Edward Shippen Barnes

Edward Shippen Barnes was an American organist, composer, editor, author, and church musician active across several major Protestant congregations in the first half of the twentieth century. Born at Sea Bright, New Jersey, in 1887, he attended Lawrenceville Academy and graduated from Yale University in 1910. At Yale he studied theory and composition with Horatio Parker and organ with Harry B. Jepson. He then pursued advanced study in Europe, including work at the Schola Cantorum in Paris with Abel Decaux, Vincent d’Indy, and Louis Vierne, and additional organ study with T. Tertius Noble in York.

Barnes served as organist at the Church of the Incarnation in New York, Rutgers Presbyterian Church in New York, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, and First Presbyterian Church in Santa Monica, California. He also undertook editorial work in music publishing and was active in professional organ circles.

His output included two organ symphonies, suites, shorter organ works, church music, hymn tunes, arrangements, and instructional books such as School of Organ Playing and Modulation in Theory and Practice. His career joined practical parish musicianship with composition, teaching, editing, and a sustained interest in raising standards of American organ and church music.