Austin Cole Lovelace

Austin Cole Lovelace was an American church musician, organist, composer, hymnologist, teacher, and consultant whose career crossed several Protestant traditions. Born in Rutherford County, North Carolina, in 1919, he earned an A.B. from High Point College in 1939 and the M.S.M. in 1941 and D.S.M. in 1950 from the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in New York. His own account of his early career describes work in Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches before and during his professional training.

Lovelace held major church-music posts in North Carolina, Illinois, New York, Texas, Colorado, and Nebraska, and also taught at Garrett Theological Seminary. He served as organist for the second Assembly of the World Council of Churches in 1954 and became widely known as a lecturer, clinician, festival leader, and consultant on congregational song and worship.

Hymnal work formed a substantial part of his career. In an interview published by Selah, Lovelace recalled serving on the committee for The Methodist Hymnal and chairing its tunes committee, an assignment that immersed him in English and American hymnals. He later contributed to other denominational projects and was a Fellow and past president of the Hymn Society. Selah credits him with more than 700 published church compositions, while Hymnary’s biographical note lists more than 800 compositions and five books.

In 1962 Lovelace versified Biodun Adebesin’s prose translation of a Yoruba hymn text associated with A. T. Olajide Olude. That work is one small part of a much larger legacy devoted to practical church music, hymnody, teaching, composition, and the improvement of congregational singing.