[O, what a world of sadness lay]

Composer: Gabriel Miesse

Gabriel Ralph Miesse was born Jan. 5th, 1838 in Dumontville, Fairfield County, Ohio, descended from a German-American family from Berks County, Pennsylvania. His father, Gabriel Lafayette Miesse, was a doctor who was also known as an artist, engraver, and inventor. The younger Gabriel followed his father into the medical field, first serving as his assistant and eventually earning a medical diploma from the Cincinnati Eclectic Institute in 1856. He established a practice in Lancaster, Ohio, in 1864, and lived there the remainder of his life. A polymath like his father, Miesse was an artist and occasional architect, and carried on a lifelong avocation in music. He began teaching music classes in his early teens, and published about two d… Go to person page >