none of them have attained any extensive popularity; and, to tell the truth, they do not deserve it. That exquisite taste and felicity of diction which distinguish more or less all his prose writings seem to desert him when he is writing verse. This is all the more strange because one would have said that he regarded outward nature, as well as the works and history of man, with a poet's eye. Like another great writer, Jeremy Taylor, his prose is poetical, but his poetry is prosaic. The divine afflatus is wanting. Of course he always writes as a scholar; hence his translations are more successful than his original hymns; but in neither department has he produced anything that can at all be termed classical; and it is from his general eminence rather than from his contributions to hymnology that he requires even the small space which has been devoted to him in this article. [Rev. J. H. Overton, D.D.]
In addition to Dean Stanley's trsanslations from the Latin, and his popular hymns, "He is gone! beyond the skies,'' and "Master, it is good to be," the following are also in common use:—
1. Let us with a gladsome mind. National Hymn. The Accession. This hymn is called "Hymn for the Accession (June 20
2. 0 frail spirit, vital spark. Easter. Given in Macmillan's Magazine, May 1878, and headed "Our Future Hope."
3. Spirit unseen, our spirits' home. Whitsuntide.
This hymn was published in Macmillan's Magazine, May, 1879, in 7 stanzas of 8 lines, and 1 stanza of 9 lines, with the following note:—"Manzoni's Hymn for Whitsuntide.”
4. The Lord is come! On Syrian soil. Advent. This hymn appeared in Macmillan's Magazine, Dec. 1872, in 6 stanzas of 8 lines, with the following introduction:— “Hymn for Advent.”
5. When the Paschal evening fell. Holy Communion. This appeared in Macmillan's Magazine, Nov. 1874, in 5 st. of 8 1., 1 st. of 12 1., and 1 st. of 8 1., with this introduction:—" This do in Remembrance of Me. It is intended in the following lines to furnish a sacred hymn founded on the one common idea of commemoration which lies at the basis of all views of the Eucharist, whether material or spiritual, and to express this undoubted intention of the original institution apart from the metaphorical language by which the ordinance is often described."
6. Where is the Christian's Fatherland? The Christian's Fatherland. This poem (it cannot be called a hymn) was given in Macmillan's Magazine, Nov. 1872, in 7 st. of 8 1., with the following introduction:—"The Traveller's Hymn for All Saints' Day. Being an adaptation of Arndt's Poem, 'Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland.'"
7. Where shall we find the Lord? Epiphany. Given in Macmillan's Magazine, March 1880, in 7 st. of 8 1., and introduced thus: —"The Divine Life
8. Where shall we learn to die? Good Friday. This was published in Macmillan's Magazine, March 1880, in 7 st. of 8 1., with the simple heading, "The Perfect Death. Disce mori."
9. Who shall be the last great Seer? St. John Baptist. Appeared in Macmillan's Magazine, July 1879, in 4 st. of 8 1., as a "Hymn for St. John the Baptist Day, June 24."
All these hymns were given in full, and without alteration, in the Westminster Abbey Hymn Book, 1883. Their use is mainly confined to that collection.
--Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
