T Tertius Noble

Thomas Tertius Noble was born in Bath in 1867. He became organist at All Saints, Colchester, in 1881, and then studied at the Royal College of Music with, amongst others, Charles Villiers Stanford. He became Stanford’s assistant at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1890 and moved to Ely Cathedral in 1892 as organist and choirmaster. In 1898 he came to York Minster, where he founded the York Symphony Orchestra, directed the York Musical Society, conducted the York Pageant, and revived the York Musical Festival after a lapse of 75 years. He became an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Organists in 1905.

In 1913, he moved to New York City as organist at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, where he established a boys choir and a choir school to enable music to be performed according to the English tradition.. In addition to composing, he wrote about music education, and helped edit the 1916 Protestant Episcopal hymnal and served on the music committee that prepared its 1940 successor. He wrote a wide range of music, but only his services, anthems and hymn tunes are still performed regularly. He died in 1953 at Rockport, Massachusetts.

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