Daily Archives: April 7, 2016

The Life and Hymns of Charles Wesley

Posted by MaryO on

charles-wesley

Charles Wesley lived from December 18, 1707 until March 29, 1788.  He was an English leader of the Methodist movement, son of Anglican clergyman and poet Samuel Wesley, the younger brother of Methodist founder John Wesley and Anglican clergyman Samuel Wesley the Younger. Charles Wesley is mostly remembered for the over 6,000 hymns he wrote.

In the course of his career, Charles Wesley published the words of over six thousand hymns, many of which are still popular. These include:

  • “Arise my soul arise”
  • “And Can It Be That I Should Gain?”
  • “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today”
  • “Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies”
  • “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown”
  • “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”
  • “Depth of Mercy, Can it Be”
  • “Father, I Stretch My Hands to Thee”
  • “Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise”
  • “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”
  • “Jesus, Lover of My Soul”
  • “Jesus, The Name High Over All”
  • “Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending”
  • “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”
  • “O for a Heart to Praise My God”
  • “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”
  • “Rejoice, the Lord is King”
  • “Soldiers of Christ, Arise”
  • “Thou Hidden Source of Calm Repose”
  • “Ye Servants of God”

April 7 in Music History

Posted by MaryO on

today

. 1899 ~ Robert Casadesus, French pianist and composer

. 1908 ~ Percy Faith, Grammy Award-winning orchestra leader, composer

. 1915 ~ Billie Holiday, American jazz singer, born as Eleanora Fagan. She sang with all the American big band leaders of her day while developing her own intimate style.

. 1919 ~ Ralph Flanagan, Bandleader

. 1920 ~ Ravi Shankar, Indian sitarist and composer

. 1925 ~ David Carr Glover, Piano Educator

. 1949 ~ Opening day of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “South Pacific”. It was a musical classic of love and war, and it unfolded on a lush tropical island swarming with Seabees, nurses, natives and coconut trees on this night in 1949. Actually, it was not a tropical island, but the stage of the Majestic Theatre in New York City. Ezio Pinza starred as the suave French plantation owner with a shady past and Mary Martin portrayed the bubbly, pretty, but naive Navy nurse. Mary Martin washed her hair a zillion times as she sang, I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair in 1,925 performances.

. 1950 Tony Awards went to the show and its producers, performers, director (Joshua Logan) and composers nine statuettes. It also earned a Pulitzer Prize in the same year and in 1958 was made into a movie.
More about Mary Martin

. 1951 ~ Janis Ian, Singer-songwriter

. 1954 ~ Gee, by The Crows, became the first rhythm and blues single to gain attention on pop music charts.

. 1973 ~ Vicki Lawrence got her number one single as The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia made it to the top of the pop charts on this day.

. 1987 ~ Maxine Sullivan (Marietta Williams) passed away