William G. Fischer › Texts

William Gustavus Fischer (1835-1912)

Born: Oc­to­ber 14, 1835, Bal­ti­more, Mary­land.
Died: Au­gust 13, 1912, Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia.

Son of a German im­mi­grant, Fischer showed mu­sic­al abil­i­ty at an ear­ly age. When he was eight years old, he be­gan sing­ing in a Ger­man church in Bal­t­imore. He learned to read mu­sic in a church sing­ing class, and af­ter­wards stu­died pi­ano and or­gan. He learned book­bind­ing at J. B. Lip­pin­cott’s in Phil­a­delphia, Penn­syl­van­ia, but spent his even­ings stu­dy­ing and prac­tic­ing mu­sic. He was an ex­per­i­enced train­er and lead­er of large bo­dies of sing­ers of all ages, and was much sought af­ter to lead choirs and chor­us­es in sac­red mu­sic in Phil­a­del­phia. He al­so taught sing­ing, pi­ano and mu­sic the­ory. He was close­ly con­nect­ed with Welsh mu­sic fes­tiv­als, and di­rect­ed the com­bined Welsh So­ci­e­ties at the bi­cen­ten­ni­al of the land­ing of Wil­liam Penn (founder of Penn­syl­van­ia).

From 1858-1868, Fischer was Pro­fes­sor of Mu­sic at Gir­ard Coll­ege. Be­fore leav­ing Gir­ard Coll­ege, he start­ed in the pi­ano bus­i­ness, where he built up one of the most pros­per­ous piano houses in the count­ry. He was part­ner with John E. Gould un­til Gould’s death in 1875. From that time, Fisch­er was sole pro­pri­e­tor of the bus­i­ness for a num­ber of years, when he took his old­est son, Charles, into part­ner­ship. He fin­al­ly re­tired in 1898, and was suc­ceed­ed by his son.

Sources--
Haeussler, p. 655
Hall, pp. 131-2
Hustad, p. 240
Nutter, p. 456
Reynolds, p. 292

Music--
God Loved the World
I Love to Tell the Sto­ry
I Am Com­ing to the Cross
I Am Trust­ing, Lord, in Thee
Jesus Is Mighty to Save
Little Talk with Je­sus, A
O, ’Twas Love, Won­drous Love
Rock That Is High­er Than I, The
Valley of Bless­ing, The
Waiting at the Pool
Whiter Than Snow

--www.hymntime.com/tch