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Joseph Haydn
1732 - 1809 Person Name: Haydn Composer of "MANOAH" in New Christian Hymn and Tune Book Franz Joseph Haydn (b. Rohrau, Austria, 1732; d. Vienna, Austria, 1809) Haydn's life was relatively uneventful, but his artistic legacy was truly astounding. He began his musical career as a choirboy in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, spent some years in that city making a precarious living as a music teacher and composer, and then served as music director for the Esterhazy family from 1761 to 1790. Haydn became a most productive and widely respected composer of symphonies, chamber music, and piano sonatas. In his retirement years he took two extended tours to England, which resulted in his "London" symphonies and (because of G. F. Handel's influence) in oratorios. Haydn's church music includes six great Masses and a few original hymn tunes. Hymnal editors have also arranged hymn tunes from various themes in Haydn's music.
Bert Polman
Joseph Haydn
John J. Overholt
1918 - 2000 Person Name: Compiler Alterer of "Help Us, O Lord, Thy Yoke to Wear" in The Christian Hymnary. Bks. 1-4 John J. Overholt was born to an Amish family of limited means in the state of Ohio in 1918. As a child he was soon introduced to his father's personal collection of gospel songs and hymns, which was to have a marked influence on his later life. With his twin brother Joe, he early was exposed to the Amish-Mennonite tradition hymn-singing and praising worship.
An early career in Christian service led to a two-year period of relief work in the country of Poland following World War II. During that interim he began to gather many European songs and hymns as a personal hobby, not realizing that these selections would become invaluable to The Christian Hymnary which was begun in 1960 and completed twelve years later in 1972, with a compilation of 1000 songs, hymns and chorales. (The largest Menn. hymnal).
A second hymnal was begun simultaneously in the German language entitled Erweckungs Lieder Nr.1 which was brought to completion in 1986. This hymnal has a total of 200 selections with a small addendum of English hymns.
Mr. Overholt married in 1965 to an accomplished soprano Vera Marie Sommers, who was not to be outdone by her husband's creativity and compiled a hymnal of 156 selections entitled Be Glad and Sing, directed to children and youth and first printed in 1986.
During this later career of hymn publishing, Mr. Overholt also found time for Gospel team work throughout Europe. At this writing he is preparing for a 5th consecutive tour which he arranges and guides. The countries visited will be Belgium, Switzerland, France, Germany, Poland, USSR and Romania.
Mr. Overholt was called to the Christian ministry in 1957 and resides at Sarasota, Florida where he is co-minister of a Beachy Amish-Mennonite Church.
Five children were born to this family and all enjoy worship in song.
--Letter from Hannah Joanna Overholt to Mary Louise VanDyke, 10 October 1990, DNAH Archives. Photo enclosed.
John J. Overholt
Thoro Harris
1874 - 1955 Composer of "AGNEW" in The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal Born: March 31, 1874, Washington, DC.
Died: March 27, 1955, Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
Buried: International Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery, Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
After attending college in Battle Creek, Michigan, Harris produced his first hymnal in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1902. He then moved to Chicago, Illinois at the invitation of Peter Bilhorn, and in 1932, to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. He composed and compiled a number of works, and was well known locally as he walked around with a canvas bag full of handbooks for sale. His works include:
Light and Life Songs, with William Olmstead & William Kirkpatrick (Chicago, Illinois: S. K. J. Chesbro, 1904)
Little Branches, with George J. Meyer & Howard E. Smith (Chicago, Illinois: Meyer & Brother, 1906)
Best Temperance Songs (Chicago, Illinois: The Glad Tidings Publishing Company, 1913) (music editor)
Hymns of Hope (Chicago, Illinois: Thoro Harris, undated, circa 1922)
--www.hymntime.com/tch
Thoro Harris
Thomas Cotterill
1779 - 1823 Author of "Help Us, O Lord, Thy Yoke to Wear" in The Cyber Hymnal Thomas Cotterill (b. Cannock, Staffordshire, England, 1779; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1823) studied at St. John's College, Cambridge, England, and became an Anglican clergyman. A central figure in the dispute about the propriety of singing hymns, Cotterill published a popular collection of hymns (including many of his own as well as alterations of other hymns), Selection of Psalms and Hymns in 1810. But when he tried to introduce a later edition of this book in Sheffield in 1819, his congregation protested. Many believed strongly that the Church of England should maintain its tradition of exclusive psalm singing. In a church court the Archbishop of York and Cotterill reached a compromise: the later edition of Selection was withdrawn, and Cotterill was invited to submit a new edition for the archbishop's approval. The new edition was published in 1820 and approved as the first hymnal for the Anglican church of that region. Cotterill's suppressed book, however, set the pattern for Anglican hymnals for the next generation, and many of its hymns are still found in modern hymnals.
Bert Polman
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Thomas Cotterill was born in 1779; studied at S. John's College, Cambridge, graduating M.A.; ordained in 1806, and enterred upon parochial work at Tutbury; afterwards removed to Lane End, where he remained for nine years among the Potteries; in 1817, became perpetual Curate of S. Paul's, Sheffield. He died in 1823. He was the author of several books; among them, "A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Use, adapted to the Services of the Church of England." In the preparation of this collection (the 8th ed., 1819), he had the assistance of Montgomery, who in this work did what he condemned in others, viz., altering and remodeling other authors' hymns.
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872.
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Cotterill, Thomas, M.A., was the son of a woolstapler at Cannock, Staffordshire, where he was born Dec. 4, 1779. After attending the local boarding-school of the Rev. J. Lomax, he proceeded to the Free School, Birmingham. He graduated at St. John's College, Cambridge (B.A. 1801, M.A. 1805), of which he became a Fellow. Taking Holy Orders, he became Curate of Tutbury in June, 1803 (not 1806, as stated by Miller in Singers & Songs of the Church). His subsequent charges were the Incumbency of Lane End, Staffordshire, 1808-17, and the Perpetual Curacy of St. Paul's Sheffield, 1817-23. He died at Sheffield Dec. 29, 1823 (not Jan. 5, 1824, as in the Gentleman’s Magazine), aged 44. His volume of Family Prayers attained to the sixth edi¬tion in 1824. As a hymn-writer, Cotterill is less known than as the compiler of a Selection of Psalms and Hymns which has had a most marked effect on modern hymnals. The first edition of that Selection was published in 1810, and the 9th in 1820. All subsequent issues were reprints of the last. The most important edition is the 8th, 1819. To that Selection Cotterill contributed at various dates 25 original hymns and versions of individual psalms. These, in common with all the hymns in the Selection, are given without author's name. Through the aid, however, of marked copies [in the collections of Brooke and Julian] and of members of Cotterill's family, we are enabled to identify most, if not all, of his original productions. In addition to those which are annotated under their first lines, we have—
i. In his Selection of Psalms & Hymns for Public and Private Use, adapted to the Festivals of the Church of England, &c, 1st ed., 1810:—
1. Awake, O sword, the Father cried. Atonement.
2. Before Thy throne of grace, O Lord. Lent.
3. From Sinai's mount, in might array'd. The Law and the Gospel.
4. From Thine all-seeing Spirit, Lord. Ps. 139.
5. In all the ways and works of God. Ps. 145.
6. Out of the deeps, O Lord, we call. Ps. 130.
7. The Lord, who once on Calvary. The Intercessor. This is based on “Where high the heavenly temple stands," q. v.
ii. In the Appendix to the 6th ed. of the same Selection, Staffordshire, 1815:—
8. Blessed are they who mourn for sin. Lent.
9. Father of mercies, let our songs [way, ways]. Thanksgiving.
10. I was alive without the law. Lent.
11. Lord of the Sabbath, 'tis Thy day. Sunday.
iii. In the 8th edition of the same, 1819 :—
12. Help us, O Lord, Thy yoke to wear. Charity Sermons. This is sometimes given as "Lord, let us learn Thy yoke to wear," as in Kennedy, 1863, &c.
13. I love the Lord, for He hath heard. Ps. 116.
14. Lo in the East a star appears. Epiphany. This in an altered form begins in Kennedy, 1863, No. 188, with stanza ii., "The ancient sages from afar."
15. Lord, cause Thy face on us to shine. For Unity.
16. When Christ, victorious from the grave. Easter. The 9th ed. of the Selection, 1820, was practically a new work. It was compiled by Cotterill, but revised by Dr. Harcourt, the Archbishop of York, and was dedi¬cated to him. It was the outcome of the compromise in the legal proceedings over the 8th ed., 1819. The 8th ed. contained 367 hymns in addition to 128 versions of the Psalms and 6 Doxologies, the 9th only 152. Its full title was A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship, Lond., T. Cadell, 1820. It may be noted that copies of the 8th ed., 1819, are found with two distinct title-pages. One of these, accompanied with the preface, was for the general public, the second, without the preface, for the use of the congregations of St. James's and St. Paul's, Sheffield.
Of Cotterill's hymns the most popular are, "O'er the realms of pagan darkness," "Let songs of praises fill the sky," and "Jesus exalted far on high," but these are not distinguished by any striking features of excellence. He was more happy in some of his alterations of older hymns, and in the com¬piling of centos. Many of the readings introduced into the great hymns of the Church first appeared in his Selection. The most notable amongst these are, "Rock of Ages," in 3 stanzas, as in Hymns Ancient & Modern, 1861, the Wesleyan Hymn Book, and other collections; "Lo! He comes with clouds descending;" and “Great God, what do I see and hear." Cotterill's connection with the Uttoxeter Psalms & Hymns, 1805, is given in detail in the article on Staffordshire Hymn-books, and his lawsuit over the 8th ed. of his Selection, 1819, in the article on England Hymnody, Church of.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Thomas Cotterill
Henry Baker
1835 - 1910 Composer of "HESPERUS" in The Cyber Hymnal Henry Baker, Mus. Bac., son of the Rev. James Baker, Chancellor of the diocese of Durham; born at Nuneham, Oxfordshire; educated at Winchester School; graduated Bachelor in Music at the University of Oxford in 1867. He also worked as a civil engineer.
Scottish Church Music, its composers and sources by James Love; William Blackwwod and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1891
Henry Baker
Henry K. Oliver
1800 - 1885 Composer of "FEDERAL STREET" in The Evangelical Hymnal Henry Kemble Oliver (b. Beverly, MA, 1800; d. Salem, MA, 1885) was educated at Harvard and Dartmouth. He taught in the public schools of Salem (1818-1842) and was superintendent of the Atlantic Cotton Mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts (1848-1858). His civic service included being mayor of Lawrence (18591861) and Salem (1877-1880), state treasurer (1861-1865), and organizer of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics and Labor (1867-1873). Oliver was organist at several churches, including Park Street Congregational Church in Boston, North Church in Salem, and the Unitarian Church in Lawrence. A founder of the Mozart Association and several choral societies in Salem, he published his hymn tunes in Hymn and Psalm Tunes (1860) and Original Hymn Tunes (1875).
Bert Polman
Henry K. Oliver
