Henry Wellington Greatorex

Henry Wellington Greatorex (1816-September 1853) was a musician, born in Burton upon Trent, England, and died in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1849, he married the artist Eliza Pratt.

Career

He received a thorough musical education from his father, Thomas Greatorex, who was for many years organist of Westminster Abbey, and conductor of the London "concerts of ancient music." He came to the United States in 1839, settled in New York City as a teacher of music and organist of Calvary Church, and frequently sang in concerts and oratorios. For some years he was organist and conductor of the choir at St. Paul's chapel. Greatorex did much to advance the standard of sacred music in the days when country singing-school teachers imposed their trivial melodies and the convivial measures of foreign composers on the texts of our hymn-books. He published a "Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Chants, Anthems, and Sentences" (Boston, 1851).

One of Greatorex's best-known compositions is a setting of the Gloria Patri, widely used in Protestant denominations for the singing of the doxology in services to this day.

References

*appletons