Henry R. Bishop

Henry R. Bishop
Short Name: Henry R. Bishop
Full Name: Bishop, Henry R. (Henry Rowley), 1786-1855
Birth Year: 1786
Death Year: 1855

Bishop, Henry Rowley, was born at London, Nov. 18, 1786, and died at London, April 30, 1855. See a full notice in the Dictionary of Nat. Biog., v., 91. From 1840 he was occasional and from 1843 to 1848 sole conductor of the Antient Concerts. Of his Twelve Corales...as sung at the Concerts of Ancient Music, for which (with Words expressly written to them) they were adapted and arranged by Sir Henry R. Bishop, 1844 (B. M. copy is H. 878), some are fairly literal translations from the German, others have no connection with their nominal originals. Three were noted in this Dictionary, but their source not having been traced in 1892, we now subjoin them:—
1. Behold, how glorious is yon sky, p. 127, ii. This is from "Wie herrlich ist die neue Welt" in C. H. Graun's oratorio Der Tod Jesu, 1756 (B. M. copy, 11. 1805, catalogued as 1766), the words being by Karl Wilhelm Ramler, b. Feb. 25, 1725, at Colberg, in Pomerania; 1748, Professor of Literature at the Cadet School in Berlin; d. at Berlin, April 11, 1798.
2. God is our Refuge in distress, Our Shield, p. 325, i.
3. O let us praise the Lord, With hearts of true devotion, p. 963, ii., No. 4. The Winchester Hymn Book, 1857, alters stanza i., the original line 1. 3, 4 being:—
"Whose spirit roams abroad,
To calm life's troubled ocean."
Another fairly close version is,"Wake, O wake! a voice is crying," from "Wachet auf," p. 805, ii. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Wikipedia Biography

Sir Henry Rowley Bishop (18 November 1787 – 30 April 1855) was an English composer. He is most famous for the songs "Home! Sweet Home!" and "Lo! Here the Gentle Lark." He was the composer or arranger of some 120 dramatic works, including 80 operas, light operas, cantatas, and ballets. Bishop was Knighted in 1842. Bishop worked for all the major theatres of London in his era – including the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Vauxhall Gardens and the Haymarket Theatre, and was Professor of Music at the universities of Edinburgh and Oxford. His second wife was the noted soprano Anna Bishop, who scandalised British society by leaving him and conducting an open liaison with the harpist Nicolas-Charles Bochsa until the latter's death in Sydney.

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