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Orlando Gibbons

1583 - 1625 Person Name: Orlando Gibbons, 1583-1625 Composer of "SONG 1" in The Riverdale Hymn Book Orlando Gibbons (baptised 25 December 1583 – 5 June 1625) was an English composer, virginalist and organist of the late Tudor and early Jacobean periods. He was a leading composer in the England of his day. Gibbons was born in Cambridge and christened at Oxford the same year – thus appearing in Oxford church records. Between 1596 and 1598 he sang in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, where his brother Edward Gibbons (1568–1650), eldest of the four sons of William Gibbons, was master of the choristers. The second brother Ellis Gibbons (1573–1603) was also a promising composer, but died young. Orlando entered the university in 1598 and achieved the degree of Bachelor of Music in 1606. James I appointed him a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, where he served as an organist from at least 1615 until his death. In 1623 he became senior organist at the Chapel Royal, with Thomas Tomkins as junior organist. He also held positions as keyboard player in the privy chamber of the court of Prince Charles (later King Charles I), and organist at Westminster Abbey. He died at age 41 in Canterbury of apoplexy, and a monument to him was built in Canterbury Cathedral. A suspicion immediately arose that Gibbons had died of the plague, which was rife in England that year. Two physicians who had been present at his death were ordered to make a report, and performed an autopsy, the account of which survives in The National Archives: We whose names are here underwritten: having been called to give our counsels to Mr. Orlando Gibbons; in the time of his late and sudden sickness, which we found in the beginning lethargical, or a profound sleep; out of which, we could never recover him, neither by inward nor outward medicines, & then instantly he fell in most strong, & sharp convulsions; which did wring his mouth up to his ears, & his eyes were distorted, as though they would have been thrust out of his head & then suddenly he lost both speech, sight and hearing, & so grew apoplectical & lost the whole motion of every part of his body, & so died. Then here upon (his death being so sudden) rumours were cast out that he did die of the plague, whereupon we . . . caused his body to be searched by certain women that were sworn to deliver the truth, who did affirm that they never saw a fairer corpse. Yet notwithstanding we to give full satisfaction to all did cause the skull to be opened in our presence & we carefully viewed the body, which we found also to be very clean without any show or spot of any contagious matter. In the brain we found the whole & sole cause of his sickness namely a great admirable blackness & syderation in the outside of the brain. Within the brain (being opened) there did issue out abundance of water intermixed with blood & this we affirm to be the only cause of his sudden death. His death was a shock to peers and the suddenness of his passing drew comment more for the haste of his burial – and of its location at Canterbury rather than the body being returned to London. His wife, Elizabeth, died a little over a year later, aged in her mid-30s, leaving Orlando's eldest brother, Edward, to care for the children left orphans by this event. Of these children only the eldest son, Christopher Gibbons, went on to become a musician. One of the most versatile English composers of his time, Gibbons wrote a quantity of keyboard works, around thirty fantasias for viols, a number of madrigals (the best-known being "The Silver Swan"), and many popular verse anthems. His choral music is distinguished by his complete mastery of counterpoint, combined with his wonderful gift for melody. Perhaps his most well known verse anthem is This is the record of John, which sets an Advent text for solo countertenor or tenor, alternating with full chorus. The soloist is required to demonstrate considerable technical facility at points, and the work at once expresses the rhetorical force of the text, whilst never being demonstrative or bombastic. He also produced two major settings of Evensong, the Short Service and the Second Service. The former includes a beautifully expressive Nunc dimittis, while the latter is an extended composition, combining verse and full sections. Gibbons's full anthems include the expressive O Lord, in thy wrath, and the Ascension Day anthem O clap your hands together for eight voices. He contributed six pieces to the first printed collection of keyboard music in England, Parthenia (to which he was by far the youngest of the three contributors), published in about 1611. Gibbons's surviving keyboard output comprises some 45 pieces. The polyphonic fantasia and dance forms are the best represented genres. Gibbons's writing exhibits full mastery of three- and four-part counterpoint. Most of the fantasias are complex, multisectional pieces, treating multiple subjects imitatively. Gibbons's approach to melody in both fantasias and dances features a capability for almost limitless development of simple musical ideas, on display in works such as Pavane in D minor and Lord Salisbury's Pavan and Galliard. In the 20th century, the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould championed Gibbons's music, and named him as his favorite composer. Gould wrote of Gibbons's hymns and anthems: "ever since my teen-age years this music ... has moved me more deeply than any other sound experience I can think of." In one interview, Gould compared Gibbons to Beethoven and Webern: ...despite the requisite quota of scales and shakes in such half-hearted virtuoso vehicles as the Salisbury Galliard, one is never quite able to counter the impression of music of supreme beauty that lacks its ideal means of reproduction. Like Beethoven in his last quartets, or Webern at almost any time, Gibbons is an artist of such intractable commitment that, in the keyboard field, at least, his works work better in one's memory, or on paper, than they ever can through the intercession of a sounding-board. To this day, Gibbons's obit service is commemorated every year in King's College Chapel, Cambridge. --wikipedia.org

Basil Harwood

1859 - 1949 Person Name: Basil Harwood (1859-) Composer of "WOODHOUSE" in The Oxford Hymn Book Basil Harwood (11 April 1859 – 3 April 1949) was an English organist and composer. Basil Harwood was born in Woodhouse, Gloucestershire (the second youngest of 12 children) on 11 April 1859. His mother died in 1867 when Basil was eight. His parents were Quakers but his elder sister Ada, on reaching 21 in 1867, converted to the Anglican Church. Basil was allowed to attend the ceremony at the Church of England in Almondsbury and this is where he was first drawn to organ music and choral singing. His father, Edward, remarried two years later in 1869 to a lady from an Anglican family. Basil was now sent to the Montpellier School in Weston-super-Mare for a year. In 1871, at 12 he was enrolled in Clevedon, the preparatory school for Charterhouse where he was first to formally study music. He went up to Charterhouse in 1874 and left in 1876 having won a leaving Exhibition to Trinity College, Oxford where he initially studied Classics (1879) and Modern History (1880). He then studied for a further two years, 1881–1882, at the Leipzig Conservatory under Carl Reinecke and Salomon Jadassohn. It was here in 1882, Basil composed his first anthem for chorus and organ "O Saving Grace." He returned from Leipzig to realise that he had now passed the age limit to study music formally. In 1883, Basil became organist of St. Barnabas Church, Pimlico completing his Sonata in C# Minor here in 1885, selling the copyright to the publisher Schott for one shilling a year or two later. After this success, he then moved to Ely Cathedral in 1887 where he wrote the bulk of Dithyramb, possibly his greatest organ work. His final appointment was as organist at Christ Church, Oxford and as precentor of Keble College, Oxford from 1892 to 1909. Whilst there he co-founded and conducted the Oxford Bach Choir which helped to earn him his degree as Doctor of Music. He conducted the Oxford Orchestral Association (1892–1898). He was musical editor of the 1908 Oxford Hymn Book and Examiner for Musical Degrees (1900–1925). During this time, he met and married Mabel Ada Jennings (the daughter of George Jennings) (who had become a pupil of his in 1896) at All Souls St. Marylebone, London (27 December 1899). Mabel had studied music herself, piano and composition, and was also a writer. She may well have composed lyrics for some of his lesser known tunes. At an advanced age she wrote a small volume of collected poems named Questing Soul. He retired early at 50 (in 1909) after the death of his father, Edward Harwood, from whom he inherited the family estate of Woodhouse having outlived his seven older brothers. Soon after moving in he had a three manual chamber organ built in the library by Bishop & Sons of Ipswich (now in Minehead Parish Church), on which he promptly finished his Sonata in F# Minor. He continued to compose prolifically. He was a keen walker, and named many of his hymn tunes after local places that he loved to visit, the most notable being the hymn tunes such as Tockington, Olveston, Almondsbury and Thornbury. In 1936 advancing in years, he let the Woodhouse estate and moved to Bournemouth. Part of the estate, Woodhouse Down, was later sold to his contemporary Robert Baden-Powell who was two years older than he was and who had also attended Charterhouse School, and is used as a Scout Camp to this day. In 1939, at eighty, he moved to London, taking a flat in Fleet Street. After a long life, he died on 3 April 1949, eight days short of his 90th birthday, at Courtfield Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington, London. A memorial service was held in St Paul's Cathedral on 22 April 1949. Mabel survived him, dying shortly before her 103rd birthday on 20 July 1974. He was survived by two sons; Major John Edward Godfrey Harwood (1900–1996) and Basil Antony Harwood (1903–1990) Senior Master of the Supreme Court, Q.B.D. and Queen's Remembrancer. His remains are interred in St. Barnabas Church, Pimlico and marked by a plaque inset in floor of the chancel, close to where he would have stood to conduct the choir. He composed cantatas, church music and works for the organ; his Service in A flat, the anthem O how Glorious and the hymn tunes LUCKINGTON ("Let all the world in every corner sing") and THORNBURY ("Thy hand O God has guided"), first used during a festival of the London Church Choir Association, remain in the Anglican repertory. --en.wikipedia.org/wiki

Matthäus Apelles von Löwenstern

1594 - 1648 Person Name: M. von Lowenstern, 1594-1648 Composer of "LOWENSTERN" in The Cambridge Hymnal Löwenstern, Matthäus Apelles von, was born April 20, 1594, at Neustadt, in the principality of Oppeln, Silesia, where his father was a saddler. He early distinguished himself by his musical abilities, was appointed in 1625, by Duke Heinrich Wenzel of Münsterberg, as his music director and treasurer at Bernstadt: in 1626, director of the princely school at Bernstadt; and in 1631 Rath and Secretary and also Director of finance. Thereafter he entered the service of the Emperors Ferdinand II. (d. 1637), and Ferdinand III. as Rath, and was ennobled by the latter. Fi¬nally he became Staatsrath at Oels to Duke Carl Friedrich of Münsterberg, and died at Breslau, April 11, 1648 (Koch, iii. 57-60 ; Allgemeine Deutsche Biog. xix. 318, &c). Lowenstern's hymns, thirty in all, are of very varied worth, many being written in imitation of antique verse forms, and on the mottoes of the princes under whom he had served. In the original editions they were accompanied with melodies by himself. When or where they were first published (cir. 1644) is not clear. They were bound up with the Breslau Kirchen und Haus-Music, 1644, and there bear the title: Symbola oder Gedenck-Sprüche IIIirer FFFürstl. GGGn. Hn. Carl Friedrikis Hertzogs zu Münsterberg .... dann auch anderer Erlauchter Fiirstlicher Personen. Zusanibt noch etlichen absondtrs beygesetzten Geistlichen Oden. Gestellet durch M. A. v. L. Three of these hymns have been translated:— i. Christe, du Beistand deiner Kreuzgemeine. [In time of War.] 164-4, No. xvii., in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, entitled "Sapphic Ode. For spiritual and temporal peace." Included in many later collections, and as No. 215 in the Unverfälschter Liedersegen, 1851. It was a favourite hymn of Niebuhr, and also of Bunsen, who included it in his Versuch , 1833, and concluded with it the preface to his Bibelwerk. The translations in common use are:— 1. Lord of our life, and God of our Salvation. Contributed by Philip Pusey to A. R. Reinagle's Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Oxford, 1840, p. 132, in 5 stanzas. It is rather founded on the German than a translation, stanzas i., ii. on stanzas i.; iii.-v. on ii.-iv. The tune to which it was set was marked by Bunsen as an "old Latin melody," and so the Pusey hymn has sometimes been erroneously called a tr. from a Latin hymn of the 8th century. From Reinagle it passed into the Salisbury Hymn Book, 1857, and has been repeated in Hymns Ancient & Modern, Sarum Hymnal, Hymnary, Church Hymns; and in America in the Evangelical Hymnal, N. Y., 1880, Laudes Domini, 1884, and others. 2. Blest aid of Thine afflicted congregation. In full, by A. T. Russell, as No. 99 in the Dalston Hospital Hymn Book, 1848. 3. Christ, Thou the champion of the band who own. A good and full translation by Miss Winkworth in her Lyra Germanica, 1st Ser., 855, p. 105; repeated in Schaff's Christ in Song, 1869, and the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880. In the 2nd ed. of her Lyra Germanica, 1856, it begins, "Christ, Thou the champion of that war-worn host." 4. 0 Christ, the leader of that war-worn host. A good and full tr., based on Miss Winkworth, by W. Mercer in his Church Psalm & Hymn Book, 1857, No. 279 (Oxford ed., No. 391), and repeated in the American Sabbath Hymn Book, 1858. From the version of 1858 Mr. Windle seems to have altered the form in his Collection, No. 268. ii. Nun preiset alle. [Missions.] 1644, No. xii., in 5 st. of 6 1., entitled " Alcaic Ode." A fine hymn of Praise. In the Unverfälschter Liedersegen 1851, No. 717. The translation in common use is:-— Now let us loudly. In full, by Miss Winkworth in her Chorale Book for England , 1863, No. 177, set to Lowenstern's original melody. iii. Wenn ich in Angst und Noth. [Cross and Consolation .] 1644, No. viii., in 7 stanzas of 7 lines, entitled "The 121st Psalm." It is a fine version as a hymn of consolation in times of trouble. In the Berlin Geistlicher Lieder Schatz, ed. 1863, No. 984. The translations in common use are:— 1. When in distress and woe I lift. A good translation, omitting stanza v., by H. J. Buckoll, in his Hymns from German, 1842, p. 19, repeated in the Dalston Hospital Hymn Book 1848. 2. When anguish'd and perplexed. A good translation, omitting stanzas v., vi., by Miss Winkworth in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858, p. 70. In her Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 142, altered and set to the original melody by Lowenstern. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Elizabeth Poston

1905 - 1987 Person Name: E. P. Hymn tun prelude/canon of "LOWENSTERN" in The Cambridge Hymnal Elizabeth Poston (24 October 1905 – 18 March 1987) was an English composer, pianist, and writer. See more in: Wikipedia

Francis Quarles

1592 - 1644 Person Name: Francis Quarles, 1592-1644 Author of "Thou art my Life, if thou but turn away" in The Riverdale Hymn Book Quarles, Francis. The life of this "fine old English gentleman" and charming essayist and quaint singer, will be found in full in the present writer's collective and complete edition of his works in verse and prose (3 vols. 4°, 1880-81, Chertsey Worthies’ Library). His father was James Quarles, of Stewards, Esq., and his mother Joan Dalton. He was their third son and child. In the registers of Romford, Essex, is this entry, "1592, May 8. Baptizatus fuit Franciscus filius magistm Jacobi Quarrilus." He lost his father in 1599. His first school was Eomford and his first tutor William Tiehbournc, chaplain of Romford. He lost his mother in 1606. He proceeded to Christ's College, Cambridge, and later was of Exeter College, Oxford. It is to be regretted that the College registers furnish no exact data. He passed from the University to Lincoln's Inn, where his widow-biographer tells us— "He studied the laws of England; not po much out of desire to benefit himself thereby, as his friends and neighbours (showing therein his continual inclination to peace) by composing suits and differences amongst them." Some years advance us from 1608 (at Lincoln's Inn) to probably 1612-13, or his 21st year. His widow continues, "After he came to maturity he was not desirous to put himself into the world, otherwise he might have had greater preferments than he had. He was neither so unfit for Court preferment, or so ill-beloved there, but that he might have raised his fortunes thereby if he had had any inclination that way. But his mind was chiefly set upon his devotion and study; yet not altogether so much but that he faithfully discharged the place of cupbearer to the Queen of Bohemia." How long Quarles continued with the Queen is unknown. He accompanied Frederick and Elizabeth to Germany. He married Ursely [= Ursula] Woodgate, of St. Andrew's, Holborn, on May 28, 1618. In 1620 appeared the first and most characteristic of his poems, entitled, after the odd phrasing of the period, A Feast for Worms. In the epistle he says, "Wonder not at the title, for it is a Song of Mercy: what greater Feast than Mercy? and what are men but worms" (vol. ii. p. 5). Kindred with the Feast followed Hadassa, or the History of Queene Esther. In 1621 he was in Dublin. He dated hisArgalus and Parthenia," Dublin, 4th March, 1021. "He filled the office of Secretary to the illustrious Ussher, on whose death John Quarles composed a memorable elegy. Ussher wrote to Vossius highly laudatory of our Quarles. His successive books are practically the only landmarks of his remaining years. (The reader is referred to our Life and the Works, ut supra.) The Emblems appeared in 1634-35, and his Hieroglyphics in 1637. In 1639 ho was appointed "Chronologer" of the City of London, an office which he held till his death. From 1639 his various prose books were written, and became as popular as his poems. They are all in fine English. He was an out and out loyalist, and was with the king at Oxford. He had a numerous family. He died Sept. 8, 1644, and was buried in St. Olave's, Silver Street, London, "11 Sep. 1644." His title to a place in this work rests mainly on his versified Psalms. These appear in the famous Bay Psalter. [See Bay Psalter, p. 119, i.] Quarles's are Psalms xvi., xxv., li., lxxxviii., cxiii., cxxxvii. They were reclaimed by us for Quarles on the authority of John Josselyn's Account of Two Voyages to New England (1674). In the year 1638 he says, on his arrival in Massachusetts Bay, "Having refreshed myself for a day or two at Noodles Island, I crossed the bay in a small boat to Boston, which then was rather a village than a town, there not being above twenty or thirty houses, and presented myself to Mr. Winthorpe, the Governor, and to Mr. Cotton, the teacher of Boston Church, to whom I delivered from Mr. Francis Quarles, the poet, the translations of Nos. 16,25, 51, 88,113 and 137 Psalms into English metre for his approbation," &c. These "Psalms" are more curious than successful. But besides them the poetry of Francis Quarles is a virgin field for the capable hymnologist. It is a mystery and a sorrow that few only have been adapted and adopted. There are many of his verse-Emblems that fittingly married to music would be solemn and searching, and nobly displace accepted pious inanities. No. xii. of Book iii. of Emblems (vol. iii. pp. 75, 76), "Oh that Thou wouldst hide me in the grave," deserves a supreme effort of highest genius to mate it worthily. In delightful contrast in its vividness and sweetness is his "Like to the damask rose you see " (vol. iii. p. 285). Equally noticeable are his "Backsliding" (ibid. p. 66, xiv.), "Vain Physicians" (ibid, p. 189, iv.), "Waste not Life" (ibid. p. 194, xi.), "A Little While" (ibid, p. 196, xiv.). [Rev. A. B. Grosart, D.D., LL.D.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)