Religious or Ritual Musician

(b Astigarraga, Guipúzcoa, 1893; d Seville, Dec 7, 1970). Spanish composer and organist. He studied with Donostia and others in San Sebastián, with Otaño at the Comillas Seminary, and in Paris with Eugène Cools. In 1919 he was appointed maestro de capilla at Orense Cathedral and then organist at Seville Cathedral, where he became ...

(fl1482). Iberian composer. He was a singer in the Aragonese royal chapel of Ferdinand V over a period of almost 30 years, from 1482 until 1510. He was presented to various ecclesiastical benefices under royal patronage and held, presumably by proxy, the position of head chaplain of the Dominican monastery in Madrid until 1505.

He was also closely associated with Segovia Cathedral for the best part of his life, being appointed chapel master there from 1 October 1504. For some years he held both positions, but this must have proved incompatible for in the autumn of 1507 he was suspended from his post as chapel master for an unspecified breach of the rules and replaced by Francisco de San Juan. He remained a member of the chapter, however, and was much involved in cathedral business during long periods of absence from the royal chapel during the period ...

(b Fredrikstad, April 29, 1872; d Oslo, Dec 24, 1932). Norwegian composer, conductor and organist. He studied with Peter Lindeman (organ) and Iver Holter (harmony, counterpoint and composition) at the Christiania Music and Organ School (1888–92), and was then a pupil of Reinecke (composition) and Ruthard (piano) at the Leipzig Conservatory (1892–4). Appointments as organist followed in Drammen (1895–1907) and Oslo (1907–32), where he served at the cathedral from 1916; his First Symphony was completed during a course of study in Berlin in 1897. He was one of those responsible for the foundation of the Norsk Komponistforening, of which he was president from 1921 to 1923. As a member of the Koralbokkomiteen (1922–6) he harmonized most of the melodies in the chorale book of the Norwegian Church, and he edited preludes to all of the chorales. He was active as a choir-conductor, leading the Håndverksangforening (...

(b Lincoln, c1650; bur. Durham, April 11, 1721). English musician. He was the son of the John Blundevile who was associated with the choir of Lincoln Cathedral from 1622 to 1692. It is reasonable to identify him with the chorister of that name who was at Lincoln in 1660, and then at the Chapel Royal until Christmas Day 1664. It appears he then worked successively in Ely, as a lay clerk and informator between 1669 and 1674, in Lichfield in 1676 (having failed to produce the necessary certificate at Winchester on 16 May), and in Dublin, from 1677 to 1679. From 1681 he was a lay clerk at York Minster, becoming Master of the Choristers the following year. He held this post until 1692. On 15 May 1693 the Dean of Durham Cathedral was instructed to write to Blundevile to ascertain on what terms he would transfer his allegiance from York to Durham. Although Blundevile did leave York at this time, it is not known where he went, and it was not until ...

(b Wigan, Sept 15, 1890; d Aylesbury, May 24, 1979). English organist and educationist. He was a pupil of and assistant organist to Bairstow at Leeds (1907–12), and took the BMus (1908) and DMus (1914) degrees at Durham University, becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists in 1909. His first important post, suborganist at Manchester Cathedral (1912–15), was interrupted by war service, after which he was organist at St Michael’s College, Tenbury (1919), and organist and choirmaster of Exeter Cathedral (1919–27). On Nicholson’s retirement from Westminster Abbey in 1928, Bullock succeeded him as organist and Master of the Choristers. In this post he was obliged to provide the music for several royal functions; for the coronation of King George VI (1937) he wrote the fanfares and conducted the choir and orchestra, in acknowledgment of which he was created CVO. He also provided all but one of the fanfares for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (...

(b Kankakee, IL, May 3, 1885; d Ann Arbor, MI, Feb 19, 1947). American organist. In Chicago he studied with Clarence Dickinson and was organist and music director of Hyde Park Presbyterian Church (1906–9). He studied abroad with Karl Straube in Leipzig (1909–10) and with Alexandre Guilmant in Paris (1910–11) and then returned to Chicago to become organist of Kenwood Church (1911–18). After a lengthy illness, probably tuberculosis, he served for two years (1920–21) as municipal organist in Denver. From 1924 until his death he was university organist and professor at the University of Michigan.

Christian toured extensively as a solo recitalist and a performer with leading American orchestras. At Michigan he taught many pupils who were later prominent. He gave frequent recitals on the large Skinner organ in Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor and also arranged performances by visiting recitalists who enriched the musical scene and widened his students’ horizons. A reviewer in ...

(b Sidbury, Devon, Aug 22, 1831; d London, June 6, 1915). English tenor, musical administrator and church musician. He was a chorister of St Paul’s Cathedral, where in 1838 he sang at the funeral of the cathedral organist, Thomas Attwood. But Attwood’s successor, William Hawes, treated the boys so harshly that Cummings’s father found him a place in the choir of the Temple Church. He sang alto in the first London performance (16 April 1847) of Elijah under Mendelssohn. A few months later he became organist of Waltham Abbey on the recommendation of his teacher, E.J. Hopkins, the Temple organist. Cummings’s adaptation of a theme from Mendelssohn’s Festgesang (1840) to ‘Hark! the herald angels sing’ dates from this time. His love of singing outweighing his interest in the organ, he became tenor at the Temple Church and later at the Chapel Royal. His only singing teacher was J.W. Hobbs, a lay clerk at Westminster Abbey, whose daughter Clara he subsequently married. Until about ...

(b Faversham, Kent, c1175; d Anagni, summer 1244). English friar, administrator and liturgist. He was said to have been educated in the arts in England before studying theology at the University of Paris, where on 12 April 1224 he joined the young Franciscan Order. He was active in the affairs of the order and travelled widely in its service, and seems to have played a part in the establishment in 1229 of the Franciscan school in Oxford that formed the nucleus of the new university there. He was elected minister provincial of England in 1239 and minister general of the Franciscan Order on 1 November 1240. As general he did much to strengthen the institutions of the order. But his importance for the history of music lies in his reform of the Franciscan liturgy. He first (probably in 1243) produced an ordinal prescribing the words and actions of private and simple conventual Masses, known from its opening words as ...

(b Eureka, CA, Aug 18, 1905; d Philadelphia, PA, June 1, 1983). American organist. A pupil of Farnam (1924–7), he made his début at Town Hall, New York, in 1926 and graduated from the Curtis Institute in 1934. His career was closely tied to three institutions; from 1927 to 1971 he was organist and choirmaster at Second (later combined with First) Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia; from 1935 to 1972 he was head of the organ department at the Curtis Institute; and from 1940 to 1965 he held the same post at Westminster Choir College, Princeton. His performances and teaching influenced many young recitalists and church musicians. His wife, Flora Greenwood, a harpist whom he married in 1932, often joined him in recitals. To a splendid innate musical ability he added the attention to rhythm, accuracy, and colorful registration that had been the special marks of Farnam’s playing. He published articles in ...

(b Northfield, MA, Feb 5, 1837; d Northfield, MA, Dec 22, 1899). American evangelist and popularizer of gospel hymnody. He moved to Chicago in 1856, where he ministered to the spiritual and material needs of inner-city children and adults through newly formed Sunday schools and evangelistic work. With a desire to reach businessmen, he became president of the Chicago YMCA in 1866, for which he erected the first YMCA building in the country. In 1870 he met the singer ira d. Sankey at the organization’s national convention in Indianapolis and invited him to become his musical associate. The two men went to England to conduct evangelistic services in June 1873, gaining an international reputation and remaining there until August 1875. After Moody had returned to the United States, he held extended revival meetings with Sankey in America’s largest cities. He also returned to England for additional meetings.

Music was highly regarded by Moody for its mass appeal, and he loosely presided over a small cadre of evangelists and their somewhat interchangeable musical assistants, the most prominent being Philip P. Bliss, George C. Stebbins, James McGranahan, and Daniel Brink Towner. The practice of an evangelist and musical associate holding mass meetings became a model for more than a century and reflected the central role of music in revivalism....

(Ramón )

(b Santa Cruz de Pacayrigua, Venezuela, Jan 17, 1739; d Caracas, after June 17, 1799). Venezuelan musician . Ordained a priest in 1762, he travelled in Europe (1769–71), where he came to know continental music. In 1771 he founded in Caracas a congregation of the Oratorio S Felipe Neri, in which he established in 1783 or 1784 what was to become the most important music school in colonial Venezuela. The school employed Juan Manuel Olivares (1760–97) and trained most colonial composers of the 1770s to 1790s, including Cayetano Carreño, Lino Gallardo, José Ángel Lamas and Juan José Landaeta, a group known as the ‘Chacao school’. In 1789 two Austrian naturalists who had visited Sojo in 1786 sent him a gift of scores by Haydn, Mozart and Pleyel, which had great influence on his students. His will is dated 17 June 1799.

(b Heron Lake, MN, Sept 18, 1897; d New York, Sept 22, 1960). American organist and educator. The son of a Methodist minister, he received the BM degree from the American Conservatory in Chicago in 1920 and the BA from Northwestern University in 1924. He also studied with Wilhelm Middelschulte, Lynnwood Farnam, T. Tertius Noble, and Nadia Boulanger, and at Union Theological Seminary (MSM 1930, DSM 1944). He taught at Northwestern, the Juilliard School, New York University, the Mannes College, and, from 1931, the School of Sacred Music of Union Theological Seminary. In 1945 he became director there, following Clarence Dickinson, and was Clarence and Helen Dickinson Professor from 1947 until his death. Porter toured as a recitalist, served in many churches (including the Collegiate Church of St Nicholas in New York), and was organist for several years at the Chautauqua Institution. He and his wife, Ethel K. Porter, were the music editors of the ...

(b Pwllheli, Jan 15, 1825; d Liverpool, April 6, 1912). Welsh musician. He was brought up in Liverpool, started work at the age of 13 in a solicitor’s office and eventually became chief assistant to the clerk to the stipendiary magistrate. He was elected Justice of the Peace in 1895, the year following his retirement. He contributed regularly to Welsh newspapers and journals, and his books included a biography of Henry Richard and a novel Owen Rees, written in English and portraying the life of the Liverpool Welsh community at that time. Precentor at Netherfield Road Chapel, Liverpool, he was important in the early days of the Tonic Sol-fa movement in Wales. After hearing John Curwen in Liverpool in 1860 he and John Edwards immediately started teaching the system in their Sunday school. In 1880 the two men conducted the first Welsh singing festival held in Liverpool. He also travelled throughout Wales explaining Tonic Sol-fa and setting up classes, and in ...

[Alexander] (Thomas Parke)

(b Southsea, June 3, 1892; d Midhurst, Jan 18, 1982). English writer on music. He was educated at Bradfield College and the RAM (1910–13), where he studied chiefly the organ, harmony and composition, and was organist and choirmaster at Frensham parish church and briefly at Farnham. During World War I he served in India, Egypt and Palestine. In 1919 he was appointed music lecturer to London County Council evening institutes. In 1920 he joined the Gramophone Company's educational staff, first as a lecturer and later as its head. In 1930 he entered the Collegio Beda, Rome; he was ordained priest in 1934 and held an appointment at Westminster Cathedral. Though he returned to professional life in 1938 his experiences of Catholic church music, particularly Gregorian plainchant, led him to write a number of books on the subject. In 1940 he joined the Gramophone Department of the BBC, and after the war was appointed chief producer of music talks on the Home and Third Programmes. He developed a highly individual manner as a broadcaster and gave many illustrated talks, which he continued even after his retirement from the BBC in ...

[Miguel José ]

(b Petra, Majorca, Spain, Nov 24, 1713; d Mission San Carlos Borromeo, Alta California [now in Carmel, CA], Aug 28, 1784). Spanish Franciscan friar and founder of the Alta California missions. Baptized Miguel José, upon joining the Franciscan order at age 17 he took the name of Junípero, after a companion of St. Francis. In 1742 Serra obtained a doctorate in theology at the Lullian University in Palma de Mallorca, where he was a professor of theology. Known as a forceful and zealous preacher with a resonant voice, in 1749 Serra sailed for New Spain to become a missionary. He served in the missions in the Sierra Gorda from 1750 to 1758, and the missions he administered there prospered. In order to better serve the indigenous population he served there, he learned the Otomí language. In 1758 Serra was recalled to the San Fernando College in Mexico City, where he remained until ...

(b c1620; d Liège, Oct 11, 1684). Flemish musician . He was appointed second succentor at Liège Cathedral on 24 November 1664 and at the same time received a benefice which was replaced by a more important one on 7 December 1668. He was to be responsible for the musical instruction of the duodeni. In November 1669 he and the first succentor were involved in a lawsuit against Lambert Pietkin. The cathedral canons admonished Thorette again and again for negligence, and since he did not improve they dismissed him from his post as succentor on 8 April 1672. But he retained his benefice and probably remained as a singer until his death. Auda was mistaken in stating that he was made a canon of Ste Materne. There is a short Chasse de St Hubert by him ( B-Lc ) for two violins, two cornetts (or flutes), two corni da caccia, bassoon and continuo (this last replaced in a 19th-century copy by two clarinets). It is based on brief fanfare motifs; the use of alternating sonorities would be pleasing if the piece were not unremittingly in G major. (...

(b Chumleigh, Devon, c1520; d London, 3–14 April 1582). English church musician and theatrical impresario . He signed his name ‘Westcote’. In his will he gave ‘Chimley in the countie of Devon’ as his birthplace; however, as a Catholic layman he cannot be identified with the stipendiary priest of that name recorded at Chumleigh in about 1541. It is possible that he may have been the Sebastian Westcote who appears as a yeoman of the king’s chamber in Henry VIII’s household in 1545. In October 1547 he appears for certain as one of the six lay vicars-choral of St Paul’s Cathedral, London; by Christmas 1548 he had achieved, in addition, appointment as Master of the Choristers, an office in which he had probably served since the death of John Redford in autumn 1547. Throughout his life he remained a stout adherent to traditional religious belief and it was not until ...

(b London, Ont., June 20, 1900; d Fairfield, CT, Sept 21, 1980). American organist of Canadian birth. A graduate of the University of Toronto (1924), he studied organ there with Healey Willan. In 1925 he went to New York to study with Lynnwood Farnam (White had been a boy soprano at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, Ontario, where Farnam was organist). He played at Flatbush Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, then at St George’s, Flushing. From 1927 to 1935 he was organist at St James’s in Philadelphia. He taught at various times at Bard College, Pius X School of Liturgical Music, Swarthmore College, Peabody Conservatory, Union Theological Seminary, and Butler University. His most influential post, however, was as organist, and later director of music, at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, New York (1937–58). In 1962 he became director of music at the Church of the Saviour, Syracuse, New York; his last position was at St George’s in Bridgeport, Connecticut....

Member of Withy family

(bap. Claines, nr Worcester, Sept 4, 1596; d Worcester, before Dec 10, 1661). English cathedral singer and administrator. He served as a choirboy and lay clerk at Worcester Cathedral, where he also held office as verger, sub-treasurer and surveyor of the works. In 1660...