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(See also Julian p.481)
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He was a Methodist minister, serving in circuits mainly in Wales and in East Anglia, eventually retiring to the Marches village of English Frankton, near Ellesmere.
He was one of many ordained ministers who have obtained a professional or graduate qualification in music as well as in theology; but, unlike most of these, his music degree was obtained after his ordination, when the Methodist Conference granted him a 3-year sabbatical for a B.Mus. degree course at the University of Wales.
His initial training for the Methodist ministry was taken at the Hartley Victoria College in Manchester (1951- ), and was followed by pastoral experience in Wales and Monmouthshire, leading to ordination in 1957. After further circuit appointments in Wales, he studied composition with Alun Hoddinot and William Mathias, following this with a period ofteaching at Blackford Grammar School in Somerset where he was head of the Religious Education and Music Departments. He returned to circuit ministry in Norfolk (Dereham and Swaffham), and in 1981 moved to Ellesmere, Shropshire, retiring in 1991 to the Marches village of English Frankton near Ellesmere.
He wrote a number of hymns, in most cases with tunes of his own composition; and eight of these (five with his own tunes) appeared in Partners in Praise 1979. His collection A Hymn for the Lectionary, containing 70 hymns and tunes, was published in 1981; but only one of these - to his own disappointment without its accompanying tune - was included in the 1983 Methodist hymn-book (HPs-427; RS-337), and the rest of hiscollection remains largely unknown. Other compositions included a cantata "Sayings from the Cross", a musical "Onesimus", and another entitled "Rock John 'n' Charles" written for the 250th anniversary of John Wesley's conversion.
He married Dorothy in 1957, who survived him together with his two sons.
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[ ? See HSB Vol 2 No.11 July 1950 p.164 ]
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She was the youngest daughter of the Revd Robert H.Hammond, perpetual curate of St James's, Toxteth Park, Liverpool 1866-93 and Vicar of St Mary's, Sheffield 1893-1902. Following his death in 1902, Mary moved with her mother to Harpenden, Hertfordshire, and remained there until shortly before her death in a St Albans nursing home.
She was actively connected with Harpenden Parish Church and with the Churches' Mission to the Jews.
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(See also Julian p.483a)
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He was educated at the University of Texas, at the Sorbonne, and at Union Theological Seminary, New York. He was assistant organist and choirmaster of St Bartholomew's, New York 1960-62; organist and choirmaster of Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral, Cincinnati 1962-71; and since 1971 of St Thomas's, Fifth Avenue, New York. He teaches at the Juillard School of Music, New York, and at the Institute of Sacred Music, Yale University.
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His father, the surgeon to Duke Augustus of Saxony, wanted Handel to become a lawyer but, after his father's early death, Georg Frideric abandoned legal studies at the University of Halle. He studied music with F.W.Zachau, organist in Halle, played the violin in the Hamburg opera orchestra in 1703, visited Italy in 1706 where he met Corelli and the two Scarlattis, was briefly Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover (later George I of England), and visited London in 1710-11 to present his opera Rinaldo He returned to England about 18 months later and thereafter made England his home, taking English nationality in 1726.
After some thirty years as an opera composer and impresario (activities that made and lost him a fortune) he turned to oratorio - thereby influencing English music for generations. By 1753 he was completely blind; but, with the help of an amanuensis, he continued to compose and to direct performances of his own works.
His compositions are immense in number and variety, but include only three original hymn tunes (others are arrangements from his other works). There is a large monument to him in the `Poets Corner' in Westminster Abbey.
(See also DNB; GDM; OCM)
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He worked for the Inland Revenue, but was a keen amateur musician who was organist and choirmaster of St Andrew's Thornhill Square, Barnsbury for 35 years. Many of his compositions were written for the children's festivals of the Gifford Hall Mission in Islington, of which he and his brother W.Edmund Harding were considerable supporters and benefactors.
- (originally A natural)
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He studied law and medicine at The Queen's College, Oxford and practised as a physician in Wells 1753-71 and in Bath from 1771. He founded the Bath Harmonic Society; was a magistrate, alterman, and then Mayor of Bath in 1793.
He composed anthems and many glees and humurous `catches'. He also wrote some theological works and verses. He is commemorated by a tablet in Bath Abbey.
(See also DNB; GDM)
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He studied organ and composition at the Royal College of Music. After a number of appointments in and around London, he was assistant organist at Lichfield Cathedral 1911-19; organist of New College Oxford 1919-29; of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford 1929-33; and of St George's Chapel Windsor 1933-61. He taught organ and harmony at the Royal College of Music from 1921 to 1953.
He composed much choral, church, and organ music, and was music editor of Emynau'r Eglwys 1951, the hymn book of the Episcopal Church in Wales. He was created KCVO in 1954.
(See also DNB; GDM; OCM)
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He was the eldest son of William Harrison, the Presbyterian (Unitarian) minister at Chinley for 27 years. Ralph was educated at Warrington Academy (Unitarian) 1763-67, and was a tutor there for the next two years. He then became assistant minister at the Presbyterian (Unitarian) shapel in Shrewsbury 1769-71, and pastor (perhaps also organist) of Cross Street Chapel Manchester (then Independent, later Unitarian) 1771-1809. He ran a boys' school in Manchester and helped to found the Manchester Academy, where he was tutor of classics and belles-lettres 1786-89.
He published various educational books, but is best remembered for his two volumes of Sacred Harmony, 1784 and 1791, containing several of his own tunes.
(See also DNB)
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(See also DNB; Julian pp.492b-493)
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He was educated at Charterhouse, Trinity College Oxford, and the Leipzig Conservatory of Music. He was organist of St Barnabas, Pimlico 1883-87; Ely Cathedral 1887-92; and Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford 1892-1909; precentor of Keble College 1892-1903; Choragus of the University 1900-09; the first conductor of the Oxford Bach Choir 189601900; and music editor of The Oxford Hymn Book 1908.
He retired to Woodhouse, his birthplace, in 1909 to manage the family estate and to devote his time to composition. He wrote much church and organ music; many of his hymn tunes are named after places which he had visited and loved. (A booklet by Valerie Ruddle entitled The Life and Hymn Tunes of Basil Harwood was published by the Hymn Society of Great Britain & Ireland in 1996.)
(See also DNB; GDM; OCM)
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[ * Some reference books, including GDM, give different dates of birth, possibly confusing Hans Leo Hassler with his brother Kaspar. ]
He was the second of three sons of a notable organist. In 1584 he was sent to study with Andrea Gabrielli in Venice. He returned to Germany in 1585 to be private organist to Count octavian Fugger, a wealthy banker in Augsburg, until the Count's death in 1600. He then returned to Nuremberg as organist of the Frauenkirche and director of the town band (1601-04). From 1604-08 he lived in Ulm, and was organist to the Elector of Saxony at Dresden 1608-12. He died (of tuberculosis) while attending the installation of Emperor Matthias in Frankfurt.
In addition to organ pieces, he wrote, collected and published much vocal music, both sacred and secular, including 52 settings of chorale melodies.
(See also GDM; OCM)
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(See also DNB; Julian p.1569b)
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Little is known of him except that, as he was referred to as `John of Warrington' that was presumably his birthplace. He lived in Duke Street, Windle, St Helens; his funeral sermon was preached in the Presbyterian Church there on 13 December 1793.
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(See also DNB; Julian pp.496b-498a)
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He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, London and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was ordained in 1816; and after three curacies became in 1829 Rector of Astley, near Bewdley, Worcestershire. In that year a serious carriage accident affected his sight and general health, though with the aid of a succession of curates he continued his parish work and combined it with music studies and composition.
In 1841 he resigned the living of Astley and moved in the following year to Henwick House, Hallow (nr Worcester), continuing his music activities, teaching and preaching, while waiting for the opportunity of a a parish living which would not be too physically demanding. During this time he published (1844) a reissue of Ravenscroft's 1621 psalter, the Whole Book of Psalmes; this was followed in 1847 by Old Church Psalmody (5th edn 1864). Wishing to make available in England the best of seventeenth-century German tunes he arranged many chorales as English hymn tunes.
In 1845 he became Rector of St Nicholas's, Worcester and honorary canon of the Cathedral. Still dogged by ill-health, he took a prolonged leave of absence from autumn 1952 to December 1953, travelling (with his wife and youngest daughter Frances) to Düsseldorf to visit an oculist and remaining in Prussia for the whole of that period. In 1860 he took less onerous duties as Vicar of Shareshill, Wolverhampton; and finally retired to Leamington in 1867.
He wrote about 100 hymns, a similar number of hymn tunes and chants, and some historical works. In addition to his music and academic interests, however, and in spite of his poor health, he continued to be actively involved in pastoral work and in ecclesiastical affairs. He had been a strong opponent of the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, co-edited a polemical journal The Protestant Warder, and became an ardent supporter of `The Church Association' founded in 1965 to counter what its members regarded as the aggressive `romanising' tactics of the English Church Union. At the same time he worked tirelessly to support and extend the already strong Sunday School movement in the Worcester diocese.
According to his Nannie, the young `curly rosy William Havergal' was noted for his golden curls. A portrait dating from the time of the birth of his youngest daughter Frances, however, when he was 43 years of age, shows him with dark hair and bushy eyebrows. His wife Jane (née Head) died of cancer in 1848, leaving Henry with 11-year-old Frances and her older sisters Miriam - age 30 and married - , Maria and Ellen (aged 26 and 24), and her older brothers Henry and Frank (aged 27 and 18). In 1851 he married again, his bride Caroline (Cooke) having been a teacher at the boarding school attended by his daughters, and a close friend of the Havergal family.
A biography of Frances Havergal [Note *] includes a description of William Henry Havergal " ... mounting the pulpit to preach the sermon into which he had put so much prayerful preparation. A majestic figure in his long black Geneva gown, his appearance gave weight to his words . . . Years later, Maria [ his second daughter ] was visiting the men's ward of a work-house, when an inmate overheard her name and cried out `Havigail, Havigail; why that was the name of our parson years ago, he turned the parish upside down. He was the man as could preach, and put a stop to sin!' ".
(See also DNB; GDM; Julian p.498)
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He was educated at Truro Grammar School and then apprenticed to a physician in Truro; but, resolving to take Holy Orders, he began studies at Christ Church Oxford and later at Magdalen Hall. Ordained in 1757, he became chaplain to the Earl of Peterborough, and then curate of St Mary Magdalen, Oxford. His Methodist sympathies led to his dismissal from St Mary's, and he became assistant to Martin Madan at the Lok Hospital Chapel, London. He was rector of All Saints' Church Aldwinkle, Northants 1764-1820; during this time, in 1768 he became chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon, and also her trustee and executor and manager of her college at Trevecca, Wales.
He was a friend of John Newton and edited Newton's autobiography; he also wrote a history of the Church, a translation of the New Testament and a biblical commentary. He published, as a companion to the Countess of Huntingdon's own hymnal, a collection of hymns, Carmina Christo 1792, for which he also composed some tunes. He was one of the founders of the London Missionary Society in 1795.
(See also DNB; Julian pp.498b-499a)
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Educated at Bedford School and Balliol College Oxford, he was a Fellow of Exeter College Oxford 1831-52, and sub-librarian of the Bodleian Library. He served a number of curacies, and was under-secretary 1838-43 and then secretary 1843-64 of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral 1844-64; and a canon of Westminster 1864-68.
He published several historical and devotional works, and contributed four tunes and eight arrangements to Vincent Novello's The Psalmist (1835/42 &c.)
He is buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.
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He was educated at Highgate School, and then joined Coutts Bank. War service in the Royal Navy 1939-46 took him to the rank of Commander; and he was then Bursar of the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook, Ipswich 1947-71. He was organist of Congregational Churches at Hendon, Middlesex 1934-35; Ealing 1935-39 and 1946-47; and Tacket Street Ipswich 1948-88.
He was an active member of the URC Musicians' Guild (formerly the Guild of Congregational Organists and Choirmasters, of which he was a founder member and its first Chairman); and likewise of the Hymn Society of Great Britain & Ireland, which he served for many years as Treasurer.
For the text of an obituary notice (in the URC Guild Review), and an Appreciation which was published in a local newspaper during his lifetime, click here > >
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He was educated at the Roman Catholic choir school of St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna 1740-49; he then had to scrape a living by playing in street bands and teaching. Music written for a theatrical farce helped him to become known; and in 1761 he was appointed director of music to Prince Esterhazy (and later to his son). Thus began thirty years of composing and performing music under highly favourable conditions.
In 1791-93 and 1794-95 Haydn visited England with great success; he then settled in Vienna for the remainder of his life. His prodigious output of music brought him universal fame and honour: he composed over 100 symphonies, 22 operas, four oratorios and much piano and chamber music; he practically invented many of the musical forms (e.g. symphony, sonata, string quartet) that he used. He was deeply religious, regarding his talent as a God-given trust.
(See also GDM; OCM)
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He was a younger brother of Franz Josef Haydn. He was a chorister at St Stephen's Cathedral Vienna 1745-55, acting also as deputy organist. In 1757 he became Kapellmeister at Grosswardein to the bishop, Count Firmian, whose uncle, Archbishop Sigismund, appointed him concertmaster in Salzburg in 1762. Despite tempting offers from Prince Esterhazy in Vienna, he stayed at Salzburg until his death; from 1777 he was also organist of the Church of the Holy Trinity, and in 1781 he succeeded Mozart as organist of the Cathedral.
He composed much music, including several oratorios and about 300 pieces for the church, but little was published. Many of his manuscripts were initialled `O. a.m. D.Gl.' (Omnia ad majorem Dei Gloriam).
(See also GDM; OCM)
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He was educated at Eton and The Queen's College Oxford. He was precentor at Queen's 1860-66, and in 1863 was appointed Coryphaeus (conductor of the chorus) to the University and public examiner in music. Ordained in 1861, he was curate in the parish of St John the Baptist, Oxford 1864-66; vicar of Helston, Cornwall 1866-68; and succentor and organist at Eton College 1868-71. He succeeded his father as jointly rector of Mistley and vicar of Bradfield in 1871.
A noted amateur organ-builder, he wrote a valuable pamphlet Hints on the purchase of an organ 1867, and built in the music room at Eton a large five-manual instrument which was later divided between his two Essex churches.
He wrote many hymn tunes, and with the Revd H.W.Sergeant co-edited The Merton Tune Book 1863.
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End of Biographies H1. Return to Top . . .
(The Rejoice & Sing Enchiridion:edited by David Goodall; last amended 17/5/03)