| Gibbons, Orlando |
b Oxford 1583, d Canterbury, Kent 1625. The youngest and most gifted of 4 musical brothers, at King’s Coll Cambridge he was a choirboy from 1596 and a student from 1599, and at 21 organist of the… |
| Light, Alfred Weldon |
b Hants 1873, d Longford, nr Colnbrook, Bucks 1954. Apprenticed to a Basingstoke saddler at 13; in 1888 his work took him to Whitechapel, E London, and in 1895 to Falmouth. In 1898 he was invited by… |
| Preston, David George |
b London 1939. d 2020. Archbishop Tenison’s Grammar School, Kennington, London; Keble College Oxford (MA Mod Langs.) He worked as a French Teacher, including 11 years at Ahmadu Bello Univ, Nigeria,… |
| Baughen, Michael Alfred |
b Borehamwood, Herts 1930. Bromley County Grammar Sch, Kent and (after brief spells at Martin’s Bank) Oak Hill Theol Coll (BD London). Ordained (CofE) 1956; curacies at Nottingham and Reigate… |
| Urhan, Chrétien |
b Montjoie nr Aix-la-Chapelle, France (now Aachen, Germany) 1790, d Paris, France 1845. As a young enthusiast for music, he was first taught the violin by his father and soon learned to play the viola… |
| Tchaikovsky (Chayovski etc), Peter Ilich (Pyotr Ilyich) |
b Kamsko-Votinsk, Vyatka, Russia 1840, d St Petersburg, Russia 1893. Showing an early sensitivity to words, and close to his mother as a boy, he could read French and German as well as his native… |
| Weber, Carl (Karl) Maria Friedrich Ernst von |
b Eutin, nr Lübeck, N Germany 1786, d London 1826. Taught first by his erratic but gifted father, from 1798 he became a Salzburg Cathedral chorister and pupil of Michael Haydn. But after a series of… |
| Handel, George Frideric |
(originally Händel or Haendel), b Halle, Germany 1685, d Hanover Sq, London, Good Friday 1759. A youthful violinist at Hamburg, at first against his father’s wishes, he moved to Italy at 21 gaining… |
| Alcuin (Ealhwine) |
b York, c735, d ?Tours, France, c804. He was educated in the cathedral school in his native York under Archbp Egbert, becoming its master in 766 and gaining a scholarly reputation as librarian. In 782… |
| Spitta, Carl Johann Phillip |
b Hanover, Germany 1801, d Burgdorf, Germany 1859. The son of a French father and a Christian Jewish mother, he was a writer of verse from the age of 8 and apprenticed at first to a watchmaker, he… |
| Hopkins, Edward John |
b Westminster, London (Middx) 1818, d Camden Town, N London 1901. One of a musical family, he was a Chapel Royal chorister at the age of 8 (1826–33), proficient at the organ from boyhood and… |
| Tang, Agnes |
b Malaysia 1945. She lived for some years in New Cross, SE London; worked in the Law Courts as a court reporter, and as a speech-to-text reporter for deaf people. She has studied at RSCM and is a… |
| Tersteegen, Gerhard |
b Mörs, nr Düsseldorf, Westphalia 1697, d 1769. Trained in the classics at the Latin sch in his home town, after his father’s death he was prevented by family poverty from taking a university… |
| Cosin, John |
b Norwich 1594 or 1596, d Westminster, London 1671/2. Norwich Free Sch; Caius Coll Cambridge; ordained to serve in various parishes before becoming a Canon of Durham in 1625 and Rector of nearby… |
| Bridge, Basil Ernest |
b Norwich, Norfolk 1927. City of Norwich School and Cheshunt Coll, Cambridge (BA/MA). In 1951 he was ordained to the pastorate at Knowle (Warwicks), then Abbot’s Rd Congregational (now URC)… |
| Barnby, Joseph |
b York 1838, d Westminster, London 1896. A boy chorister at St George’s Windsor aged 7, he was an organist at 12 and choirmaster at 14. After studies at the RAM from 1854 (aged 16) he had two brief… |
| Tucker, Francis Bland |
b Norfolk, Virginia, USA 1895, d Savannah, Georgia, USA 1974. Univ of Virginia (BA 1914). The 13th child of Bp Beverley and Mrs Anna Tucker, he taught in Kyoto, Japan, and in 1916 joined the US army,… |
| Noel, Caroline Maria |
b Teston nr Maidstone, Kent 1817, d Hyde Park, St Marylebone, Middx (London) 1877. She began her hymn-writing at the age of 17, producing a dozen or so texts before she was 20. Then for 20 more years… |
| Houghton, Frank |
b Stafford, Staffs 1894, d Pembury, nr Tunbridge Wells, Kent 1972. He was writing both sacred and comic verse by the age of 13; at 17, with his brother Alfred (‘Tim’), he had a dramatic escape… |
| Scriven, Joseph Medlicott |
b Seapatrick, Co Down, Ireland 1819, d Bewdley, Rice Lake, Ontario, Canada 1886. Trinity Coll Dublin, 1835; a member of the Christian (Plymouth) Brethren, he cut short his studies to enlist in the… |
| Norton, Christopher |
b New Zealand 1953. Beginning to compose music from the age of 14, at 16 he had his first orchestral work performed and broadcast. After graduating in music from the Univ of Otago, Dunedin (1974), he… |
| Brady, Nicholas |
b Bandon, Co. Cork, Ireland, 1659; d Richmond, Surrey 1726. Westminster School, Christ Ch Coll Oxford and Trinity Coll, Dublin (DD). After ordination, he was an incumbent in Co Cork and Prebendary of… |
| Tredinnick, Noël Harwood |
b Camberwell, London 1949. St Olave’s Grammar Sch (boy chorister at Southwark Cathedral), GSM (GGSM 1970), London Univ Inst of Education (PGCE 1971). Music Director, Langley Park Sch 1971–75;… |
| Leckebusch, Martin Ernest |
b Leicester 1962. King Edward VII Coll, Coalville, Leics; Oriel Coll Oxford; BA/MA (Maths) 1983; Brunel Univ Middx, MSc (Numerical Analysis) 1984. He worked for 16 yrs as a Computer Systems… |
| Sing Psalms |
1997ff. In writing in 1979 about the Scottish metrical Psalms in general and the Church Hymnary 3rd Edn (CH3, 1973) in particular, Erik Routley commended 3 versions by Ian Pitt-Watson (1921–95):… |
| Cousin, Anne Ross |
(née Cundell), b Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorks 1824, d Edinburgh 1906. A gifted musician and linguist, she was the daughter of a Episcopalian doctor, who in 1847 became a Free Ch minister’s wife, first… |
| Duckworth, Francis |
b Rimington, nr Clitheroe, Lancs 1862, d Colne, Lancs 1941. He grew up next door to the Wesleyan Chapel, the musical and social centre of the village where (in the absence of an organ) 4 of the… |
| Olivers, Thomas |
b Tregynon, nr Newtown, Powys (Montgomeryshire), N Wales 1725, d London 1799. Orphaned at the age of 4, he grew up as a ‘wild and reckless youth’ with what might today be called anti-social or… |
| Fullerton, William Young |
b Belfast, N Ireland 1857, d Bedford Park, Middx 1932. Raised in a northern Irish Presbyterian home, he spent most of his adult life as a Baptist in England. At the age of 17 his desire to speak for… |
| Twells, Henry |
b Ashte(a)d, nr Birmingham, Warwicks 1823, d Bournemouth, Dorset 1900. School in Birmingham; St Peter’s Coll Cambridge (BA 1848). Ordained in 1849, he was Curate of Gt Berkhamsted 1849–51 and then… |
