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William Cowper

1731 - 1800 Person Name: Wm. Cowper Author of "'Tis my Happiness Below" in Great Songs of the Church William Cowper (pronounced "Cooper"; b. Berkampstead, Hertfordshire, England, 1731; d. East Dereham, Norfolk, England, 1800) is regarded as one of the best early Romantic poets. To biographers he is also known as "mad Cowper." His literary talents produced some of the finest English hymn texts, but his chronic depression accounts for the somber tone of many of those texts. Educated to become an attorney, Cowper was called to the bar in 1754 but never practiced law. In 1763 he had the opportunity to become a clerk for the House of Lords, but the dread of the required public examination triggered his tendency to depression, and he attempted suicide. His subsequent hospitalization and friendship with Morley and Mary Unwin provided emotional stability, but the periods of severe depression returned. His depression was deepened by a religious bent, which often stressed the wrath of God, and at times Cowper felt that God had predestined him to damnation. For the last two decades of his life Cowper lived in Olney, where John Newton became his pastor. There he assisted Newton in his pastoral duties, and the two collaborated on the important hymn collection Olney Hymns (1779), to which Cowper contributed sixty-eight hymn texts. Bert Polman ============ Cowper, William, the poet. The leading events in the life of Cowper are: born in his father's rectory, Berkhampstead, Nov. 26, 1731; educated at Westminster; called to the Bar, 1754; madness, 1763; residence at Huntingdon, 1765; removal to Olney, 1768; to Weston, 1786; to East Dereham, 1795; death there, April 25, 1800. The simple life of Cowper, marked chiefly by its innocent recreations and tender friendships, was in reality a tragedy. His mother, whom he commemorated in the exquisite "Lines on her picture," a vivid delineation of his childhood, written in his 60th year, died when he was six years old. At his first school he was profoundly wretched, but happier at Westminster; excelling at cricket and football, and numbering Warren Hastings, Colman, and the future model of his versification. Churchill, among his contemporaries or friends. Destined for the Bar, he was articled to a solicitor, along with Thurlow. During this period he fell in love with his cousin, Theodora Cowper, sister to Lady Hesketh, and wrote love poems to her. The marriage was forbidden by her father, but she never forgot him, and in after years secretly aided his necessities. Fits of melancholy, from which he had suffered in school days, began to increase, as he entered on life, much straitened in means after his father's death. But on the whole, it is the playful, humorous side of him that is most prominent in the nine years after his call to the Bar; spent in the society of Colman, Bonnell Thornton, and Lloyd, and in writing satires for The Connoisseur and St. James's Chronicle and halfpenny ballads. Then came the awful calamity, which destroyed all hopes of distinction, and made him a sedentary invalid, dependent on his friends. He had been nominated to the Clerkship of the Journals of the House of Lords, but the dread of appearing before them to show his fitness for the appointment overthrew his reason. He attempted his life with "laudanum, knife and cord,"—-in the third attempt nearly succeeding. The dark delusion of his life now first showed itself—a belief in his reprobation by God. But for the present, under the wise and Christian treatment of Dr. Cotton (q. v.) at St. Albans, it passed away; and the eight years that followed, of which the two first were spent at Huntingdon (where he formed his lifelong friendship with Mrs. Unwin), and the remainder at Olney in active piety among the poor, and enthusiastic devotions under the guidance of John Newton (q. v.), were full of the realisation of God's favour, and the happiest, most lucid period of his life. But the tension of long religious exercises, the nervous excitement of leading at prayer meetings, and the extreme despondence (far more than the Calvinism) of Newton, could scarcely have been a healthy atmosphere for a shy, sensitive spirit, that needed most of all the joyous sunlight of Christianity. A year after his brother's death, madness returned. Under the conviction that it was the command of God, he attempted suicide; and he then settled down into a belief in stark contradiction to his Calvinistic creed, "that the Lord, after having renewed him in holiness, had doomed him to everlasting perdition" (Southey). In its darkest form his affliction lasted sixteen months, during which he chiefly resided in J. Newton's house, patiently tended by him and by his devoted nurse, Mrs. Unwin. Gradually he became interested in carpentering, gardening, glazing, and the tendance of some tame hares and other playmates. At the close of 1780, Mrs. Unwin suggested to him some serious poetical work; and the occupation proved so congenial, that his first volume was published in 1782. To a gay episode in 1783 (his fascination by the wit of Lady Austen) his greatest poem, The Task, and also John Gilpin were owing. His other principal work was his Homer, published in 1791. The dark cloud had greatly lifted from his life when Lady Hesketh's care accomplished his removal to Weston (1786): but the loss of his dear friend William Unwin lowered it again for some months. The five years' illness of Mrs. Unwin, during which his nurse of old became his tenderly-watched patient, deepened the darkness more and more. And her death (1796) brought “fixed despair," of which his last poem, The Castaway, is the terrible memorial. Perhaps no more beautiful sentence has been written of him, than the testimony of one, who saw him after death, that with the "composure and calmness" of the face there “mingled, as it were, a holy surprise." Cowper's poetry marks the dawn of the return from the conventionality of Pope to natural expression, and the study of quiet nature. His ambition was higher than this, to be the Bard of Christianity. His great poems show no trace of his monomania, and are full of healthy piety. His fame as a poet is less than as a letter-writer: the charm of his letters is unsurpassed. Though the most considerable poet, who has written hymns, he has contributed little to the development of their structure, adopting the traditional modes of his time and Newton's severe canons. The spiritual ideas of the hymns are identical with Newton's: their highest note is peace and thankful contemplation, rather than joy: more than half of them are full of trustful or reassuring faith: ten of them are either submissive (44), self-reproachful (17, 42, 43), full of sad yearning (1, 34), questioning (9), or dark spiritual conflict (38-40). The specialty of Cowper's handling is a greater plaintiveness, tenderness, and refinement. A study of these hymns as they stood originally under the classified heads of the Olney Hymns, 1779, which in some cases probably indicate the aim of Cowper as well as the ultimate arrangement of the book by Newton, shows that one or two hymns were more the history of his conversion, than transcripts of present feelings; and the study of Newton's hymns in the same volume, full of heavy indictment against the sins of his own regenerate life, brings out the peculiar danger of his friendship to the poet: it tends also to modify considerably the conclusions of Southey as to the signs of incipient madness in Cowper's maddest hymns. Cowper's best hymns are given in The Book of Praise by Lord Selborne. Two may be selected from them; the exquisitely tender "Hark! my soul, it is the Lord" (q. v.), and "Oh, for a closer walk with God" (q. v.). Anyone who knows Mrs. Browning's noble lines on Cowper's grave will find even a deeper beauty in the latter, which is a purely English hymn of perfect structure and streamlike cadence, by connecting its sadness and its aspiration not only with the “discord on the music" and the "darkness on the glory," but the rapture of his heavenly waking beneath the "pathetic eyes” of Christ. Authorities. Lives, by Hayley; Grimshaw; Southey; Professor Goldwin Smith; Mr. Benham (attached to Globe Edition); Life of Newton, by Rev. Josiah Bull; and the Olney Hymns. The numbers of the hymns quoted refer to the Olney Hymns. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================ Cowper, W. , p. 265, i. Other hymns are:— 1. Holy Lord God, I love Thy truth. Hatred of Sin. 2. I was a grovelling creature once. Hope and Confidence. 3. No strength of nature can suffice. Obedience through love. 4. The Lord receives His highest praise. Faith. 5. The saints should never be dismayed. Providence. All these hymns appeared in the Olney Hymns, 1779. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ===================== Cowper, W., p. 265, i. Prof. John E. B. Mayor, of Cambridge, contributed some letters by Cowper, hitherto unpublished, together with notes thereon, to Notes and Queries, July 2 to Sept. 24, 1904. These letters are dated from Huntingdon, where he spent two years after leaving St. Alban's (see p. 265, i.), and Olney. The first is dated "Huntingdon, June 24, 1765," and the last "From Olney, July 14, 1772." They together with extracts from other letters by J. Newton (dated respectively Aug. 8, 1772, Nov. 4, 1772), two quotations without date, followed by the last in the N. & Q. series, Aug. 1773, are of intense interest to all students of Cowper, and especially to those who have given attention to the religious side of the poet's life, with its faint lights and deep and awful shadows. From the hymnological standpoint the additional information which we gather is not important, except concerning the hymns "0 for a closer walk with God," "God moves in a mysterious way," "Tis my happiness below," and "Hear what God, the Lord, hath spoken." Concerning the last three, their position in the manuscripts, and the date of the last from J. Newton in the above order, "Aug. 1773," is conclusive proof against the common belief that "God moves in a mysterious way" was written as the outpouring of Cowper's soul in gratitude for the frustration of his attempted suicide in October 1773. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Richard Redhead

1820 - 1901 Person Name: R. Redhead Composer of "REDHEAD" in University Hymns Richard Redhead (b. Harrow, Middlesex, England, 1820; d. Hellingley, Sussex, England, 1901) was a chorister at Magdalen College, Oxford. At age nineteen he was invited to become organist at Margaret Chapel (later All Saints Church), London. Greatly influencing the musical tradition of the church, he remained in that position for twenty-five years as organist and an excellent trainer of the boys' choirs. Redhead and the church's rector, Frederick Oakeley, were strongly committed to the Oxford Movement, which favored the introduction of Roman elements into Anglican worship. Together they produced the first Anglican plainsong psalter, Laudes Diurnae (1843). Redhead spent the latter part of his career as organist at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Paddington (1864-1894). Bert Polman

Louis M. Gottschalk

1829 - 1869 Person Name: Gottschalk Composer of "['Tis my happiness below]" in Great Songs of the Church Louis Moreau Gottschalk USA 1829-1869. Born in New Orleans, LA, to a Jewish father and Creole mother, he had six siblings and half-siblings. They lived in a small cottage in New Orleans. He later moved in with relatives (his grandmother and a nurse). He played the piano from an early age and was soon recognized as a prodigy by new Orleans bourgeois establishments. He made a performance debut at the new St. Charles Hotel in 1840. At 13 he left the U.S. And went to Europe with his father, as they realized he needed classical training to fulfill his musical ambitions. The Paris Conservatory rejected him without hearing him play on the grounds of his nationality. Chopin heard him play a concert there and remarked, “Give me your hand, my child, I predict that you will become the king of pianists. Franz Liszt and Charles Valentin Alkan also recognized his extreme talent. He became a composer and piano virtuoso, traveling far and wide performing, first back to the U.S., then Cuba, Puerto Rico, Central and South America. He was taken with music he heard in those places and composed his own. He returned to the States, resting in NJ, then went to New York City. There he mentored a young Venezuelan student, Carreno, and became concerned that she succeed. He was only able to give her a few lessons, yet she would remember him fondly and play his music the rest of her days. A year after meeting Gottschalk, she performed for President Lincoln and went on to become a renowned concern pianist, earning the nickname “Valkyrie of the Piano”. Gottschalk was also interested in art and made connections with notable figures of the New York art world. He traded one of his compositions to his art friend, Frederic Church, for one of Church's landscape paintings. By 1860 Gootschalk had established himself as the best known pianist in the New World. He supported the Union cause during the Civil War and returned to New Orleans only occasionally for concerts. He traveled some 95,000 miles and gave 1000 concerts by 1865. He was forced to leave the U.S. later that year as a result of a scandelous affair with a student at Oakland Female Seminary in Oakland, CA. He never came back to the U.S. He went to South America giving frequent concerts. At one, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he collapsed from yellow fever as he played a concert. He died three weeks later, never recovering from the collapse, possibly from an overdose of quinine or an abdominal infection. He was buried in Brooklyn, NY. Though some of his works were destroyed or disappeared after his death, a number of them remain and have been recorded by various artists. John Perry

Edwin Pond Parker

1836 - 1920 Person Name: Edwin P. Parker Arranger of "MERCY" in Praise for the Lord (Expanded Edition) Parker, Edwin Pond, D.D., born at Castine, Maine, Jan. 13, 1836, and educated at Bowdoin College, Maine, and Bangor Theo. Sem., Maine. Entering the Congregational ministry, he became pastor of the Second Church of Christ, Hartford, Conn., Jan. 1860, and has remained there to the present date. Besides editing some Sunday School Hymn and Tune Books, now out of use, he was chief Editor of The Book of Praise . . . (Congregational) . . ., Phila., 1874; and Editor of The Christian Hymnal, Hartford, Conn., 1877, revised ed. 1889. His hymns in common use include:— 1. Blest are they in Christ departed. [Death and Burial.] Dated 1886. In the Christian Hymnal, 1889, and several other collections. 2. Come to Jesus, ye who labour. [Invitation.] Written in 1898, and included in The Pilgrim Hymnal , 1904. 3. Hail, Holy Light, the world rejoices. [Morning.] Dated 1889, and given in The Christian Hymnal, 1889, The Pilgrim Hymnal, 1904, and others. 4. I would tell Jesus. [The Soul's Desire.] Written in 1887, and included in The Christian Hymnal, 1889. 5. Lord, as we Thy Name profess. [Sincerity.] Dated 1889, first published in The Christian Hymnal, 1889, and subsequently in several other collections, including The Pilgrim Hymnal, 1904. 6. Master, no offering costly and sweet. [Love and Service.] Originally written in 1888, to close a sermon, and first published in The Christian Hymnal, 1889, together with music by the author. It has been adopted, together with the original music, by many compilers. For both words and music see The Pilgrim Hymnal, 1904. 7. O Master, Brother, Lord, and Friend. [Christmas.] Written to close a Christmas sermon, 1903; first printed in a local newspaper, and then included in The Pilgrim Hymnal, 1904. 8. Thy Name, O Lord, in sweet accord. [Divine Worship.] First published in The Christian Hymnal, 1889, and subsequently in several collections, including The Pilgrim Hymnal, 1904. Dr. Parker received his D.D. from Yale University, and is at the present time (1906) Chaplain to the Senate of the State of Connecticut. The above annotations are based upon Dr. Parker's manuscript notes. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Benjamin Carr

1768 - 1831 Arranger of "MADRID" in The Cyber Hymnal

Asahel Abbott

1805 - 1899 Person Name: Asahel Abbot Composer of "PRAYER" in Hymn and Tune Book of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (Round Note Ed.)

Richard R. Chope

1830 - 1928 Person Name: R. R. Chope Composer of "SCUDAMORE" in The Church Hymnal Chope, Richard Robert, M.A., born Sept. 21, 1830, educated at Exeter College, Oxford, B.A., 1855, and took Holy Orders as Curate of Stapleton, 1856. During his residence at Stapleton the necessities of the Choir led him to plan his Congregational Hymn and Tune Book, published in 1857. In 1858 he took the Curacy of Sherborne, Dorset; in the following year that of Upton Scudamore, where he undertook the training of the Chorus of the Warminster district for the first Choral Festival in Salisbury Cathedral; and in 1861 that of Brompton. The enlarged edition of The Congregational Hymn Book was published 1862, and The Canticles, Psalter, &c, of the Prayer Book, Noted and Pointed, during the same year. In 1865 he was preferred to the parish of St. Augustine's, Queen's Gate, South Kensington, and subsequently published Carols for Use in Church during Christmas and Epiphany, 1875; Carols for Easier and Other Tides, 1887; and other works. Mr. Chope has been one of the leaders in the revival and reform of Church Music as adapted to the Public Services. He was one of the originators of The Choir and Musical Record, and was for some time the proprietor and assistant editor of the Literary Churchman. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Caryl Florio

1843 - 1920 Composer of "FLORIO" in Gloria Deo Real name William James Robjohn. He used Caryl Florio as a pseudonym.

Thomas Joseph Linekar

1858 - 1918 Person Name: T. J. Linekar Composer of "AMICUS" in Hymns of the Ages Linekar, Thomas Joseph, son of Mr. John Linekar; born at Hoylake, Cheshire, October 6, 1858; from an early age showed musical talent; studied music under W. H. Jude, of Liverpool for three years, but principally self-taught; appointed organist of Hoylake Church in 1878, holding the office for six years; afterwards organist of Llandvillo Church for three years; since 1887 organist of St. John’s English Wesleyan Church, Colwyn Bay, North Wales. Most of his compostions have been published under the nom de plume of Raymond Berenger. --The Music of the Church Hymnary

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