Arthur Henry Messiter

Arthur Henry Messiter (1834–1916) was an English-born organist, choirmaster, editor, and hymn-tune composer whose American career was closely associated with Trinity Church in New York City. He was born at Frome, Somerset, on April 1, 1834. After musical study in England, he emigrated to the United States in 1863 and worked in Philadelphia, including service as organist at St. James the Less, before moving to New York.

Messiter became organist and choirmaster of Trinity Church in 1866 and remained there until 1897. His long tenure placed him within one of the most prominent Episcopal church-music institutions in the United States, where he cultivated a choral tradition shaped by English cathedral practice. Alongside his performing and directing work, he compiled the Psalter in 1889 and the Choir Office Book in 1891, and edited The Hymnal, Revised and Enlarged with Music as Used in Trinity Church, New York, published in 1893. He later documented the parish’s musical history in A History of the Choir and Music of Trinity Church, New York.

Messiter is remembered especially for the tune MARION, dated 1883 and written for Edward Hayes Plumptre’s processional hymn “Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart.” His setting introduced the recurring “rejoice, give thanks, and sing” refrain that became inseparable from the tune in later hymnals. MARION circulated widely in American hymnody and remains his best-known contribution to congregational song. Messiter died in Manhattan on July 2, 1916.