Edward Hodges

HODGES, Edward.  b. Bristol, England, 20 July 1796; d. Clifton, Bristol, 1 September 1867.  Hodges was an organist, composer, and father of Faustina H. Hodges* and John Sebastian Bach Hodges*.  Many hymnals include Edward Hodges’s tune HYMN TO JOY, arranged from a melody in the finale of Beethoven’s 9th symphony [Opus 125, 1824] as the setting for Henry van Dyke*’s ‘Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee’*. Edward’s father, Archelaus Hodges (1767-1811), and mother, Elizabeth (Stephens) Hodges (1768-1813), moved from Bristol to Stanton Wick in Somerset, where the family operated a stationery shop on Bridge Street and attended the Bridge Street Independent Chapel. Archelaus sang bass in the chapel...