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He was a chorister of the Chapel Royal, and then studied under William Croft, Bernard Gates and Pepusch. He was briefly deputy organist of St George's Chapel, Windsor; then organist of York Minster 1735-56; then organist and composer (1756-83) and master of the children (1757-80) at the Chapel Royal.
He wrote harpsichord, organ and church music, two singing tutors, and some popular glees and catches. He is buried in St Margaret's, Westminster.
(See also DNB; GDM; OCM)
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He was the eldest son of John Naylor, who was organist of York Minster 1883-97. E.W.Naylor was a chorister at York Minster, and then choral scholar of Emmanuel College Cambridge 1884-88. He studied at the Royal College of Music; was organist of St Michael's, Chester Square, London 1889-96; and St Mary's, Kilburn 1896-97; then returned to Cambridge as organist of Emmanuel College and assistant music master at The Leys School 1897-1902. He was college lecturer in music from 1902, and University lecturer in music history 1926-32.
He published works on music history, and composed an opera and other theatre music, a requiem, cantatas, songs, chamber and church music.
(See also GDM; OCM)
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The son of a Methodist minister, he was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, and Magdalene College Cambridge. He was music master, and later Director of Music, at The Leys School, Cambridge 1953-80. He held a similar post at Christ's Hospital, Horsham 1980-86, where he played a major part in the preparation of the Christ's Hospital Hymn Book 1988.
Following early retirement in 1986 he returned to reside in Cambridge.
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(See also DNB; Julian pp.785-90)
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[ Biographical note by James Mearns, in Julian pp.790-1 (slightly adapted and shortened)]
He was the eldest child of Johann Joachim Neander and Catharina Knipping, his father being master of the Third Form in the Paedagogium at Bremen. The family name was originally Neumann or Niemann, but Joachim's grandfather (also Joachim) had assumed the Greek form of the name.
After passing through the Paedagogium he entered himself as a student at the Academic Gymnasium of Bremen in October 1666. German student life in the 17th century was anything but refined; and Neander seems to have been as riotous and as fond of questionable pleasures as most of his fellows.
In July 1670 Theodore Under-Eyke came to Bremen as pastor of St Martin's Church, with the reputation of a Pietist. Not long after, Neander, with two like-minded comrades, went to service there one Sunday, in order to criticise and find matter of amusement. But the earnest words of pastor Under-Eyke touched his heart; and this, with his subsequent conversations with the pastor, proved the turning-point of his spiritual life.
In the spring of 1671 he became tutor to five young men, mostly, if not all, sons of wealthy merchants at Frankfurt-am-Main; and he accompanied them to the University of Heidelberg, where they seem to have remained till the autumn of 1673, and where Neander learned to know and love the beauties of nature.
The winter of 1673-4 he spent at Frankfurt with the friends of his pupils, where he became acquainted with P.J.Spener and J.J.Schütz. In the spring of 1674 he was appointed Rector of the Latin School at Düsseldorf.
Finally, in 1679 he was invited to Bremen as unordained assistant to pastor Under-Eyke at St Martin's Church, and began his duties abouit the middle of July. The post was not inviting, and was regarded merely as a stepping-stone to further preferment, the remuneration being a free house and 40 thalers a year, and the Sunday duty being a service with sermon at the extraordinary hour of 5.30 a.m.
Had Neander not died shortly afterward, Under-Eyke would doubtless have done his best to get him appointed to St Stephen's Church, the pastorate of which became vacant in September 1680. But meanwhile Neander fell into a decline, and died at Bremen in May of that year.
Neander was the first important hymn-writer of the German Reformed Church in the latter half of the 17th century. His hymns appear to have been written mostly at Düsseldorf, after a conflict which severely restricted his freedom. The school at Düsseldorf was entirely under the control of the minister and elders of the Reformed Church there. The minister, from c.July 1673 to c.May 1677, was Sylvester Lürsen, a native of Bremen, and only a few years older than Neander. He was a man of ability and earnestness; but jealous, and, in later times at least, quarrelsome.
Neander at first worked harmoniously with Lürsen, frequently preaching in the church, assisting in the visitation of the sick, &c. But he soon introduced practices which inevitably brought on a conflict. He began to hold prayer-meetings of his own, without informing or consulting minister or elders. He began to absent himself from Holy Communion, on the ground that he could not conscientiously communicate along with the unconverted, and also persuaded others to follow his example; and he became less regular in his attendance at the ordinary services of the church.
Besides these causes of offence he drew out a new time-table for the school, made alterations to the school buildings, held examinations and appointed holidays without consulting anyone. The result of all this was a Visitation of the School on November 29, 1676, followed by his suspension from school and pulpit on Febuary 3, 1677. On February 17 he signed a full and definite declaration by which `without mental reservations' he bound himself not to repeat any of the acts complained of; and thereupon was permitted to resume his duties as rector [ i.e. of the school ] but not as assistant minister. The suspension thus lasted only 14 days, and his salary was never actually stopped.
The statements that he was banished from Düsseldorf, and that he lived for months in a cave in the Neanderthal near Mettman are therefore without foundation. Still, his having had to sign such a document was a humiliation which he must have felt keenly; and when, after Lürsen's departure, the second master of the Latin School was appointed permanent assistant pastor, this feeling would be renewed.
Neander, thus thrown back on himself, found consolation in communion with God and nature, and in the composition of his hymns. Many were without doubt inspired by the scenery of the Neanderthal (a lovely valley with high rocky sides, between which flows the little river Düssel); and the tradition is probable enough that some of them were composed in a cave there. A number were circulated among his friends at Düsseldorf in manuscript, but they were first collected and published after his removal to Bremen, in the volume entitled A undW &c.
(See also GDM; Julian pp.790b-791)
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[ Biographical note by James Mearns, in Julian pp.795-6 (slightly adapted and shortened)]
He was the son of Michael Neumark, a clothier at Langensalza, who moved to Mhlhausen, Thuringia, a few years after Georg's birth. He was educated at the Gymnasium at Schleusingen, and later at Gotha; then left Gotha in the autumn of 1641 along with a number of merchants who were going to the Michaelmas Fair at Leipzig. He then joined a similar party who were going from Leipzig to Lübeck; his intention being to proceed to Königsberg and matriculate at the University there.
After passing through Magdeburg they were plundered by a band of highwaymen on the Gardelegen Heath, who robbed Neumark of all he had with him, save his prayer-book and a little money sewed up in the clothes he was wearing.
He returned to Madgeburg; but could obtain no employment there, nor in Lüneburg, nor in Winsen, nor in Hamburg, to which in succession the friends he made passed him on. In the beginning of December he went to Kiel, where he found a friend in the person of Nicolaus Becker, a native of Thuringia, and then chief pastor at Kiel. Day after day passed by without an opening, till about the end of the month the tutor in the family of Judge Stephan Henning fell into disgrace and took sudden flight from Kiel. By Becker's recommendation Neumark received the vacant position, and this sudden end of his anxieties was the occasion of the writing of his hymn `Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten' (`If thou but trust in God to guide thee').
In Judge Henning's house the time passed happily till he had saved enough to proceed to Königsberg, where he matriculated on June 21, 1643, as a law student. He remained there five years, also studying poetry under Simon Dach, the University Professor of Poetry. During this time (in 1646) he again lost all his property, this time by fire.
In 1648 he left Königsberg, moving to Warsaw, Thorn, Danzig, and Hamburg. At the end of 1651 he returned to Thuringia, and brought himself under the notice of Duke Wilhelm II of Sachse-Weimar, who was the chief or president ot the Fruit-bearing Society - the principal German literary union of the 17th century. The Duke, apparently in 1652, appointed him court poet, librarian and registrarof the administration at Weimar; and finaly secretary of the Ducal archives.
In September 1653 he was admitted as a member of the Fruit-bearing Society, of which he became secretary in 1656. In 1681 he became blind, but was permitted to retain his emolments until his death.
(The dates given by different authorities concerning his life history vary exceedingly, and are quite irreconcilable.)
A large proportion of his secular poems are pastorals, or else occasional poems written to order at Weimar; and in all there is little freshness, happiness in expression, or glow of feeling. As a musician and as a hymn-writer he is of more importance. His hymns appeared in three collections, the second (Fortgepflantzter Musikalisch-Poetischer Lustwald, 1657) being an enlargement of an earlier volume; in all, 34 hymns were included in the three volumes.
(See also Julian pp.795-96)
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(See also DNB; OCEL; Julian pp.802b-803a)
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(See also DNB; Julian pp.803-4)
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He was the youngest son of Sir Charles Nicholson, Bart., a founder and first Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Australia, after which his son was named. Sydney was educated at Rugby School, New College Oxford the Royal College of Music, and at Frankfurt-am-Main. His principal posts were as organist of Carlisle Cathedral 1904-08, Manchester Cathedral 1908-18, and Westminster Abbey 1919-27. He resigned from Westminster to found the School of English Church Music, now the Royal School of Church Music, of which he was Director until his death. He was knighted in 1938.
Among his publications are Church Music: a Practical Handbook 1920; A Manual of English Church Music 1923 (with George Gardner); Quires and Places where they sing 1932, and The Parish Psalter 1932. He composed church music, songs and operettas. He was chief music adviser to Hymns Ancient & Modern 1916-47; through this and the RSCM his influence on church music was considerable. He is buried in Westminster Abbey cloisters.
(See also DNB; GDM; OCM)
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[ Biographical note by James Mearns, in Julian p.805 (slightly adapted and shortened)]
He was the son of a Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Nicolai, whose own father was Nicolaus Raffenbül but who later adopted the Latin form of his father's fore-name as the family surname. In 1575 young Nicolai entered the University of Erfurt, moving to Wittenberg in 1576. He graduated in 1579, and lived for some time at Volkhardinghausen, near Mengeringhausen, and frequently preached for his father.
In August 1583 he was appointed Lutheran preacher at Herdecke, but found many difficulties there, the members of the town council being Roman Catholics. After the invasion by Spanish troops in April 1586, his colleague re-introduced the Mass, and Nicolai resigned his post.
At the end of 1586 he was appointed diaconus at Niederwildungen, near Waldeck, and in 1587 became pastor there. He then became, in November 1588, chief pastor at Altwildungen, and also court preacher to the widowed Countess Margaretha of Waldeck, and tutor to her son, Count Wilhelm Ernst. Here he took an active part on the Lutheran side in the Sacramentarian controversy, and in September 1592 was inhibited from preaching by Count Franz of Waldeck; but the prohibition was soon removed, and in the Synod of 1593 held at Mengeringhausen he found all the clergy of the principality of Waldeck willing to agree to the Formula of Concord.
In October 1596 he became pastor at Unna in Westphalia, where he again became engaged in heated controversy with the Calvinists. In the following year a terrible plague ravaged the area, in which over 1300 people died; Nicolai's parsonage overlooked the churchyard, in which sometimes as many as 30 interments took place daily. Both the hymns by Nicolai in RS [in the case of RS-182 `How brightly shines', the original form of this hymn] were probably written at this period.
The plague ended in January 1598; but in the following December Nicolai had to flee from Unna before a Spanish invasion, and did not retuen until the end of April 1599. Finally, in April 1901 he was elected chief pastor of St Katherine's Church, Hamburg, where he served for seven years. On October 22, 1608, he took part in the ordination of a colleague in St Katherine's Church, and returned home feeling unwell; a violent fever developed, from which he died four days later.
In Hamburg Nicolai was universally esteemed, was a most popular and influential preacher, and was regarded as a `pillar' of the Lutheran church. In his private life he seems to have been most lovable and estimable. Besides his fame as a preacher, his reputation rests mainly on his hymns. His printed works are mostly polemical, often very violent and acrid in tone, and such as the undoubted sincerity of his zeal to preserve pure and unadulterated Lutheranism may explain, but cannot be said to justify. Of his hymns only four seem to have been printed, three of them (including the two in RS) in his Frewden-Spiegel dess ewigen Lebens 1599.
(See also GDM; Julian, p.805)
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(See also Julian p.1677b)
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(See also Julian, p.1582a)
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He was a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral; graduated from St John's College Oxford in 1765; sang as a lay clerk at Christ Church 1767 and Magdalen College 1771; and was organist of St John's 1766-90 and of Christ Church 1776-90. He was a noted tenor soloist, particularly at Three Choirs Festivals and at Drury Lane Theatre; and he composed symphonies, anthems and glees.
(See also DNB; GDM)
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(See also DAB)
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He was the son of an Italian father and an English mother, and was sent to school at Huilmille, near Boulogne, France. On returning to London in 1793 he became a chorister in the chapel of the Sardinian Embassy under Samuel Webbe the elder. He acted as deputy organist to Webbe and also at the Spanish Embassy chapel; and he was organist at the Portuguese Embassy chapel 1797-1822. His two-volume Selection of Sacred Music as performed at the Royal Portuguese Chapel 1811 marked the beginning of the Novello publishing firm.
In 1824 he was commissioned to examine the music manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, a selection of which he published. He also copied some Purcell anthems from the original manuscripts in the York Minster library - fortunately before they were destroyed by fire in 1829. He edited much vocal music which, for greater accessibility to the less skilled, he published in vocal (rather than full) score with keyboard accompaniments. These did much to encourage the growing British choral society movement.
He was organist of the Roman Catholic chapel in Moorfields 1840-43; then lived in Nice 1849-54 and again from 1856 until his death. His wide literary and musical tastes attracted to his home many prominent people of the day, including Mendelssohn, Keats, Leigh Hunt, Shelley and Charles Lamb (who mentioned him affectionately in the essay `A Chapter on Ears').
He was an original member (1813) of the Philharmonic Society and became its conductor; and he was also conductor and accompanist for an opera company. With his friend Samuel Wesley he was an advocate for Bach's music. His own compositions were of no great distinction; but his major contribution to hymnody was his collection of tunes The Psalmist, which appeared in four volumes between 1835 and 1843.
There is a memorial window to him in the north transept of Westminster Abbey.
(See also DNB; GDM; OCM)
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(The Rejoice & Sing Enchiridion:edited by David Goodall; last amended 10/5/03)