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Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

1809 - 1847 Person Name: Felix B. Mendelssohn Composer of "PEACE, BE STILL" in American Church and Church School Hymnal Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (b. Hamburg, Germany, 1809; d. Leipzig, Germany, 1847) was the son of banker Abraham Mendelssohn and the grandson of philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. His Jewish family became Christian and took the Bartholdy name (name of the estate of Mendelssohn's uncle) when baptized into the Lutheran church. The children all received an excellent musical education. Mendelssohn had his first public performance at the age of nine and by the age of sixteen had written several symphonies. Profoundly influenced by J. S. Bach's music, he conducted a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829 (at age 20!) – the first performance since Bach's death, thus reintroducing Bach to the world. Mendelssohn organized the Domchor in Berlin and founded the Leipzig Conservatory of Music in 1843. Traveling widely, he not only became familiar with various styles of music but also became well known himself in countries other than Germany, especially in England. He left a rich treasury of music: organ and piano works, overtures and incidental music, oratorios (including St. Paul or Elijah and choral works, and symphonies. He harmonized a number of hymn tunes himself, but hymnbook editors also arranged some of his other tunes into hymn tunes. Bert Polman

Arthur Sullivan

1842 - 1900 Person Name: Arthur Seymour Sullivan Composer of "AUDITE AUDIENTES ME" in Services for Congregational Worship. The New Hymn and Tune Book Arthur Seymour Sullivan (b Lambeth, London. England. 1842; d. Westminster, London, 1900) was born of an Italian mother and an Irish father who was an army bandmaster and a professor of music. Sullivan entered the Chapel Royal as a chorister in 1854. He was elected as the first Mendelssohn scholar in 1856, when he began his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He also studied at the Leipzig Conservatory (1858-1861) and in 1866 was appointed professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music. Early in his career Sullivan composed oratorios and music for some Shakespeare plays. However, he is best known for writing the music for lyrics by William S. Gilbert, which produced popular operettas such as H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), The Mikado (1884), and Yeomen of the Guard (1888). These operettas satirized the court and everyday life in Victorian times. Although he composed some anthems, in the area of church music Sullivan is best remembered for his hymn tunes, written between 1867 and 1874 and published in The Hymnary (1872) and Church Hymns (1874), both of which he edited. He contributed hymns to A Hymnal Chiefly from The Book of Praise (1867) and to the Presbyterian collection Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867). A complete collection of his hymns and arrangements was published posthumously as Hymn Tunes by Arthur Sullivan (1902). Sullivan steadfastly refused to grant permission to those who wished to make hymn tunes from the popular melodies in his operettas. Bert Polman

Lewis Gilbert Wilson

1858 - 1928 Author of "O troubled sea of Galilee" in American Church and Church School Hymnal Wilson, Rev. Lewis Gilbert. (Southboro, Massachusetts, February 19, 1858--April 24, 1928, Floral City, Florida). he studies at Dartmouth, Harvard, and Meadville Theological School, and in 1883 was ordained minister of the Unitarian church at Leicester, Mass. Later he served the Unitarian church at Hopedale, Mass., and from 1907-1915 was Secretary in the American Unitarian Association. While there he was a member of the committee which edited The New Hymn and Tune Book published in 1914 by the Association. This book included three of his hymns, beginning 1. O God, our dwelling place, 2. O troubled sea of Galilee, 3. The works, O Lord, our hands have wrought, all three of which were written in 1912. The first was these is also included in Hymns of the Spirit, 1937. --Henry Wilder Foote, DNAH Archives