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Johann Sebastian Bach

1685 - 1750 Person Name: J. S. Bach Harmonizer of "SPIRES" in Hymns for Children and Grownups to Use Together Johann Sebastian Bach was born at Eisenach into a musical family and in a town steeped in Reformation history, he received early musical training from his father and older brother, and elementary education in the classical school Luther had earlier attended. Throughout his life he made extraordinary efforts to learn from other musicians. At 15 he walked to Lüneburg to work as a chorister and study at the convent school of St. Michael. From there he walked 30 miles to Hamburg to hear Johann Reinken, and 60 miles to Celle to become familiar with French composition and performance traditions. Once he obtained a month's leave from his job to hear Buxtehude, but stayed nearly four months. He arranged compositions from Vivaldi and other Italian masters. His own compositions spanned almost every musical form then known (Opera was the notable exception). In his own time, Bach was highly regarded as organist and teacher, his compositions being circulated as models of contrapuntal technique. Four of his children achieved careers as composers; Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, and Chopin are only a few of the best known of the musicians that confessed a major debt to Bach's work in their own musical development. Mendelssohn began re-introducing Bach's music into the concert repertoire, where it has come to attract admiration and even veneration for its own sake. After 20 years of successful work in several posts, Bach became cantor of the Thomas-schule in Leipzig, and remained there for the remaining 27 years of his life, concentrating on church music for the Lutheran service: over 200 cantatas, four passion settings, a Mass, and hundreds of chorale settings, harmonizations, preludes, and arrangements. He edited the tunes for Schemelli's Musicalisches Gesangbuch, contributing 16 original tunes. His choral harmonizations remain a staple for studies of composition and harmony. Additional melodies from his works have been adapted as hymn tunes. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

George J. Elvey

1816 - 1893 Author of "O Son of Man, who walked each day" in The New Hymnal of Praise George Job Elvey (b. Canterbury, England, 1816; d. Windlesham, Surrey, England, 1893) As a young boy, Elvey was a chorister in Canterbury Cathedral. Living and studying with his brother Stephen, he was educated at Oxford and at the Royal Academy of Music. At age nineteen Elvey became organist and master of the boys' choir at St. George Chapel, Windsor, where he remained until his retirement in 1882. He was frequently called upon to provide music for royal ceremonies such as Princess Louise's wedding in 1871 (after which he was knighted). Elvey also composed hymn tunes, anthems, oratorios, and service music. Bert Polman

Claude Means

1912 - 1999 Person Name: Claude Means, b. 1912 Composer of "SEABURY" in At Worship

Nancy Byrd Turner

1880 - 1971 Author of "O Son of Man, who walked each day" in The Hymnal Turner, Nancy Byrd. Born in Boydton, Virginia, July 29, 1880, daughter of Byrd Thornton Turner and Nancy Addison (Harrison) Turner. Composed her first verse at three. First published verse at age of 8--a romantic ballad, "Ruth in the Dentist's Chair" (he fell in love). Her father was an Episcopal minister; they lived in about a dozen small towns or rural communities during her childhood. In 1916, she went to Boston and joined the staff of Youth's Companion. She wrote under many pen names, and published in several magazines. She won numerous awards, including the "Golden Rose" of the New England Poetry Society and the Lyric Associates award of 1951. --Letter from Turner Rose to Jean Woodward Steele, Westminster Press, 1 February 1974, DNAH Archives.

Grace Wilbur Conant

1858 - 1948 Composer of "COMRADE" in The Book of Common Praise Pseudonym: A. B. Ponsonby. Born: September 9, 1858, Boston, Massachusetts. Died: April 7, 1948, Malden, Massachusetts. Grace remained single all her life. Her middle name was her mother’s maiden name. She served as musical editor for the Kindergarten Review for at least six years, starting in 1908. Her works include: Songs for Little People, with Frances Weld Danielson (Boston, Massachusetts: The Pilgrim Press, 1905) Worship and Song, with Benjamin S. Winchester (Pilgrim Press, 1913) Religious Dangers of Modern Tendencies in So-Called Religious Songs, 1917 Song and Play for Children, with Frances Weld Danielson (Pilgrim Press, 1925) --The Cyber Hymnal