Arthur Henry Mann

Arthur Henry Mann was an English organist, choirmaster, editor, and composer born in Norwich on May 16, 1850. He was a chorister and later assistant organist at Norwich Cathedral under Zechariah Buck, then held organist posts at St. Peter’s, Wolverhampton, Tettenhall Parish Church, and Beverley Minster. In 1876 he was appointed organist of King’s College, Cambridge, after an open competition and remained there until his death in 1929. King’s College credits his long tenure with important reforms to the choir, including the gradual replacement of lay clerks by undergraduate choral scholars.

Mann also served as Cambridge University organist from 1897 and worked at The Leys School. He earned Oxford music degrees and edited church music, including “The Church of England Hymnal” in 1894. In 1918 he directed the King’s College Choir at the first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, the service devised by Dean Eric Milner-White that became a major Christmas tradition.

Mann composed ANGEL’S STORY in 1881, originally for Emily Huntington Miller’s children’s hymn “I Love to Hear the Story.” The tune was later paired with John Ernest Bode’s “O Jesus, I Have Promised,” becoming especially familiar in North American hymnals.