1805–1876 · United Kingdom · Romantic
Henry Gauntlett was born in Wellington in 1805 and died in London in 1876. An English organist and composer, he wrote over a thousand hymn tunes as well as much other music. Irby, his most famous tune, normally accompanies the Christmas carol Once in Royal David's City.
Henry John Gauntlett was born on 9 July 1805 in Wellington, in the English county of Shropshire. At the age of nine he took the post of organist at the church in Olney, Buckinghamshire. His father, also named Henry Gauntlett, served there, first as curate and later as vicar.
A career in law was intended for him, and he stayed a lawyer almost until forty. Then he left that profession and gave himself wholly to music.
Gauntlett played the organ in several well-known London churches. They included All Saints in Notting Hill and St Olave's in Tooley Street, Southwark. For St Olave's he drew up the design for a new large organ himself; between 1844 and March 1846 it was built, installed and finished to his satisfaction.
From 1852 to 1861 he was organist at Union Chapel in Islington.
Gauntlett was a close friend of Felix Mendelssohn. It was Gauntlett whom Mendelssohn picked as organist for the first performance of his oratorio Elijah, held on 26 August 1846 at Birmingham Town Hall.
The Archbishop of Canterbury later awarded Gauntlett a doctorate in music. He was the first in over two hundred years to receive such a degree from the archbishop. He worked a lot to improve church music, in its technical and its musical aspects alike.
He took out a patent in 1852 for an electrical-action apparatus for organs. He also composed much music, including more than a thousand hymn tunes, and edited numerous hymn books.
Henry Gauntlett died on 21 February 1876 in London. He was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery.
Gauntlett wrote more than a thousand hymn tunes. He wrote other music as well, including music for the organ. Many hymns and organ pieces made him known in British musical circles.
His best-known tune is called Irby. The Christmas carol Once in Royal David's City is normally sung to it. Among Gauntlett's other tunes the source names St Alphege, University College, Hawkhurst and St Albinus.
The site has a sheet music edition, Irby (hymntune), for SATB mixed choir at the Intermediate level. It is the place to start with Gauntlett's music.