music.wikisort.org - Composer

Sir Sydney Hugo Nicholson MVO (9 February 1875 – 30 May 1947) was an English choir director, organist and composer, now chiefly remembered as the founder of the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) and the compiler of The Parish Psalter.

Life

Nicholson was born in London to Sir Charles Nicholson, 1st Baronet, and his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Nicholson née Keightley. His elder brother was the English architect Sir Charles Nicholson; his younger brother was the stained-glass artist Archibald Keightley Nicholson.[1]

He was educated at New College, Oxford and the Royal College of Music.[2] At this last-named institution, he studied the organ. He then served as organist at Barnet Parish Church (1897–1903),[3] Carlisle Cathedral (1904), Lower Chapel, Eton College (1904–1908), Manchester Cathedral (1908–1919), and Westminster Abbey (1919–1928).[4] Along with maintaining his organist posts, he edited the Hymns Ancient and Modern supplement that was published in 1916; he did not live to see the 1950 revised edition.

Something momentous would have to occur to persuade most away from playing the organ at the prestigious Westminster Abbey, but such was the case with Nicholson who was so concerned at the sad state of choral music in the parish churches throughout the country that in 1927 he founded the School of English Church Music (now the RSCM), in the hope of rectifying the problem. The School's members initially met at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate.

One of Nicholson's most successful compositions for parish choirs was his Communion Service in G, which was widely sung, especially in Anglo-Catholic churches, until recent times. He was warden of St Nicholas College, Chislehurst (1928–1939).[5]

In addition to having edited Hymns Ancient and Modern, still the standard hymn book in many Anglican churches today, Nicholson wrote several hymn tunes. Of these, the most famous are Crucifer for the popular processional hymn Lift High the Cross and Totteridge. In 1928 he received the Lambeth DMus, and a decade later he was knighted for his services to Church music. He died at Ashford, Kent at the age of 72, and was buried at Westminster Abbey.

Works

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (February 2022)

Books on Church Music

• Church Music (1920) London: Faith Press
• Boy's Choirs (1922) Glasgow
• Church Music A Practical Handbook (1927) London: Faith Press
• In Quires and Places where they sing (1932) London: Bell
• Peter: Adventures of a chorister 1137-1937 (1944) London: SPCK (fiction)
• Practical Methods of Choir Training (1947) London: SPCK (now RSCM)
• The Elements of Extemporisation (n.d.) Croydon: RSCM

Anthems

• An Ode on the Birth of our Saviour
• Cleanse us, O Lord
• God be in my head
• Let us with a gladsome mind
• Love divine, all loves excelling
• My song is love unknown
• Teach us, good Lord, to serve Thee (boys' voices)

Cantata

• The Saviour of the World

Canticles

• Evening Service in D-flat major
• Evening Service on Parisian Tones
• Communion Service in G major
• Jubilate in F major (boys' voices)

Hymn tunes

• AIRLIE
• BOW BRICKHILL
• CHISLEHURST
• CRUCIFER
• FENITON
• HOSANNA IN EXCELSIS
• LYTLINGTON
• TOTTERIDGE
• TRAFALGAR[6]

Opera

• The Boy Bishop: an Opera for Boys (1926)

External links

• Free scores by Sydney Hugo Nicholson at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)

References

Cultural offices
Preceded by E. G. Mercer	Organist of Carlisle Cathedral 1904-1910	Succeeded by Frederick William Wadely
Preceded by James Kendrick Pyne	Organist and Master of the Choristers of Manchester Cathedral 1908–1919	Succeeded by Archibald Wilson
Preceded by Frederick Bridge	Organist and Master of the Choristers of Westminster Abbey 1919–1928	Succeeded by Ernest Bullock

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