Jonathan Robert Ogden (13 June 1806 – 26 March 1882) was an English composer, known for ''Holy Songs and Musical Prayers'', published in 1842.

Life

Ogden was born in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

; his father, Robert Ogden (died 1816), was in partnership there with Thomas Bolton, a Liverpool merchant. Ogden was educated in Leeds, partly under Joseph Hutton, minister of

Mill Hill Unitarian Chapel Mill Hill Chapel is a Unitarian church in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is a member of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella organisation for British Unitarians. The building, which stands in the centre ...

; he became a unitarian, though his parents were members of the Church of England. For a short time he was placed in the office of Thomas Bolton in Liverpool, but had no taste for mercantile life, and showed an early bent for music. To forward his musical education, his mother (whose maiden name was Glover) moved to London. Here Ogden became a pupil of

Ignaz Moscheles Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 179410 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later at Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano in the Co ...

, and later of August Kollman. He studied for a year in Paris under Johann Peter Pixis, and for three years in Munich under ; in 1827 he visited Vienna. He married in 1834 Frances, daughter of Thomas Bolton. Afterwards he settled in the Lake District, at Lakefield,

Sawrey Near Sawrey and Far Sawrey are two neighbouring villages in the Furness area of Cumbria, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, both are located in the Lake District between the village of Hawkshead and the lake ...

, Lancashire, where he lived the life of a country gentleman. The religious philosopher

James Martineau James Martineau (; 21 April 1805 – 11 January 1900) was a British Christian philosophy, religious philosopher influential in the history of Unitarianism. He was the brother of the atheist social theory, social theorist, abolitionist Harriet M ...

, when compiling ''Hymns for the Christian Church and Home'' (1840), invited Ogden to supply tunes of unusual metre. Ogden, after much persuasion, assented. The result was ''Holy Songs and Musical Prayers'', published by Novello in 1842. A feature of the volume which evoked criticism was the adaptation as hymn tunes of pieces by Beethoven and others. From the seventh and much enlarged edition (1872) the adaptations were omitted. Alexander Gordon later wrote: "The style of Ogden's original music is not ecclesiastical, nor are his compositions well adapted for ordinary congregational use; but they possess great beauty, and their spirit is rightly indicated in the title of the volume." Ogden was a J.P. for Lancashire. He died at Lakefield on 26 March 1882, and was buried on 31 March in

Hawkshead Hawkshead is a village and civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. It lies within the Lake District National Park and was historically part of Lancashire. The parish includes the hamlets of Hawkshead Hill, to the north west, ...

churchyard.

References

Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ogden, Jonathan Robert 1806 births 1882 deaths Musicians from Leeds English classical composers of church music 19th-century British composers