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Arthur Sullivan

1842 - 1900 Person Name: Arthur Seymour Sullivan Composer of "ST. GERTRUDE" in The Cyber Hymnal Arthur Seymour Sullivan (b Lambeth, London. England. 1842; d. Westminster, London, 1900) was born of an Italian mother and an Irish father who was an army bandmaster and a professor of music. Sullivan entered the Chapel Royal as a chorister in 1854. He was elected as the first Mendelssohn scholar in 1856, when he began his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He also studied at the Leipzig Conservatory (1858-1861) and in 1866 was appointed professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music. Early in his career Sullivan composed oratorios and music for some Shakespeare plays. However, he is best known for writing the music for lyrics by William S. Gilbert, which produced popular operettas such as H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), The Mikado (1884), and Yeomen of the Guard (1888). These operettas satirized the court and everyday life in Victorian times. Although he composed some anthems, in the area of church music Sullivan is best remembered for his hymn tunes, written between 1867 and 1874 and published in The Hymnary (1872) and Church Hymns (1874), both of which he edited. He contributed hymns to A Hymnal Chiefly from The Book of Praise (1867) and to the Presbyterian collection Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867). A complete collection of his hymns and arrangements was published posthumously as Hymn Tunes by Arthur Sullivan (1902). Sullivan steadfastly refused to grant permission to those who wished to make hymn tunes from the popular melodies in his operettas. Bert Polman

Joseph Haydn

1732 - 1809 Person Name: Franz Josef Haydn, (1732-1809) Composer of "ST. ALBAN" in The Sunday School Hymnal 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

J. H. Brammall

1831 - 1912 Person Name: John H. Brammall Author of "Onward, Children, Onward" in The Cyber Hymnal Brammall, John Holland, nephew of John Holland, the biographer of Montgomery and author of the British Psalmists, was born at Sheffield, Dec. 21, 1831, and educated at the Collegiate School of that town. Although engaged in banking, he has found time for both hymn-writing and music. Most of his hymns and some of his tunes were written for the Sheffield Wesleyan Sunday School Union. Of the former, "Onward, children, onward, leave the paths of sin," is best known. It was written for the Wesleyan Sunday School Union of Sheffield in 1870, and first printed on their Whitsuntide fly-sheet of that year. It has been frequently used at similar gatherings of children. In 1879 it was given anonymously in the Methodist Sunday School Hymn Book, No. 283. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)