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Isaac Watts

1674 - 1748 Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "Psalm 147 Part 1" in Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts, The Isaac Watts was the son of a schoolmaster, and was born in Southampton, July 17, 1674. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin, in his fourth year, and writing respectable verses at the age of seven. At the age of sixteen, he went to London to study in the Academy of the Rev. Thomas Rowe, an Independent minister. In 1698, he became assistant minister of the Independent Church, Berry St., London. In 1702, he became pastor. In 1712, he accepted an invitation to visit Sir Thomas Abney, at his residence of Abney Park, and at Sir Thomas' pressing request, made it his home for the remainder of his life. It was a residence most favourable for his health, and for the prosecution of his literary labours. He did not retire from ministerial duties, but preached as often as his delicate health would permit. The number of Watts' publications is very large. His collected works, first published in 1720, embrace sermons, treatises, poems and hymns. His "Horae Lyricae" was published in December, 1705. His "Hymns" appeared in July, 1707. The first hymn he is said to have composed for religious worship, is "Behold the glories of the Lamb," written at the age of twenty. It is as a writer of psalms and hymns that he is everywhere known. Some of his hymns were written to be sung after his sermons, giving expression to the meaning of the text upon which he had preached. Montgomery calls Watts "the greatest name among hymn-writers," and the honour can hardly be disputed. His published hymns number more than eight hundred. Watts died November 25, 1748, and was buried at Bunhill Fields. A monumental statue was erected in Southampton, his native place, and there is also a monument to his memory in the South Choir of Westminster Abbey. "Happy," says the great contemporary champion of Anglican orthodoxy, "will be that reader whose mind is disposed, by his verses or his prose, to imitate him in all but his non-conformity, to copy his benevolence to men, and his reverence to God." ("Memorials of Westminster Abbey," p. 325.) --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872. ================================= Watts, Isaac, D.D. The father of Dr. Watts was a respected Nonconformist, and at the birth of the child, and during its infancy, twice suffered imprisonment for his religious convictions. In his later years he kept a flourishing boarding school at Southampton. Isaac, the eldest of his nine children, was born in that town July 17, 1674. His taste for verse showed itself in early childhood. He was taught Greek, Latin, and Hebrew by Mr. Pinhorn, rector of All Saints, and headmaster of the Grammar School, in Southampton. The splendid promise of the boy induced a physician of the town and other friends to offer him an education at one of the Universities for eventual ordination in the Church of England: but this he refused; and entered a Nonconformist Academy at Stoke Newington in 1690, under the care of Mr. Thomas Rowe, the pastor of the Independent congregation at Girdlers' Hall. Of this congregation he became a member in 1693. Leaving the Academy at the age of twenty, he spent two years at home; and it was then that the bulk of the Hymns and Spiritual Songs (published 1707-9) were written, and sung from manuscripts in the Southampton Chapel. The hymn "Behold the glories of the Lamb" is said to have been the first he composed, and written as an attempt to raise the standard of praise. In answer to requests, others succeeded. The hymn "There is a land of pure delight" is said to have been suggested by the view across Southampton Water. The next six years of Watts's life were again spent at Stoke Newington, in the post of tutor to the son of an eminent Puritan, Sir John Hartopp; and to the intense study of these years must be traced the accumulation of the theological and philosophical materials which he published subsequently, and also the life-long enfeeblement of his constitution. Watts preached his first sermon when he was twenty-four years old. In the next three years he preached frequently; and in 1702 was ordained pastor of the eminent Independent congregation in Mark Lane, over which Caryl and Dr. John Owen had presided, and which numbered Mrs. Bendish, Cromwell's granddaughter, Charles Fleetwood, Charles Desborough, Sir John Hartopp, Lady Haversham, and other distinguished Independents among its members. In this year he removed to the house of Mr. Hollis in the Minories. His health began to fail in the following year, and Mr. Samuel Price was appointed as his assistant in the ministry. In 1712 a fever shattered his constitution, and Mr. Price was then appointed co-pastor of the congregation which had in the meantime removed to a new chapel in Bury Street. It was at this period that he became the guest of Sir Thomas Abney, under whose roof, and after his death (1722) that of his widow, he remained for the rest of his suffering life; residing for the longer portion of these thirty-six years principally at the beautiful country seat of Theobalds in Herts, and for the last thirteen years at Stoke Newington. His degree of D.D. was bestowed on him in 1728, unsolicited, by the University of Edinburgh. His infirmities increased on him up to the peaceful close of his sufferings, Nov. 25, 1748. He was buried in the Puritan restingplace at Bunhill Fields, but a monument was erected to him in Westminster Abbey. His learning and piety, gentleness and largeness of heart have earned him the title of the Melanchthon of his day. Among his friends, churchmen like Bishop Gibson are ranked with Nonconformists such as Doddridge. His theological as well as philosophical fame was considerable. His Speculations on the Human Nature of the Logos, as a contribution to the great controversy on the Holy Trinity, brought on him a charge of Arian opinions. His work on The Improvement of the Mind, published in 1741, is eulogised by Johnson. His Logic was still a valued textbook at Oxford within living memory. The World to Come, published in 1745, was once a favourite devotional work, parts of it being translated into several languages. His Catechisms, Scripture History (1732), as well as The Divine and Moral Songs (1715), were the most popular text-books for religious education fifty years ago. The Hymns and Spiritual Songs were published in 1707-9, though written earlier. The Horae Lyricae, which contains hymns interspersed among the poems, appeared in 1706-9. Some hymns were also appended at the close of the several Sermons preached in London, published in 1721-24. The Psalms were published in 1719. The earliest life of Watts is that by his friend Dr. Gibbons. Johnson has included him in his Lives of the Poets; and Southey has echoed Johnson's warm eulogy. The most interesting modern life is Isaac Watts: his Life and Writings, by E. Paxton Hood. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] A large mass of Dr. Watts's hymns and paraphrases of the Psalms have no personal history beyond the date of their publication. These we have grouped together here and shall preface the list with the books from which they are taken. (l) Horae Lyricae. Poems chiefly of the Lyric kind. In Three Books Sacred: i.To Devotion and Piety; ii. To Virtue, Honour, and Friendship; iii. To the Memory of the Dead. By I. Watts, 1706. Second edition, 1709. (2) Hymns and Spiritual Songs. In Three Books: i. Collected from the Scriptures; ii. Composed on Divine Subjects; iii. Prepared for the Lord's Supper. By I. Watts, 1707. This contained in Bk i. 78 hymns; Bk. ii. 110; Bk. iii. 22, and 12 doxologies. In the 2nd edition published in 1709, Bk. i. was increased to 150; Bk. ii. to 170; Bk. iii. to 25 and 15 doxologies. (3) Divine and Moral Songs for the Use of Children. By I. Watts, London, 1715. (4) The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, And apply'd to the Christian State and Worship. By I. Watts. London: Printed by J. Clark, at the Bible and Crown in the Poultry, &c, 1719. (5) Sermons with hymns appended thereto, vol. i., 1721; ii., 1723; iii. 1727. In the 5th ed. of the Sermons the three volumes, in duodecimo, were reduced to two, in octavo. (6) Reliquiae Juveniles: Miscellaneous Thoughts in Prose and Verse, on Natural, Moral, and Divine Subjects; Written chiefly in Younger Years. By I. Watts, D.D., London, 1734. (7) Remnants of Time. London, 1736. 454 Hymns and Versions of the Psalms, in addition to the centos are all in common use at the present time. --Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================================== Watts, I. , p. 1241, ii. Nearly 100 hymns, additional to those already annotated, are given in some minor hymn-books. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ================= Watts, I. , p. 1236, i. At the time of the publication of this Dictionary in 1892, every copy of the 1707 edition of Watts's Hymns and Spiritual Songs was supposed to have perished, and all notes thereon were based upon references which were found in magazines and old collections of hymns and versions of the Psalms. Recently three copies have been recovered, and by a careful examination of one of these we have been able to give some of the results in the revision of pp. 1-1597, and the rest we now subjoin. i. Hymns in the 1709 ed. of Hymns and Spiritual Songs which previously appeared in the 1707 edition of the same book, but are not so noted in the 1st ed. of this Dictionary:— On pp. 1237, L-1239, ii., Nos. 18, 33, 42, 43, 47, 48, 60, 56, 58, 59, 63, 75, 82, 83, 84, 85, 93, 96, 99, 102, 104, 105, 113, 115, 116, 123, 124, 134, 137, 139, 146, 147, 148, 149, 162, 166, 174, 180, 181, 182, 188, 190, 192, 193, 194, 195, 197, 200, 202. ii. Versions of the Psalms in his Psalms of David, 1719, which previously appeared in his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707:— On pp. 1239, U.-1241, i., Nos. 241, 288, 304, 313, 314, 317, 410, 441. iii. Additional not noted in the revision:— 1. My soul, how lovely is the place; p. 1240, ii. 332. This version of Ps. lxiv. first appeared in the 1707 edition of Hymns & Spiritual Songs, as "Ye saints, how lovely is the place." 2. Shine, mighty God, on Britain shine; p. 1055, ii. In the 1707 edition of Hymns & Spiritual Songs, Bk. i., No. 35, and again in his Psalms of David, 1719. 3. Sing to the Lord with [cheerful] joyful voice, p. 1059, ii. This version of Ps. c. is No. 43 in the Hymns & Spiritual Songs, 1707, Bk. i., from which it passed into the Ps. of David, 1719. A careful collation of the earliest editions of Watts's Horae Lyricae shows that Nos. 1, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, p. 1237, i., are in the 1706 ed., and that the rest were added in 1709. Of the remaining hymns, Nos. 91 appeared in his Sermons, vol. ii., 1723, and No. 196 in Sermons, vol. i., 1721. No. 199 was added after Watts's death. It must be noted also that the original title of what is usually known as Divine and Moral Songs was Divine Songs only. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907) =========== See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church

John H. Stockton

1813 - 1877 Person Name: John H. Stockton, 1813-1877 Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "MINERVA" in Psalter Hymnal (Blue) Stockton, John Hart, a Methodist minister, was born in 1813, and died in 1877. He was a member of the New Jersey Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the successive pastoral charges that he filled as a member of that Conference are found in the Conference Journal. He was not only a preacher, but a musician and composer of tunes, as well as hymn writer. He published two gospel song books: Salvation Melodies, 1874, and Precious Songs, 1875. Hymn Writers of the Church by Charles Nutter, 1911 =============== Stockton, John Hart, b. April 19, 1813, and d. March 25, 1877, was the author of "Come, every soul by sin oppressed" (Invitation), in I.D. Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos, 1878, and of "The Cross, the Cross, the blood¬stained Cross" (Good Friday) in the same collection. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) =============== Stockton, John Hart. (New Hope, Pennsylvania, April 19, 1813--March 25, 1877). Born of Presbyterian parents, he was converted at a Methodist camp meeting in 1838, being received into full membership in the New Jersey Conference in 1857. Because of ill health he twice took the "supernumerary relations." He withdrew from actual pastoral work in 1874 and engaged in compiling and publishing gospel hymn books, issuing Salvation Melodies that year and Precious Songs in 1875, writing both words and music for a number of the songs. He died suddenly after attending a Sunday morning service at Arch Street Church, Philadelphia. Our Hymnody, McCutchan, has, perhaps, the fullest account of him readily available. --Robert G. McCutchan, DNAH Archives

Timothy Dudley-Smith

b. 1926 Person Name: Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926) Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "Psalm 147" in Church Hymnary (4th ed.) Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926) Educated at Pembroke College and Ridley Hall, Cambridge, Dudley-Smith has served the Church of England since his ordination in 1950. He has occupied a number of church positions, including parish priest in the diocese of Southwark (1953-1962), archdeacon of Norwich (1973-1981), and bishop of Thetford, Norfolk, from 1981 until his retirement in 1992. He also edited a Christian magazine, Crusade, which was founded after Billy Graham's 1955 London crusade. Dudley-Smith began writing comic verse while a student at Cambridge; he did not begin to write hymns until the 1960s. Many of his several hundred hymn texts have been collected in Lift Every Heart: Collected Hymns 1961-1983 (1984), Songs of Deliverance: Thirty-six New Hymns (1988), and A Voice of Singing (1993). The writer of Christian Literature and the Church (1963), Someone Who Beckons (1978), and Praying with the English Hymn Writers (1989), Dudley-Smith has also served on various editorial committees, including the committee that published Psalm Praise (1973). Bert Polman

Henry Thomas Smart

1813 - 1879 Person Name: Henry Smart Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "ST. LEONARD (SMART)" in The Hymnal Henry Smart (b. Marylebone, London, England, 1813; d. Hampstead, London, 1879), a capable composer of church music who wrote some very fine hymn tunes (REGENT SQUARE, 354, is the best-known). Smart gave up a career in the legal profession for one in music. Although largely self taught, he became proficient in organ playing and composition, and he was a music teacher and critic. Organist in a number of London churches, including St. Luke's, Old Street (1844-1864), and St. Pancras (1864-1869), Smart was famous for his extemporizations and for his accompaniment of congregational singing. He became completely blind at the age of fifty-two, but his remarkable memory enabled him to continue playing the organ. Fascinated by organs as a youth, Smart designed organs for important places such as St. Andrew Hall in Glasgow and the Town Hall in Leeds. He composed an opera, oratorios, part-songs, some instrumental music, and many hymn tunes, as well as a large number of works for organ and choir. He edited the Choralebook (1858), the English Presbyterian Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867), and the Scottish Presbyterian Hymnal (1875). Some of his hymn tunes were first published in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861). Bert Polman

John Bacchus Dykes

1823 - 1876 Person Name: John B. Dykes Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "HARTFORD (Dykes)" in Psalter Hymnal (Gray) As a young child John Bacchus Dykes (b. Kingston-upon-Hull' England, 1823; d. Ticehurst, Sussex, England, 1876) took violin and piano lessons. At the age of ten he became the organist of St. John's in Hull, where his grandfather was vicar. After receiving a classics degree from St. Catherine College, Cambridge, England, he was ordained in the Church of England in 1847. In 1849 he became the precentor and choir director at Durham Cathedral, where he introduced reforms in the choir by insisting on consistent attendance, increasing rehearsals, and initiating music festivals. He served the parish of St. Oswald in Durham from 1862 until the year of his death. To the chagrin of his bishop, Dykes favored the high church practices associated with the Oxford Movement (choir robes, incense, and the like). A number of his three hundred hymn tunes are still respected as durable examples of Victorian hymnody. Most of his tunes were first published in Chope's Congregational Hymn and Tune Book (1857) and in early editions of the famous British hymnal, Hymns Ancient and Modern. Bert Polman

John L. Bell

b. 1949 Person Name: John Bell Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "Psalm 147: Sing to God, with Joy" in Sing! A New Creation John Bell (b. 1949) was born in the Scottish town of Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, intending to be a music teacher when he felt the call to the ministry. But in frustration with his classes, he did volunteer work in a deprived neighborhood in London for a time and also served for two years as an associate pastor at the English Reformed Church in Amsterdam. After graduating he worked for five years as a youth pastor for the Church of Scotland, serving a large region that included about 500 churches. He then took a similar position with the Iona Community, and with his colleague Graham Maule, began to broaden the youth ministry to focus on renewal of the church’s worship. His approach soon turned to composing songs within the identifiable traditions of hymnody that began to address concerns missing from the current Scottish hymnal: "I discovered that seldom did our hymns represent the plight of poor people to God. There was nothing that dealt with unemployment, nothing that dealt with living in a multicultural society and feeling disenfranchised. There was nothing about child abuse…,that reflected concern for the developing world, nothing that helped see ourselves as brothers and sisters to those who are suffering from poverty or persecution." [from an interview in Reformed Worship (March 1993)] That concern not only led to writing many songs, but increasingly to introducing them internationally in many conferences, while also gathering songs from around the world. He was convener for the fourth edition of the Church of Scotland’s Church Hymnary (2005), a very different collection from the previous 1973 edition. His books, The Singing Thing and The Singing Thing Too, as well as the many collections of songs and worship resources produced by John Bell—some together with other members of the Iona Community’s “Wild Goose Resource Group,” —are available in North America from GIA Publications. Emily Brink

Joseph Gelineau

1920 - 2008 Person Name: JG Scripture: Psalm 147:12-20 Composer (Gelineau Tone) of "[O praise the Lord, Jerusalem]" in Worship (3rd ed.) Joseph Gelineau (1920-2008) Gelineau's translation and musical settings of the psalms have achieved nearly universal usage in the Christian church of the Western world. These psalms faithfully recapture the Hebrew poetic structure and images. To accommodate this structure his psalm tones were designed to express the asymmetrical three-line/four-line design of the psalm texts. He collaborated with R. Tournay and R. Schwab and reworked the Jerusalem Bible Psalter. Their joint effort produced the Psautier de la Bible de Jerusalem and recording Psaumes, which won the Gran Prix de L' Academie Charles Cros in 1953. The musical settings followed four years later. Shortly after, the Gregorian Institute of America published Twenty-four Psalms and Canticles, which was the premier issue of his psalms in the United States. Certainly, his text and his settings have provided a feasible and beautiful solution to the singing of the psalms that the 1963 reforms envisioned. Parishes, their cantors, and choirs were well-equipped to sing the psalms when they embarked on the Gelineau psalmody. Gelineau was active in liturgical development from the very time of his ordination in 1951. He taught at the Institut Catholique de Paris and was active in several movements leading toward Vatican II. His influence in the United States as well in Europe (he was one of the founding organizers of Universa Laus, the international church music association) is as far reaching as it is broad. Proof of that is the number of times "My shepherd is the Lord" has been reprinted and reprinted in numerous funeral worship leaflets, collections, and hymnals. His prolific career includes hundreds of compositions ranging from litanies to responsories. His setting of Psalm 106/107, "The Love of the Lord," for assembly, organ, and orchestra premiéred at the 1989 National Association of Pastoral Musicians convention in Long Beach, California. --www.giamusic.com

John Eagleton

1785 - 1832 Person Name: J. Eagleton, 1785-1832 Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "JUSTIFICATION" in Singing the Faith

Jeffery W. Rowthorn

b. 1934 Person Name: Jerffrey W. Rowthorn Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "Creating God, Your Fingers Trace" in Psalter Hymnal (Gray) Jeffery W. Rowthorn (b. Newport, Gwent, Wales, 1934) wrote this text in 1978 while he was Chapel Minister at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut. The text was first published in Laudamus (1980), a hymnal supplement edited by Rowthorn and used at the Yale Divinity School. Rowthorn graduated from Cambridge and Oxford Universities, Union Theological Seminary in New York, and Cuddeson Theological College in Oxford. Ordained in 1963 in the Church of England, he served several congregations in England before immigrating to the United States, where he was chaplain at Union Theological Seminary and a faculty member in liturgics at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, which he helped to establish. He was then elected Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut. The writer of several hymns, Rowthorn was also coeditor with Russell Schulz-Widmar of A New Hymnal for Colleges and Schools (1991). Rowthorn has since moved to Paris, where he is Bishop in Charge of the American Churches in Europe. --hymnopedia.com/

Matt Redman

b. 1974 Person Name: Matt Redman Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "Blessed Be Your Name " in Lift Up Your Hearts Matt Redman (b. February 14, 1974) began leading worship full-time at age 20, serving churches in Chorleywood, Brighton, West Sussex, and Atlanta, Georgia, where he worked with Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio for the Passion Conferences. He is known for songs such as “The Heart of Worship,” “Better is One Day,” and “Blessed Be Your Name.” His 2012 song “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord),” co-written with Jonas Myrin, won two Grammy awards in 2013. Redman has written a number of books, including Mirror Ball and The Unquenchable Worshipper. He and his wife Beth have five children, and are currently based at St. Peters Church in Brighton, England. Laura de Jong

Beth Redman

Person Name: Beth Redman Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "Blessed Be Your Name " in Lift Up Your Hearts Beth Redman

John Barnard

b. 1948 Person Name: John Barnard (b. 1948) Scripture: Psalm 147 Arranger (last stanza) of "REGENT SQUARE" in Ancient and Modern

Anonymous

Person Name: Unknown Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "O Sing Ye Hallelujah" in The Cyber Hymnal In some hymnals, the editors noted that a hymn's author is unknown to them, and so this artificial "person" entry is used to reflect that fact. Obviously, the hymns attributed to "Author Unknown" "Unknown" or "Anonymous" could have been written by many people over a span of many centuries.

Marty Haugen

b. 1950 Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "Psalm 147: Bless the Lord, My Soul" in Gather Comprehensive Marty Haugen (b. 1950), is a prolific liturgical composer with many songs included in hymnals across the liturgical spectrum of North American hymnals and beyond, with many songs translated into different languages. He was raised in the American Lutheran Church, received a BA in psychology from Luther College, yet found his first position as a church musician in a Roman Catholic parish at a time when the Roman Catholic Church was undergoing profound liturgical and musical changes after Vatican II. Finding a vocation in that parish to provide accessible songs for worship, he continued to compose and to study, receiving an MA in pastoral studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul Minnesota. A number of liturgical settings were prepared for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and more than 400 of his compositions are available from several publishers, especially GIA Publications, who also produced some 30 recordings of his songs. He is composer-in-residence at Mayflower Community Congregational Church in Minneapolis and continues to compose and travel to speak and teach at worship events around the world. Emily Brink

Charles Wesley

1707 - 1788 Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "Psalm 147" in The United Methodist Hymnal 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) ================== 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.

Richard Proulx

1937 - 2010 Person Name: RP Scripture: Psalm 147:12-20 Composer (Psalm tone) of "[O praise the Lord, Jerusalem]" in Worship (3rd ed.) Richard Proulx (b. St. Paul, MN, April 3, 1937; d. Chicago, IL, February 18, 2010). A composer, conductor, and teacher, Proulx was director of music at the Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, Illinois (1980-1997); before that he was organist and choirmaster at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church in Seattle, Washington. He contributed his expertise to the Roman Catholic Worship III (1986), The Episcopal Hymnal 1982, The United Methodist Hymnal (1989), and the ecumenical A New Hymnal for Colleges and Schools (1992). He was educated at the University of Minnesota, MacPhail College of Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota, St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, and the Royal School of Church Music in England. He composed more than 250 works. Bert Polman

Thomas F. Savoy

b. 1955 Person Name: TFS Scripture: Psalm 147:12-20 Composer (Antiphon) of "[O praise the Lord, Jerusalem]" in Worship (3rd ed.)

Chrysogonus Waddell

1930 - 2008 Person Name: CW Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "[Praise the Lord, Jerusalem]" in Worship (3rd ed.)

Marie J. Post

1919 - 1990 Scripture: Psalm 147 Versifier of "Sing Praise to Our Creator" in Psalter Hymnal (Gray) Marie (Tuinstra) Post (b. Jenison, MI, 1919; d. Grand Rapids, MI, 1990) While attending Dutch church services as a child, Post was first introduced to the Genevan psalms, which influenced her later writings. She attended Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she studied with Henry Zylstra. From 1940 to 1942 she taught at the Muskegon Christian Junior High School. For over thirty years Post wrote poetry for the Grand Rapids Press and various church periodicals. She gave many readings of her poetry in churches and schools and has been published in a number of journals and poetry anthologies. Two important collections of her poems are I Never Visited an Artist Before (1977) and the posthumous Sandals, Sails, and Saints (1993). A member of the 1987 Psalter Hymnal Revision Committee, Post was a significant contributor to its array of original texts and paraphrases. Bert Polman

Norman Agatep

Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "Praise the Lord Who Heals" in Psalms for All Seasons Norman Agatep with Jandi Arboleda, and Rev Manoling Francisco SJ began writing liturgical songs as high school students and many of their songs were eventually made popular through use in Catholic Masses and other liturgical services nationwide. They eventually formed a group, entitled "Bukas Palad." This group has composed many original liturgical and inspirational songs and have become well known in Filipino music. excerpts from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukas_Palad_Music_Ministry

Thomas Norton

1532 - 1584 Person Name: N. Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "Laudate Dominum" in The Whole Booke of Psalmes

Joel Navarro

b. 1955 Scripture: Psalm 147 Arranger of "[Give thanks for God is gracious]" in Psalms for All Seasons Joel Navarro (b. 1955) is a professor of music at Singapore Bible College. Until 2014 he taught at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, teaching conducting and directing campus choirs. As the recipient of numerous awards in performance and education in his native Philippines, he is widely known as a conductor, educator, clinician, lecturer, writer, singer, recording artist, composer, arranger, stage actor, record producer, and music consultant. An active performer of music from different eras and ethnic traditions, he takes an ardent interest in post modern music and the music traditions and liturgies of the world. Navarro earned a master of music degree in choral conducting from the University of the Philippines and a doctor of musical arts degree in conducting at Michigan State University. He is known internationally as the former music director and conductor of the Ateneo de Manila University Glee Club, which has amassed a string of top prizes during the past 20 years in choral competitions worldwide. He also was a member of the 12 member editorial team for Lift Up Your Hearts. Lift Up Your Hearts (https://liftupyourheartshymnal.org/)

Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops

Person Name: CCCB Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "[The Word of God became flesh]" in Catholic Book of Worship III

James Turle

1802 - 1882 Person Name: J. Turle, 1802 - 1882 Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "[Praise ye the Lord] " in The Hymnary for use in Baptist churches TURLE, JAMES (1802–1882), organist and composer, son of James Turle, an amateur 'cello-player, was born at Taunton, Somerset, on 5 March 1802. From July 1810 to December 1813 he was a chorister at Wells Cathedral under Dodd Perkins, the organist. At the age of eleven he came to London, and was articled to John Jeremiah Goss, but he was largely self-taught. He had an excellent voice and frequently sang in public. John Goss [q. v.], his master's nephew, was his fellow student, and thus the future organists of St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey were pupils together. Turle was organist of Christ Church, Surrey (Blackfriars Road), 1819–1829, and of St. James's, Bermondsey, 1829–31. His connection with Westminster Abbey began in 1817, when he was only fifteen. He was at first pupil of and assistant to G. E. Williams, and subsequently deputy to Thomas Greatorex [q. v.], Williams's successor as organist of the abbey. On the death of Greatorex on 18 July 1831, Turle was appointed organist and master of the choristers, an office which he held for a period of fifty-one years. Turle played at several of the great musical festivals, e.g. Birmingham and Norwich, under Mendelssohn and Spohr, but all his interests were centred in Westminster Abbey. His playing at the Handel festival in 1834 attracted special attention. At his own request the dean and chapter relieved him of the active duties of his post on 26 Sept. 1875, when his service in D was sung, and Dr. (now Professor Sir John Frederick) Bridge, the present organist, became permanent deputy-organist. Turle continued to hold the titular appointment till his death, which took place at his house in the Cloisters on 28 June 1882. The dean offered a burial-place within the precincts of the abbey, but he was interred by his own express wish beside his wife in Norwood cemetery. A memorial window, in which are portraits of Turle and his wife, was placed in the north aisle of the abbey by one of his sons, and a memorial tablet has been affixed to the wall of the west cloister. Turle married, in 1823, Mary, daughter of Andrew Honey, of the exchequer office. She died in 1869, leaving nine children. Henry Frederic Turle [q. v.] was his fourth son. His younger brother Robert was for many years organist of Armagh Cathedral. Turle was an able organist of the old school, which treated the organ as essentially a legato instrument. He favoured full ‘rolling’ chords, which had a remarkable effect on the vast reverberating space of the abbey. He had a large hand, and his ‘peculiar grip’ of the instrument was a noticeable feature of his playing. His accompaniments were largely traditional of all that was best in his distinguished predecessors, and he greatly excelled in his extemporaneous introductions to the anthems. Like Goss, he possessed great facility in reading from a ‘figured bass.’ Of the many choristers who passed through his hands, one of the most distinguished is Mr. Edward Lloyd, the eminent tenor singer. His compositions include services, anthems, chants, and hymn-tunes. Several glees remain in manuscript. In conjunction with Professor Edward Taylor [q. v.] he edited ‘The People's Music Book’ (1844), and ‘Psalms and Hymns’ (S. P. C. K. 1862). His hymn-tunes were collected by his daughter, Miss S. A. Turle, and published in one volume (1885). One of these, ‘Westminster,’ formerly named ‘Birmingham,’ has become widely known, and is very characteristic of its composer. --en.wikisource.org/

Joseph Addison

1672 - 1719 Person Name: Joseph Addison (1672-1719) Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "When All Thy Mercies, O My God" in Common Praise (1998) Addison, Joseph, born at Milston, near Amesbury, Wiltshire, May 1, 1672, was the son of the Rev. Lancelot Addison, sometime Dean of Lichfield, and author of Devotional Poems, &c, 1699. Addison was educated at the Charterhouse, and at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating B.A. 1691 and M.A. 1693. Although intended for the Church, he gave himself to the study of law and politics, and soon attained, through powerful influence, to some important posts. He was successively a Commissioner of Appeals, an Under Secretary of State, Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Chief Secretary for Ireland. He married, in 1716, the Dowager Countess of Warwick, and died at Holland House, Kensington, June 17, 1719. Addison is most widely known through his contributions to The Spectator, The Toiler, The Guardian, and The Freeholder. To the first of these he contributed his hymns. His Cato, a tragedy, is well known and highly esteemed. Addison's claims to the authorship of the hymns usually ascribed to him, or to certain of them, have been called in question on two occasions. The first was the publication, by Captain Thompson, of certain of those hymns in his edition of the Works of Andrew Marvell, 1776, as the undoubted compositions of Marvell; and the second, a claim in the Athenaeum, July 10th, 1880, on behalf of the Rev. Richard Richmond. Fully to elucidate the subject it will be necessary, therefore, to give a chronological history of the hymns as they appeared in the Spectator from time to time. i. The History of the Hymns in The Spectator. This, as furnished in successive numbers of the Spectator is :— 1. The first of these hymns appeared in the Spectator of Saturday, July 26, 1712, No. 441, in 4 stanzas of 6 lines. The article in which it appeared was on Divine Providence, signed “C." The hymn itself, "The Lord my pasture shall prepare," was introduced with these words:— "David has very beautifully represented this steady reliance on God Almighty in his twenty-third psalm, which is a kind of pastoral hymn, and filled with those allusions which are usual in that kind of writing As the poetry is very exquisite, I shall present my readers with the following translation of it." (Orig. Broadsheet, Brit. Mus.) 2. The second hymn appeared in the Spectator on Saturday, Aug. 9, 1712, No. 453, in 13 st. of 4 1., and forms the conclusion of an essay on " Gratitude." It is also signed " C," and is thus introduced:— “I have already obliged the public with some pieces of divine poetry which have fallen into my hands, and as they have met with the reception which they deserve, I shall, from time to time, communicate any work of the same nature which has not appeared in print, and may be acceptable to my readers." (Orig. Broadsheet, British Museum) Then follows the hymn:—"When all Thy mercies, 0 my God." 3. The number of the Spectator for Tuesday, Aug. 19, 1712, No. 461, is composed of three parts. The first is an introductory paragraph by Addison, the second, an unsigned letter from Isaac Watts, together with a rendering by him of Ps. 114th; and the third, a letter from Steele. It is with the first two we have to deal. The opening paragraph by Addison is:— “For want of time to substitute something else in the Boom of them, I am at present obliged to publish Compliments above my Desert in the following Letters. It is no small Satisfaction, to have given Occasion to ingenious Men to employ their Thoughts upon sacred Subjects from the Approbation of such Pieces of Poetry as they have seen in my Saturday's papers. I shall never publish Verse on that Day but what is written by the same Hand; yet shall I not accompany those Writings with Eulogiums, but leave them to speak for themselves." (Orig. Broadsheet, British Museum

William Jones

1726 - 1800 Person Name: William Jones (1726-1800) Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "ST. STEPHEN" in Common Praise (1998) Born: July 30, 1726, Lowick, Northamptonshire, England. Died: January 6, 1800, Hollingbourne, Kent, England. Pseudonym: Jones of Nayland. Jones was educated at Charterhouse and University College, Oxford. He became Vicar of Bethersden, Kent (1764); Pluckley, Kent; and Paston, Northamptonshire; perpetual Curate of Nayland, Suffolk (1777); and Rector of Hollingbourne, Kent (1798). He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1775. His works include: The Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity, 1756 Fairchild Discourses, 1775 Physiological Disquisitions, 1781 A Treatise on the Art of Music, 1784 Church Pieces for the Organ with Four Anthems in Score, 1789 Jones was a descendant of the Col. J. Jones, who was one of the signatories to the death warrant of King Charles I of England. He used to regularly observe January 30 as a day of fasting and humiliation for his ancestor’s sin. Music: ST. STEPHEN --www.hymntime.com/tch/

Philip Doddridge

1702 - 1751 Person Name: Philip Doddridge (1702-1751) Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "Hark the Glad Sound! The Saviour Comes" in Common Praise (1998) Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Northampton." He died in Lisbon soon after his arrival. Doddridge wrote some four hundred hymn texts, generally to accompany his sermons. These hymns were published posthumously in Hymns, Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures (1755); relatively few are still sung today. Bert Polman ======================== Doddridge, Philip, D.D., was born in London, June 26, 1702. His grandfather was one of the ministers under the Commonwealth, who were ejected in 1662. His father was a London oilman. He was offered by the Duchess of Bedford an University training for ordination in the Church of England, but declined it. He entered Mr. Jennings's non-conformist seminary at Kibworth instead; preached his first sermon at Hinckley, to which Mr. Jennings had removed his academy. In 1723 he was chosen pastor at Kibworth. In 1725 he changed his residence to Market Harborough, still ministering at Kibworth. The settled work of his life as a preceptor and divine began in 1729, with his appointment to the Castle Hill Meeting at Northampton, and continued till in the last stage of consumption. He sailed to Lisbon, in 1751, where he died October 26, the same year. Two hundred pupils in all, gathered from England, Scotland and Holland, were prepared in his seminary, chiefly for the dissenting ministry, but partly for professions. The wide range of subjects, including daily readings in Hebrew and Greek, Algebra, Trigonometry, Watts' Logic, outline of Philosophy, and copious Divinity, is itself a proof of Doddridge's learning. He was presented with his D.D. degree by the University of Aberdeen. His fame as a divine, combined with his wide sympathies and gentle, unaffected goodness, won for him the friendship of Watts, Col. Gardiner and Hervey, and the esteem of Seeker and Warburton. He welcomed the work of Wesley and Whitefield, and entertained the latter on his visit to Northampton. His Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul and The Family Expositor both did good work in their day. For criticism of his hymns see English Hymnody, Early, § XIV. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] After Dr. Doddridge's death his hymns were published by his friend Job Orton, in 1755, as:— "Hymns founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures. By the late Reverend Philip Doddridge, D.D. Published from the Author's Manuscript by Job Orton . . . Salop. Printed by J. Eddowes and J. Cotton, &c. MDCCLV." Concerning the text of the hymns, Orton says in his Preface:— "There may perhaps be some improprieties, owing to my not being able to read the author's manuscript in particular places, and being obliged, without a poetical genius, to supply those deficiencies, whereby the beauty of the stanza may be greatly defaced, though the sense is preserved." The 1st edition contained 370 hymns; the 2nd, 1759, 374; and the 3rd, 1766, and later editions, 375. In 1839 Doddridge's great-grandson re-edited the hymns from the original manuscript and published the same as:— Scriptural Hymns by the Rev. Philip Doddridge, D.D. New and corrected edition containing many hymns never before printed. Edited from the Original Documents by the Author's great-grandson, John Doddridge Humphreys, Esq. Lond. Darton & Clark, 1839. This work contains 22 additional hymns. The text differs in many instances from Orton's, but these changes have not come into common use. In addition to the manuscript used by Orton and J. D. Humphreys, another containing 100 hymns (five of which are not in any edition of the Hymns), all in the author's handwriting, and most of them dated, is referred to in this Dictionary as the "D. Manuscripts." It is the property of Mr. W. S. Booker and family. A manuscript, not in Doddridge's handwriting, of 77 "Hymns by P. Doddridge, Mar. 16, 1739/1740," is in the possession of Mr. W. T. Brooke. The existence of these manuscripts is accounted for from the fact that Doddridge's hymns were freely circulated in manuscript during his lifetime. It is from his correspondence with R. Blair (q.v.) that the few compositions traceable to him in the Scottish Trans. & Paraphrases were derived. The hymns by Doddridge which have attained to the greatest popularity are:— “Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve"; " Do not I love Thee, O my Lord? " "Grace 'tis a charming sound”; " Hark, the glad sound, the Saviour comes"; "My God, and is Thy table spread?" "O happy day, that fixed my choice"; "O God of Jacob [Bethel], by Whose hand”; " See Israel's gentle Shepherd stand"; "Ye servants of the Lord." These hymns, with many besides, are annotated under their respective first lines. Of the rest, taken from the Hymns, &c, 1755, the following are also in common use:— 1. Behold the gloomy vale. Death anticipated. 2. Behold the Great Physician stands. Christ the Physician. 3. Captives of Israel, hear. Spiritual Deliverance. 4. Eternal God, our wondering souls. Enoch's Piety and Translation. 5. Eternal Source of life and thought. Subjection to the Father. G. Exalted Prince of Life, we own. Christ the Prince and Saviour. 7. Father Divine, the Saviour cried. Christ's Submission to the Father. 8. Father Divine, Thy piercing eye. Secret Prayer. 9. Father of mercies, send Thy grace. Sympathy. The Good Samaritan. 10. Go, saith the Lord, proclaim my grace. Forgiveness. 11. God of Eternity, from Thee. Redeeming the Time. 12. God of my life, through all its [my] days. Praising God continually. 13. God. of salvation, we adore. Praise to God for Redemption. 14. Great Father of mankind. Gentiles brought into the Church. 15. Great God, we sing that mighty hand. The New Tear. 16. Great Leader of Thine Israel's host. During Persecution. 17. Great Lord of angels, we adore. Ordination. 18. Great Spirit of immortal love. Purity of Heart desired. 19. Great Teacher of Thy Church, we own. The Divine Precepts. 20. Hail, everlasting Prince of Peace. Sympathy. 21. Hail to the Prince of life and peace. Praise to Christ. 22. Hear, gracious [Saviour] Sovereign, from Thy throne. The Blessings of the Holy Spirit desired. 23. How gentle God's commands. God's Care of His Own. 24. How rich Thy favours, God of grace. God and His Living Temple. 25. How swift the torrent flows [rolls]. Our Fathers, where are they? 26. Jesus the Lord, our souls adore. Christ the Forerunner. 27. Jesus, we own Thy Sovereign hand. Christ to be fully known hereafter. 28. Loud let the tuneful trumpet sound. Gospel Jubilee. 29. My gracious Lord, I own Thy right. Life in Jesus. 30. My [Dear] Saviour, I am [we are] Thine. Joined to Christ through the Spirit. 31. My soul, with all thy waking powers. The Choice of Moses. 32. Now let our voices join. Singing in the ways of God. 33. 0 injured Majesty of heaven. Lent. 34. 0 Zion, tune thy voice. Glory of the Church of Christ. 35. Peace, 'tis the Lord Jehovah's hand. Resignation. 36. Praise the Lord of boundless might. The Father of Lights. 37. Praise to Thy Name, Eternal God. Growth in Grace desired. 38. Remark, my soul, the narrow bounds. The New Year. 39. Repent, the Voice celestial cries. Lent. 40. Return, my roving heart, return. Heart communing. 41. Salvation, O melodious sound. God our Salvation. 42. Saviour of men, and Lord of love. Ministry and Death of Christ. 43. Searcher of hearts, before Thy face. Peter to Simon Magus. 44. Shepherd of Israel, Thou dost keep. Induction or Settlement of a Minister. 45. Shine forth, eternal Source of light. Knowledge of God desired. 46. Shine on our souls, eternal God. Sunday. 47. Sing, ye redeemed of the Lord. Joy on the Homeward Way. 48. Sovereign of life, before Thine eye. Life and Death in God's hands. 49. The darkened sky, how thick it lours. Sorrow followed by Joy. 50. The day approacheth, O my soul. Judgment anticipated. 51. The King of heaven His table spreads. The Gospel Feast. 52. The promises I sing. The unchanging promises of God. 53. The swift-declining day. Walk in the Light. 54. These mortal joys, how soon they fade. Treasures, Perishable and Eternal. 55. Thy judgments cry aloud. Retributive Providence. 56. Thy presence, Everlasting God. Omnipresence of the Father. 57. 'Tis mine, the covenant of His grace. Death anticipated. 58. To Thee, my God; my days are known. Life under the eye of God. 59. Tomorrow, Lord, is Thine. Uncertainty of Life. 60. Triumphant Lord, Thy goodness reigns. The Divine Goodness. 61. Triumphant Zion, lift thy head. The Church Purified and Guarded. 62. Unite my roving thoughts, unite. Peace. 63. What mysteries, Lord, in Thee combine. Christ, the First and Last. 64. While on the verge of life I stand. Death anticipated with Joy. 65. With ecstacy of Joy. Christ the Living Stone. 66. Ye golden lamps of heaven, farewell. Heaven opening. 67. Ye hearts with youthful vigour warm. The Young encouraged. 68. Ye humble souls, that seek the Lord. Easter. 69. Ye sons of men, with joy record. Praise of the Works of God. 70. Yes, the Redeemer rose. Easter In Dr. Hatfield's Church HymnBook, N. Y., 1872, Nos. 9, 12, 14, 15, 21, 23, 25, 29, 30, 32, 34, 35, 39, 40, 44, 47, 51, 61, 64, 65, 67, 69, 70, as above, are dated 1740. What authority there may be for this date we cannot say, these hymns not being in any “D. MSS." with which we are acquainted, and no dates are given in the Hymns, &c, 1755. Some later American editors have copied this date from Dr. Hatfield. Doddridge's hymns are largely used by Unitarians both in Great Britain and America. As might be expected, the Congregationalists also draw freely from his stores. The Baptists come next. In the hymnals of the Church of England the choicest, only are in use. Taken together, over one-third of his hymns are in common usage at the present time. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================ Doddridge, Philip, D.D. At p. 305 an account is given of a manuscript volume of Doddridge's Hymns, which is the property of the Rooker family. Since that article was written another manuscript vol. has been found. It was the property of Lady Frances Gardiner, née Erskine, an intimate friend of Doddridge, and wife of Col. Gardiner. It is a copy of the Rooker manuscipt, with the revised text, as in the margin of that ms., and is in Doddridge's hand¬writing. It was from this manuscript that the Doddridge hymns were taken for the Scottish Translationsand Paraphrases, 1745. Additional hymns by Dr. Doddridge still in common use include:— 1. My God, how cheerful is the sound. All in Christ. 2. My Saviour, let me hear Thy voice. Pardon desired. 3. My soul, triumphant in the Lord. Divine Guidance assured. 4. No «iore, ye wise, your wisdom boast. Glorying in God alone. From Hymns, No. 128. 5. Now be that Sacrifice survey'd. Christ our Sacrifice. 6. 0 Israel, blest beyond compare. Happiness of God's Israel. 7. Our fathers, where are they? Considering the Past. From Hymns, No. 164. 8. Praise to the Lord on high. Missions. 9. Praise to the radiant Source of bliss. Praise for Divine Guidance. 10. Return, my soul, and seek thy rest. Rest in Jesus. 11. Salvation doth to God belong. National Thanksgiving. 12. Sovereign of Life, I own Thy hand. On Recovery from Sickness. 13. The sepulchres, how thick they stand. Burial. 14. There is a Shepherd kind and strong. The Good Shepherd. From Hymns, No. 216. 15. Wait on the Lord, ye heirs of hope. Waiting on God. 16. We bless the eternal Source of light. Christ's care of the Church. 17. With transport, Lord, our souls proclaim. Immutability of Christ. 18. Ye mourning saints, whose streaming tears. Death and Burial. These all appeared in Dr. Doddridge's Hymns, 1755. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Thomas Ravenscroft

1592 - 1635 Person Name: Thomas Ravenscroft (1590?-1634?) Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "BRISTOL" in Common Praise (1998) Thomas Ravenscroft United Kingdom 1592-1635. Born at Sussex, England, he allegedly sang in the choir at St Paul’s Cathedral. He attended music lectures at Gresham College. He was educated at Cambridge College, graduating in 1607. From 1618-1622 he was music master at Christ’s Hospital. Many of his works were aimed at pleasing a middle class lay public. He collected folk music: “Pammelia” (1609), “Deuteromelia” [includes the song “Three blind mice”](1609), “Melismata” (1611). He also published a metrical Psalter (the whole book of Psalms) in 1621. He composed 11 anthems, three motets, and four fantasies. He also wrote two treatises on music theory: “A briefe discourse of the true (but neglected) use of charact'ring the degrees” (1614), and “A treatise of musick”. He was an author, compiler, composer, editor, arranger, musician, bibliographer, contributor, antecedent, lyricist and creator. No informaton found regarding family. He died at London, England. 672 works. A reprint of his “Psalms” was published in 1844 by Canon Havergal. John Perry

Martin Rinkart

1586 - 1649 Person Name: Martin Rinkart, 1586-1649 Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "Now Thank We All Our God" in The Covenant Hymnal Rinkart, Martin, son of Georg Rinkart or Rinckart, cooper at Eilenburg on the Mulde, Saxony, was born at Eilenburg, April 23, 1586.* After passing through the Latin school at Eilenburg, he became, in Nov., 1601, a foundation scholar and chorister of the St. Thomas's School at Leipzig. This scholarship also allowed him to proceed to the University of Leipzig, where he matriculated for the summer session of 1602, as a student of Theology; and after the completion of his course he remained for some time in Leipzig (he did not take his M.A. till 1616). In March 1610 he offered himself as a candidate for the post of diaconus at Eilenburg, and was presented by the Town Council, but the Superintendent refused to sanction this arrangement, nominally on the ground that Rinkart was a better musician than theologian, but really because he was unwilling to have a colleague who was a native of Eilenburg, and who appeared to have a will of his own. Rinkart, not wishing to contest the matter, applied for a vacant mastership in the gymnasium at Eisleben, and entered on his duties there in the beginning of June, 1610, as sixth master, and also cantor of the St. Nicholas Church. After holding this appointment for a few months, he became diaconus of St. Anne's Church, in the Neustadt of Eisleben, and began his work there May 28, 1611; and then became pastor at Erdeborn and Lyttichendorf (Lütjendorf), near Eisleben, entering on his duties there on Dec. 5, 1613. Finally he was invited by the Town Council of Eilenburg to become archidiaconus there, and in Nov. 1617 came into residence at Eilenburg. He died at Eilenburg, Dec. 8, 1649. A memorial tablet to his memory, affixed to the house where he lived, was unveiled at Eilenburg on Easter Monday, April 26, 1886. (Martin Rinkart’s Geistliche Lieder, ed., with a biographical introduction, and an extensive bibliography, by Heinrich Rembe and Johannes Linke, D.D., Gotha, F. A. Perthes, 1886; K. Goedeke's Grundris, vol. iii., 1887, pp. 169, 211, &c.) The greater part of Rinkart's professional life was passed amid the horrors of the Thirty Years War. Eilenburg being a walled town became a refuge for fugitives from all around, and being so overcrowded, not unnaturally suffered from pestilence and famine. During the great pestilence of 1637 the Superintendent went away for change of air, and could not be persuaded to return; and on Aug. 7 Rinkart had to officiate at the funerals of two of the town clergy and two who had had to leave their livings in the country. Rinkart thus for some time was the only clergyman in the place, and often read the service over some 40 to 50 persons a day, and in all over about 4,480. At last the refugees had to be buried in trenches without service, and during the whole epidemic some 8,000 persons died, including Rinkart's first wife, who died May 8, 1637. The next year he had an epidemic of marriages to encounter, and himself fell a victim on June 24. Immediately thereafter came a most severe famine, during which Rinkart's resources were strained to the uttermost to help his people. Twice also he saved Eilenburg from the Swedes, once in the beginning of 1637, and again in 1639 (see p. 319, i.). Unfortunately the services he rendered to the place seemed to have made those in authority the more ungrateful, and in his latter years he was much harassed by them in financial and other matters, and by the time that the long-looked-for peace came (Oct. 24, 1648) he was a worn-out and prematurely aged man. Rinkart was a voluminous writer and a good musician, but a considerable number of his books seem to have perished, and others survive only in single copies. He early began to write poetry, and was crowned as a poet apparently in 1614. Among other things he wrote a cycle of seven so-called "Comedies," or rather dramas, on the Reformation Period, suggested by the centenary of the Reformation in 1617. Three of these were printed respectively in 1613, 1618, and 1625, and two of them were acted in public. Rinkart's hymns appeared principally in the following works:— (1) Jesu Hertz-Büchlein. This was completed in 1630, and first published at Leipzig in 1636. No copy is now known. The second edition, published at Leipzig, 1663, is in the Royal Library at Hannover. (2) Der Meissnische Thränen Saat, Leipzig, 1637. In the Royal Library at Berlin. (3) xlv. Epithalami Salomoneo—Sulamitici cantica canticorum . . . Leibliche Geistliche und Uimmlische Braut Messe, Leipzig, 1642. In Wolfenbüttel Library. (4) Catechismus-wolthaten, und Catechismus-Lieder, Leipzig, 1645. In the Berlin Library. Dr. Linke, 1886, as above, gives a list of the first lines of all the hymns in the works of Rinkart which have come under his notice, and prints a selection from them, including 66 in all. The best of them are characterised by a true patriotism, a childlike devotion to God, and a firm confidence in God's mercy, and His promised help and grace. A few passed into the German hymn-books. Those which have been translated into English are:— 1. Alleluja, Lob, Preis und Ehr. This hymn… seems to be based on two hymns, beginning with the same first line, and both found in Rinkart's Braut Messe, 1642. Dr. Linke does not print the full text. (See Blätter für Hymnologie, 1886, p. 91.) ii. Nun danket alle Gott. Thanksgiving. The oldest text now accessible is in J. Crüger's Praxis, 1648, No. 183, in 3 stanzas of 8 lines; also in the Crüger-Runge Gesang-Buch, 1653, No. 187. It is also in Rinkart's Jesu Hertz-Büchlein, 1663, where the text slightly varies, and is entitled "Grace" ("Tisch-Gebetlein," i.e. a short prayer at table). There does not seem any good reason for supposing that it did not appear in the first ed., 1636, of the Hertz-Büchlein, and in any case it has no connection with the Peace of Westphalia. (A good specimen of the way in which stories of hymns are manufactured is in the Sunday at Home, Aug., 1888, p. 539, where a full and particular account is given of its legendary origin in Nov. 1648.) It is founded on Ecclesiasticus 1. 22-24; and st. i., ii. are indeed little more than a paraphrase of these verses, st. iii. being a version of the Gloria Patri. The fact that the regimental chaplains, when holding the special service of thanksgiving for the conclusion of the peace, were commanded to preach from this passage, may have suggested the theory that Rinkart's hymn was written for the same occasion. It gradually came into general use, successfully survived the period of Rationalism, and is now to be found in every German hymnbook, e.g. in the Berlin Geistliche Lieder, ed. 1863, No. 1022. It may be called the German Te Deum, and as such is used at all national festivals or special occasions of thanksgiving. It was recently used at the festal celebration of the completion of Cologne Cathedral, on Aug. 14, 1880, at the laying of the foundation stone of the new Reichstags building in Berlin, by the Emperor William, June 9, 1884, &c. The fine melody (set to the hymn in Hymns Ancient & Modern and most recent English collections) appears in the Praxis, 1648 (Crüger's Kirchenmelodien, 1649, No. 94), and in the Crüger-Runge Gesang-Buch, 1653, is marked with Crüger's initials. It has been described as adapted from a melody by Lucas Marenzo (choirmaster at Rome, who died 1598), or as adapted from a motet by Rinkart; but to prove either statement, very little evidence is forthcoming. The translations of the hymn into English are:— 1. Let all men praise the Lord. This is a tr. of st. i., iii., by Alfred Novello, as part of his version of the word-book to Mendelssohn's Lobgesang, or Hymn of Praise, 1843, p. 89. This form has passed into a number of hymnals, including the New Congregational Hymn Book, 1859; Dale's English Hymn Book 1874, and others. In the Baptist Hymnal, 1879, a tr. of st. ii. is added, of which 11. 1—4 are from Miss Winkworth's translation. 2. Now praise the Lord on high. In full as No. 53 in the Dalston Hospital Hymn Book, 1848. This appears to be the version which Kübler, in his Historical Notes to the Lyra Germanica, 1865, p. 247, says was made by Baron C. K. J. von Bunsen, for the opening of the German Hospital at Dalston, on Oct. 15, 1845. 3. Now let us all to God. In full, by A. T. Russell, as No. 201, in his Psalms & Hymns, 1851. 4. 0 let us praise the Lord, From hearts by true love guided. This is No. 240 in the Winchester Church Hymn Book, 1857, and seems to be intended as a paraphrase of the German. 5. Now thank we all our God. A full and very good translation by Miss Winkworth, in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Serv. 1858, p. 145, repeated in her Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 11, and her Christian Singers, 1869, p. 181. It has been included in many recent English and American hymnals, e. g. Hymns Ancient & Modern, 1861; People's Hymnal, 1867; Congregational Hymnal, 1887, &c, and in America in the Episcopal Hymnal, 1871; Presbyterian Hymnal, 1874, and many others, generally in full and unaltered. 6. Now all give thanks to God. In full as No. 264 in the Anglican Hymn Book, 1868 (1871, No. 307), marked as a versification by R. C. Singleton. Repeated in J. L. Porter's Collection, 1876. 7. Now all men thank ye God. In full by T. E. Brown, as No. 37 in the Clifton College Hymn Book, 1872. Other translations are:— (l) "Now let us praise the Lord." In full by J. C. Jacobi, 1722, p. 85 (1732, p. 144), repeated, altered, in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1754 to 1886. (2) "Now all, to God give thanks." By Dr. H. Mills, in the Evangelical Review, Gettysburg, 1851, p. 293, and his Horae Germanica, 1856, p. 14. (3) "Lift heart, and hands, and voice." By Miss Cox, 1864, p. 239. (4) “Now all give thanks to God." By J. D. Burns, 1869, p. 252. (5) “All hearts and tongues and hands." By N. L. Frothingham, 1870, p. 212. iii. So fahr ich hin mit Freuden. For the Dying. In his Meissnische Thränen-Saat, 1637, No. 24, p. 19, in 5 st.anzas of 8 lines, entitled "Even the same, and her soul-rejoicing Farewell Hymn. On May 8." St. i. is, "So fahr ich hin mit Frewden Aus diesem Jammerthal, Aus Angst, Gefahr und Leiden In Himmels-Frewden Saal, Da wir und alle Frommen Durch Gottes Wundermacht Zusaminen wiederkominen: In des zu guter Nacht." The title refers to the preceding hymn, which is in 19 stanzas, the initials of the stanzas forming the acrostic Christina Rinckardi. Dr. Linke abridges it and misprints the title, which is:— "Die Teutsche Jobs-Schwester (Christina M. Rinckart's Hertzgetrewe Ehe- und Creutz-genossin) und ihr Tagliches und behägliches Trost Lied. Aus ihrem längst erwählten und am 10. [not 30] Tage des Trosthühlen Meyen dieses 1637. Jahres zum letzten Ehrengedächtniss abgehandelten Leich-Text: des 77. Psalms." From this it is clear that both hymns are in memory of his wife, that she died on May 8, 1637, and that her funeral sermon was preached by her husband on May 10, 1637. The form translation into English is the greatly altered, or rather practically new text. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] * His own statement was that he “was born Anno 1586, Jubilate Sunday, on St. George's day, which was the 23rd of April, between 6 and 7 a.m." In 1586 however Jubilate S. (3rd Sunday after Easter) fell on April 24, while St. George's day is April 23. The entry in the Registers at Eilenburg says that he was baptised "Monday after Jubilate, the 25th of April," which is quite correct. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Catherine Winkworth

1827 - 1878 Person Name: Catherine Winkworth, 1827-1878 Scripture: Psalm 147 Translator of "Now Thank We All Our God" in The Covenant Hymnal Catherine Winkworth (b. Holborn, London, England, 1827; d. Monnetier, Savoy, France, 1878) is well known for her English translations of German hymns; her translations were polished and yet remained close to the original. Educated initially by her mother, she lived with relatives in Dresden, Germany, in 1845, where she acquired her knowledge of German and interest in German hymnody. After residing near Manchester until 1862, she moved to Clifton, near Bristol. A pioneer in promoting women's rights, Winkworth put much of her energy into the encouragement of higher education for women. She translated a large number of German hymn texts from hymnals owned by a friend, Baron Bunsen. Though often altered, these translations continue to be used in many modern hymnals. Her work was published in two series of Lyra Germanica (1855, 1858) and in The Chorale Book for England (1863), which included the appropriate German tune with each text as provided by Sterndale Bennett and Otto Goldschmidt. Winkworth also translated biographies of German Christians who promoted ministries to the poor and sick and compiled a handbook of biographies of German hymn authors, Christian Singers of Germany (1869). Bert Polman ======================== Winkworth, Catherine, daughter of Henry Winkworth, of Alderley Edge, Cheshire, was born in London, Sep. 13, 1829. Most of her early life was spent in the neighbourhood of Manchester. Subsequently she removed with the family to Clifton, near Bristol. She died suddenly of heart disease, at Monnetier, in Savoy, in July, 1878. Miss Winkworth published:— Translations from the German of the Life of Pastor Fliedner, the Founder of the Sisterhood of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserworth, 1861; and of the Life of Amelia Sieveking, 1863. Her sympathy with practical efforts for the benefit of women, and with a pure devotional life, as seen in these translations, received from her the most practical illustration possible in the deep and active interest which she took in educational work in connection with the Clifton Association for the Higher Education of Women, and kindred societies there and elsewhere. Our interest, however, is mainly centred in her hymnological work as embodied in her:— (1) Lyra Germanica, 1st Ser., 1855. (2) Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858. (3) The Chorale Book for England (containing translations from the German, together with music), 1863; and (4) her charming biographical work, the Christian Singers of Germany, 1869. In a sympathetic article on Miss Winkworth in the Inquirer of July 20, 1878, Dr. Martineau says:— "The translations contained in these volumes are invariably faithful, and for the most part both terse and delicate; and an admirable art is applied to the management of complex and difficult versification. They have not quite the fire of John Wesley's versions of Moravian hymns, or the wonderful fusion and reproduction of thought which may be found in Coleridge. But if less flowing they are more conscientious than either, and attain a result as poetical as severe exactitude admits, being only a little short of ‘native music'" Dr. Percival, then Principal of Clifton College, also wrote concerning her (in the Bristol Times and Mirror), in July, 1878:— "She was a person of remarkable intellectual and social gifts, and very unusual attainments; but what specially distinguished her was her combination of rare ability and great knowledge with a certain tender and sympathetic refinement which constitutes the special charm of the true womanly character." Dr. Martineau (as above) says her religious life afforded "a happy example of the piety which the Church of England discipline may implant.....The fast hold she retained of her discipleship of Christ was no example of ‘feminine simplicity,' carrying on the childish mind into maturer years, but the clear allegiance of a firm mind, familiar with the pretensions of non-Christian schools, well able to test them, and undiverted by them from her first love." Miss Winkworth, although not the earliest of modern translators from the German into English, is certainly the foremost in rank and popularity. Her translations are the most widely used of any from that language, and have had more to do with the modern revival of the English use of German hymns than the versions of any other writer. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ============================ See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church

Johann Crüger

1598 - 1662 Person Name: Johann Crüger, 1598-1662 Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "NUN DANKET" in The Covenant Hymnal Johann Crüger (b. Grossbriesen, near Guben, Prussia, Germany, 1598; d. Berlin, Germany, 1662) Crüger attended the Jesuit College at Olmutz and the Poets' School in Regensburg, and later studied theology at the University of Wittenberg. He moved to Berlin in 1615, where he published music for the rest of his life. In 1622 he became the Lutheran cantor at the St. Nicholas Church and a teacher for the Gray Cloister. He wrote music instruction manuals, the best known of which is Synopsis musica (1630), and tirelessly promoted congregational singing. With his tunes he often included elaborate accompaniment for various instruments. Crüger's hymn collection, Neues vollkomliches Gesangbuch (1640), was one of the first hymnals to include figured bass accompaniment (musical shorthand) with the chorale melody rather than full harmonization written out. It included eighteen of Crüger's tunes. His next publication, Praxis Pietatis Melica (1644), is considered one of the most important collections of German hymnody in the seventeenth century. It was reprinted forty-four times in the following hundred years. Another of his publications, Geistliche Kirchen Melodien (1649), is a collection arranged for four voices, two descanting instruments, and keyboard and bass accompaniment. Crüger also published a complete psalter, Psalmodia sacra (1657), which included the Lobwasser translation set to all the Genevan tunes. Bert Polman =============================== Crüger, Johann, was born April 9, 1598, at Gross-Breese, near Guben, Brandenburg. After passing through the schools at Guben, Sorau and Breslau, the Jesuit College at Olmütz, and the Poets' school at Regensburg, he made a tour in Austria, and, in 1615, settled at Berlin. There, save for a short residence at the University of Wittenberg, in 1620, he employed himself as a private tutor till 1622. In 1622 he was appointed Cantor of St. Nicholas's Church at Berlin, and also one of the masters of the Greyfriars Gymnasium. He died at Berlin Feb. 23, 1662. Crüger wrote no hymns, although in some American hymnals he appears as "Johann Krüger, 1610,” as the author of the supposed original of C. Wesley's "Hearts of stone relent, relent" (q.v.). He was one of the most distinguished musicians of his time. Of his hymn tunes, which are generally noble and simple in style, some 20 are still in use, the best known probably being that to "Nun danket alle Gott" (q.v.), which is set to No. 379 in Hymns Ancient & Modern, ed. 1875. His claim to notice in this work is as editor and contributor to several of the most important German hymnological works of the 16th century, and these are most conveniently treated of under his name. (The principal authorities on his works are Dr. J. F. Bachmann's Zur Geschichte der Berliner Gesangbücher 1857; his Vortrag on P. Gerhard, 1863; and his edition of Gerhardt's Geistliche Lieder, 1866. Besides these there are the notices in Bode, and in R. Eitner's Monatshefte für Musik-Geschichte, 1873 and 1880). These works are:— 1. Newes vollkömmliches Gesangbuch, Augspur-gischer Confession, &c, Berlin, 1640 [Library of St. Nicholas's Church, Berlin], with 248 hymns, very few being published for the first time. 2. Praxis pietatis melica. Das ist: Ubung der Gottseligkeit in Christlichen und trostreichen Gesängen. The history of this, the most important work of the century, is still obscure. The 1st edition has been variously dated 1640 and 1644, while Crüger, in the preface to No. 3, says that the 3rd edition appeared in 1648. A considerable correspondence with German collectors and librarians has failed to bring to light any of the editions which Koch, iv. 102, 103, quotes as 1644, 1647, 1649, 1650, 1651, 1652, 1653. The imperfect edition noted below as probably that of 1648 is the earliest Berlin edition we have been able to find. The imperfect edition, probably ix. of 1659, formerly in the hands of Dr. Schneider of Schleswig [see Mützell, 1858, No. 264] was inaccessible. The earliest perfect Berlin edition we have found is 1653. The edition printed at Frankfurt in 1656 by Caspar Röteln was probably a reprint of a Berlin edition, c. 1656. The editions printed at Frankfurt-am-Main by B. C. Wust (of which the 1666 is in the preface described as the 3rd) are in considerable measure independent works. In the forty-five Berlin and over a dozen Frankfurt editions of this work many of the hymns of P. Gerhardt, J. Franck, P. J. Spener, and others, appear for the first time, and therein also appear many of the best melodies of the period. 3. Geistliche Kirchen-Melodien, &c, Leipzig, 1649 [Library of St. Katherine's Church, Brandenburg]. This contains the first stanzas only of 161 hymns, with music in four vocal and two instrumental parts. It is the earliest source of the first stanzas of various hymns by Gerhardt, Franck, &c. 4. D. M. Luther's und anderer vornehmen geisU reichen und gelehrten Manner Geistliche Lieder und Psalmen, &c, Berlin, 1653 [Hamburg Town Library], with 375 hymns. This was edited by C. Runge, the publisher, and to it Crüger contributed some 37 melodies. It was prepared at the request of Luise Henriette (q.v.), as a book for the joint use of the Lutherans and the Re¬formed, and is the earliest source of the hymns ascribed to her, and of the complete versions of many hymns by Gerhardt and Franck. 5. Psalmodia Sacra, &c, Berlin, 1658 [Royal Library, Berlin]. The first section of this work is in an ed. of A. Lobwasser's German Psalter; the second, with a similar title to No. 4, and the date 1657, is practically a recast of No. 4,146 of those in 1653 being omitted, and the rest of the 319 hymns principally taken from the Praxis of 1656 and the hymn-books of the Bohemian Brethren. New eds. appeared in 1676, 1700, 1704, 1711, and 1736. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] -- Excerpt from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ======================= Crüger, Johann, p. 271, ii. Dr. J. Zahn, now of Neuendettelsau, in Bavaria, has recently acquired a copy of the 5th ed., Berlin, 1653, of the Praxis. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

1809 - 1847 Person Name: Felix Mendelssohn, 1809-1847 Scripture: Psalm 147 Arranger of "NUN DANKET" in The Covenant Hymnal 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

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1756 - 1791 Person Name: W. A. Mozart, 1756-1791 Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "MOZART ALLELUIA" in Psalms for All Seasons Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Austria 1756-1791. Born at Salzburg, Austria, the son of Leopold Mozart, a minor composer and violinist, and youngest of seven children, he showed amazing ability on violin and keyboard from earliest childhood, even starting to compose music at age four when his father would play a piece and Mozart would play it exactly as did his father. At five, he composed some of his own music, which he played to his father, who wrote it down. When Mozart was eight, he wrote his first symphony, probably transcribed by his father. In his early years his father was his only teacher, teaching his children languages and academic subjects, as well as fundamentals of their strict Catholic faith. Some of his early compositions came as a surprise to his father, who eventually gave up composing himself when he realized how talented his son was. His family made several European journeys and he and his sister, Nanneri, performed as child prodigies, at the court of Prince-elector Maximillian II of Bavaria in Munich, and at the Imperial Courts in Vienna and Prague. A long concert tour followed, for 3.5 years, taking the family to courts in Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London, Dover, The Hague, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Mechelen, and again to Paris, and back home via Zurich, Donaueschingen, and Munich. During these trips Mozart met many musicians, acquainting himself with the works of other composers. He met Johann Christian Bach in London in 1764. Family trips were challenging, and travel conditions were primitive. They had to wait for invitations and reimbursements from nobility, and they endured long, near-fatal illnesses far from home. First Leopold (1764) got sick, then both children (1765). They traveled again to Vienna in 1767 and stayed there over a year. After a year back in Salzburg, Leopold and Wolfgang went to Italy (1769-1771), Leopold wished to display his son’s abilities as a performer and maturing composer. In Bologna, Italy, Wolfgang was accepted as a member of the famous Academia Filamonica. In Rome he heard Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere twice in performance. Back in the Sistine Chapel, Mozart wrote the whole performance out from memory, thus producing the first unauthorized copy of this closely guarded property of the Vatican. In the next few years Mozart wrote several operas performed with success in Italy, but his father’s hopes of securing a professional appointment for his son were not realized. At age 17 he was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position. After returning to Salzburg, Mozart was employed as a court musician by the ruler of Salzburg, Prince Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. This gave Mozart ample opportunity to develop relationships with other musicians and his admirers, resulting in his development of new symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, masses, serenades, and some minor operas. In 1775 he wrote his only violin concertos, five in all. Again, he was discontent with work in Salzburg and traveled to find more opportunity to write operas. He and his father again visited Munich and Vienna, but neither visit was successful with the exception of his opera ‘La finta giardiniera’ in Munich. In 1777 he resigned his Salzburg position and went to Augsburg, Mannheim, Paris, and Munich again. In Mannheim he met and fell in love with Aloysia Weber, one of four daughters of a musical family. He could find no real employment there and left for Paris in 1778. He might have had a position as organist at Versailles, but he was not interested in that. He fell into debt and started pawning valuables. During these events his mother died. Meanwhile his father was still trying to find him a position in Salzburg. After checking out several other European cities and Munich, he again encountered Aloysia, but she was no longer interested in him, so he returned to Salzburg, having written another symphony, concerto, and piano sonata, and took the new appointment his father had found. However, he was still in discontent. Visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He wrote another opera, ‘Idomeneo’, in 1781, that was successful in Munich. Two months later he was summoned to Vienna, where his employer, Archbishop Colloredo, wanted him around due to his notoriety. Mozart wished to meet the emperor and perform for him, and finally got that opportunity. It resulted in a part-time position and substantial commissions. Colloredo became a nemesis to Mozart’s career, finally releasing Mozart from his employ with a literal kick in the pants, much against his father’s wishes. However, he was now independent. Mozart then decided to settle in Vienna as a free lance performer and composer. He lived with the Fridolin Weber family, who had moved from Mannheim to Vienna. Fridolin, the father, had died, and they were taking in lodgers to make ends meet. His career there went well, and he performed as a pianist before the Emperor, establishing himself as the finest keyboard player in Vienna. He wrote another opera in 1782, again achieving success. Mozart had now become a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period and was known throughout Europe. Aloysia was now married to actor, Joseph Lange, and Mozart’s interest shifted to her sister, Constanze. In 1782 he married Constanze Weber Mozart Nissen. The marriage started out with a brief separation, and there was a problem getting Mozart’s father’s permission, which finally came. They had six children, but only two survived infancy: Carl and Franz. He lived in Vienna and achieved some notoriety, composing many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas. In 1782-83 he became intimately acquainted with Johann Sebastian Bach and George Friederic Handel, as his friend, Gottfried van Swieten, owned many manuscripts of the Baroque masters, which Mozart studied intently. He altered his style of composition as a result. That year Mozart and his wife visited his father and sister, and he composed a liturgical piece, a Mass, with a singing part for his wife. He also met Joseph Hadyn in Vienna in 1784 and they became friends. They even played together in a string quartet from time to time. Mozart wrote six quartets dedicated to Hadyn. In 1785 Hadyn told Leopold Mozart, “Your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste, and what is more, the greatest skill in composition”. Over the next several years Mozart booked several piano concertos in various places as a sole performer to delighted audiences, making substantial remuneration for his work. He and his wife then adopted a more luxurious lifestyle. They moved to an expensive apartment and he bought a fine fortepiano and billiard table. They sent their son, Karl, to an expensive boarding school and also kept servants. In 1784 Mozart became a Freemason and even composed Masonic music. Over the next several years he did little operatic writing and focused on his career as a piano soloist and writer of concertos. He again began operatic collaboration in 1785, creating ‘The marriage of Figaro’, then ‘Don Giovanni’ in 1787. That year his father died. Also that year he obtained a steady post under Emperor Joseph II as his chamber composer. This was part-time employment that was important when hard times arrived. However, Joseph aimed at keeping Mozart from leaving Vienna for better work. The Austrio-Turkish War made life difficult for musicians, and his aristocracy support had declined. He moved to save on expenses, but that did not help much, and he was reduced to borrowing funds from his friends, and pleading for loans. During this period he produced his last three symphonies. In 1789 he then set up on a journey to Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin hoping to improve his fortunes. In 1790 he was highly productive, producing concertos, an opera, ‘The magic flute’, a series of string quintets, a motet, and an (unfinished) Requiem. Finances began to improve and he begin paying back his debts. Public reaction to his works also brought him great satisfaction. In 1791, while in Prague for the premiere of his opera, ‘La clemenza di Tito’, he fell ill. He continued professional functions for a short time, but had to go home and be nursed by his wife over the next couple of months. He died at Vienna, Austria, at the age of 35, a small thin man with undistinguishing characteristics. He was buried in a modest grave, having had a small funeral. Beethoven composed his early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Hadyn wrote “posterity will not see such a talent (as Mozart) again in 100 years”. 600+ works. Side note: Mozart enjoyed billiards, dancing, and had a pet canary, a starling, a dog, and a horse for recreational riding. He liked off-color humor. He wore elegant clothing when performing and had a modest tenor voice. John Perry

Norah Duncan

Person Name: Norah Duncan IV Scripture: Psalms 146-150 Composer of "ALLELUIA DUNCAN" in Lift Up Your Hearts

E. H. Plumptre

1821 - 1891 Person Name: Edward H. Plumptre Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "Rejoice, O Pilgrim Throng!" in Moravian Book of Worship Edward H. Plumptre (b. London, England, August 6, 1821; d. Wells, England, February 1, 1891) was an eminent classical and biblical scholar who gained prominence in both church and university. Educated at King's College, London, and University College, Oxford, he was ordained in the Church of England in 1846. Plumptre served as a preacher at Oxford and a professor of pastoral theology at King's College, and held a number of other prestigious positions. His writings include A Life of Bishop Ken (1888), translations from Greek and Latin classics, and poetry and hymns. Plumptre was also a member of the committee that produced the Revised Version of the Bible. Bert Polman ==================== Plumptre, Edward Hayes, D.D., son of Mr. E. H. Plumptre, was born in London, Aug. 6, 1821, and educated at King's College, London, and University College, Oxford, graduating as a double first in 1844. He was for some time Fellow of Brasenose. On taking Holy Orders in 1846 he rapidly attained to a foremost position as a Theologian and Preacher. His appointments have been important and influential, and include that of Assistant Preacher at Lincoln's Inn; Select Preacher at Oxford; Professor of Pastoral Theology at King's College, London; Dean of Queen's, Oxford; Prebendary in St. Paul's Cathedral, London; Professor of Exegesis of the New Testament in King's College, London; Boyle Lecturer; Grinfield Lecturer on the Septuagint, Oxford; Examiner in the Theological schools at Oxford; Member of the Old Testament Company for the Revision of the A.V. of the Holy Scriptures; Rector of Pluckley, 1869; Vicar of Bickley, Kent, 1873; and Dean of Wells, 1881. Dean Plumptre's literary productions have been very numerous and important, and embrace the classics, history, divinity, biblical criticism, biography, and poetry. The list as set forth in Crockford's Clerical Directory is very extensive. His poetical works include Lazarus, and Other Poems, 1864; Master and Scholar, 1866; Things New and Old, 1884; and translations of Sophocles, Æschylus, and Dante. As a writer of sacred poetry he ranks very high. His hymns are elegant in style, fervent in spirit, and broad in treatment. The subjects chosen are mainly those associated with the revived Church life of the present day, from the Processional at a Choral Festival to hospital work and the spiritual life in schools and colleges. The rhythm of his verse has a special attraction for musicians, its poetry for the cultured, and its stately simplicity for the devout and earnest-minded. The two which have attained to the most extensive use in Great Britain and America are: Rejoice, ye pure in heart," and "Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old." His translations from the Latin, many of which were made for the Hymnary, 1871 and 1872, are very good and musical, but they have not been used in any way in proportion to their merits. His original hymns in common use include:— 1. Behold they gain the lonely height. The Transfiguration. Written for and first published in the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Church Hymns, 1871. 2. For all Thy countless bounties. National Hymns. Written for the Jubilee of Queen Victoria, 1887, and set to music by C. W. Lavington. It was printed, together with the National Anthem adapted for the Jubilee, in Good Words, 1887. 3. Lo, summer comes again! Harvest. Written in 1871 for use at the Harvest Festival in Pluckley Church, Kent, of which the author was then rector, and published in the same year in the Hymnary, No. 466. 4. March, march, onward soldiers true. Processional at Choral Festivals. Written in 1867 for the tune of Costa's March of the Israelites in the Oratorio of Eli, at the request of the Rev. Henry White, Chaplain of the Savoy, and first used in that Chapel. It was subsequently published in the Savoy Hymnary, N.D. [1870], in 4 stanzas of 4 lines; in a Choral Festival book at Peterborough, and in the S. P. C. K. Church Hymns, 1871. 5. 0 Light, Whose beams illumine all. The Way, the Truth, and the Life. Written in May 1864, and published in his Lazarus, and Other Poems, 1864, as one of five Hymns for School and College. It passed into the 1868 Appendix to Hymns Ancient & Modern, and again into other collections. 6. 0 Lord of hosts, all heaven possessing. For School or College. Written in May, 1864, and published in his Lazarus and other Poems, 1864, in 5 stanzas of 6 lines. 7. 0 praise the Lord our God. Processional Thanksgiving Hymn. Written May 1864, and published in his Lazarus, and other Poems, 1864, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines. It is a most suitable hymn for Sunday school gatherings. 8. Rejoice, ye pure in heart. Processional at Choral Festival. Written in May 1865, for the Peterborough Choral Festival of that year, and first used in Peterborough Cathedral. In the same year it was published with special music by Novello & Co; and again (without music) in the 2nd edition of Lazarus, and Other Poems, 1865. It was included in the 1868 Appendix to Hymns Ancient & Modern with the change in stanza i., line 3, of "Your orient banner wave on high," to "Your festal banner wave on high." It is more widely used than any other of the author's hymns. Authorized text in Hymns Ancient & Modern. 9. Thine arm, 0 Lord, in days of old. Hospitals. Written in 1864 for use in King's College Hospital, London, and first printed on a fly-sheet as "A Hymn used in the Chapel of King's College Hospital." It was included in the 2nd edition of Lazarus, and Other Poems, 1865; in the 1868 Appendix to Hymns Ancient & Modern; the S. P. C. K. Church Hymns, 1871; Thring's Collection, 1882; and many others. 10. Thy hand, 0 God, has guided. Church Defence. Included in the 1889 Supplemental Hymns to Hymns Ancient & Modern The closing line of each stanza, "One Church, one Faith, one Lord," comes in with fine effect. Dean Plumptre's Life of Bishop Ken, 1888, is an exhaustive and excellent work. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) =============== Plumptre, E. H., p. 897, i. Died at the Deanery, Wells, Feb. 1, 1891. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Arthur Henry Messiter

1834 - 1916 Person Name: Arthur H. Messiter Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "MARION" in Moravian Book of Worship Arthur H. Messiter (b. Frome, Somersetshire, England, 1834; d. New York, NY, 1916) Educated by private tutors in England, he, immigrated to the United States in 1863 and had an active musical career in Philadelphia, which included an organist position at St. James the Less. At Trinity Church in New York City, he modeled with distinction the British cathedral tradition of music. Messiter was an editor of the Episcopal Hymnal (1893), compiled the Psalter (1889) and Choir Office Book (1891), and wrote a musical history of Trinity Episcopal Church, New York (1906). Bert Polman

William Cowper

1731 - 1800 Person Name: William Cowper, 1731-1800 Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "Sometimes a light surprises" in Together in Song William Cowper (pronounced "Cooper"; b. Berkampstead, Hertfordshire, England, 1731; d. East Dereham, Norfolk, England, 1800) is regarded as one of the best early Romantic poets. To biographers he is also known as "mad Cowper." His literary talents produced some of the finest English hymn texts, but his chronic depression accounts for the somber tone of many of those texts. Educated to become an attorney, Cowper was called to the bar in 1754 but never practiced law. In 1763 he had the opportunity to become a clerk for the House of Lords, but the dread of the required public examination triggered his tendency to depression, and he attempted suicide. His subsequent hospitalization and friendship with Morley and Mary Unwin provided emotional stability, but the periods of severe depression returned. His depression was deepened by a religious bent, which often stressed the wrath of God, and at times Cowper felt that God had predestined him to damnation. For the last two decades of his life Cowper lived in Olney, where John Newton became his pastor. There he assisted Newton in his pastoral duties, and the two collaborated on the important hymn collection Olney Hymns (1779), to which Cowper contributed sixty-eight hymn texts. Bert Polman ============ Cowper, William, the poet. The leading events in the life of Cowper are: born in his father's rectory, Berkhampstead, Nov. 26, 1731; educated at Westminster; called to the Bar, 1754; madness, 1763; residence at Huntingdon, 1765; removal to Olney, 1768; to Weston, 1786; to East Dereham, 1795; death there, April 25, 1800. The simple life of Cowper, marked chiefly by its innocent recreations and tender friendships, was in reality a tragedy. His mother, whom he commemorated in the exquisite "Lines on her picture," a vivid delineation of his childhood, written in his 60th year, died when he was six years old. At his first school he was profoundly wretched, but happier at Westminster; excelling at cricket and football, and numbering Warren Hastings, Colman, and the future model of his versification. Churchill, among his contemporaries or friends. Destined for the Bar, he was articled to a solicitor, along with Thurlow. During this period he fell in love with his cousin, Theodora Cowper, sister to Lady Hesketh, and wrote love poems to her. The marriage was forbidden by her father, but she never forgot him, and in after years secretly aided his necessities. Fits of melancholy, from which he had suffered in school days, began to increase, as he entered on life, much straitened in means after his father's death. But on the whole, it is the playful, humorous side of him that is most prominent in the nine years after his call to the Bar; spent in the society of Colman, Bonnell Thornton, and Lloyd, and in writing satires for The Connoisseur and St. James's Chronicle and halfpenny ballads. Then came the awful calamity, which destroyed all hopes of distinction, and made him a sedentary invalid, dependent on his friends. He had been nominated to the Clerkship of the Journals of the House of Lords, but the dread of appearing before them to show his fitness for the appointment overthrew his reason. He attempted his life with "laudanum, knife and cord,"—-in the third attempt nearly succeeding. The dark delusion of his life now first showed itself—a belief in his reprobation by God. But for the present, under the wise and Christian treatment of Dr. Cotton (q. v.) at St. Albans, it passed away; and the eight years that followed, of which the two first were spent at Huntingdon (where he formed his lifelong friendship with Mrs. Unwin), and the remainder at Olney in active piety among the poor, and enthusiastic devotions under the guidance of John Newton (q. v.), were full of the realisation of God's favour, and the happiest, most lucid period of his life. But the tension of long religious exercises, the nervous excitement of leading at prayer meetings, and the extreme despondence (far more than the Calvinism) of Newton, could scarcely have been a healthy atmosphere for a shy, sensitive spirit, that needed most of all the joyous sunlight of Christianity. A year after his brother's death, madness returned. Under the conviction that it was the command of God, he attempted suicide; and he then settled down into a belief in stark contradiction to his Calvinistic creed, "that the Lord, after having renewed him in holiness, had doomed him to everlasting perdition" (Southey). In its darkest form his affliction lasted sixteen months, during which he chiefly resided in J. Newton's house, patiently tended by him and by his devoted nurse, Mrs. Unwin. Gradually he became interested in carpentering, gardening, glazing, and the tendance of some tame hares and other playmates. At the close of 1780, Mrs. Unwin suggested to him some serious poetical work; and the occupation proved so congenial, that his first volume was published in 1782. To a gay episode in 1783 (his fascination by the wit of Lady Austen) his greatest poem, The Task, and also John Gilpin were owing. His other principal work was his Homer, published in 1791. The dark cloud had greatly lifted from his life when Lady Hesketh's care accomplished his removal to Weston (1786): but the loss of his dear friend William Unwin lowered it again for some months. The five years' illness of Mrs. Unwin, during which his nurse of old became his tenderly-watched patient, deepened the darkness more and more. And her death (1796) brought “fixed despair," of which his last poem, The Castaway, is the terrible memorial. Perhaps no more beautiful sentence has been written of him, than the testimony of one, who saw him after death, that with the "composure and calmness" of the face there “mingled, as it were, a holy surprise." Cowper's poetry marks the dawn of the return from the conventionality of Pope to natural expression, and the study of quiet nature. His ambition was higher than this, to be the Bard of Christianity. His great poems show no trace of his monomania, and are full of healthy piety. His fame as a poet is less than as a letter-writer: the charm of his letters is unsurpassed. Though the most considerable poet, who has written hymns, he has contributed little to the development of their structure, adopting the traditional modes of his time and Newton's severe canons. The spiritual ideas of the hymns are identical with Newton's: their highest note is peace and thankful contemplation, rather than joy: more than half of them are full of trustful or reassuring faith: ten of them are either submissive (44), self-reproachful (17, 42, 43), full of sad yearning (1, 34), questioning (9), or dark spiritual conflict (38-40). The specialty of Cowper's handling is a greater plaintiveness, tenderness, and refinement. A study of these hymns as they stood originally under the classified heads of the Olney Hymns, 1779, which in some cases probably indicate the aim of Cowper as well as the ultimate arrangement of the book by Newton, shows that one or two hymns were more the history of his conversion, than transcripts of present feelings; and the study of Newton's hymns in the same volume, full of heavy indictment against the sins of his own regenerate life, brings out the peculiar danger of his friendship to the poet: it tends also to modify considerably the conclusions of Southey as to the signs of incipient madness in Cowper's maddest hymns. Cowper's best hymns are given in The Book of Praise by Lord Selborne. Two may be selected from them; the exquisitely tender "Hark! my soul, it is the Lord" (q. v.), and "Oh, for a closer walk with God" (q. v.). Anyone who knows Mrs. Browning's noble lines on Cowper's grave will find even a deeper beauty in the latter, which is a purely English hymn of perfect structure and streamlike cadence, by connecting its sadness and its aspiration not only with the “discord on the music" and the "darkness on the glory," but the rapture of his heavenly waking beneath the "pathetic eyes” of Christ. Authorities. Lives, by Hayley; Grimshaw; Southey; Professor Goldwin Smith; Mr. Benham (attached to Globe Edition); Life of Newton, by Rev. Josiah Bull; and the Olney Hymns. The numbers of the hymns quoted refer to the Olney Hymns. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================ Cowper, W. , p. 265, i. Other hymns are:— 1. Holy Lord God, I love Thy truth. Hatred of Sin. 2. I was a grovelling creature once. Hope and Confidence. 3. No strength of nature can suffice. Obedience through love. 4. The Lord receives His highest praise. Faith. 5. The saints should never be dismayed. Providence. All these hymns appeared in the Olney Hymns, 1779. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ===================== Cowper, W., p. 265, i. Prof. John E. B. Mayor, of Cambridge, contributed some letters by Cowper, hitherto unpublished, together with notes thereon, to Notes and Queries, July 2 to Sept. 24, 1904. These letters are dated from Huntingdon, where he spent two years after leaving St. Alban's (see p. 265, i.), and Olney. The first is dated "Huntingdon, June 24, 1765," and the last "From Olney, July 14, 1772." They together with extracts from other letters by J. Newton (dated respectively Aug. 8, 1772, Nov. 4, 1772), two quotations without date, followed by the last in the N. & Q. series, Aug. 1773, are of intense interest to all students of Cowper, and especially to those who have given attention to the religious side of the poet's life, with its faint lights and deep and awful shadows. From the hymnological standpoint the additional information which we gather is not important, except concerning the hymns "0 for a closer walk with God," "God moves in a mysterious way," "Tis my happiness below," and "Hear what God, the Lord, hath spoken." Concerning the last three, their position in the manuscripts, and the date of the last from J. Newton in the above order, "Aug. 1773," is conclusive proof against the common belief that "God moves in a mysterious way" was written as the outpouring of Cowper's soul in gratitude for the frustration of his attempted suicide in October 1773. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Joseph Haydn

1732 - 1809 Person Name: Franz Joseph Haydn, 1732-1809 Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "PETITION" in Together in Song Franz Joseph Haydn (b. Rohrau, Austria, 1732; d. Vienna, Austria, 1809) Haydn's life was relatively uneventful, but his artistic legacy was truly astounding. He began his musical career as a choirboy in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, spent some years in that city making a precarious living as a music teacher and composer, and then served as music director for the Esterhazy family from 1761 to 1790. Haydn became a most productive and widely respected composer of symphonies, chamber music, and piano sonatas. In his retirement years he took two extended tours to England, which resulted in his "London" symphonies and (because of G. F. Handel's influence) in oratorios. Haydn's church music includes six great Masses and a few original hymn tunes. Hymnal editors have also arranged hymn tunes from various themes in Haydn's music. Bert Polman

A. Williams

1731 - 1776 Person Name: Aaron Williams Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "MEAR" in African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book Aaron Williams (b. London, England, 1731; d. London, 1776) was a singing teacher, music engraver, and clerk at the Scottish Church, London Wall. He published various church music collections, some intended for rural church choirs. Representative of his compilations are The Universal Psalmodist (1763)— published in the United States as The American Harmony (1769)—The Royal Harmony (1766), The New Universal Psalmodist (1770), and Psalmody in Miniature (1778). His Harmonia Coelestis (1775) included anthems by noted composers. Bert Polman

William Weale

Person Name: William Wheale (? -1727) Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "BEDFORD" in Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal See Wheall, W. (William), c. 1690-1727

St. Francis of Assisi

1182 - 1226 Person Name: Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "All Creatures of Our God and King" in Common Praise (1998) St. Francis of Assisi (Italian: San Francesco d'Assisi, born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, but nicknamed Francesco ("the Frenchman") by his father, 1181/1182 – October 3, 1226) was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the Third Order of Saint Francis for men and women not able to live the lives of itinerant preachers followed by the early members of the Order of Friars Minor or the monastic lives of the Poor Clares. Though he was never ordained to the Catholic priesthood, Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history. Francis' father was Pietro di Bernardone, a prosperous silk merchant. Francis lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi. While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life. On a pilgrimage to Rome, he joined the poor in begging at St. Peter's Basilica. The experience moved him to live in poverty. Francis returned home, began preaching on the streets, and soon amassed a following. His Order was authorized by Pope Innocent III in 1210. He then founded the Order of Poor Clares, which became an enclosed religious order for women, as well as the Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance (commonly called the Third Order). In 1219, he went to Egypt in an attempt to convert the Sultan to put an end to the conflict of the Crusades. By this point, the Franciscan Order had grown to such an extent that its primitive organizational structure was no longer sufficient. He returned to Italy to organize the Order. Once his community was authorized by the Pope, he withdrew increasingly from external affairs. In 1223, Francis arranged for the first Christmas manger scene. In 1224, he received the stigmata, making him the first recorded person to bear the wounds of Christ's Passion.He died during the evening hours of October 3, 1226, while listening to a reading he had requested of Psalm 140. On July 16, 1228, he was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX. He is known as the patron saint of animals, the environment, and is one of the two patron saints of Italy (with Catherine of Siena). It is customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of October 4. He is also known for his love of the Eucharist, his sorrow during the Stations of the Cross, and for the creation of the Christmas creche or Nativity Scene. Francis of Assisi was one of seven children born to Pietro, and his wife Pica de Bourlemont, about whom little is known except that she was a noblewoman originally from Provence, France. Pietro was in France on business while Francis was born in Assisi, and Pica had him baptized as Giovanni. When his father returned to Assisi, he took to calling him Francesco ("the Frenchman"), possibly in honour of his commercial success and enthusiasm for all things French. Since the child was renamed in infancy, the change can hardly have had anything to do with his aptitude for learning French, as some have thought. As a youth, Francesco became a devotee of troubadours and was fascinated with all things Transalpine. Although many hagiographers remark about his bright clothing, rich friends, and love of pleasures, his displays of disillusionment toward the world that surrounded him came fairly early in his life, as is shown in the "story of the beggar." In this account, he was selling cloth and velvet in the marketplace on behalf of his father when a beggar came to him and asked for alms. At the conclusion of his business deal, Francis abandoned his wares and ran after the beggar. When he found him, Francis gave the man everything he had in his pockets. His friends quickly chided and mocked him for his act of charity. When he got home, his father scolded him in rage. In 1201, he joined a military expedition against Perugia and was taken as a prisoner at Collestrada, spending a year as a captive. It is possible that his spiritual conversion was a gradual process rooted in this experience. Upon his return to Assisi in 1203, Francis returned to his carefree life and in 1204, a serious illness led to a spiritual crisis. In 1205, Francis left for Puglia to enlist in the army of the Count of Brienne. A strange vision made him return to Assisi, deepening his ecclesiastical awakening. According to the hagiographic legend, thereafter he began to avoid the sports and the feasts of his former companions. In response, they asked him laughingly whether he was thinking of marrying, to which he answered, "yes, a fairer bride than any of you have ever seen," meaning his "Lady Poverty". He spent much time in lonely places, asking God for enlightenment. By degrees he took to nursing lepers, the most repulsive victims in the lazar houses near Assisi. After a pilgrimage to Rome, where he joined the poor in begging at the doors of the churches, he said he had a mystical vision of Jesus Christ in the country chapel of San Damiano, just outside of Assisi, in which the Icon of Christ Crucified said to him, "Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins." He took this to mean the ruined church in which he was presently praying, and so he sold some cloth from his father's store to assist the priest there for this purpose. His father, Pietro, highly indignant, attempted to change his mind, first with threats and then with beatings. In the midst of legal proceedings before the Bishop of Assisi, Francis renounced his father and his patrimony, laying aside even the garments he had received from him in front of the public. For the next couple of months he lived as a beggar in the region of Assisi. Returning to the countryside around the town for two years, he embraced the life of a penitent, during which he restored several ruined chapels in the countryside around Assisi, among them the Porziuncola, the little chapel of St. Mary of the Angels just outside the town, which later became his favorite abode. At the end of this period (on February 24, 1209, according to Jordan of Giano), Francis heard a sermon that changed his life forever. The sermon was about Matthew 10:9, in which Christ tells his followers they should go forth and proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven was upon them, that they should take no money with them, nor even a walking stick or shoes for the road. Francis was inspired to devote himself to a life of poverty. Clad in a rough garment, barefoot, and, after the Gospel precept, without staff or scrip, he began to preach repentance. He was soon joined by his first follower, a prominent fellow townsman, the jurist Bernardo di Quintavalle, who contributed all that he had to the work. Within a year Francis had eleven followers. Francis chose never to be ordained a priest and the community lived as "lesser brothers," fratres minores in Latin. The brothers lived a simple life in the deserted lazar house of Rivo Torto near Assisi; but they spent much of their time wandering through the mountainous districts of Umbria, always cheerful and full of songs, yet making a deep impression upon their hearers by their earnest exhortations. Francis' preaching to ordinary people was unusual since he had no license to do so. In 1209 he composed a simple rule for his followers ("friars"), (the Regula primitiva or “Primitive Rule”) which came from verses in the Bible. The rule was “To follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps.” In 1209, Francis led his first eleven followers to Rome to seek permission from Pope Innocent III to found a new religious Order. Upon entry to Rome, the brothers encountered Bishop Guido of Assisi, who had in his company Giovanni di San Paolo, the Cardinal Bishop of Sabina. The Cardinal, who was the confessor of Pope Innocent III, was immediately sympathetic to Francis and agreed to represent Francis to the pope. Reluctantly, Pope Innocent agreed to meet with Francis and the brothers the next day. After several days, the pope agreed to admit the group informally, adding that when God increased the group in grace and number, they could return for an official admittance. The group was tonsured. This was important in part because it recognized Church authority and prevented his following from possible accusations of heresy, as had happened to the Waldensians decades earlier. Though Pope Innocent initially had his doubts, following a dream in which he saw Francis holding up the Basilica of St. John Lateran (the cathedral of Rome, thus the 'home church' of all Christendom), he decided to endorse Francis' Order. This occurred, according to tradition, on April 16, 1210, and constituted the official founding of the Franciscan Order. The group, then the "Lesser Brothers" (Order of Friars Minor also known as the Franciscan Order), preached on the streets and had no possessions. They were centered in Porziuncola, and preached first in Umbria, before expanding throughout Italy. From then on, his new Order grew quickly with new vocations. When hearing Francis preaching in the church of San Rufino in Assisi in 1209, Clare of Assisi became deeply touched by his message and she realized her calling. Her cousin Rufino, the only male member of the family in their generation, also joined the new Order. On the night of Palm Sunday, March 28, 1211, Clare sneaked out of her family's palace. Francis received Clare at the Porziuncola and hereby established the Order of Poor Ladies, later called Poor Clares. This was an Order for women, and he gave a religious habit, or dress, similar to his own to the noblewoman later known as St. Clare of Assisi, before he then lodged her and a few companions in a nearby monastery of Benedictine nuns. Later he transferred them to San Damiano. There they were joined by many other women of Assisi. For those who could not leave their homes, he later formed the Third Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance. This was a fraternity composed of either laity or clergy whose members neither withdrew from the world nor took religious vows. Instead, they carried out the principles of Franciscan life in their daily lives. Before long this Order grew beyond Italy. Determined to bring the Gospel to all God's creatures, Francis sought on several occasions to take his message out of Italy. In the late spring of 1212, he set out for Jerusalem, but he was shipwrecked by a storm on the Dalmatian coast, forcing him to return to Italy. On May 8, 1213, he was given the use of the mountain of La Verna (Alverna) as a gift from Count Orlando di Chiusi, who described it as “eminently suitable for whoever wishes to do penance in a place remote from mankind.”[21][22] The mountain would become one of his favourite retreats for prayer. In the same year, Francis sailed for Morocco, but this time an illness forced him to break off his journey in Spain. Back in Assisi, several noblemen (among them Tommaso da Celano, who would later write the biography of St. Francis) and some well-educated men joined his Order. In 1215, Francis went again to Rome for the Fourth Lateran Council. During this time, he probably met a canon, Dominic de Guzman (later to be Saint Dominic, the founder of the Friars Preachers, another Catholic religious order). In 1217, he offered to go to France. Cardinal Ugolino of Segni (the future Pope Gregory IX), an early and important supporter of Francis, advised him against this and said that he was still needed in Italy. In 1219, accompanied by another friar and hoping to convert the Sultan of Egypt or win martyrdom in the attempt, Francis went to Egypt where a Crusader army had been encamped for over a year besieging the walled city of Damietta two miles (3.2 km) upstream from the mouth of one of the main channels of the Nile. The Sultan, al-Kamil, a nephew of Saladin, had succeeded his father as Sultan of Egypt in 1218 and was encamped upstream of Damietta, unable to relieve it. A bloody and futile attack on the city was launched by the Christians on August 29, 1219, following which both sides agreed to a ceasefire which lasted four weeks.It was most probably during this interlude that Francis and his companion crossed the Saracen lines and were brought before the Sultan, remaining in his camp for a few days. The visit is reported in contemporary Crusader sources and in the earliest biographies of Francis, but they give no information about what transpired during the encounter beyond noting that the Sultan received Francis graciously and that Francis preached to the Saracens without effect, returning unharmed to the Crusader camp. No contemporary Arab source mentions the visit. One detail, added by Bonaventure in the official life of Francis (written forty years after the event), concerns an alleged challenge by Francis offering trial-by-fire in order to prove the veracity of the Christian Gospel.Although Bonaventure does not suggest as much, subsequent biographies went further, claiming that a fire was kindled which Francis unhesitatingly entered without suffering burns. Such an incident is depicted in the late 13th-century fresco cycle, attributed to Giotto, in the upper basilica at Assisi (see accompanying illustration). According to some late sources, the Sultan gave Francis permission to visit the sacred places in the Holy Land and even to preach there. All that can safely be asserted is that Francis and his companion left the Crusader camp for Acre, from where they embarked for Italy in the latter half of 1220. Drawing on a 1267 sermon by Bonaventure, later sources report that the Sultan secretly converted or accepted a death-bed baptism as a result of the encounter with Francis. The Franciscan Order has been present in the Holy Land almost uninterruptedly since 1217 when Brother Elias arrived at Acre. It received concessions from the Mameluke Sultan in 1333 with regard to certain Holy Places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and (so far as concerns the Catholic Church) jurisdictional privileges from Pope Clement VI in 1342. At Greccio near Assisi, around 1220, Francis celebrated Christmas by setting up the first known presepio or crèche (Nativity scene). His nativity imagery reflected the scene in traditional paintings. He used real animals to create a living scene so that the worshipers could contemplate the birth of the child Jesus in a direct way, making use of the senses, especially sight. Thomas of Celano, a biographer of Francis and Saint Bonaventure both, tell how he only used a straw-filled manger (feeding trough) set between a real ox and donkey. According to Thomas, it was beautiful in its simplicity with the manger acting as the altar for the Christmas Mass. By this time, the growing Order of friars was divided into provinces and groups were sent to France, Germany, Hungary, Spain and to the East. When receiving a report of the martyrdom of five brothers in Morocco, Francis returned to Italy via Venice. Cardinal Ugolino di Conti was then nominated by the Pope as the protector of the Order. The friars in Italy at this time were causing problems, and as such, Francis had to return in order to correct these problems. The Franciscan Order had grown at an unprecedented rate, when compared to prior religious orders, but its organizational sophistication had not kept up with this growth and had little more to govern it than Francis' example and simple rule. To address this problem, Francis prepared a new and more detailed Rule, the "First Rule" or "Rule Without a Papal Bull" (Regula prima Regula non bullata) which again asserted devotion to poverty and the apostolic life. However, it introduced greater institutional structure, although this was never officially endorsed by the pope. On September 29, 1220, Francis handed over the governance of the Order to Brother Peter Catani at the Porziuncola. However, Brother Peter died only five months later, on March 10, 1221, and was buried in the Porziuncola. When numerous miracles were attributed to the deceased brother, people started to flock to the Porziuncola, disturbing the daily life of the Franciscans. Francis then prayed, asking Peter to stop the miracles and to obey in death as he had obeyed during his life. The reports of miracles ceased. Brother Peter was succeeded by Brother Elias as Vicar of Francis. Two years later, Francis modified the "First Rule" (creating the "Second Rule" or "Rule With a Bull"), and Pope Honorius III approved it on November 29, 1223. As the official Rule of the order, it called on the friars "to observe the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, living in obedience without anything of our own and in chastity." In addition, it set regulations for discipline, preaching, and entry into the order. Once the Rule was endorsed by the Pope, Francis withdrew increasingly from external affairs. During 1221 and 1222, Francis crossed Italy, first as far south as Catania in Sicily and afterwards as far north as Bologna. While he was praying on the mountain of Verna, during a forty-day fast in preparation for Michaelmas (September 29), Francis is said to have had a vision on or about September 14, 1224, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, as a result of which he received the stigmata. Brother Leo, who had been with Francis at the time, left a clear and simple account of the event, the first definite account of the phenomenon of stigmata. "Suddenly he saw a vision of a seraph, a six-winged angel on a cross. This angel gave him the gift of the five wounds of Christ." Suffering from these stigmata and from trachoma, Francis received care in several cities (Siena, Cortona, Nocera) to no avail. In the end, he was brought back to a hut next to the Porziuncola. Here, in the place where it all began, feeling the end approaching, he spent the last days of his life dictating his spiritual testament. He died on the evening of October 3, 1226, singing Psalm 142(141) – "Voce mea ad Dominum". --en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi (excerpts)

William Henry Draper

1855 - 1933 Person Name: William Henry Draper (1855-1933) Scripture: Psalm 147 Translator of "All Creatures of Our God and King" in Common Praise (1998) Draper, William Henry, M.A., son of Henry and Lucy Mary Draper, was born at Kenilworth, Dec. 19, 1855, and educated at Keble College, Oxford; B.A. in honours, M.A. 1880. Ordained in 1880, he was Curate of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury; Vicar of Alfreton; of the Abbey Church, Shrewsbury; and since 1899 Rector of Adel, Leeds. Mr. Draper's hymns in common use include the following:— 1. Come forth, ye sick and poor. [Harvest.] Written in 1001 and printed in the Guardian, Sept. 18, 1901. In 1905 it was given, somewhat altered, in The Council School Hymn Book, No. 132. It was also published by Novello & Co., with Music by J. H. Maunder. 2. From homes of quiet peace. [In Time of War.] Published by Novello & Co. in their series of Hymns in Time of War, 1900, and repeated in The Public School Hymn Book 1903, The Council School Hymn Book, 1905, and others. 3. How blest the land where God is known. (National Hymn.] Written for Novello's Eight Hymns, with Tunes , for use in services held in connection with the Coronation of King Edward VII., in 1902. It was included in The Council School Hymn Book, 1905, No. 91. 4. How fair was the land of God's people of old. [National Hymn.] Written for use in Day Schools, and rir»t published in The Council School Hymn Book, 1905, No. 121. 5. In our day of thanksgiving one psalm let us offer. [Dedication of a Church.] Written for use at the service at the reopening of the Abbey Church, Shrewsbury, after restoration, in 1894. It was also used at the Shrewsbury Church Congress, 1896; and elsewhere on other occasions. In 1904 it was included in the new edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern. 6. Lord, through this Holy Week of our Salvation. [Holy Week.] First published in Hymns for Holy Week, 1898, and included in Hymns Ancient & Modern 1904, No. 109. 7. Man shall not live by bread alone. [Divine Providence.] First published in The Church Monthly, and again in The Council School Hymn Book, 1905, No. 103. 8. Rejoice, ye angels in the sky. [Whitsuntide.] Written for the Leeds Whitsuntide Hymns, 1902 (to Gounod's tune for "O come, O come, Emmanuel"), and included in The Council School Hymn Book, 1905. 9. We love God's acre round the Church. [Burial.] Printed in the Guardian, Aug. 1, 1900, with the title, "Hymn for those who die far from home and country"; later by Novello, with music by Dr. V. Roberts; and again, with slight alterations, in Brookes's Additional Hymns, 1903. 10. What can I do for England. [National Hymn.] Written in 1905 for The Council School Hymn Book, and included therein in the same year. 11. Ye sons of God, arise. [Processional. Choral Festivals.) Written for a Choral Festival in Gloucester Cathedral, June 8th, 1893; reprinted for the Leeds Whitsuntide Hymns, 1901; and again for the Choir Festival in Chester Cathedral, 1905. In addition to these hymns which have come into common use. Mr. Draper has written many others of merit which are worthy of attention. They include:— 1. Hymns for Holy Week, being translations from Hymns of the Greek Church, with Six Originals, &c. . . . London: H. Frowde, 1898 (see No. 6 above). This contains 13 original and translated hymns. 2. The Victoria Book of Hymns, 1897. 3. A Memorial Service for them that are Fallen Asleep in Christ. London: H. Frowde, 1898, 4 hymns (including No. 9 above). 4. The Way of the Cross (Oxford: A. R. Mowbray & Co.), n.d., with music by Dr. Sweeting. Mr. Draper's hymns are so scattered in the Guardian, Church Monthly, and sundry magazines that it is a matter of some difficulty to trace them out. They exceed sixty in all, and are worthy, taken as a whole, to be published as a volume of sacred verse. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Ralph Vaughan Williams

1872 - 1958 Person Name: Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) Scripture: Psalm 147 Harmonizer of "LASST UNS ERFREUEN" in Common Praise (1998) Through his composing, conducting, collecting, editing, and teaching, Ralph Vaughan Williams (b. Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, England, October 12, 1872; d. Westminster, London, England, August 26, 1958) became the chief figure in the realm of English music and church music in the first half of the twentieth century. His education included instruction at the Royal College of Music in London and Trinity College, Cambridge, as well as additional studies in Berlin and Paris. During World War I he served in the army medical corps in France. Vaughan Williams taught music at the Royal College of Music (1920-1940), conducted the Bach Choir in London (1920-1927), and directed the Leith Hill Music Festival in Dorking (1905-1953). A major influence in his life was the English folk song. A knowledgeable collector of folk songs, he was also a member of the Folksong Society and a supporter of the English Folk Dance Society. Vaughan Williams wrote various articles and books, including National Music (1935), and composed numerous arrangements of folk songs; many of his compositions show the impact of folk rhythms and melodic modes. His original compositions cover nearly all musical genres, from orchestral symphonies and concertos to choral works, from songs to operas, and from chamber music to music for films. Vaughan Williams's church music includes anthems; choral-orchestral works, such as Magnificat (1932), Dona Nobis Pacem (1936), and Hodie (1953); and hymn tune settings for organ. But most important to the history of hymnody, he was music editor of the most influential British hymnal at the beginning of the twentieth century, The English Hymnal (1906), and coeditor (with Martin Shaw) of Songs of Praise (1925, 1931) and the Oxford Book of Carols (1928). Bert Polman

William Walsham How

1823 - 1897 Person Name: Bp. William Walsham How (1823— ) Scripture: Psalm 147 Author of "A Summer Song" in Songs of Praise with Tunes William W. How (b. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, 1823; d. Leenane, County Mayo, Ireland, 1897) studied at Wadham College, Oxford, and Durham University and was ordained in the Church of England in 1847. He served various congregations and became Suffragan Bishop in east London in 1879 and Bishop of Wakefield in 1888. Called both the "poor man's bishop" and "the children's bishop," How was known for his work among the destitute in the London slums and among the factory workers in west Yorkshire. He wrote a number of theological works about controversies surrounding the Oxford Movement and attempted to reconcile biblical creation with the theory of evolution. He was joint editor of Psalms and Hymns (1854) and Church Hymns (1871). While rector in Whittington, How wrote some sixty hymns, including many for children. His collected Poems and Hymns were published in 1886. Bert Polman =============== How, William Walsham, D.D., son of William Wybergh How, Solicitor, Shrewsbury, was born Dec. 13, 1823, at Shrewsbury, and educated at Shrewsbury School and Wadham College, Oxford (B.A. 1845). Taking Holy Orders in 1846, he became successively Curate of St. George's, Kidderminster, 1846; and of Holy Cross, Shrewsbury, 1848. In 1851 he was preferred to the Rectory of Whittington, Diocese of St. Asaph, becoming Rural Dean in 1853, and Hon. Canon of the Cathedral in 1860. In 1879 he was appointed Rector of St. Andrew's Undershaft, London, and was consecrated Suffragan Bishop for East London, under the title of the Bishop of Bedford, and in 1888 Bishop of Wakefield. Bishop How is the author of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Commentary on the Four Gospels; Plain Words , Four Series; Plain Words for Children; Pastor in Parochia; Lectures on Pastoral Work; Three All Saints Summers, and Other Poems , and numerous Sermons , &c. In 1854 was published Psalms and Hymns, Compiled by the Rev. Thomas Baker Morrell, M.A., . . . and the Rev. William Walsham How, M.A. This was republished in an enlarged form in 1864, and to it was added a Supplement in 1867. To this collection Bishop How contributed several hymns, and also to the S. P. C. K. Church Hymns , of which he was joint editor, in 1871. The Bishop's hymns in common use amount in all to nearly sixty. Combining pure rhythm with great directness and simplicity, Bishop How's compositions arrest attention more through a comprehensive grasp of the subject and the unexpected light thrown upon and warmth infused into facia and details usually shunned by the poet, than through glowing imagery and impassioned rhetoric. He has painted lovely images woven with tender thoughts, but these are few, and found in his least appreciated work. Those compositions which have laid the firmest hold upon the Church, are simple, unadorned, but enthusiastically practical hymns, the most popular of which, "O Jesu, Thou art standing"; "For all the Saints who from their labours rest," and "We give Thee but Thine own," have attained to a foremost rank. His adaptations from other writers as in the case from Bishop Ken, "Behold, the Master passeth by," are good, and his Children's hymns are useful and popular. Without any claims to rank as a poet, in the sense in which Cowper and Montgomery were poets, he has sung us songs which will probably outlive all his other literary works. The more important of Bishop How's hymns, including those already named, and "Lord, Thy children guide and keep"; "O Word of God Incarnate"; "This day at Thy creating word"; "Who is this so weak and helpless"; and others which have some special history or feature of interest, are annotated under their respective first lines. The following are also in common use:— i. From Psalms & Hymns, 1854. 1. Before Thine awful presence, Lord. Confirmation. 2. Jesus, Name of wondrous love [priceless worth]. Circumcision. The Name Jesus . 3. Lord Jesus, when we stand afar. Passiontide. 4. O blessing rich, for sons of men. Members of Christ. 5. 0 Lord of Hosts, the earth is Thine. In time of War. 6. O Lord, Who in Thy wondrous love. Advent. ii. From Psalms & Hymns, enlarged, 1864. 7. Lord, this day Thy children meet. Sunday School Anniversary. iii. From Supplement to the Psalms & Hymns, 1867. 8. Hope of hopes and joy of joys. Resurrection. 9. 0 daughters blest of Galilee. For Associations of Women. 10. O happy feet that tread. Public Worship. 11. With trembling awe the chosen three. Transfiguration. iv. From Parish Magazine, 1871, and Church Hymns, 1871. 12. O Jesu, crucified for man. Friday. 13. Yesterday, with worship blest. Monday. v. From the S. P. C. K. Church Hymns. 1871. 14. Bowed low in supplication. For the Parish. 15. Great Gabriel sped on wings of light. Annunciation, of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 16. O blest was he, whose earlier skill. St. Luke. 17. O God, enshrined in dazzling light. Omnipresence. Divine Worship . 18. O heavenly Fount of Light and Love. Witsuntide. 19. O Lord, it is a blessed thing. Weekdays. 20. 0 One with God the Father. Epiphany. 21. O Thou through suffering perfect made. Hospitals. 22. Rejoice, ye sons of men. Purification of the B. V. M. 23. Summer suns are glowing. Summer. 24. The year is swiftly waning. Autumn. 25. Thou art the Christ, O Lord. St. Peter. 26. To Thee our God we fly. National Hymn. 27. Upon the holy Mount they stood. Transfiguration and Church Guilds. 28. We praise Thy grace, 0 Saviour. St. Mark. vi. From the S. P. C. K. Children's Hymns, 1872. 29. Behold a little child. Jesus the Child's Example. 30. Come, praise your Lord and Saviour. Children's Praises. 31. It is a thing most wonderful. Sunday School Anniversary. 32. On wings of living light. Easter. Bishop How's hymns and sacred and secular pieces were collected and published as Poems and Hymns, 1886. The Hymns, 54 in all, are also published separately. He d. Aug. 10, 1897. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) =================== How, W. W., p. 540, i. He died Aug. 10, 1897. His Memoir, by F. D. How, was published in 1898. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Cyrus S. Nusbaum

1861 - 1937 Person Name: C. S. N. Scripture: Psalms 1-150 Author of "His Way with Thee" in New Songs of the Gospel No. 2 Rv Cyrus Sylvester Nusbaum DD USA 1861-1937. Born at Middlebury, IN, he completed his education and taught school in Marion County, KS. In 1886 he married Harriett Eleanor Erwin, and they had two children: Hazel and Mark. That year he was ordained a Methodist minister and pastored at Douglass, Goddard, Wichita, and Kingman, KS. He served as educational secretary at Southwestern College, Winfield, KS, 1895-1897. He pastored at Ottawa, KS, 1897-1903. He became presiding elder of the Independent District, 1903-1907, and pastor at Parsons, KS, 1908-1914. In 1914 he was appointed an evangelist for the Methodist Conference. During WW1 he was a US Army Captain working as an American Red Cross inspector in France. After the war, he often spoke on the Redpath Lyceum circuit and held evangelistic meetings in KS, NE, OK, and TX. Southwestern College conferred a DD degree upon him. In latter years, he served small KS churches and was a “supply preacher” at Lost Springs and Antelope. He died at Wichita, and was buried in Kingman, KS. Special note: His hymn, noted below, was written after his first year of trying to preach at seven different locations simultaneously on a very low salary, a very difficult task. He was tired and discouraged. At the annual conference meeting he was hoping for a better appointment, but was reassigned to the same circuit. He was unhappy and rebellious in spirit about it, but, upon retiring at the lodging place for the night, he stayed up late after his wife had retired for the night. About midnight he knelt in prayer and told God he could have his way regardless of the cost. It inspired him to write the hymn (both words and music). John Perry

Robert Frederic Swift

b. 1940 Person Name: Robert F. Swift Scripture: Psalm 147 Composer of "CAMPTON" in In Melody and Songs SWIFT, ROBERT (b. 1940): B.S., Music Education, Hartwick College, M.A., Ph.D., Music Education, Eastman School of Music. Teacher, conductor, composer, organist, writer. Professor of Music Emeritus, Plymouth State University (NH). Recipient of four distinguished teaching awards. Musical publications (vocal, choral, organ) with Hinshaw, Warner Brothers, Pro Art, Darcey Press, Lorenz. Author of Music from the Mountains; Teaching Moments; and More Teaching Moments, plus numerous articles on music education. Member, New Hampshire Chapter, AGO. Robert Swift (from In Melody and Song, Darcey Press, 2014

Max Landsberg

1845 - 1927 Person Name: Max Landsberg, 1845-1928 Scripture: Psalm 147 Translator of "Praise to the living God" in Together in Song Max Landsberg was born in Berlin as the eldest son of a long-established Jewish family, shortly before his father, Meyer Landsberg, in Hildesheim took a job as a rabbi. First, Landsberg was privately educated, but then went to the high school Josephinum in Hildesheim . After graduation he studied in Göttingen, Breslau and Berlin. The training to become a rabbi he received from Lazarus eagle at the University of Kassel, Samuel Ephraim Meyer at the University of Hanover and of Abraham Geiger in Wroclaw. On 7 November 1866 he was codd at the University of Halle with his work Vita sultani Muradi "a Mohammed Amyn Mohibby, e. Mss. Bibliothecae regiae Berolinensis, addita versione latina atque adjectis adnotationibus Dr. phil. Doctorate. Since 1866, he was pin Rabbi and teachers at the seminar for Jewish teachers in Hanover. rabbi he was to his Semicha 1870. Shortly before his departure to the U.S. married Landsberg on 26 February 1871 in Hanover Miriam Isengarten (* 1847, † April 16, 1912 in Baltimore) In the fall of 1869, as in 1848 decided orthodox founded community in Rochester, hire a rabbi who could preach both in German and in English and should be a "gentleman of advanced ideas and reformed religious views". This quote is an excerpt from the ad for the position of rabbi in Rochester in the weekly magazine "The American Israelite", the public forum of the American Reform Judaism. After they found no suitable person in the country, they turned to Abraham Geiger, a pioneer of Reform Judaism in Europe. Geiger encouraged his former students to apply to this job. Because of its application in December 1870 Landsberg was invited and settled for Passover 1871 (early April 1871) to Rochester. By 1915, he stayed on as chief rabbi. What the liturgical reforms were concerned in the community, so Landsberg based on that of David Einhorn in 1858 published prayer book Olat Tamid. It contained the majority of prayers in German and was printed according to and read from left to right. However, there were already 10 days after launch on 27th April 1873 in the town of B'rith Kodesh to controversy. Then the parish council withdrew this prayer book and replaced it with a more tradition-setting, but also reforming the liturgy, which from Temple Emanu El was published in New York City. Despite the shortcomings Landsberg used this prayer book over a decade. On the other hand, it prompted him to contribute their own ideas of liturgical revision. The result was that in 1880, along with Sol[omon] Wile (1853-1931) published book Hymn Book for Jewish Worship. For two-thirds of it contained English-language songs, and the remaining were in German. Sol Wile at the time was president of the Temple B'rith Kodesh and in his preface to the hymnal, which was more intended for the community, as for the rabbi and the choir, he wrote that he is a "inbrünstigeren" of these songs worship hoped. But only the ritual prayer book for Jewish Worship by Max Landsberg itself, introduced in 1884, the community took to the center of the radical Jewish reform movement. It was the result of Landsberg efforts, in accordance with the ideas of community members to create a new liturgy, which "conform to the sentiments of the living generation" was. Landsberg not only received praise, but also harsh criticism, including by Isaac Mayer Wise. Even in our own community Landsberg faced a opposition, but this did not change in a takeover of the liturgy. It Landsberg, despite all the criticism has managed to create a completely appropriate in the English language and the Reform movement liturgy. An outstanding event for Max Landsberg in 1895 was the focus of the annual meeting of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR). He himself was in this movement since its founding in 1889 active. At this meeting there was a full agreement in the views of Isaac Mayer Wise and Landsberg that the greatest achievements of American Reform Judaism was to have freed the Jews from the ceremonial constraints. Another special feature of this period was the increased involvement of women in the community and especially in community work. There were just the women who took part in the worship and wanted to have more influence on the fortunes of the community. Here, Max Landsberg did show, by advocating openly for the rights of women. In his essay The Position of Women Among the Jews he grappled with the theological implications of women's emancipation. But Max Landsberg himself alienated since that time increasingly of the community. Maybe because it a lifelong Office guidance was issued never, but he had to extend from the council's term of office again and again. Already in July 1910, adjusted for the community Horace J. Wolf as an assistant. His contract was also extended several times. They tried to limit Landsberg's influence on the community. Particularly hard hit Landsberg his wife Miriam's death in 1912. This event was marked by bitterness his last years, so it took every joy of life. When, in March 1913, a committee at Landsberg "the lack of interest in the religious life of the congregation" found and published recommendations in October, Max Landsberg offered his resignation. Well with regard to the posted position of Landsberg gave you his resignation until December 1914 known, but he stepped into force on 1 März 1915. In the United States, Max Landsberg sat for a reform of Jewish worship one. So he held his services in English and not in Hebrew. Also published by him prayer books passed to two-thirds of English songs and the rest in German language. He also pushed for the marriage of Jews and non-Jews. As part of the American Reform Judaism Landsberg was among the rabbis, which began in the municipality for exemption from the ceremonial constraints, to use appropriate liturgies and thereafter led worship. --de.wikipedia.org/wiki (excerpts)

Newton Mann

1836 - 1926 Person Name: Newton Mann, 1836-1926 Scripture: Psalm 147 Translator of "Praise to the living God" in Together in Song Mann, Rev. Newton. (Cazenovia, New York, January 16, 1836--July 25, 1926, Chicago, Illinois). He graduated from Cazenovia Academy, and during the Civil War served as head of the Western Sanitary Commission. He then entered the Unitarian ministry and was ordained as pastor of the church in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which he organized and served for three years. He later served churches in Troy, New York, 1868-1870; Rochester, N.Y., 1870-1888; and Omaha, Nebraska, 1888-1908, after which he retired to Chicago. His only connection with hymnody was his versification of an English translation of the Jewish creedal statement known as the Yigdal. His verse, which has not survived, was later recast by Rev. W.C. Gannett. In its present form the hymn is probably mostly the work of Gannett, but Mann should be credited with having drafted its earlier form. See also Foote, Three Centuries of American Hymnody, pp.339-340. --Henry Wilder Foote, DNAH Archives

William Channing Gannett

1840 - 1923 Person Name: William Channing Gannett, 1840-1923 Scripture: Psalm 147 Translator of "Praise to the living God" in Together in Song Gannett, William Channing, M.A., s. of Dr. Ezra Stiles Gannett, was b. at Boston, March 13, 1840, and educated at Harvard College, 1860, and the Divinity School, Cambridge. Entered the Unitarian Ministry in 1868, and after filling several pastorates he became Pastor of the Unitarian Church at Rochester, N.Y., 1889. Mr. Gannett's hymns, mainly written for special occasions, were included in great part in The Thought of God in Hymns and Poems, Boston, 1st Series 1885,2nd Series 1894, the combined production of F. L. Hosmer (q.v.) and himself. Of Mr. Gannett's hymns the following are in common use:— 1. Bring, 0 morn, thy music [God Everlasting.] Written in 1893, and printed in A Chorus of Faith, being an account and resume of the Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago, 1893. Included in The Thought of God, 2nd Series, 1894, and again in several hymnals. 2. Clear in memory's silent reaches. [Memory.] Written in 1877 for a Free Religious Assoc. Festival, and published in The Thought of God, 1st Series, 1885. 3. Prom heart to heart, from creed to creed. [Faith.] Written in 1875 for the 150th anniversary of the First Religious Society in Newburyport, and given in The Thought of God, 1ist Series, 1885. Usually st. ii. is omitted. 4. He hides within the lily. [Divine Providence.] "Consider the lilies, how they grow." Written in 1873, and printed for use at the Free Religious Assoc. Festival, May 30th, 1873. Published in The Thought of God, &c, 1st Series, 1885, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines. The most widely used of the author's hymns. 5. I hear it often in the dark. [The Voice of God.] Written at Milwaukee, in 1870, and published in The Thought of God, &c, 1st Series, 1885. Sometimes it begins with st. iii., "0 God within, so close to me," as in Hymns for Church and Home, Boston, 1895. 6. Praise to God and thanksgiving. [ Harvest.] Written in 1872 for a Harvest Festival at St. Paul's, Minn., of which he was then Pastor, and included in The Thought of God &c, 1st Series, 1885. in the Boston Pilgrim Hymnal, 1904, it begins "Praise to God, and thanks we bring." 7. Sleep, my little Jesus. [ Christmas Carol.] Written for the Sunday School, St. Paul's, Minn., in 1882, and given in The Thought of God, 2nd Series, 1894, as "Mary's Manger Song." 8. The Lord is in His holy place. [Dedication of a Place of Worship.] Written for the Dedication of the Rev. C. W. Wendte's Church, Chicago, April 24, 1873, and pub. in The Thought of God, &c, 1st Series, 1885. It is one of the most popular and widely used of the author's hymns. 9. The morning hangs its signal. [Morning.] This is dated by the author "Chicago, July 30, 1886," and printed in Love to God and Love to Man, being No. 28 ot the Chicago "Unity Mission" series of hymns (N.D.). Also included in The Thought of God, &c, 2nd Series, 1894. Although in some sense a Morning hymn, it is adapted for use in Advent. It is usually known as “The Crowning Day." 10. The Truth is the Voice of God. In the "Unity Mission" Series, No. 28 (see above), this is given as No. 33, with the title "Truth and Righteousness and Love," in 4 stanzas of 4 lines and a refrain of 4 lines. These annotations are based upon manuscript notes kindly supplied by the author. The use made of Mr. Gannett's hymns shows that their poetic beauty and loving sympathy with all things beautiful and pure, are widely appreciated in America and to a limited extent in Great Britain also. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Meyer Lyon

1751 - 1797 Person Name: Meyer Lyon, 1751-97 Scripture: Psalm 147 Transcriber of "LEONI" in Together in Song Died: 1797, Kingston, Jamaica. Pseudonym: Leoni. Lyon was a chorister at the Great Synagogue, Duke’s Place, London, and a public singer either at Drury Lane or Covent Garden. Subsequently he became the first qualified chazan of the English and German Synagogue in Jamaica. Sources: Julian, p. 1151 McCutchan, pp. 27-28 Music: LEONI http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/l/y/o/lyon_m.htm ================ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myer_Lyon

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