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James Montgomery
1771 - 1854 Person Name: Montgomery Author of "His Submission" in The Gospel Psalmist James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missions and the British Bible Society. He published eleven volumes of poetry, mainly his own, and at least four hundred hymns. Some critics judge his hymn texts to be equal in quality to those of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley . Many were published in Thomas Cotterill's Selection of Psalms and Hymns (1819 edition) and in Montgomery's own Songs of Zion (1822), Christian Psalmist (1825), and Original Hymns (1853).
Bert Polman
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Montgomery, James, son of John Montgomery, a Moravian minister, was born at Irvine, Ayrshire, Nov. 4, 1771. In 1776 he removed with his parents to the Moravian Settlement at Gracehill, near Ballymena, county of Antrim. Two years after he was sent to the Fulneck Seminary, Yorkshire. He left Fulneck in 1787, and entered a retail shop at Mirfield, near Wakefield. Soon tiring of that he entered upon a similar situation at Wath, near Rotherham, only to find it quite as unsuitable to his taste as the former. A journey to London, with the hope of finding a publisher for his youthful poems ended in failure; and in 1792 he was glad to leave Wath for Shefield to join Mr. Gales, an auctioneer, bookseller, and printer of the Sheffield Register newspaper, as his assistant. In 1794 Mr. Gales left England to avoid a political prosecution. Montgomery took the Sheffield Register in hand, changed its name to The Sheffield Iris, and continued to edit it for thirty-one years. During the next two years he was imprisoned twice, first for reprinting therein a song in commemoration of "The Fall of the Bastille," and the second for giving an account of a riot in Sheffield. The editing of his paper, the composition and publication of his poems and hynms, the delivery of lectures on poetry in Sheffield and at the Royal Institution, London, and the earnest advocacy of Foreign Missions and the Bible Society in many parts of the country, gave great variety but very little of stirring incident to his life. In 1833 he received a Royal pension of £200 a year. He died in his sleep, at the Mount, Sheffield, April 30, 1854, and was honoured with a public funeral. A statue was erected to his memory in the Sheffield General Cemetery, and a stained glass window in the Parish Church. A Wesleyan chapel and a public hall are also named in his honour. Montgomery's principal poetical works, including those which he edited, were:—
(1) Prison Amusements, 1797; (2) The Wanderer of Switzerland, 1806; (3) The West Indies, 1807; (4) The World before the Flood, 1813; (5) Greenland and Other Poems, 1819; (6) Songs of Zion, 1822; (7) The Christian Psalmist, 1825; (8) The Christian Poet, 1825; (9) The Pelican Island, 1828; (10) The Poet’s Portfolio, 1835; (11) Original Hymns for Public, Private, and Social Devotion, 1853. He also published minor pieces at various times, and four editions of his Poetical Works, the first in 1828, the second in 1836, the third in 1841, and the fourth in 1854. Most of these works contained original hymns. He also contributed largely to Collyer's Collection, 1812, and other hymnbooks published during the next 40 years, amongst which the most noticeable was Cotterill's Selections of 1819, in which more than 50 of his compositions appeared. In his Christian Psalmist, 1825, there are 100 of his hymns, and in his Original Hymns, 1853, 355 and 5 doxologies. His Songs of Zion, 1822, number 56. Deducting those which are repeated in the Original Hymns, there remain about 400 original compositions.
Of Montgomery's 400 hymns (including his versions of the Psalms) more than 100 are still in common use. With the aid of Montgomery's MSS. we have given a detailed account of a large number. The rest are as follows:—
i. Appeared in Collyer's Collection, 1812.
1. Jesus, our best beloved Friend. Personal Dedication to Christ.
2. When on Sinai's top I see. Sinai, Tabor, and Calvary.
ii. Appeared in Cotterill's Selection, 1819.
3. Come to Calvary's holy mountain. The Open Fountain.
4. God in the high and holy place. God in Nature. The cento in Com. Praise, 1879, and others, "If God hath made this world so fair," is from this hymn.
5. Hear me, O Lord, in my distress. Ps. cxliii.
6. Heaven is a place of rest from sin. Preparation for Heaven.
7. I cried unto the Lord most just. Ps. cxlii.
8. Lord, let my prayer like incense rise. Ps. cxxxix.
9. O bless the Lord, my soul! His grace to thee proclaim. Ps. ciii.
10. Out of the depths of woe. Ps. cxxx. Sometimes "When from the depths of woe."
11. The world in condemnation lay. Redemption.
12. Where are the dead? In heaven or hell? The Living and the Dead.
iii. Appeared in his Songs of Zion, 1822.
13. Give glory to God in the highest. Ps. xxix.
14. Glad was my heart to hear. Ps. cxxii.
15. God be merciful to me. Ps. lxix.
16. God is my strong salvation. Ps. xxvii.
17. Hasten, Lord, to my release. Ps. lxx.
18. Have mercy on me, O my God. Ps. li.
19. Hearken, Lord, to my complaints. Ps. xlii.
20. Heralds of creation cry. Ps. cxlviii.
21. How beautiful the sight. Ps. cxxxiii.
22. How precious are Thy thoughts of peace. Ps. cxxxix.
23. I love the Lord, He lent an ear. Ps. cxvi.
24. In time of tribulation. Ps. lxxvii.
25. Jehovah is great, and great be His praise. Ps. xlviii. Sometimes, "0 great is Jehovah, and great is His Name."
26. Judge me, O Lord, in righteousness. Ps. xliii.
27. Lift up your heads, ye gates, and wide. Ps.xxiv.
28. Lord, let me know mine [my] end. Ps. xxxi.
29. Of old, 0 God, Thine own right hand. Ps. lxxx.
30. O God, Thou art [my] the God alone. Ps. lxiii.
31. 0 Lord, our King, how excellent. Ps. viii. Sometimes, "0 Lord, how excellent is Thy name."
32. O my soul, with all thy powers. Ps. ciii.
33. One thing with all my soul's desire. Ps. xxvii. From this, "Grant me within Thy courts a place."
34. Searcher of hearts, to Thee are known. Ps. cxxxix.
35. Thank and praise Jehovah's name. Ps. cvii.
36. Thee will I praise, O Lord in light. Ps. cxxxviii.
37. The Lord is King; upon His throne. Ps. xciii.
38. The Lord is my Shepherd, no want shall I know. Ps. xxiii.
39. The tempter to my soul hath said. Ps. iii.
40. Thrice happy he who shuns the way. Ps. i.
41. Thy glory, Lord, the heavens declare. Ps. xix.
42. Thy law is perfect, Lord of light. Ps. xix.
43. Who make the Lord of hosts their tower. Ps. cxxv.
44. Yea, I will extol Thee. Ps. xxx.
iv. Appeared in his Christian Psalmist. 1825.
45. Fall down, ye nations, and adore. Universal adoration of God desired.
46. Food, raiment, dwelling, health, and friends. The Family Altar.
47. Go where a foot hath never trod. Moses in the desert. Previously in the Leeds Congregational Collection, 1822.
48. Green pastures and clear streams. The Good Shepherd and His Flock.
49. Less than the least of all. Mercies acknowledged.
50. Not to the mount that burned with fire [flame]. Communion of Saints.
51. On the first Christian Sabbath eve. Easter Sunday Evening.
52. One prayer I have: all prayers in one. Resignation.
53. Our heavenly Father hear. The Lord's Prayer.
54. Return, my soul, unto thy rest. Rest in God.
55. Spirit of power and might, behold. The Spirit's renewing desired.
56. The Christian warrior, see him stand. The Christian Soldier. Sometimes, "Behold the Christian warrior stand."
57. The days and years of time are fled. Day of Judgment.
58. The glorious universe around. Unity.
59. The pure and peaceful mind. A Children's Prayer.
60. This is the day the Lord hath made (q. v.). Sunday.
61. Thy word, Almighty Lord. Close of Service.
62. What secret hand at morning light ? Morning.
63. While through this changing world we roam. Heaven.
64. Within these walls be peace. For Sunday Schools.
v. Appeared in his Original Hymns, 1853.
65. Behold yon bright array. Opening a Place of Worship.
66. Behold the book whose leaves display. Holy Scriptures.
67. Come ye that fear the Lord. Confirmation.
68. Home, kindred, friends, and country, these. Farewell to a Missionary.
69. Let me go, the day is breaking. Jacob wrestling.
70. Not in Jerusalem alone. Consecration of a Church.
71. Praise the high and holy One. God the Creator.
In common with most poets and hymnwriters, Montgomery strongly objected to any correction or rearrangement of his compositions. At the same time he did not hesitate to alter, rearrange, and amend the productions of others. The altered texts which appeared in Cotterill's Selections, 1819, and which in numerous instances are still retained in some of the best hymnbooks, as the "Rock of Ages," in its well-known form of three stanzas, and others of equal importance, were made principally by him for Cotterill's use. We have this confession under his own hand.
As a poet, Montgomery stands well to the front; and as a writer of hymns he ranks in popularity with Wesley, Watts, Doddridge, Newton, and Cowper. His best hymns were written in his earlier years. In his old age he wrote much that was unworthy of his reputation. His finest lyrics are "Angels from the realms of glory," "Go to dark Gethsemane," "Hail to the Lord's Anointed," and "Songs of praise the angels sang." His "Prayer is the soul's sincere desire," is an expanded definition of prayer of great beauty; and his "Forever with the Lord" is full of lyric fire and deep feeling. The secrets of his power as a writer of hymns were manifold. His poetic genius was of a high order, higher than most who stand with him in the front rank of Christian poets. His ear for rhythm was exceedingly accurate and refined. His knowledge of Holy Scripture was most extensive. His religious views were broad and charitable. His devotional spirit was of the holiest type. With the faith of a strong man he united the beauty and simplicity of a child. Richly poetic without exuberance, dogmatic without uncharitableness, tender without sentimentality, elaborate without diffusiveness, richly musical without apparent effort, he has bequeathed to the Church of Christ wealth which could onlv have come from a true genius and a sanctified! heart.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
James Montgomery
Anonymous
Author of "Lord, in thy garden agony" in Hymns for Christian Devotion In some hymnals, the editors noted that a hymn's author is unknown to them, and so this artificial "person" entry is used to reflect that fact. Obviously, the hymns attributed to "Author Unknown" "Unknown" or "Anonymous" could have been written by many people over a span of many centuries.
Anonymous
Gaetano Donizetti
1797 - 1848 Person Name: Donizetti Composer of "DANA" in The Gospel Psalmist Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (born 29 November 1797 – died 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy.
Donizetti came from a non-musical background but, at an early age, he was taken under the wing of composer Simon Mayr who had set up the Lezioni Caritatevoli and had enrolled him by means of a full scholarship. There he received detailed training in the arts of fugue and counterpoint, and it was from there that Mayr was instrumental in obtaining a place for the young man at the Bologna Academy. In Bologna, at the age of 19, he wrote his first one-act opera, the comedy Il Pigmalione, although it does not appear to have been performed during his lifetime.
Through his life, Donizetti wrote about 70 operas, but an offer in 1822 from Domenico Barbaja, the impresario of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, which followed the composer's ninth opera, led to his move to that city and the composition of 28 operas which were given their premieres at that house or in one of the city's smaller houses including the Teatro Nuovo or the Teatro del Fondo. This continued until the production of Caterina Cornaro in January 1844. In all, Naples presented 51 of Donizetti's operas.
During this period, success came primarily with the comic operas, the serious ones failing to attract significant audiences. However, the situation changed with the appearance in 1830 of the serious opera, Anna Bolena which was the first to make a major impact on the Italian and international opera scene and, at the same time, to shift the balance for the composer away from success with only comedic operas. However, even after 1830, his best-known works did also include comedies such as L'elisir d'amore (1832) and Don Pasquale (1843). But significant historical dramas did appear and became successful, sometimes outside Naples before reaching that city. Most significantly, they included Lucia di Lammermoor (the first to be written by librettist Salvadore Cammarano) in 1835, as well as "one of [his] most successful Neapolitan operas", Roberto Devereux in Up to that point, all of his operas had been written to Italian librettos.
However, moving to Paris in 1838, Donizetti set his operas to French texts; these include La favorite and La fille du régiment and were first performed in that city from 1840 onward. It appears that much of the attraction of moving to Paris was not just for larger fees and prestige, but his chafing against the censorial limitations which existed in Italy, thus giving him a much greater freedom to choose subject matter. By 1845 severe illness caused him to be moved back to Bergamo to die in 1848.
Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of bel canto opera during the first fifty years of the Nineteenth Century.
The youngest of three sons, Donizetti was born in 1797 in Bergamo's Borgo Canale quarter located just outside the city walls. His family was very poor and had no tradition of music, his father Andrea, being the caretaker of the town pawnshop. Simone Mayr, a German composer of internationally successful operas had become maestro di cappella at Bergamo's principal church in 1802 and he then founded the Lezioni Caritatevoli school in Bergamo in 1805 for the purpose of providing musical training, including classes in literature, beyond that which choirboys ordinarily received up until the time that their voices broke. In 1807, Andrea Donizetti attempted to enroll both his sons, but the elder, Giuseppe (then 18), was considered too old. Gaetano (then 9) was accepted.
While not especially successful as a choirboy during the first three trial months of 1807, there being some concern about a diffetto di gola (throat defect), in every other regard Mayr was reporting that Gaetano "surpasses all the others in musical progress". Mayr was able to persuade the authorities that the young boy's talents were worthy of keeping him in the school, and he remained there for nine years until 1815.
However, as William Ashbrook notes, in 1809 he was threatened with having to leave because his voice was changing. In 1810 he applied for and was accepted by the local art school, the Academia Carrara, but it is unknown whether he attended classes. Then, in 1811, Mayr once again intervened. Having written both libretto and music for a "pasticcio-farsa", Il piccolo compositore di musica, as the final concert of the academic year, he cast five your students amongst them Donizetti, his young pupil, as "the little composer". As Ashbrook notes this "was nothing less than Mayr's argument that Donizetti be allowed to continue his musical studies".
In Bologna, he justified the faith which Mayr had placed in him and in 1816 he wrote what Allitt describes as "his initial exercises in operatic style", the opera Il pigmalione, as well as composing portions of Olympiade and L'ira d'Achille in 1817, these two being no more than "suggest[ing] the work of a student". Encouraged by Mayr to return to Bergamo in 1817, he began his "quartet years" as well as composing piano pieces and most likely being part of quartets where he would have played and heard music of other composers. In addition, he began seeking employment.
After some minor compositions under the commission of Paolo Zancla, Donizetti wrote his ninth opera, Zoraida di Granata. This work impressed Domenico Barbaia, a prominent theatre manager, and Donizetti was offered a contract to compose in Naples. Writing in Rome and Milan in addition to Naples, Donizetti achieved some popular success in the 1820s (although critics were often unimpressed). It was not until 1830 that he became well known internationally, when his Anna Bolena was premiered in Milan, and this brought him instant fame throughout Europe.
L'elisir d'amore, a comedy produced in 1832, came soon after, and is deemed to be one of the masterpieces of 19th-century opera buffa (as is his Don Pasquale, written for Paris in 1843). Shortly after L'elisir d'amore, Donizetti composed Lucia di Lammermoor, based on The Bride of Lammermoor, the novel by Sir Walter Scott. This became his most famous opera, and one of the high points of the bel canto tradition, reaching a stature similar to that of Bellini's Norma.
Donizetti's wife, Virginia Vasselli, gave birth to three children, none of whom survived. Within a year of his parents' deaths, on 30 July 1837 his wife died from cholera. By 1843, Donizetti was exhibiting symptoms of syphilis and probable bipolar disorder. After being institutionalized in 1845, he was sent to Paris, where he could be cared for. After visits from friends, including Giuseppe Verdi, Donizetti was taken back to Bergamo, his hometown. After several years in the grip of insanity, he died in 1848 in the house of a noble family, the Scotti. Donizetti was buried in the cemetery of Valtesse but in the late 19th century his body was transferred to Bergamo's Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore near the grave of his teacher Simon Mayr.
Donizetti, a prolific composer, is best known for his operatic works, but he also wrote music in a number of other forms, including some church music, a number of string quartets, and some orchestral pieces. Altogether, he composed about 75 operas, 16 symphonies, 19 string quartets, 193 songs, 45 duets, 3 oratorios, 28 cantatas, instrumental concertos, sonatas, and other chamber pieces.
--en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ (excerpts)
Gaetano Donizetti
