John Barnard (musician)

John Barnard (born 1948) is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) and an active developer of church music as a composer, arranger, choir director and organist in North West London, England. He is on the Council of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland and has been active in helping to assemble such publications as "Hymns for Today's Church", "Carols for Today" and "Psalms for Today". He has been Director of Music at a series of high profile churches and has lately held that post for John Keble Church in Mill Hill.

Barnard was educated at the John Lyon School, Harrow between 1959 and 1966 where he excelled as a pupil and later went on to study Modern Languages at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

He was and remains very fond of the John Lyon School and was offered a teaching job there shortly after leaving Cambridge. He remained as a dedicated and loyal German teacher and spent the latter 15 of his 28 years tenure as Second Master. Indeed Barnard's own father was previously Head Boy at John Lyon. Since 2002 he has taught part-time at Aldenham School, Elstree and The Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith. His affiliation to the John Lyon School remains as strong as ever through the Old Lyonian Association, acting as the primary port of call between the Association and recent leavers.

His musical activities are his hobby. He has written music and arrangements for hymns and a number of arrangements for "spirituals". Arguably his most famous work is his hymn tune, "Guiting Power", which is gaining popularity in services and usually provides the music for Michael Saward's hymn "Christ triumphant, ever reigning" as Hymn No. 336 in Hope's new "Worship and Rejoice" hymnal (2001) and Hymn No. 173 in "Hymns for Today's Church Second Edition" (1987).

Barnard has been involved in directing the music for BBC Radio 2's Sunday Half Hour. In (2006) he was a judge for a BBC hymn writing competition, where he composed the tunes ("Kirknewton" and [http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/realmedia/religions/christianity/hymn/god_with_us.ram "Gowanbank"] ) for two of the winning entries.

The vast majority of John Barnard's hymn tunes are named after villages/towns in the United Kingdom, for example "Guiting Power" is a village in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire.

His compositions are represented in the USA and Canada by the Hope Publishing Company and in the United Kingdom by Jubilate Hymns and Oxford University Press.

External links

* [http://www.jubilate.co.uk/people/john_barnard John Barnard biography] (Jubilate Group database entry)
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/music/hymnwriting_5.shtml bbc.co.uk: hymnwriters] (John Barnard - "Kirknewton" & "Gowanbank")
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/realmedia/religions/christianity/hymn/god_with_us.ram Hymn Tune: Gowanbank]
* [http://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/college/chapel/sermons/TrinitySunday.pdf John Barnard Sermon] (Understanding Hymns)