Short Name: | William W. Gilchrist |
Full Name: | Gilchrist, William Wallace, 1846-1916 |
Birth Year: | 1846 |
Death Year: | 1916 |
Born: January 8, 1846, Jersey City, New Jersey.
Died: December 20, 1916, Easton, Pennsylvania.
Buried: Saint Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.
Gilchrist’s family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when William was nine years old. He attended school there until the outbreak of the American civil war, when his father’s business failed and William had to seek other work. Having a good voice, he sang in choirs and choruses, first as a soprano, and later a smooth, flexible baritone. He began singing some of the principal parts in the Handel and Haydn Society, where his first real musical life began.
At age 19, Gilchrist began studying organ and voice with Professor H. A. Clarke, gradually concentrating on theory. At age 25, he spent a year in Cincinnati, Ohio, as organist and teacher, returning to Philadelphia to take post of choir master at St. Clement’s Protestant Episcopal Church. He later became conductor of the Mendelssohn Club, Tuesday Club of Wilmington, and Philadelphia Symphony Society.
Gilchrist was best known as a composer. His first success was in 1878, winning two prizes from the Abt Society of Philadelphia for best choruses for male voices. In 1881, he won three similar prizes from the Mendelssohn Glee Club of New York. In 1884, he took a $1,000 prize from the Cincinnati Festival Association; the judges included Saint-Saëns, Reinecke, and Theodore Thomas. This work was an elaborate setting of the Forty-Sixth Psalm, and was enthusiastically received. Gilchrist afterwards modified it and brought it out at the Philadelphia Festival in 1885.
Gilchrist also served as editor of the 1895 Presbyterian hymnal, as musical editor of The Magnificat in 1910, and wrote symphonies, chamber and choral music. His works include:
An Easter Idyll
Psalm 46 (New York: 1882)
One Hundred and Third Psalm
Ninetieth Psalm
Fifth Psalm
Prayer and Praise
De Profundis
The Rose (New York: 1887)
Ode to the Sun
A Christmas Idyll (Boston, Massachusetts: 1898)
The Lamb of God (New York: 1909)
www.hymntime.com/tch/
Tunes by William W. Gilchrist (51) | As | Instances | Incipit |
---|---|---|---|
[All hail to thee, fair morning] | Wm. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 1 | 55671 23214 43233 |
[All things so bright and beautiful] | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 55175 63512 25535 |
ALLEGHENY | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 32517 64323 54321 |
[Angels, from the realms of glory] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 3 | 35234 34543 51456 |
[Brightest and best of the sons of the morning] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 15125 23217 62765 |
[Children, can you truly tell] (Gilchrist) | William Wallace Gilchrist (Composer) | 1 | 33432 31556 54531 |
[Every morning mercies new] | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 11234 53671 35432 |
[O bread to the pilgrims given] | William Wallace Gilchrist (Composer) | 3 | 35175 65564 21135 |
FORSAKE ME NOT | William W. Gilchrist, 1846-1916 (Composer) | 2 | 55555 51233 6 |
[From far away we come to you] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 16756 45313 21523 |
[From the holy heaven] | Wm. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 1 | 11765 56125 33423 |
GLAD DAY | Wm. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 12 | 55113 15532 17621 |
[God's perfect law converts] | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 34567 53217 65345 |
[Good Christian people all] | Wm. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 1 | 55531 56712 34255 |
[Hosanna, loud hosanna] | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 12531 25315 67151 |
[How blest the realm with favor crowned] | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 33153 22343 33175 |
[How glorious on the mountains] | Wm. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 1 | 53167 15561 43253 |
[I know three little sisters] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 14 | 51111 13652 41351 |
[I lay my sins on Jesus] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 53517 76666 62675 |
[It came upon the midnight clear] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 12356 71535 11213 |
[Light of light, enlighten me] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 35431 61233 54317 |
LIGHT OF THE WORLD (Gilchrist) | William W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 3 | |
[Loving Savior, Friend so dear] | Wm. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 1 | 51233 41333 32617 |
[Merry Christmas bells are ringing] (Gilchrist) | Wm. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 1 | 53453 45176 53542 |
[No trust will I place in my bow] | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 32176 51135 43433 |
[Now to heaven our prayer ascending] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 56172 14351 23561 |
[O Christmastide! O Christmastide!] | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 3 | 35333 53335 32543 |
[O little town of Bethlehem] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 32156 17712 67615 |
[O wonder amazing] | William Wallace Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 36542 35175 67321 |
[Over Bethlehem's hill, in days of old] | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 3 | 55367 11713 27671 |
[Oft, when storms of pain are rolling] | Wm. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 1 | 55671 44351 36125 |
[Over the hill and over the vale] (Gilchrist) | Wm. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 1 | 15565 15565 31767 |
PHILADELPHIA (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 37216 53721 62432 |
[Praise ye the Lord; with all my heart] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 33354 12311 13117 |
[Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky] | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 35431 32112 34567 |
[Ring the bells, the Christmas bells] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 56556 55671 25321 |
SCHUBERT (53322) | William W. Gilchrist (Arranger) | 21 | 53322 31122 44353 |
[See the lilies, how they grow] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 53235 32356 75443 |
[Softly the echoes come and go] (Gilchrist) | Wm. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 1 | 32132 14324 32543 |
[Sound over all waters, reach out from all lands] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 31613 13161 34272 |
[The day of resurrection] (Gilchrist) | Wm. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 1 | 34553 21567 13562 |
THE PILGRIM HOST (Gilchrist) | William Wallace Gilchrist (Composer) | 3 | 55432 11567 12355 |
[There's a song in the air] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 3 | 55555 51555 55533 |
[This is the way the snow comes down] | Wm. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 3 | 56712 33215 35353 |
[Thou that once, by mother's knee] (Gilchrist) | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 3 | 32176 71143 21712 |
[Thy word forever is, O Lord] | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 32343 23435 61765 |
[Two willing hands for work have I] | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 2 | 53215 32164 32176 |
WAKEFIELD (Gilchrist) | William W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 9 | 33262 15117 37654 |
WAVERTREE | William W. Gilchrist (Harmonizer) | 4 | 33354 42166 65553 |
[Where bloom celestial roses] | Wm. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 1 | 55176 43321 76712 |
[Why do heathen nations rage] | W. W. Gilchrist (Composer) | 3 | 56153 21613 11711 |