Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hodges, Edward (1796-1867)

1391999Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 27 — Hodges, Edward (1796-1867)1891Louisa M. Middleton

HODGES, EDWARD (1796–1867), organist and composer, born at Bristol in 1796, was organist at Clifton Church, and subsequently of the two churches, St. James and St. Nicholas, both at Bristol. In 1825 he proceeded to the degree of doctor of music from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and in 1838 he went with his family to America. At New York Hodges was appointed organist to St. John's episcopal chapel, and in 1846 to Trinity Church, opened on 21 May with an organ built from his specifications (Grove). Prostrated by illness he resigned his appointments and returned in 1863 to England. He died at Clifton 1 Sept. 1867.

Hodges composed a morning and evening service and two anthems for the reopening of St. James's organ, Bristol, 2 May 1824, and published them in the following year. A second edition of the evening service, in C, was published at New York in 1863. Hodges also published: 1. ‘An Apology for Church Music and Musical Festivals, in answer to the animadversions of the “Standard” and the “Record,”’ pp. 71, Bristol, 1834. 2. ‘Canticles of the Church,’ compiled New York, 1864. 3. ‘The Te Deum, with Kyrie Chant and Ter Sanctus, in D,’ published after the composer's death by his daughter, London, 1885. 4. According to Grove's ‘Dictionary,’ i. 741, Hodges's ‘Essay on the Cultivation of Church Music,’ was published at New York, 1841. The ‘Trinity Collection of Church Music,’ edited by Tucker, Boston, 1864, contains some psalm and hymn tunes and arrangements by Hodges.

[Romilly's Grad. Cant. p. 192; Clifton Chronicle for 4 Sept. 1867.]