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Allchin, Arthur MacDonald. b. Acton, London, 20 April 1930; d. Oxford, 23 December 2010. Donald, as he was always called, was the youngest of four children of Frank MacDonald Allchin, a physician, and Louise Maude, née Wright. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in modern history and proceeded to take a BLitt, published as The Silent Revolution (1958), a history of 19th-century Anglican religious communities which became the standard study of the...
JONES, Abner. fl. 1830-1860. Around 1815 Jones seems to have lived in Carroll, a town in Chautauqua County, New York. In the 1830s he lived in New York City, near Murray Street Presbyterian Church which supported the founding of Union Seminary, and whose pastor, William D. Snodgrass (1796-1886), may have done some editing with him. Thomas McAuley (1778-1862) succeeded Snodgrass as pastor and became the first President of Union Seminary. Jones also knew Gardiner Spring who was a member of Brick...
TICE, Adam Merrill Longoria. b. Boynton, Pennsylvania, 11 October 1979. Adam Tice spent his growing up years in several states across the USA, ending up in the town of Goshen in northern Indiana. He is a graduate of Goshen College (B.A. in music, 2002), and the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana (now Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, AMBS), with an MA in Christian Formation (2006).
It was at AMBS that he wrote his first hymn text. This began a profound and...
RONANDER, Albert Carl. b. Worcester, Massachusetts, 15 December 1914; d. Hyannis, Massachusetts, 16 March 2007. A United Church of Christ pastor and hymnologist, Ronander attended Occidental College, Los Angeles, California, and the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (BA, 1938); he undertook further study at Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago Illinois (BD, 1941), Union Theological Seminary, New York City (STM, 1950), with post-graduate studies at Harvard University, Cambridge,...
BAILEY, Albert Edward. b. North Scituate, Massachusetts, 11 March 1871; d. Worchester, Massachusetts, 31 October 1951. Bailey, a foremost author and authority on art and religion, attended Scituate High School, Worchester Academy, and Harvard (BA, 1894; MAEd, 1916). He taught classics, religious education, and English at the Worchester Academy (1891-1910); was head master of the Allen English and Classical School, West Newton, Massachusetts (1900-07); lectured on Eastern-Mediterranean...
MacMILLAN, Alexander. b. Edinburgh, 19 October 1864; d. Toronto, 5 May 1961. Born and educated in Edinburgh, Alexander MacMillan moved to Canada following his graduation from the University of Edinburgh, licensed by the United Presbyterian Presbytery of Edinburgh in June, 1887. He described what happened when he was a student:
While a student in the faculty of Arts in Edinburgh University, and in the Divinity Hall, Edinburgh, I felt a gradual and growing desire to make Canada the sphere of my...
SCHREINER, Christian Alexander Ferdinand. b. Steinbühl, a suburb of Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Bavaria, Germany, 31 July 1901; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, 15 September 1987. Schreiner was associated with the Mormon Tabernacle as an organ recitalist for many years and was the Chief Organist from 1965 to 1987. As a member of the General Music Committee of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), he assisted in the preparation of the 1948 LDS hymnal, which includes 10 of his hymn...
PARKER, Alice. b. Boston, 16 December 1925; d. Hawley, Massachusetts, 24 December 2023. Distinguished, widely celebrated composer, conductor, author and teacher, Parker began composing at the age of eight, and completed her first orchestral score in high school. She studied at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, majoring in music performance and composition (BA 1947), and the Juilliard School of Music, New York City (MS 1949), where her teachers included Robert Shaw (1916-1999), Julius...
CARDEN, Allen Dickinson. b. Virginia or Tennessee, 13 October 1792; d. Franklin, Tennessee, 21 March 1859. Carden compiled Missouri Harmony, first published in 1820. According to a copy of the Carden family Bible in the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the family moved from Fincastle, Botetourt County, Virginia, to Williamsport, Maury County, Tennessee, situated about 50 miles southwest of Nashville. Although the year of the move is not given in the Bible, some accounts indicate that...
VAN BURKALOW, Anastasia. b. Buchanan, New York, 16 March 1911; d. Wantage, New Jersey, 14 January 2004. She was a hymn writer, hymnologist, geologist, and physical geographer. Born into a family with church music and teaching in its DNA, Burkalow pursued both with passion and dedication throughout her life. Her father, James Turley Van Burkalow (d. 1959) of Salisbury, Maryland, a second-generation Methodist minister, served churches throughout the Hudson Valley area and, after earning a PhD at...
TEICH, Andreas Hans. b. Krefeld, Germany, 5 October 1960. A parish pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Teich studied at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania (AB, 1982), Christ Seminary-Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, Illinois (MDiv, 1986). He was ordained in 1986. His pastorates at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Bellevue, Kentucky (1986-1990), and Messiah Lutheran Church, Bay City, Michigan (1994- ), are noted for employing the rich chorale tradition as well as...
ADGATE, Andrew. b. Norwich, Connecticut, 22 March 1762; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 30 September 1793. Adgate, a pupil of Andrew Law*, prominent singing teacher, conductor, and concert organizer, was the son of Daniel Adgate (1734-1764) and Phebe Waterman Adgate (1738-1766). Adgate, who fell victim to an illness that swept through Philadelphia, was described as 'one of the most curious people in all the city. He earned a living as a card maker, but he was Philadelphia's premier music...
LAW, Andrew. b. Milford, Connecticut, 21 March 1749; d. Cheshire, Connecticut, 13 July 1821. Law, a grandson of Jonathan Law (1674-1750), Governor of the Colony of Connecticut (1741-1750), was a tunebook compiler, clergyman, and composer. His Select Harmony: containing in a plain and concise manner, the rules of singing, together with a collection of psalm tunes, hymns and anthems (Cheshire, Connecticut, 1779) became a major influence among many subsequent collections used by singing masters...
HAEUSSLER, Armin. b. Lewiston, Minnesota, 24 May 1891; d. Glenview, Indiana, 16 July 1967. Distinguished hymnologist and pastor, Haeussler is best known for The Story of Our Hymns, The Handbook to the Hymnal of the Evangelical and Reformed Church (St Louis, Missouri, 1952, Third Edition, 1954). He was first-born from the marriage of Rev Carl Herman (1862-1913), a German-born member of The German Evangelical Synod of North America, and Elizabeth Catherine (Scherer; 1871-1965). Armin attended...
JOHNSON, Artemas Nixon. b. Middlebury, Vermont, 22 June 1817; d. New Milford, Connecticut, 1 January 1892. A. N. Johnson and his brother James C. Johnson (1820-1895) were musicians, teachers, composers, and publishers of church music. A. N. Johnson's hymn tune MENDOTA (SPEAK GENTLY), with text by Frederick George Lee (1832-1902), appears in several 20th-century hymnals.
Johnson's parents, James Johnson, Sr. (nda) and Anna Ward Johnson (nda) attended the Congregational Church in Middlebury. ...
JONES, Arthur Morris. b. 1899; d. 1980. He was a missionary and musicologist, educated at Keble College, Oxford, and Wells Theological College. He took Holy Orders (deacon 1922, priest 1923) and served curacies at Ashford, Kent (1922-24) and St Michael and All Angels, Maidstone, Kent (1924-28). In 1929 he became a missionary in what was then Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. He took up a post as Warden of St Mark's Teachers' Training College, under the auspices of the Universities' Mission to...
NEWMAN, Augustus Sherman. b. Putnam County [?], New York, 21 July 1848; d. New York City, 11 December 1928. Augustus Sherman Newman was a businessman, avocational musician, collector of hymnals and hymnological materials, and a founder in 1922 of The Hymn Society (now the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*).
The eldest child of Allen G. and Sarah Church Tompkins Newman, Augustus completed his basic education in New York. He then toured Europe with his younger brother, Allen,...
HAMM, Barbara Elizabeth. b. Sterling, Colorado, 25 September 1943. Barbara Hamm began piano study as a young girl, learning to improvise on gospel hymns in a small Baptist congregation in the Midwestern United States. She gained further experience while playing for a small church during her college study in Eastern Tennessee. This early involvement in worship led to a lifetime of music ministry.
A United Church of Christ (UCC) church musician, composer, and hymn writer, Barbara Hamm received...
MANLY, Basil [Junior]. b. Edgefield County, South Carolina, 19 December 1825; d. 31 January 1892. He was the son of Basil Manly, a Baptist minister, and Sarah Murray Rudolph Manly. His father became pastor of First Baptist Church, Charleston—the most prominent Baptist pulpit in the Deep South—and left that position to become the second president of the University of Alabama. The senior Manly promulgated a biblical defense of slavery, led in the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention, and...
CRAWFORD, Benjamin Franklin. b. Madison County, Ohio, 12 May 1881; d. Delaware, Ohio, 20 June 1976. Christened after the great American philosopher, Crawford taught school before attending Ohio Wesleyan University (BA, 1906); Boston University (STB, 1909); Dennison University (1917-18); and the University of Pittsburgh (PhD, 1937). Crawford's dissertation, 'Changing Conceptions and Motivations of Religion as Revealed in One Hundred Years of Methodist Hymnology, 1836-1935', was a study of the...
WINCHESTER, Benjamin Severance. b. Bridport, Vermont, 20 February 1868; d. Danbury, Connecticut, 29 April 1955. He was a pastor, educator, and administrator. His parents were Warren Weaver Winchester (1823–1889), a minister, and Catherine Mary Severance Winchester (1821–1915). He married Pearl Adair Gunn (1874–1971) in 1897, and they had five children, Margaret, Katharine, Pauline, Alice, and John Henry.
Winchester earned the BA degree from Williams College in 1889, after which he taught...
MANNING, Bernard Lord. b. Caistor, Lincolnshire, 31 December 1892; d. Cambridge, 8 December 1941. The 'Lord' in Manning's name was a given name at his Baptism, not a peerage. He was the son of a Wesleyan Methodist, George Manning, who later became a Congregational minister. His son also became a member of the Congregational Church.
Manning was educated at Caistor Grammar School and Jesus College, Cambridge. He became a bye-Fellow at Magdalene College (1916-1918) and was elected a Fellow of...
POLMAN, Bert Frederick. b. Rozenburg, the Netherlands, 28 August 1945; d. Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1 July 2013. Polman spent part of his childhood in Indonesia with his missionary parents. After the family immigrated to western Canada, Polman received his education at Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa (BA, 1968); University of Minnesota (MA, 1969; PhD in Musicology, 1981); and did postgraduate work at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He taught music at the Ontario...
HOWARD, Beverly Ann. b. New Kensington, Pennsylvania, 22 February 1951. A professor in church music, researcher in hymnology, journal editor, member of hymnal committees, church musician, and organist, Howard received degrees from University of Oklahoma in organ performance (BM, 1973, MM, 1974) and the University of North Texas in organ performance, music theory, and harpsichord (DMA, 1986). She served as organist for forty years in two congregations in Riverside, California, First Christian...
WIANT, Bliss Mitchell. b. Dalton, Ohio, 1 February 1895; d. Delaware, Ohio, 1 October 1975. Wiant [Chinese name Fan Tian-xian] was a Methodist Episcopal Church [MEC] missionary from 1923 to 1951. He was an authority on Chinese music, a choral director, composer and arranger, hymnal editor, pastor, and teacher. His widely acclaimed settings of newly written indigenous Chinese Christian hymns to traditional Chinese melodies are an abiding contribution to 20th-century contextualized Chinese...
BLUMHOFER, Edith Lydia (née Waldvogel). b. New York, 24 April 1950; d. Naperville, Illinois, 5 March 2020. A church historian, biographer, and researcher on the role of hymns in American religious culture and thought, Edith Blumhofer was born the oldest child of three to Edwin and Edith Waldvogel. She was raised in Woodhaven, New York, then a municipality of Queens. Her father was pastor of Ridgewood Pentecostal Church, Brooklyn. She married Edwin Blumhofer on 13 September 1975: they were the...
COBB, Buell Etheridge, Jr. b. Cullman, Alabama, 25 June 1944. He graduated from Alabama College, Montevallo, Alabama, (now University of Montevallo), 1966; Auburn University (MA in English, 1969). Cobb became closely acquainted with the early American shape-note singing tradition while on faculty at West Georgia College (now University of West Georgia), and authored The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music (Athens, Georgia, 1978), which has been favorably compared with the groundbreaking...
HAWN, (Charles) Michael. b. Cape Girardeau, Missouri, 22 September 1948. An eminent multi-cultural/global hymnologist, singer, teacher, and author, his scholarly articles and books on global music and worship, cross-cultural worship, and enlivening congregational song are premier resources. Hawn is noted for his engaging, hands-on style of teaching, the mentorship of former students, many of whom are now an international group of scholars, church musicians, ministers, professors, teachers, song...
LAUFER, Calvin Weiss. b. Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, 6 April 1874; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 20 September 1938. Calvin Weiss Laufer was a minister, editor, writer of hymn texts and tunes, and a founder of The Hymn Society (now The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*). The eldest child of Nathan Laufer, a farmer and miller, and Angelina Weiss Laufer, he was baptized at Zion German Reformed Church in Brodheadsville. His parents settled in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood in...
PRICE, Carl Fowler. b. New Brunswick, New Jersey, 16 May 1881; d. New York City, 12 April 1948. Pioneering hymnologist, historian, author, prominent layperson in The Methodist Episcopal Church, Price attended Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut (BA music, 1902; MA, 1932), and worked as a general insurance broker in New York City from 1902 to 1946. He served as secretary of The National Board of the Epworth League, and historian of the Methodist Historical Society.
Price was a founder...
SCHALK, Carl Flentge. b. Des Plaines, Illinois, 26 September 1929; d. River Forest, Illinois, 24 January 2021. Schalk attended Concordia Teachers' College (now Concordia University) in River Forest, Illinois (BS, 1952), the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York (MM, 1958) and Concordia Theological Seminary in St Louis, Missouri (MA, 1965).
After serving at Zion Lutheran Church in Wausau, Wisconsin (1952-1958), Schalk was a music director for the International Lutheran Hour (1958-1965),...
YOUNG, Carlton Raymond ('Sam'). b. Hamilton, Ohio, 25 April 1926; d. Nashville, Tennessee, 21 May 2023. He was the son of J. Otis Young , a pastor, and Mary Leibrook, an elementary school teacher. Following his mother's death he was raised by maternal grand parents, who started his piano lessons at age six. He attended Fairfield High School in Butler County, Ohio, where music was a requirement not an elective, and where he played brass instruments and string bass. He studied at Cincinnati...
PEMBERTON, Carol Ann (née Kurtz). b. LeMars, Iowa, 20 February 1939. Carol Pemberton is a scholar and professor in English composition and hymnology. She received degrees from Westmar College (LeMars, Iowa) with a major in music and minors in English and education (BA, 1959), Indiana University (MM, 1960) with a major in organ and a minor in music history, and University of Minnesota (PhD, 1971) with a major in musicology and a minor in English—all degrees recognized with distinction or honors....
PARKER, Caroline Bird. b. West Rupert, Vermont, 21 February 1867; d. Washington, District of Columbia, 4 July 1959. Caroline Bird Parker was a hymnal editor and a founder of The Hymn Society (now Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*) that began in New York City in 1922. She was the daughter of Convis Parker and Almena Mary Bradley. The Daughters of the American Revolution authenticated the tracing of her lineage through her mother's family to Joseph Bradley and his son, Lemuel, both of...
HUTCHINS, Charles Lewis. b. Concord, New Hampshire, 5 August 1838; d. Concord, Massachusetts, 17 August 1920. Hutchins, an Episcopal priest, was editor of several music editions of 19th-century Episcopal hymnals and related materials. He was a son of George Hutchins (1797-1868) and Sarah Rolfe Tucker (1801-1868). Both parents were born to well-established New England families. Of particular note is Sarah's grandfather, the Rev Dr John Tucker (1719-1792), described in Shipton's New England...
ALEXANDER, Charles McCallon. b. Meadow, Tennessee, 24 October 1867; d. Birmingham, England, 13 October 1920. He was the son of John D. Alexander, a well-known musical leader, and Martha McCallon. A singing evangelist in the style of Ira D. Sankey*, young Alexander was influenced by his family's singing Gospel hymns around the fireside and by his mother's reading Dwight L. Moody*'s sermons to the family each night. Alexander attended Maryville Preparatory School and College, Maryville, Tennessee...
ROGERS, Charles. b. Dunino, near Anstruther, Fife, 18 April 1825; d. Edinburgh, 18 September 1890. The son of a minister of the Church of Scotland, he was educated at the parish school and the University of St Andrews (1839-1843), followed by training for the ministry. He was licensed to preach in 1846, and served as an assistant minister and as a 'missionary' to churches affected by the Great Schism of 1843 (Dunfermline North, 1849-50, Carnoustie, 1851-52). He moved to Bridge of Allan, near...
NUTTER, Charles Sumner. b. Tuftonboro, New Hampshire, 19 September 1842; d. Melrose, Massachusetts, 2 August 1928. Charles Nutter and Wilber Fisk Tillett* (1854-1936) wrote The Hymns and Hymn Writers of The Church, an Annotated Edition of The Methodist Hymnal (New York and Cincinnati: The Methodist Book Concern, 1911). Nutter was an avid collector of hymnological materials, and his collection together with that of Frank Metcalf (1765-1945) total more than 2500 volumes, comprising the core of...
ROBINSON, Charles Seymour. b. Bennington, Vermont, 31 March 1829; d. New York, 1 February 1899. The son of General Henry Robinson (1778-1854) and Martha P. Haynes (1800-1857), Robinson studied theology at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, Union Seminary, New York City, and graduated from Princeton Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey. Following his ordination in 1855, he served as pastor of Park Presbyterian Church, Troy, New York. In 1858 he married Harriet Read Church (1835-1895),...
LANGDON, Chauncy (or Chauncey). b. Farmington, Connecticut, 8 November 1763; d. Castleton, Vermont, 23 July 1830. Although his first name is spelled Chauncy in a few early publications and on his tombstone, and also in WorldCat Identities and Library of Congress Authorities, it appears that the spelling Chauncey is far more common.
Although Langdon is known primarily as a United States Representative from Vermont, he is also credited with the compiling of Beauties of Psalmody, Containing...
FENNER, Christopher Jon. b. Kalamazoo, Michigan, 28 February 1981. Chris Fenner is a hymnologist, archivist, and church musician. The son of Richard and Gerri (née Emmons) Fenner, he was reared in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He holds degrees from Western Michigan University (BA in Music Education, 2003), The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, School of Church Music* (MA in Worship, 2011), and the University of Kentucky (Master of Library and Information Science, 2017). He has been a K-12 music...
KIMBERLING, Clark Hershall. b. Hinsdale, Illinois, 7 November 1942. He is the oldest son of Delmer Hershall Kimberling and Jocelyn Leigh (Babel) Kimberling. A professor of mathematics at the University of Evansville, Kimberling has published several choral and instrumental compositions and hymnological articles, including many for the present work.
Beginning at the age of six, Kimberling's took piano lessons, notably from Gertrude Luther in College Station, Texas. At Stephen F. Austin High...
TANGEMAN, Elizabeth Clementine (née Miller). b. Columbus, Indiana, 17 February 1905; d. Columbus, Indiana, 17 January 1996. She was a philanthropist and trustee, associated with the School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary*, Yale University Institute of Sacred Music, various other institutions of higher education, and the Girl Scouts of the United States of America. She was also co-editor of Christian Hymns, copyrighted in 1945.
Clementine, as she was commonly known, along with her...
BARROWS, Clifford Burton. b. Ceres, California, 6 April 1923; d. Charlotte, North Carolina, 15 November 2016. 'Cliff' Barrows, longtime music and program director for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, majored in sacred music at Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina (BA, 1944), and in 1944 was ordained by a Baptist congregation in his hometown of Ceres, California.
After serving as assistant pastor at Temple Baptist Church in St Paul, Minnesota for one year, he joined the...
LUNDY, Michael (monastic name: Damian) FSC. b. Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, 21 March 1944; d. Oxford, 9 December 1996. The son of a master baker, he was educated at West Vale Catholic Primary School, then at the De Salle (Christian Brothers) Grammar School, Sheffield. He joined the De Salle Religious Order in 1960, and trained at St Cassian's Juniorate, Kintbury, Berkshire; then at Inglewood Novitiate, and at various establishments in Germany and France. He then read English at Magdalene...
MANSFIELD, Daniel Hale. b. probably Bangor, Maine, 23 June 1810; d. probably Augusta, Maine, 25 February 1855. Mansfield is primarily known as the compiler of a popular oblong tunebook, The American Vocalist (Boston, 1848, Rev. 1849). His ancestors, arriving in the American colony of Massachusetts around 1638, reflected seven generations of English Puritan heritage. They prospered as farmers and were gentlemen and owners of enslaved people in the New World. During the second half of the 18th...
CREAMER, David. b. Baltimore, Maryland, 20 November 1812; d. Baltimore, 8 April 1887. David Creamer was one of eleven children born to Joshua Creamer (nda) and Margaret Smith (nda). Creamer was educated in private schools in Baltimore until the age of 17. He was a partner in his father's lumber business until 1858 and served in several small government positions after that time. He was a devout Methodist who developed a strong interest in the hymnody of the church, and who became the first...
DARGIE, David. b. 29 July 1938. David Dargie is one of South Africa's leading ethnomusicologists. He studied with Andrew Tracey at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa (on Andrew Tracey, see African hymnody*). Dargie is also a foremost encourager of compositions by Africans for the church. Of Scottish descent, Dargie is a third-generation South African raised in the coastal town of East London. Following seminary training in Pretoria and his ordination in 1964, he served in New...
JONES, David Hugh. b. Jackson, Ohio. 25 February 1900; d. North Conway, New Hampshire, 1983. Jones was an organist, composer, and hymnal editor. He studied at Guilmant Organ School (New York City) and the Conservatory at Fontainebleau (France), achieving the recognition as Fellow of the American Guild of Organists* (1924). He received honorary Doctor of Music degrees from two Pennsylvania institutions, Washington and Jefferson College and Beaver College (now Arcadia University).
Jones was a...
McCORMICK, David Wilfred. b. Lehighton, Pennsylvania, 6 May 1928; d. Richmond, Virginia, 21 September 2019. The son of a printer and volunteer church organist, he received his bachelor's degree (1949) and his master's degree (1950) from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey. He began his church ministry at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas where he established a life-long friendship with composer Jane Manton Marshall*. His service at Highland Park was...
WILLIAMS, David McKinley. b. Caernarvonshire, Wales, 20 February 1887; d. Oakland, California, 13 March 1978. One of the most dynamic 20th-century leaders of American church music, he is often identified with the music of St Bartholomew's Church in New York City, where he was organist and choirmaster from 1920 to 1947. Williams served on the Joint Commission on Church Music of the Episcopal Church and the Joint Commission on Revision of the Hymnal (H40). He composed hymn tunes and descants,...
MUSIC, David Wayne. b. Ardmore, Oklahoma, 28 January 1949. Music was educated at California Baptist College (BA in music, 1970), and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MCM 1973, DMA 1977). From 1977 to 1980 he served as a full-time minister of music in Tennessee. At California Baptist College in Riverside (1980-1990) he directed the Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, and College Singers, and was a member of the faculty Baroque ensemble. He taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological...
STEEL, David Warren. b. Evanston, Illinois, 20 September 1947. Distinguished scholar of USA folk hymnody, Steel was raised in Scotia, New York, attended Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, (AB, 1968) and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, (AM, 1976, PhD, 1982). While a special student at Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, he worked on English adaptations of chant. His neo-Mozarabic 'Missa Toletana' was published in Congregational Music for Eucharist...
GILBERT, Davies. b. St Erth, Cornwall, 6 March 1767; d. Eastbourne, Sussex, 24 December 1839. He was educated at Penzance Grammar School, at a boarding school at Bristol, and at Pembroke College, Oxford (MA, 1789).
Gilbert came from an old Cornish family: his name was originally Giddy and was changed to his wife's name in 1817, after he had acquired a large Sussex estate by marriage. He was prominent in the affairs of Cornwall, and nationally, serving as Member of Parliament for Helston (1804)...
LOFTIS, Deborah Carlton. b. Richmond, Virginia, 7 November 1951. Loftis grew up in a family that sang together. Although neither of her parents had formal musical training, she learned her first songs on the piano from her father. Once in school, she took piano lessons and sang in school and church choirs. While reared in the Southern Baptist church and ordained as a Southern Baptist minister in 1983, when that denomination underwent changes in the last decades of the 20th century, her...
SALIERS, Don E. b. Fostoria, Ohio, 11 August, 1937. Don Saliers is an eminent ecumenical liturgical scholar, author, teacher, composer and keyboardist, and ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. He grew up in Ohio where he began the study of piano at age eight, played clarinet and violin, and sang in many high school ensembles. His father, Harold A. ('Red') Saliers, (1898 – 1981), was a classical violinist who also played jazz in New York and later formed a dance band in Ohio. Other...
HUSTAD, Donald Paul. b. Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota, USA, 2 October 1918; d. La Grange, Illinois, 22 June 2013. He was the elder of two sons born to Clara and Peter Hustad. Peter was killed in a hunting accident just after Don's first birthday and before the birth of Don's brother, Wesley. Following this tragedy, the family resided at Boone Biblical College and Associated Institutions in Iowa. On 28 November 1942, he married Ruth Loraine McKeag (1920-2013). They were parents of three...
GALBRAITH, David Douglas. b. Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, 22 June 1940. Douglas Galbraith was educated at the High School of Dundee: he was organist in his local church while still at school. He went on to the University of St Andrews (MA 1961, BD 1964). As a student he had the opportunity of being seasonal musician at Iona Abbey, which was a formative experience in terms both of liturgy and music. He became a member of the Iona Community* in 1964. Following ordination as a minister in...
LORENZ, Edmund Simon (ES). b. near Canal Fulton, Stark County, Ohio, 13 July 1854; d. Dayton, Ohio, 10 July 1942. He was a self-taught musician, tireless innovator, and highly competitive and successful publisher. He was an important and prolific author whose books informed mainline Protestant church music education while attempting to bridge the gap between its contrasting and rival hymnic traditions: the songs of the camp meeting, Sunday school and revival, and the urban church's worship-song...
HARPER, Earl Enyeart. b. Coffey, Missouri, 28 March 1895; d. St Petersburg, Florida, 1 March 1967. Pastor, hymnist, educator, author, director of hymn festivals, arts curator, Harper attended Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, Nebraska (BA, 1918) and Boston University School of Theology, Boston, Massachusetts (STB, 1921), with additional study at Harvard and the University of Chicago. Harper began his professional career as the pastor of Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, Auburndale,...
TOURJÉE, Eben. b. Warwick, Rhode Island, 1 June 1834; d. Boston, Massachusetts, 12 April 1891. Tourjée was an influential music educator, teacher, organist, hymnal editor, and entrepreneur. He worked in cotton mills while attending school at the East Greenwich Seminary, Providence, Rhode Island. He trained as an organist and taught music in public schools. By the age of 20 Tourjée had opened a music school based on the European conservatory model of the conservatory in Fall River,...
THOMAS, Edith Lovell. b. Eastford, Connecticut, 11 September 1878; d. Claremont, California, 17 March 1970. Distinguished editor of age-level hymnody and hymnals, teacher, and pioneer of church music education, Thomas introduced a generation of musicians and teachers, including this present writer, to the vast potential of music and the other arts in children's Christian education and worship.
Thomas was one of seven surviving children born of the marriage of James Sewall Thomas (1831-1917),...
FOLEY, Edward Bernard. b. Gary, Indiana 16 October 1948. Foley is the Duns Scotus Professor of Spirituality and Ordinary Professor of Liturgy and Music at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Illinois, where he was the founding Director of the Ecumenical Doctor of Ministry Program. He has held academic appointments at the College (now University) of St Catherine, St Paul; University of St Thomas, St Paul; University of Notre Dame, South Bend; Seattle University, Seattle; and the University of...
DARLING, Edward Flewett. b. Cork, Republic of Ireland, 24 July 1933. Edward Darling was educated at Cork Grammar School, Midleton College, Co. Cork, and St John's School, Leatherhead, Surrey. Following further study at Trinity College, Dublin (where he graduated and qualified for ordination in the Divinity School), he took Holy Orders (deacon, 1956, priest 1957), serving two curacies: at St Luke's, Belfast (1956-59) and St John's, Orangefield, Belfast (1959-62). He was appointed first...
BALL, Eli, b. Marlborough, Vermont, 2 November 1786; d. Richmond, Virginia, 21 July 1853. He was the son of Samuel H. Ball and Phebe Taylor Ball, the younger brother of Amos Ball, and the twin of Pheobe Ball. Following limited former education, he was tutored in Boston by Daniel Stafford in classics and by Caleb Blood in ministerial studies. He served congregations in Malden and Wilmington, Massachusetts; Lansingburg, New York; and Middletown, Connecticut, before moving to Virginia in...
ESLINGER, Elise Shoemaker (née Matheny). b. Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 2 December 1942. Elise Matheny's musical education began in early childhood with her aunt and continued with piano lessons at age 5 and organ lessons at age 14. Following graduation from high school in Meridian, Mississippi (1960), she pursued her undergraduate education at Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi (BA in Organ, Minor in English, Magna cum laude, 1963). She continued graduate studies in music literature at the...
Andrews, Emily Snider. b. Athens, Alabama, 20 February 1986. Andrews, an ordained Baptist minister and pastoral musician, has taught courses in music and worship at Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, California, and the Townsend-McAfee Institute for Graduate Church Music Studies, Mercer University, Mercer University, Macon, Georgia (2014-). Andrews is a graduate of Samford University Birmingham, Alabama (BM in Church Music), and Baylor University, Waco, Texas (MM. Church Music, and MDiv. 2012)....
PERKINS, Emily Swan. b. Chicago, Illinois, 19 October 1866; d. Riverdale, New York, 27 June 1941. Perkins was a composer of hymn tunes and the founder in New York City of The Hymn Society (later The Hymn Society of America; now The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*). She was the fourth child and only daughter of George Walbridge Perkins (1831-1886) and Sarah Louise Mills Perkins (1833-1872) and was named for Emily Swan, a friend of her parents. Two years after Sarah Perkins died in...
HORNBY, Emma Christine. b. Buckingham, 12 January 1973. She was educated at the Royal Latin School, Buckingham before spending two years at Stowe School, where her father was a master. She then went to Worcester College, Oxford (BA 1994, DPhil, 1999). She was a Junior Research Fellow at Worcester College (1997-99), and held a College Lectureship in Music at Christ Church, Oxford (1999-2003). She was an editorial assistant, later assistant editor, on the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology...
WERNER, Eric. b. Lundenburg, (Břeclav), 40 miles north of Vienna, Austria-Hungary, 1 August 1901; d. New York City, 28 July 1988. Werner was a distinguished and controversial musicologist, ethnomusicologist, and liturgiologist whose life-long goal, as stated in his The Sacred Bridge (Werner 2:x-xii), was to correct the errors and misrepresentations of European scholars, especially of those who were anti-Semitic. Werner's parents (his father was a scholar of Greek) nurtured him in classical...
ROUTLEY, Erik Reginald. b. Brighton, Sussex, 31 October 1917; d. Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 8 October 1982. He was the only child of John, a businessman and town councillor who was Mayor of Brighton in 1936-37, and Eleanor, a homemaker and musician. He attended Fonthill Preparatory School, 1925-31 and Lancing College, 1931-36. He read Literae Humaniores (nicknamed 'Mods' and 'Greats': classics/ ancient history and philosophy) at Magdalen College, Oxford (BA 1940, MA 1943). He became an...
RYDEN, Ernest Edwin. b. Kansas City, Missouri, 12 September 1886; d. Providence, Rhode Island, 1 January 1981. Born into a Swedish family, Ryden attended the Manual Training School in Kansas City, worked for a newspaper published by the Kansas City Railway, and was a telegraph editor for a newspaper in Moline, Illinois. He attended Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, in 1910 (BA, honorary DD, 1930; he was later President of the Board); and Augustana Theological Seminary, Rock Island (BD,...
JOHNSON, Francis Hall. b. Athens, Georgia, 12 March 1888; d. New York, 30 April 1970. African-American composer, arranger, violinist, author, and choral director, Johnson was the fourth of six children, born to William Decker (1842–1909), an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal church and a college president, and Alice Virginia (née Sansom, b. 1857), enslaved until the age of 8, who entered Atlanta University (now the Atlanta University Center) at age 14. A strong proponent of...
BARTHÉLÉMON, François Hippolyte. b. Bordeaux, France, 27 July 1741; d. Southwark, London, 20 July 1808. The son of a wig-maker, he may have served briefly in the army as a young man, but this is not certain. A talented violinist, he went to Paris where he played in the orchestra of the Comédie Italienne, moving to London in 1764. In London his skill was much valued: he gave solo recitals, and became the leader of the orchestra at the King's Theatre. He wrote an opera, Pelopida (1766), and an...
BAKER, Frank. b. Kingston upon Hull, UK, 15 April 1910; d. Durham, North Carolina, 11 October 1999. In a fine tribute by John E. Vickers in the Second Edition of Baker's John Wesley and the Church of England (Peterborough, 2000), we read that Frank gave his life to Jesus Christ during the 'Humberside Crusade' in the winter of 1924. This led to his becoming a local preacher and then answering the call to full-time ministry in the Primitive Methodist Church. Because of what seems today to have...
METCALF, Frank Johnson. b. Ashland, Massachusetts, 1865; d. Washington, DC, 25 February 1945. After graduation from Boston University in 1886 he taught at high schools and academies in Vermont, Texas and Massachusetts before settling into a career as a statistician in the Adjutant General's office (1893-1935). He compiled an important collection of some 2,500 hymn books. Select volumes are held by the American Antiquarian Society, of which he was a longtime and active member; it is some 15...
GEALY, Frederick Daniel. b. Oil City, Pennsylvania, 13 May 1894; d. University Park, Texas, 15 December 1976. Distinguished New Testament scholar, teacher, hymnist, and church musician, Gealy attended Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, (BA, 1916); Boston University (STB 1919; PhD 1929), with additional study at Universität Basel, Switzerland; Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Berlin, Germany; Union Theological Seminary New York City (Dodge Mission Fellow, MTh, 1929); and the University...
BLACK, George Alexander. b. Toronto, 8 May 1931; d. Paris, France, 1 July 2003. He was professor of French Language and Literature, Latin, Liturgy and Church Music at Huron College, University of Western Ontario at London, Ontario; and a Canadian liturgist, hymnist, organist and choral director. George Black served as organist and choir director at several Toronto churches before he moved to London, ON, where he continued leading congregational music while teaching at Huron College. As Director...
KNIGHT, George Litch. b. Rockford, Illinois, 2 January 1925; d. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 6 October 1995. Hymnologist, historian and clergyman, Knight attended Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana, the University of Chicago, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky (BA, 1947), and Union Theological Seminary, New York City (BD, 1951).
Ordained by the Freeport Presbytery (Illinois) in 1951, Knight served the West Side Presbyterian Church of Englewood, New Jersey, first as assistant minister (1951-1956),...
MULRAIN, George MacDonald, b. Caribbean Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, 30 March 1946. Pastor, educator, author, and composer, Mulrain attended the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI), Kingston, Jamaica (Dipl. Ministerial studies, 1973), the University of the West Indies (BA Theology, 1973), and the University of Birmingham, UK (PhD, 1982: dissertation, 'Theological Significance of Haitian Folk Religion'). Mulrain, an ordained elder of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean...
WHELPTON, George. b. Hibaldstow, Lincolnshire, England, 17 May 1847; d. Oxford, Ohio, 22 November 1930. He was a music teacher and music editor, According to the United Kingdom Census of 1851, George Whelpton was born to Joseph Whelpton (1813 -1900) and Mary Ann Whelpton (1824 - 1896) in Hibaldstow. Other accounts name the birthplace as Redbourne, which is located about two miles from Hibaldstow, and others give the city of Lincoln, about 21 miles to the south. At the age of five, George and...
HANCOCK, Gerre. b. Lubbock, Texas, 21 February 1934; d. Austin, Texas, 21 January 2012. He was an organist, professor, choir trainer, and composer, known especially for his book Improvising: How to Master the Art, which is largely based on hymn tunes.
His father, Edward Ervin Hancock (1902-1965) was Lubbock County Superintendent of Schools, and his mother, Flake (née Steger) Hancock, was a pianist for several churches. Gerre began playing the piano at age four and took lessons from his mother....
SUPPE, Gertrude (née Cross). b. Los Angeles, California, 6 November 1911; d. Escondido, California, 3 August 2007. Gertrude Suppe, a translator, transcriber, cataloguer, and promoter of Spanish-language hymnody, was the daughter of William Gray Cross, who worked in public utilities and enjoyed singing, and Florence Cross (née Stratton), a violinist. In addition, her musical family included her grandmother, Susan Stratton, a piano and organ teacher who had taught at Dwight L. Moody*'s...
OSTDIEK, Gilbert. b. Lawrence, Nebraska, 20 March 1933. Ostdiek is a pre-eminent liturgical scholar and educator, a member of the Franciscan Order, an ordained presbyter in the Roman Catholic Church. He is one of ten children born to Henry Stephen and Dora Rita (née Rempe) Ostdiek. Ostdiek attended the minor seminary and junior college of the Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart, Mayslake, near Westmont, Illinois, Quincy College (now Quincy University) (AB 1957), St Joseph Seminary,...
BELL, Gordon William. b. Durham, England, 7 September 1943. He was the only child of William Wallace Bell and Gladys Winifred (née Collinson). He was brought up in Durham, in a musical family, and attending the Durham Academy of Music (1958-60). In 1961 he commenced his career in hospital management, obtaining the Diploma of Health Service Management (1971). In 1979 he moved to Aberdeen, as Records and Information Officer for Grampian, followed by Quality Assurance Officer. He retired from the...
COOPERSMITH, Harry. b. Russia, 2 December 1902; d. Santa Barbara, California, 31 December 1975. Coopersmith was a pioneer in the dissemination of Jewish music in America. The hymn tune YISRAEL V'ORAITA (TORAH SONG)*, introduced by Coopersmith, is one of the most widely sung Jewish melodies published in Christian hymnals.
Harry Coopersmith immigrated with his parents, Max Coopersmith (1868? - ?) and Pauline (Liptzen) Coopersmith (1878? - ?) in 1911, and settled in New York, where Harry...
BURLEIGH, Harry [Henry] Thacker. b. Erie, Pennsylvania, 2 December 1866; d. Stamford, Connecticut, 12 September 1949. Distinguished singer, composer, and arranger, Burleigh made important contributions to American music through his many timeless vocal solo settings of African-American spirituals scored for classically trained singers. His earliest musical influence was his grandfather, former slave Hamilton Waters, who taught Burleigh and his siblings the songs of the plantation. Racial...
MUHLENBERG, Henry Melchior ('Melchior Heinrich Mühlenberg' was his given name which he reversed, and the anglicized versions of 'Henry' and 'Muhlenberg' with no umlaut on the 'u' are normally used today). b. Einbeck, (southern Lower Saxony), Germany, 6 September 1711; d. Trappe, Pennsylvania, 7 October 1787.
Known as 'the Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America', Muhlenberg was the seventh child in a poor family of nine. His parents were Nicolaus Melchior Muhlenberg (1660/66-1723/29) and...
CUTLER, Henry Stephen. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 13 October 1825; d. Swampscott, Massachusetts, 5 December 1902. Cutler was an organist, choirmaster, and composer, known especially for his hymn tune, ALL SAINTS (also called ALL SAINTS NEW). The place of Cutler's death is sometimes given as Boston; however, he died at home in Swampscott, about 12 miles north of the city. Cutler's parents were Roland Cutler (1798-1873) and Martha Richardson Cutler (1803-?) (see Josiah Adams, The Genealogy of...
FOOTE, Henry Wilder (II). b. Boston, Massachusetts, 2 February 1875; d. Southwest Harbor, Maine, 27 August 1964. Highly respected author, scholar, and hymnologist, Foote was a Unitarian minister, teacher, and progressive figure whose ministry highlighted music, poetry, and art. Born to Frances Anne Eliot (1838-1896) and Henry Wilder Foote (1838-1889), the younger Foote had strong connections with Unitarianism and Harvard University. His grandfather, Samuel Atkins Eliot (1798-1862) was mayor of...
OLSON, Howard. b. St Paul, Minnesota, 18 July 1922; d. Sun City Center, Florida, 1 July 2010. Howard Olson has a well-deserved reputation for his African hymns, such as 'Christ has arisen, Alleluia (Mfurahini, Haleluya)*, 'Neno lake Mungu' ('Listen, God Is Calling'), and 'Njoo kwetu, Roho mwema' ('Gracious Spirit, Heed Our Pleading'). They have have found their way into hymnals around the globe. Olson's Tumshangilie Mungu: Nyimbo za Kikristo za Kiafrika has gone through six successive...
McELRATH, Hugh Thomas. b. Murray, Kentucky, USA, 13 November 1921; d. Penney Farms, Florida, USA, 8 May 2008. McElrath was a renowned Southern Baptist hymnologist, seminary professor, church musician, and music missionary who combined high intellectual achievement and skilled musicianship with a devout Christian faith rooted in Baptist tradition. He attended Murray State College [today Murray State University], Murray, Kentucky (BA, 1943), and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary...
BRADLEY, Ian Campbell. b. Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, 28 May 1950. Ian Bradley was educated at Tonbridge School and New College, Oxford (BA 1971, MA, DPhil, 1974), where he won the Arnold Historical Essay Prize in 1971 and was Harold Salvesen Junior Fellow from 1972 to 1975. After a period working at the BBC and on The Times, followed by a time as a schoolmaster, free-lance author and broadcaster, he entered the University of St Andrews, where he studied for the BD and for the Church of...
Higginson, J. Vincent. b. Irvington, New Jersey, 17 May 1896; d. Albuquerque, New Mexico, 11 April 1994. Joseph Vincent Edward Higginson was the son of George and Anna A. Higginson. He married Lillian Rendelman (1906–1987), August 17, 1939, in New York City. Higginson received his education at Manhattan College, Julliard School, Pius X School of Liturgical Music, and at New York University (BMus 1929; MA 1938). He taught at Pius X School of Liturgical Music and lectured at New York University,...
WATSON, John Richard. b. Ipswich, Suffolk, 15 June 1934. Richard Watson was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford and (after National Service in the Royal Artillery, 1953-55) at Magdalen College, Oxford (BA 1958, MA 1964; Matthew Arnold Memorial Prize, 1962). After two years as a teacher of English at Loretto School near Edinburgh, he became a post-graduate student at the University of Glasgow, gaining his PhD (1966) with a study of William Wordsworth, and being awarded the Ewing Prize...
WHITE, James Floyd. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 23 January, 1932; d. South Bend, Indiana, 31 October 2004. He was educated at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts (graduated 1949), Harvard University (AB, 1953), and Union Theological Seminary, New York City (BD 1956). After a Fulbright Fellowship to study liturgy at Cambridge University, UK (1956-1957), he completed graduate studies at Duke University (PhD, 1960) with a dissertation, 'The Medieval Revival in the Church of England in the...
BRUMM, James Leslie Hart. b. New Brunswick, New Jersey; 11 November 1962. James Hart Brumm is a pastor in the Reformed Church of America (RCA), church historian, theological educator, and hymn writer. The son of James A. Brumm and Ruth Soden Brumm and the brother of six siblings—John, David, Catherine, Anthony, Leslie, and Shelly—his interest in music and hymnody was cultivated in church children's choirs as well as school band and chorus programs. His interest in hymnody was the result of...
SYDNOR, James Rawlings. b. Floyd County, Georgia, 8 March 1911; d. Richmond, Virginia, 28 November 1999. Sydnor was one of five children born into the marriage of Presbyterian minister, G. G. Snyder (b. 1864), whose family name was changed to Sydnor in a census of 1900, and Evelyn Aiken Sackett (1875-1939). Sydnor was educated at Hampton-Sydney College, Hampton-Sydney, Virginia (1929-1931), Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey (BM 1935, MM 1938), Rutgers University, New Brunswick,...
BENDER, Jan Oskar. b. in Haarlem, Holland, 3 February 1909; d. Hanerau, Germany, 29 December 1994. Jan Bender was a distinguished church musician, organist, educator, and composer, for whom hymnody was very important. His mother, Margarette Schindler (1874-1951), was German. His Dutch father, Hermann Bender (1870-1908), a piano dealer, died the year in which Jan was born. In 1922 his mother moved back to her native town, Lübeck, Germany, where Jan studied organ, and began to compose at the...
DIBBLE, Jeremy Colin. b. 17 September 1958. He grew up in Theydon Bois, Essex where his first musical education was as a chorister at St Mary's Church (1965-72). Educated at Buckhurst Hill County High School (1970-77), he was a pupil of John Rippin, then organist and choirmaster at St Paul's, Chingford. Rippin's influence was profound, not only inculcating a love of English church music, but also an interest in British music of the 19th and 20th centuries. An Open Exhibitioner at Trinity...
RIEDEL, Johannes. b. Neustadt, Poland, 16 May 1913; d. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 20 August 1996. A distinguished musicologist with a strong sense of the inter-connectedness of things across a broad historic, ethnic, and stylistic range, Riedel's interests included the sociology of music; the history of music; music in the present; both 'classical' and 'popular' music; and church music in its choral and congregational forms. He joined theory and practice in a curiosity and concern about music...
AMBROSE, John Edward. b. Ottawa, Ontario, 30 January 1936. Minister, denominational worship official, and hymnal editor, John Ambrose received degrees at Carlton University (BA, 1959), Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto (MDiv, 1962), and University of Notre Dame (MA, Liturgical Studies, 1982). Following his ordination as a minister in The United Church of Canada (1962), he served congregations in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. He was called to create the...
THOMPSON, John Bodine. b. Readington, New Jersey, 14 October 1830; d. Trenton, New Jersey, 4 September 1907. The son of Joseph Thompson, he received a BA from Rutgers College in 1851, a Bachelor of Divinity degree from New Brunswick Theological Seminary (NBTS) in 1858, and a DD from Rutgers College in 1870. He pastored a succession of Reformed and Presbyterian congregations in New Jersey, New York, and California, and pastored a congregation of the Free Church in Italy (1871-73). In 1889, He...
KUNZE, John Christopher. b. Artern, Saxony, Germany, 5 August 1744; d. New York City, 24 July 1807. A prominent, innovative educator and Lutheran clergyman of Pietist persuasion, Kunze was orphaned in 1758. He attended the orphanage school in Halle, and received a classical education at the gymnasia in Rossleben and Merseburg. He went on to study history, philosophy, and theology at the University of Leipzig, following which he worked as a teacher for three years at Closter-Bergen, near...
HARPER, John. b. 1947. John Harper was a chorister, King's College, Cambridge (1956-61), and a music scholar, Clifton College, Bristol (1961-66). He returned to Cambridge as organ scholar, Selwyn College (1966-70), followed by four years as a research student, University of Birmingham (1970-74). He was appointed as a lecturer in music, University of Birmingham (1974-75, 1976-81), and then at the University of Oxford (1981-90), where he was Fellow, Tutor in music, organist and informator...
TUCKER, John Ireland. b. Brooklyn, New York, 26 November, 1819; d. Albany, New York, 17 August 1895. Tucker was an Episcopal priest and editor of several music editions of nineteenth-century Episcopal hymnals and related materials (see Episcopal Church, USA, hymnody*).
Tucker's parents, Fanning Cobham Tucker (1782-1856) and Ann Moore Sands (1781-1833), were born to well-established New York families. Fanning's father, Robert Tucker (1746-1792), was the first to receive the degree Doctor of...
NILES, John Jacob. b. Portland (now a neighborhood of Louisville), Kentucky, 28 April 1892; d. Boot Hill Farm, near Lexington, Kentucky, 1 March 1980. Niles was a singer, composer, and collector of traditional music. His Christmas carol, 'I wonder as I wander'*, is found in several hymnals.
As a youngster living near a river city in Kentucky, Niles became familiar with folk music and various other forms of musical entertainment. He was especially fond of vaudeville. Before leaving his work on...
JULIAN, John. b. Mithian, near St Agnes, Cornwall, 27 January 1839; d. Topcliffe, Yorkshire, 22 January 1913. The Methodist archives in the John Rylands University Library, University of Manchester, searched by John Lenton, inform us that John Julian was the son of Thomas and Ann Julian, and christened at St Agnes (2 March 1839). He was brought up as a Wesleyan Methodist, and became a Probationer minister, a 'Preacher on Trial' in the Leeds Third Circuit (1861), the Kington Circuit (stationed...
See 'Zimbabwean hymnody#John Kaemmer'*
WORK, John Wesley (III). b. Tullahoma, Tennessee, 15 June 1901; d. Nashville, Tennessee, 17 May 1967. John Work III was born into a family of musicians, including John Wesley Work (I)*, John Wesley Work (II)*, and Frederick Jerome Work*. The family were among the leaders in the collecting, arranging, developing, and preserving of African-American spirituals and folksongs. John Work (III) is known especially for American Negro Songs and Spirituals: a Comprehensive Collection of 230 Folk...
LOCKWARD, Jorge. b. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; 2 January 1965– . Jorge Lockward is a composer, arranger, editor, translator, producer, and enlivener of congregational song. He has served in a variety of leadership positions in choral music, ministry, and administration. He holds degrees from Azusa Pacific University (BA in Religion, 1986) and City College of New York (BM in Music, 1990), with further graduate studies at Rutgers University (Musicology, 1990–92) and Drew University...
HERL, Joseph. b. Lockport, New York; 27 May 1959. Herl earned a BA in music from Concordia College (Bronxville, New York, 1981), where he was honored with prizes in music and classics. He subsequently received a Master's degree in organ performance from North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas, 1985), and a PhD in musicology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2000). At the University of Illinois, Herl assisted his advisor, Nicholas Temperley*, in...
ROWE, Kenneth E. b. Coaldale, Pennsylvania, 15 April 1937. Rowe, the premier bibliographer of American Methodism, received degrees from Drew University (BA 1959; PhD 1969); Yale University (BD 1962), and Rutgers University (MLS 1970). He was Professor of Church History and Methodist Librarian at Drew University from 1970 until his retirement from the library in 2002 and from the faculty in 2005. He was instrumental in bringing the National Archives of the United Methodist Church to Drew and in...
MILLER, Lester David Jr. b. Lenoir, North Carolina, 15 April 1919; d. Columbia, South Carolina, 21 May 2003. David Miller was a minister, musician, and teacher. His father, for whom he was named, was a Lutheran pastor. He earned degrees from Lenoir-Rhyne College (now University) (AB, 1939) and Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (BD, 1942). While a student, he served as minister of music at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Columbia, South Carolina. Following graduation and ordination, he held a...
ELLINWOOD, Leonard Webster. b. Thomaston, Litchfield County, Connecticut, 13 February 1905; d. Washington, DC, 8 July 1994. Leonard Ellinwood was a musicologist, hymnologist, librarian, choral singer, and minister. The son of George Francis Ellinwood (1873–1924) and Lois May Ellinwood (née Magoon) (1874–1925), Leonard grew up in Littleton, New Hampshire and had one younger brother, David (1909–1969). He attended Amherst College (1922–23), graduating from Aurora College (now Aurora University,...
Lim, Swee Hong (林瑞峰).b. Singapore; 11 June 1963.
Lim, Swee Hong is a Singaporean church musician, composer, and educator. Born into a Chinese Christian family, Lim inherited the faith of his maternal heritage as a fourth-generation Christian. His father (Baptist) and mother (Presbyterian) instilled the value of service to God. Along with his siblings, Lim was encouraged by his mother to serve the church through music-making. Lim began to learn musical instruments at an early age, planting the...
McKim, LindaJo K. (née Horton). b. Uniontown, Pennsylvania, 9 June 1946. Pastor, teacher and hymnal editor, McKim attended high school in Uniontown, Pennsylvania; West Virginia University, Morgantown (BM, 1968); Pittsburgh [Pennsylvania] Theological Seminary (MDiv, 1977); and the University of Dubuque [Iowa] Theological Seminary (DMin, 1984). An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, USA, she has pastored churches, and served as adjunct faculty at the University of Dubuque Theological...
MANZARA, Loretta, CSJ. b. London, Ontario, Canada, 4 May 1948. Loretta Manzara, CSJ, is a liturgist, organist, and hymnal editor. Her family's origins, and the rich cultural roots which fed her early life, can be traced to England on her maternal grandparents' side and to Italy on the side of her paternal grandparents. Music was a part of the life of her parents and their six children. After working his regular job at GM Diesel, her father took weekend bartending work to pay for her music...
REED, Luther Dotterer. b. North Wales, Pennsylvania, 21 March 1873; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 3 April 1972. Reed's distinguished career included a wide spectrum of activity in liturgics, church art and architecture, church music, and hymnody. He attended Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania (AB, 1882, MA, 1897), the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia ['Mt. Airy'] (BD, 1895), with further study in Germany, Scandinavia and Great Britain (1902-1903). He was...
LEASK, Margaret Anne. b. Winnipeg, Manitoba, 2 September 1953. She was educated at the University of Toronto (BA 1976), Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario (MA 1983), and Durham University, UK (PhD 2000). Her Master's thesis was on the role of congregational song and the hymn writing of Henry Alline during the Great Awakening in Nova Scotia and New England, 1776-83( see Great Awakenings, USA'*). As a staff editor on Volume VIII of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, she oversaw the...
HATCHETT, Marion Josiah. b. Monroe, South Carolina, 19 July 1927: d. Sewanee, Tennessee, 7 August 2009. Son of a United Methodist Church minister, he was confirmed as a member of the Episcopal Church while a student at Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina (AB 1947). He continued his studies at The School of Theology, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee (BD, 1951, STM, 1967), and General Theological Seminary, New York City (THD, 1972).
Ordained in the Episcopal Church (deacon...
SEDIO, Mark. b. Minneapolis, Minnesota, 16 November 1954. He studied music at Augsburg College, Minneapolis (BA 1976), the University of Iowa (MA 1979), in the MDiv program at Luther Seminary, St Paul, MN (1982-1986), and in the liturgical studies program at St John's University, St Joseph, MN (2003). At Luther Seminary he directed the choir for six years and played the organ for chapel services for twenty-five years. He taught music history and world music, conducted the Chapel Choir at...
BRINGLE, Mary Louise ('Mel'). b. Ripley, Tennessee, 31 July 1953. Bringle grew up in a family active in the Presbyterian Church US: her father served as a deacon and ruling elder, and her mother taught two-year-olds in Sunday school. She sang in children's and youth choirs at the First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. She majored in French and religious studies at Guilford College, Greensboro (BA 1975); received a Fribourg Foundation grant to study at the Institut de Science...
BALLANTA, Nicholas George Julius. b. Kissy, Sierra Leone, 14 March 1893; d. Sierra Leone(?), 1961(?). Ballanta was an ethnomusicologist, hymnist, and composer, known especially for his collection, Saint Helena Island Spirituals (1925), which included the first musical setting of 'Let us break bread together on our knees'*.
At the time of Ballanta's birth, Sierra Leone was a British colony, and independence from Great Britain was not won until 1961 — the year that Ballanta is thought to have...
TEMPERLEY, Nicholas. b. Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, 7 August 1932; d. Urbana, Illinois, 8 April 2020. He was the son of Major General Arthur Cecil Temperley (1877–1940), sometime military attaché at the League of Nations and author of The Whispering Gallery of Europe (1938). He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. He first came to the University of Illinois in 1959 as a postdoctoral fellow. He then taught in the music departments of Cambridge and Yale, and joined the...
BECKERLEGGE, Oliver Aveyard. b. Sheffield, Yorkshire, 1 October 1913; d. Chesterfield, Derbyshire, 18 February 2003. He was educated at Sheffield University, where he read Modern Languages, and was awarded a PhD for an edition of an early medieval text in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Le Secré de secrez by Pierre d'Abernun of Fetcham (published in Oxford by Basil Blackwell for the Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1944). After leaving university, he taught at Düsseldorf in Germany, returning to England...
HUCKEL, Oliver. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 11 January 1864; d. Orlando, Florida, 3 February 1940. He was a Congregationalist minister, lecturer, author, translator, poet, and hymn writer. Broadly educated and widely traveled, he was influential in denominational and ecumenical circles, and a Mason. His parents were William Samuel Huckel (1835–1898), a businessman, and Ruth Ann Sprowles Huckel (1837–1915). His brother, William Samuel Huckel, Jr., (1858–1917) was a well-known architect in...
See 'Zimbabwean hymnody#Olof Axelsson'*
WESTERMEYER, Paul Henry. b. Cincinnati, Ohio, 28 March 1940. Westermeyer is a well-respected and articulate church musician, theologian, author, and educator. Born of the marriage of Paul Henry and Ruth Caroline (née Hackstedt), Westermeyer's earliest musical memories are of singing with the congregation at his home church, Salem Evangelical and Reformed Church in Cincinnati. He sang with his father in the church choir, studied piano with his mother, and methodically worked through the hymnal...
SCHAFF, Philip. b. Chur, Switzerland, 1 January 1819; d. New York, 20 October 1893. He was an illegitimate child from a poor family. His father died before Philip was one year old, and he had a disturbed and unhappy childhood in an orphanage from which he was rescued by a local minister, who arranged for the clever child to be educated at a Lutheran school at Kornthal, Württemberg, and then at the Gymnasium at Stuttgart, and at the Universities of Tübingen, Halle, and Berlin. After working as a...
WATTERS, Philip Sidney. b. Dobbs Ferry, New York, 4 February 1890; d. Hackettstown, New Jersey, 23 September 1972. He was a Methodist minister and administrator, the son of Philip Melancthon Watters (1860–1926), also a Methodist minister, and Hyla Ada Stowell Watters (1862–1932), a teacher. His father was president of Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta from 1915 to 1924; his elder sister, Florence Ada Watters Schultz (1888–1980), was a missionary to India and Pakistan; and his younger...
PIDOUX, Pierre. b. Neuchâtel 4 March 1905; d. Geneva 16 July 2001. He was the son of a pastor, Louis S. Pidoux (1878-1953), and elder brother of the writer Edmond Pidoux. He was a Swiss Romand protestant pastor, who was an authority on the Genevan Psalter*. He was also a composer and organist.
He gained a degree in theology at the Free Church University of Lausanne (1932). where he lectured in 'Hymnology between 1646 and 1965'. He received the degree of PhD, honoris causa from the Lausanne...
HOBBS, R. Gerald. b. Dundalk, Ontario, 16 July 1941. Professor of church history, biblical studies, and church music, Gerald Hobbs was educated at the University Toronto (BA, Victoria College, 1963; MA in Near Eastern Studies, 1965; and BD, Emmanuel College), followed by ordination to the United Church of Canada, (1966). He earned a doctorate in Reformation history from the Faculté de Théologie Protestante at the Université de Strasbourg in 1971, writing his dissertation on 'An introduction to...
MORTENSEN, Ralph. b. Mankato, Minnesota, 29 January 1894; d. Southington, Connecticut, September 1986. Mortensen attended Augsburg College and Seminary, Minneapolis, Minnesota (BA 1913), the University of Oslo, Norway, and Hartford Seminary, Hartford Connecticut, (STM 1918, PhD 1927). He was a Lutheran (American Synod) missionary in China and Hong Kong (1918-58), and the organizing chairperson of the Hymnbook and Tunebook Revision Committee that produced Hymns of Praise [頌主聖詩 (Hong Kong?,...
GUITIÉRREZ-ACHÓN, Raquel. b. Preston (now Puerto Guatemala), Province of Oriente, Cuba; 5 May 1927; d. Los Angeles, California, 5 January 2013. Raquel Gutiérrez-Achón was a church musician, pianist, choral conductor, hymnal editor, and promoter of Spanish-language hymns in the United States and Latin America. She studied music at the Instituto Santiago and the Conservatorio Provincial (Santiago de Cuba), Matin College (Pulaski, Tennessee), George Peabody College for Teachers (Nashville,...
McALL, Reginald Ley. b. Bocking, Essex, England, 20 August 1878; d. Meredith, New Hampshire, 9 July 1954. McAll was an organist, administrator, and humanitarian. His parents were Robert McAll (1837–1890), a Congregational minister, and Elizabeth Lonsdale McCall (1844–1932). After immigrating to New York in 1897, he earned the BA degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1900 and studied at the Peabody Conservatory. McAll became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1923.
Following brief...
Farlee, Robert Buckley. b. Santa Monica, California; 23 February 1950. Robert Farlee is the second of four children born to Lee (1917–1999) and Irene (née Berglund) (1921–2016) Farlee. He was raised in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod tradition at First Lutheran Church of Culver City and Palms (Los Angeles). His early education took place in Missouri Synod elementary and secondary schools. He graduated from Concordia Teachers' College (now Concordia University, Nebraska) in secondary music...
McCUTCHAN, Robert Guy. b. Mt. Ayr, Iowa, 13 September 1877, d. Claremont, California, 15 May 1958. McCutchan was a distinguished hymnologist, editor, teacher and church musician who played a major role in shaping Methodist hymnody, music and performance practice during the first half of the 20th century. His career as a church musician and educator was characterized by a deep love and concern for local congregations, and a strong desire for typical worshipers to experience the joy of singing...
See 'Zimbabwean hymnody#Robert Kauffman'*
WALLACE, Robin Knowles. b. Toledo, Ohio, 6 January 1952. Wallace is a hymnological scholar, editor, teacher of congregational song, and ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. Her timely and influential published works are characterized by usability for scholars and practitioners, attention to language for inclusion and justice, and the centrality of congregational song in worship as a spiritual and theological formational practice.
Robin attended the University of Cincinnati, Ohio...
DESCHNER, Roger Neil. b. San Antonio, Texas, 1 December 1927; d. Richardson, Texas, 23 October 1991. Prominent church musician, Wesleyan scholar, and teacher, Deschner attended the University of Texas at Austin, (BA, 1949), Union Theological Seminary, New York City (BD, 1952), followed by graduate studies at the School of Music, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (1955). He was ordained an elder in The United Methodist Church in 1962. Deschner served as minister of music at Epworth...
KIMBROUGH, Jr., S T. b. Athens, Alabama, 17 December 1936. Prominent Wesley scholar, singer, editor, and global hymnologist, Kimbrough attended Birmingham Southern College, Birmingham, Alabama (BA, 1958), The Divinity School, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (BDiv, 1962) and Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey (PhD, 1966). An ordained elder in The United Methodist Church, he was pastor of churches in Alabama, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Germany. Kimbrough has...
GRAY, Scotty. b. Lytle, Texas, 8 May 1934. Scholar and writer on hymnody, Gray was educated at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, and Baylor University, Waco, Texas (double major in church music and music education, 1955). This was followed by graduate study at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky (1955-56), and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MCM - Master of Church Music, 1959: dissertation, 'The Use of “Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott” as a Cantus...
See 'Tanzanian hymnody#Stephen Mbunga'*
MacARTHUR, Terry Lee. b. Alpena, Michigan, 8 September 1949. MacArthur attended Central Michigan University, Mt Pleasant, Michigan (BS,1971), and The Methodist Theological School In Ohio, Delaware, Ohio (MDiv, 1976). He was a United Methodist pastor in the West Michigan Conference of the United Methodist Church, and served on the conference worship team., Concurrent with his studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York (STM, 1984), he was the organist/choir director at Zion Lutheran Church...
BOWMAN, Thea (Bertha). b. Yazoo City, Mississippi, 29 December 1937; d. Canton, Mississippi, 30 March 1990. Bowman was a charismatic figure, known for her work with African American communities and congregations. She was a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of La Crosse, Wisconsin. Bowman attended Viterbo College (now University) (BA 1965), and The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC (MA 1969; PhD 1972). Having taught at the grade school, high school and...
SUMMERS, Thomas Osmond. b. Swanage, Dorset, England, 11 October 1812, d. Nashville, Tennessee, 6 May 1882. An influential and articulate American Methodist theologian, editor, historian, liturgist, teacher, and hymnist, Summers was orphaned at an early age and cared for by his Calvinist grandmother and great-aunt, who apparently encouraged his early interests in reading and self-learning. At age seven, following their deaths, he was placed in the guardianship of three deacons of the...
WALTER, Thomas. b. Roxbury, Massachusetts, 13 December 1696; d. Roxbury, 10 January 1725. Walter, a Congregational minister and school teacher, is known primarily for The Grounds and Rules of Musick (1721), the earliest American tunebook of which copies have survived.
Walter was the second son of Rev. Nehemiah Walter (1663-1750) and Sarah Mather Walter (1671-1746); Sarah was the sister of Cotton Mather* and daughter of Increase Mather (1639-1723). These three ministers were among the fifteen...
LEUPOLD, Ulrich Siegfried. b. Berlin, Germany, 15 January 1909; d. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 9 June 1970. He undertook musicological studies at Friedrich Wilhelm University, Berlin (1927–31), under such leading musicologists as Johannes Wolf, Arnold Schering, Curt Sachs, and Hans Joachim Moser; theological studies at the University of Zürich under Reinhold Seeberg, and in Berlin with Leonhardt Fendt, Emil Brunner, and Hans Asmussen, among others. His PhD thesis, Die liturgischen Gesänge der...
FUNK, Virgil Clarence. b. La Crosse, Wisconsin, 25 July 1937. Raised in Arlington, Virginia, Funk attended St Charles High School and College Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland; St Mary's University, Baltimore, (STL, 1963), and the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC (MSW, 1969). While a seminarian at St Mary's, Funk was formed in liturgy and music by the distinguished liturgist and author Eugene Walsh, SS; and the acclaimed scripture scholar Raymond Brown, SS, serving as his...
BUSZIN, Walter Edwin. b. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 4 December 1899; d. Omaha, Nebraska, 2 July 1973. Walter Buszin was born to Paul Theodore Buszin (1873-1944), a Lutheran school teacher and musician, and Lydia Buszin (née Lang, 1876-1953). He was baptized at St Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His paternal grandfather, Theodor Ludwig Buszin (1834 or 1830-1892), was born into a Jewish family in Germany. His name may have been Ludwig Levin, though that is not certain. He...
Townsend, Willa Ann Hadley. b. Nashville, Tennessee, 22 April 1880; d. Nashville, 24 April 1947. A Black educator devoted to improving the lives of African Americans, she was a civic leader, church musician, and editor/compiler of three influential Black collections of hymns, gospel songs, and African American spirituals*.
The daughter of Samuel Porterfield Hadley (1849–1905) and Mary Hadley, she received her education in the Nashville Public Schools, Fisk University, Nashville, Roger Williams...
ROCKWELL, William Walker. b. Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 4 October 1874; d. New York City, 30 May 1958. Church historian and librarian, Rockwell attended Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts (BA, 1895), the Andover Theological Seminary, Andover, Massachusetts (STB, 1900) and the University of Marburg, Germany (PhD, 1903). He was ordained by the Congregational Church at the seminary church in Andover on 5 June 1905.
Rockwell was an instructor at Andover Theological Seminary (1904), and...