1869 - 1956 Person Name: Ferdinand Dunkley, 1869-1956 Composer of "[Our fortress strong art Thou, O Lord]" in AGO Founders Hymnal Ferdinand Dunkley, born in London, England, on July 16, 1869, attended the Royal College of Music and Trinity College of Music, and studied composition with C. Hubert H. Parry and organ with Sir George Martin. His orchestral suite, Among Yon Mountain-Fastnesses, won a 50-guinea prize and was performed at the London Promenade Concerts in 1889. His ballad for chorus and orchestra, Wreck of the Hesperus, was performed at the Crystal Palace in 1894. Immigrating to Albany, New York, in 1893, Dunkley was director of music at St. Agnes School (1893-99), and organist of State Street Presbyterian Church (1893) and Trinity Methodist Church (1894-96). From 1899 to 1901, he was director of Asheville College in North Carolina and conductor of the annual music festival. From 1901 to 1909, he was organist of St. Paul's Episcopal Church and Touro Synagogue in New Orleans. Subsequently, he was organist of Christ Church, Vancouver, B.C. (1909-12), and in Seattle, Washington, at St. Mark's Church (1912), the First Methodist Church, and the First Church of Christ, Scientist (1916-20).
In 1920, Dunkley moved to Birmingham, Alabama, as organist of the Church of the Advent. From 1927 to 1929, he taught at the Women's College in Montgomery, Alabama, and was at Temple Sinai (1924-34) and St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church (1937) in New Orleans. He began teaching at Loyola University in New Orleans in 1934. Dunkley was the author of The Buoyant Voice Acquired by Correct Pitch-Control: A New Scientific Method of Training (Boston: C.C. Birchard, 1942) He died in Waldwick, New Jersey, on January 5, 1956, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans. His only hymn tune is found in the Union Hymnal, where it is set to two texts. The one included here, for the Day of Atonement, is "Our fortress strong art Thou, O Lord."
—————Rollin Smith, in AGO Founders Hymnal, pp. 92-93.
Ferdinand Dunkley
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