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Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

1809 - 1847 Person Name: Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1800-1847) Composer of "PRINCETON" in Songs of Praise with Tunes Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (b. Hamburg, Germany, 1809; d. Leipzig, Germany, 1847) was the son of banker Abraham Mendelssohn and the grandson of philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. His Jewish family became Christian and took the Bartholdy name (name of the estate of Mendelssohn's uncle) when baptized into the Lutheran church. The children all received an excellent musical education. Mendelssohn had his first public performance at the age of nine and by the age of sixteen had written several symphonies. Profoundly influenced by J. S. Bach's music, he conducted a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829 (at age 20!) – the first performance since Bach's death, thus reintroducing Bach to the world. Mendelssohn organized the Domchor in Berlin and founded the Leipzig Conservatory of Music in 1843. Traveling widely, he not only became familiar with various styles of music but also became well known himself in countries other than Germany, especially in England. He left a rich treasury of music: organ and piano works, overtures and incidental music, oratorios (including St. Paul or Elijah and choral works, and symphonies. He harmonized a number of hymn tunes himself, but hymnbook editors also arranged some of his other tunes into hymn tunes. Bert Polman

J. H. Gilmore

1834 - 1918 Person Name: Rev. Joseph H. Gilmore Author of "He leadeth Me" in Songs of Praise with Tunes Joseph H. Gilmore (b. Boston, MA, 1834; d. Rochester, NY, 1918) Educated at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, and Newton Theological Seminary, Newton, Massachusetts, Gilmore was ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1862. He served churches in Fisherville, New Hampshire, and Rochester, New York. In 1868 he was appointed to the English faculty at the University of Rochester, where he served until retirement in 1911. He published various literary works, including Outlines of English and American Literature (1905). Bert Polman ============ Gilmore, Joseph Henry, M. A., Professor of Logic in Rochester University, New York, was born at Boston, April 29, 1834, and graduated in Arts at Brown University, and in Theology at Newton Theological Institution. In the latter he was Professor of Hebrew in 1861-2. For some time he held a Baptist ministerial charge at Fisherville, New Hampshire, and at Rochester. He was appointed Professor at Rochester in 1868. His hymn, "He leadeth me, O blessed thought" (Ps. xxiii.), is somewhat widely known. It was written at the close of a lecture in the First Baptist Church, Philadelphia, and is dated 1859. It is in the Baptist Hymnal [and Tune] Book, Philadelphia, 1871. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M. A.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Reginald Heber

1783 - 1826 Person Name: R. Heber (1783-1826) Author of "O Saviour, is thy promise fled?" in The Academic Hymnal Reginald Heber was born in 1783 into a wealthy, educated family. He was a bright youth, translating a Latin classic into English verse by the time he was seven, entering Oxford at 17, and winning two awards for his poetry during his time there. After his graduation he became rector of his father's church in the village of Hodnet near Shrewsbury in the west of England where he remained for 16 years. He was appointed Bishop of Calcutta in 1823 and worked tirelessly for three years until the weather and travel took its toll on his health and he died of a stroke. Most of his 57 hymns, which include "Holy, Holy, Holy," are still in use today. -- Greg Scheer, 1995 ==================== Heber, Reginald, D.D. Born at Malpas, April 21, 1783, educated at Brasenose College, Oxford; Vicar of Hodnet, 1807; Bishop of Calcutta, 1823; died at Trichinopoly, India, April 3, 1826. The gift of versification shewed itself in Heber's childhood; and his Newdigate prize poem Palestine, which was read to Scott at breakfast in his rooms at Brazenose, Oxford, and owed one of its most striking passages to Scott's suggestion, is almost the only prize poem that has won a permanent place in poetical literature. His sixteen years at Hodnet, where he held a halfway position between a parson and a squire, were marked not only by his devoted care of his people, as a parish priest, but by literary work. He was the friend of Milman, Gifford, Southey, and others, in the world of letters, endeared to them by his candour, gentleness, "salient playfulness," as well as learning and culture. He was on the original staff of The Quarterly Review; Bampton Lecturer (1815); and Preacher at Lincoln's Inn (1822). His edition of Jeremy Taylor is still the classic edition. During this portion of his life he had often had a lurking fondness for India, had traced on the map Indian journeys, and had been tempted to wish himself Bishop of Calcutta. When he was forty years old the literary life was closed by his call to the Episcopate. No memory of Indian annals is holier than that of the three years of ceaseless travel, splendid administration, and saintly enthusiasm, of his tenure of the see of Calcutta. He ordained the first Christian native—Christian David. His first visitation ranged through Bengal, Bombay, and Ceylon; and at Delhi and Lucknow he was prostrated with fever. His second visitation took him through the scenes of Schwartz's labours in Madras Presidency to Trichinopoly, where on April 3,1826, he confirmed forty-two persons, and he was deeply moved by the impression of the struggling mission, so much so that “he showed no appearance of bodily exhaus¬tion." On his return from the service ”He retired into his own room, and according to his invariable custom, wrote on the back of the address on Confirmation 'Trichinopoly, April 3, 1826.' This was his last act, for immediately on taking off his clothes, he went into a large cold bath, where he had bathed the two preceding mornings, but which was now the destined agent of his removal to Paradise. Half an hour after, his servant, alarmed at his long absence, entered the room and found him a lifeless corpse." Life, &c, 1830, vol. ii. p. 437. Heber's hymns were all written during the Hodnet period. Even the great missionary hymn, "From Greenland's icy mountains," notwithstanding the Indian allusions ("India's coral strand," "Ceylon's isle"), was written before he received the offer of Calcutta. The touching funeral hymn, "Thou art gone to the grave," was written on the loss of his first babe, which was a deep grief to him. Some of the hymns were published (1811-16) in the Christian Observer, the rest were not published till after his death. They formed part of a ms. collection made for Hodnet (but not published), which contained, besides a few hymns from older and special sources, contributions by Milman. The first idea of the collection appears in a letter in 1809 asking for a copy of the Olney Hymns, which he "admired very much." The plan was to compose hymns connected with the Epistles and Gospels, to be sung after the Nicene Creed. He was the first to publish sermons on the Sunday services (1822), and a writer in The Guardian has pointed out that these efforts of Heber were the germs of the now familiar practice, developed through the Christian Year (perhaps following Ken's Hymns on the Festivals), and by Augustus Hare, of welding together sermon, hymnal, and liturgy. Heber tried to obtain from Archbishop Manners Sutton and the Bishop of London (1820) authorization of his ms. collection of hymns by the Church, enlarging on the "powerful engine" which hymns were among Dissenters, and the irregular use of them in the church, which it was impossible to suppress, and better to regulate. The authorization was not granted. The lyric spirit of Scott and Byron passed into our hymns in Heber's verse; imparting a fuller rhythm to the older measures, as illustrated by "Oh, Saviour, is Thy promise fled," or the martial hymn, "The Son of God goes forth to war;" pressing into sacred service the freer rhythms of contemporary poetry (e.g. "Brightest and best of the sons of the morning"; "God that madest earth and heaven"); and aiming at consistent grace of literary expression.. Their beauties and faults spring from this modern spirit. They have not the scriptural strength of our best early hymns, nor the dogmatic force of the best Latin ones. They are too flowing and florid, and the conditions of hymn composition are not sufficiently understood. But as pure and graceful devotional poetry, always true and reverent, they are an unfailing pleasure. The finest of them is that majestic anthem, founded on the rhythm of the English Bible, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty." The greatest evidence of Heber's popularity as a hymnwriter, and his refined taste as a compiler, is found in the fact that the total contents of his ms. collection which were given in his posthumous Hymns written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year. London, J. Murray, 1827; which included 57 hymns by Heber, 12 by Milman, and 29 by other writers, are in common in Great Britain and America at the present time. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] Of Bishop Heber's hymns, about one half are annotated under their respective first lines. Those given below were published in Heber's posthumous Hymns, &c, 1827. Some of them are in extensive use in Great Britain and America; but as they possess no special histories they are grouped together as from the Hymns, &c, 1827:— 1. Beneath our feet, and o'er our head. Burial. 2. Creator of the rolling flood. St. Peter's Day, or, Gospel for 6th Sunday after Trinity. 3. Lo, the lilies of the field. Teachings of Nature: or, Gospel for 15th Sunday after Trinity. 4. 0 God, by Whom the seed is given. Sexagesima. 6. 0 God, my sins are manifold. Forgiveness, or, Gospel for 22nd S. after Trinity. 6. 0 hand of bounty, largely spread. Water into Wine, or, Gospel for 2nd S. after Epiphany. 7. 0 King of earth, and air, and sea. Feeding the Multitude; or, Gospel for 4th S. in Lent. 8. 0 more than merciful, Whose bounty gave. Good Friday. 9. 0 most merciful! 0 most bountiful. Introit Holy Communion. 10. 0 Thou, Whom neither time nor space. God unsearchable, or, Gospel for 5th Sunday in Lent. 11. 0 weep not o'er thy children's tomb. Innocents Day. 12. Room for the proud! Ye sons of clay. Dives and Lazarus, or, Gospel for 1st Sunday after Trinity. 13. Sit thou on my right hand, my Son, saith the Lord. Ascension. 14. Spirit of truth, on this thy day. Whit-Sunday. 15. The feeble pulse, the gasping breath. Burial, or, Gospel for 1st S. after Trinity. 16. The God of glory walks His round. Septuagesima, or, the Labourers in the Marketplace. 17. The sound of war in earth and air. Wrestling against Principalities and Powers, or, Epistle for 2lst Sunday after Trinity. 18. The world is grown old, her pleasures are past. Advent; or, Epistle for 4th Sunday in Advent. 19. There was joy in heaven. The Lost Sheep; or, Gospel for 3rd S. after Trinity. 20. Though sorrows rise and dangers roll. St. James's Day. 21. To conquer and to save, the Son of God. Christ the Conqueror. 22. Virgin-born, we bow before Thee. The Virgin Mary. Blessed amongst women, or, Gospel for 3rd S. in Lent. 23. Wake not, 0 mother, sounds of lamentation. Raising the Widow's Son, or, Gospel for 16th S. after Trinity. 24. When on her Maker's bosom. Holy Matrimony, or, Gospel for 2nd S. after Epiphany. 25. When through the torn sail the wild tempest is streaming. Stilling the Sea, or, Gospel for 4th Sunday after Epiphany. 26. Who yonder on the desert heath. The Good Samaritan, or, Gospel for 13th Sunday after Trinity. This list is a good index of the subjects treated of in those of Heber's hymns which are given under their first lines, and shows that he used the Gospels far more than the Epistles in his work. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Edward Cooper

1770 - 1833 Author of "Father of heaven, whose love profound" in The Academic Hymnal Edward Cooper, B.A. of Queen's College, and sometime Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, was Rector of Hamstall-Ridware from 1799 to 1833, and of Yoxall, Staffordshire, from 1809 to 1833. He published several volumes of Sermons, and edited a small Collection of Hymns. b. 1770, d. 1833. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology

Charles T. Brooks

1813 - 1883 Person Name: Rev. C. T. Brooks Author of "O Father, by thy holy will" in The Carol Brooks, Charles Timothy. An American Unitarian Minister, born at Salem, Mass., June 20, 1813, and graduated at Harvard, 1832, and the Divinity School, Cambridge, U.S., 1835. In that year he began his ministry at Nahant, subsequently preaching at Bangor and Augusta (Maine), Windsor (Vermont). In 1837 he became pastor of Newport, Rhode Island, and retained the same charge until 1871, when he resigned through ill-health. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================ Brooks, C. T. (p. 184, i,). He died at Newport, Rhode Island, June 14, 1883. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Heinrich Georg Neuss

1654 - 1716 Person Name: Hch. G. Neuß, 1654-1716 Author of "Ein reines Herz, Herr, schaff' in mir" in Gesangbuch der Bischöflichen Methodisten-Kirche Neuss, Heinrich Georg, son of Andreas Neuss, surgeon at Elbingerode in the Harz, was born at Elbingerode, March 11, 1654, and entered the University of Erfurt in 1677 as a student of theology. In 1680 he became a private tutor at Heimburg, near Blankenburg, and then in 1683 conrector, and in 1684 rector of the school at Blankenburg in the Harz. In 1690 he was appointed assistant preacher at Wolfenbüttel, and soon afterwards diaconus of the Heinrichstadt church there. For holding prayer meetings, &c, he was denounced as a Pietist, and chose to resign rather than desist. In the same year, 1692, he became preacher at Hedwigsburg, and travelling Chaplain to Duke Rudolph August of Brunswick, who, at Easter, 1695, appointed him superintendent at Remlingen for the district of Asseburg. In 1696 he received the degree of D.D. from the University of Giessen, and became superintendent, consistorialrath, and chief pastor of the Church of Saints Sylvester and George at Wernigerode, being instituted on Feb. 6. His appointment there was at first unpopular, for he was suspected of Separatist tendencies, but he soon gained the love of the people by his earnest and loving practical Christianity, and by the interest he took in the development of Church music, for which under his care Wernigerode became famous in all the district. He died at Wernigerode, Sept. 30, 1716 (Koch, iv. 425; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie xxiii. 556; Heinrich Georg Neuss. By Ed. Jacobs. In the Zeitschrift des Harz-Vereins, vol. xxi. 1888, p. 159, &c). The hymns of Neuss appeared principally in his Heb-Opfer zum Bau der Hütten Gottes, das ist, Geistliche Lieder, &c.; of this the first edition with 100 hymns was published at Lüneburg, 1692; and the 2nd edition, with 34 additional, at Wernigerode, 1703 [both in Berlin], most of the pieces bearing the dates of their composition. They were re ceived with great favour in Pietist circles, and Freylinghausen in his Geistreiches Gesang-Buch included no less than 38 (5 in pt. i., 1704; 33 in pt. ii., 1714). In the Werni¬gerode Gesang-Buch, 1712, edited by Neuss, 5 are included, and 5 more in the ed. of 1735. Only a few are found, in recent German collections. The 1703 edition of the Heb-Opfer had also 86 melodies, of which some 15 were by Neuss, and of these 15 passed into Freylinghausen's Gesang-Buch. In 1706 Neuss also published a collection of Brunnen-lieder at Pyrmont, for the frequenters of the Baths there. Only one of his hymns has passed into English, viz.:— Ein reines Herz, Herr, schaff in mir. Sanctification. A simple and beautiful hymn, first published in the 2nd edition, 1703, of his Heb-Opfer, p. 217, in 5 st. of 4 1. In the Berlin Geistliche Lieder, edition 1863, No. 380. Translated as:— A new and contrite heart create. A good and full translation by Miss Cox, in her Sacred Hymns from the German, 1841, p. 153 (1864, p. 177), repeated in the Baptist Hymnal, 1879. Another translation is:—- "Lord! grant a newborn heart to me," by Lady E. Fortescue, 1843, p. 58. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)