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JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) was a German composer of the Baroque period (ca. 1600-1750). He lived in Protestant north Germany in the days when music there made up an important part of the splendour of courts, of religious observance, and the daily happiness of the people. Over the course of his life, he held numerous posts: choir-boy, violinist in the orchestra of a prince, organist of town churches, and chief court musician. His last position was as music director at the St. Thomas Church and School in Leipzig, of which city his name is chiefly connected, since he remained there for almost the last thirty years of his life. He played many instruments, and as a clavichordist, harpsichordist, and organist, was supreme in his day. He was an extremely prolific composer and produced monumental instrumental compositions as the Art of the Fugue, the Brandenburg Concertos, and the Goldberg Variations, as well as cantatas, motets, sacred songs and arias, sonatas, concertos, suites, and an enormous amount of organ and other keyboard music. Two of Bach’s best known large choral works are the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B Minor, and since the 19th-century Bach revival, in no small part, thanks to Felix Mendelssohn, he is now regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. Bach was twice married, and the parent of twenty (!) children, several of whom were also musicians.

JAKOB HINTZE (1622-1702) was a German composer. Partly as a result of the Thirty Years’ War, and partly to further his musical education, he travelled widely as a youth, including trips to Sweden and Lithuania. In 1659 he settled in Berlin, where he served as a court musician to the Elector of Brandenburg.

CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH (1807-1885) was a nephew of the great poet, William Wordsworth. He was educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Cambridge, was elected Fellow of the College in 1830, and received Priest’s Orders in 1835. He held many distinguished posts over the course of his life, including head master of Harrow School, Canon of Westminster Abbey, Hulsean Lecturer at Cambridge; Vicar of Stanford-in-the-Vale, Archdeacon of Westminster, and Bishop of Lincoln. His writings are numerous and some of them very valuable. Although most of his works are in prose, Wordsworth’s “The Holy Year: Hymns for Sundays, Holidays, and other occasions throughout the Year” contains 127 hymns and was published in 1862 – the same year that is noted in this morning’s Prelude text (see hymn #101.) He wrote many volumes of sermons, and an enormous amount of pamphlets, addresses, letters and speeches, on almost every subject in which the interests of the church were concerned, as well as on subjects connected with classical literature.

GUSTAV HOLST (1874-1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite The Planets, he composed many other works across a range of genres, although none achieved comparable success. There were professional musicians in the previous three generations of Holst’s family and it was clear from an early age that he would follow the same calling. He had hoped to become a pianist but was prevented by neuritis in his right arm. Despite his father’s reservations, he pursued a career as a composer, studying at the Royal College of Music under Charles Villiers Stanford. Unable to support himself by his compositions, he played the trombone professionally and later became a teacher—a great one, according to his colleague Ralph Vaughan Williams. Among other teaching activities, he built up a strong tradition of performance at Morley College, where he served as musical director from 1907 until 1924 and pioneered music education for women at St Paul’s Girls’ School, where he taught from 1905 until his death. Holst’s works were played frequently in the early years of the 20th century, but it was not until the international success of The Planets in the years immediately after the First World War that he became a well-known figure. A shy man, he did not welcome this fame and preferred to be left in peace to compose and teach. In his later years, his uncompromising, personal style of composition struck many music lovers as too austere, and his brief popularity declined. Nevertheless, he was a considerable influence on a number of younger English composers, including Benjamin Britten.

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI (1830-1894) was born in London, the youngest child in an extraordinarily gifted family. Her father was the Italian poet Gabriele Rossetti, and her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti also became a poet and a painter. Rossetti’s first poems were written in 1842 and printed in her grandfather’s private press. In 1850, under the pseudonym Ellen Alleyne, she contributed seven poems to the Pre-Raphaelite journal The Germ, which had been founded by her brother William Michael and his friends. Rossetti is best known for her ballads and her mystic religious lyrics, and her poetry is marked by symbolism and intense feeling. Her collection of poetry called Goblin Market and Other Poems was published in 1862, and it established Rossetti as a significant voice in Victorian poetry.

TOBIAS CLAUSNITZER (1619-1684) was a German Lutheran pastor and hymn writer. He studied theology at the University of Leipzig, and at one point was a military chaplain for a unit of the Swedish army. He wrote theological treaties, sermons and hymn texts. “Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier” (heard in translation in this morning’s middle hymn as “Blessed Jesus, at Your Word”) is his most well known hymn.

CATHERINE WINKWORTH (1827-1878) was the foremost 19th century British translator of German hymns into English. Her translations were polished, and yet remained close to the original, and are still used extensively in many denominational hymnals. Educated initially by her mother, she lived with relatives in Dresden, Germany in 1845, where she acquired her knowledge and interest in German hymnody. A pioneer in promoting women’s rights, Winkworth put much of her energy into the encouragement of higher education for women.

OLA GJEILO (b. 1978) is a Norwegian composer, currently living in Manhattan. He began playing piano and composing when he was five years old, and learned to read music when he was seven years old. Gjeilo studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, Norway, the Julliard School in New York City, and the Royal College of Music in London, England. He writes choral music, and has also written for piano, wind symphony, and strings. Fairlawn Avenue Senior Choir presented his Sunrise Mass in the spring of 2016.

WALTER CHALMERS SMITH (1824-1908) was a Scottish minister, hymnist, author and poet. Born in Aberdeen, he was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and furthered his studies at the University of Aberdeen and New College, Edinburgh. Chiefly remembered for his hymn Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise, he also served as the Moderator of the General Assembly for the Free Church of Scotland in 1893/1894.