Alfred James Caldicott

Alfred James Caldicott was an English composer, organist, conductor, and teacher born in Worcester in 1842. He began as a chorister at Worcester Cathedral and later studied with the cathedral organist William Done. In 1863 he entered the Leipzig Conservatory, where his teachers included Ignaz Moscheles, Carl Reinecke, Moritz Hauptmann, and Ernst Friedrich Richter. Returning to Worcester, he became organist of St Stephen’s Church and was active as a conductor and teacher.

Caldicott later settled in London and taught at the Royal College of Music. He wrote cantatas, glees, children’s songs, stage works, and church music, and he became especially known in Victorian musical life for polished part-songs and humorous glees. He died in 1897.

His tune PASTOR BONUS was already in circulation before Oscar Clute’s hymn was published and was paired with O Love of God Most Full in The Pilgrim Hymnal of 1904, the earliest located printing of Clute’s text. The tune is public domain and is usually treated as a short-meter-double melody. Later hymnals also paired Clute’s words with other tunes, especially TRENTHAM by Robert Jackson, so Caldicott should not be described as having composed music specifically for Clute’s text.