Frederick Charles Maker
1844 - 1927
Biography
Frederick Charles Maker (1844–1927) was an English organist, choirmaster, teacher, and composer whose hymn tunes became widely used in Victorian and later Protestant worship. Born in Bristol on August 6, 1844, he received early musical training as a chorister at Bristol Cathedral. His professional life remained closely connected with the musical culture of Bristol, where he served a succession of Methodist and Congregational congregations as organist and choir leader.
Maker held appointments at Milk Street Methodist Free Church, Clifton Down Congregational Church, and Redland Park Congregational Church. His longest tenure was at Redland Park, where he served from 1882 to 1910. He also conducted the Bristol Free Church Choir Association and taught music for many years at Clifton College. At the invitation of editor Alfred Stone, he contributed tunes to later editions and supplements of The Bristol Tune Book, one of the important regional collections of nineteenth-century English congregational music.
His best-known tune is ST. CHRISTOPHER, written specifically for Elizabeth Clephane’s “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” and published in the 1881 supplement to The Bristol Tune Book. Maker also composed other hymn tunes, anthems, piano music, and the cantata Moses in the Bulrushes. He died in Bristol on January 1, 1927. His enduring reputation rests chiefly on music shaped for congregational use and on his long service to the Free Church musical life of his native city.
Maker held appointments at Milk Street Methodist Free Church, Clifton Down Congregational Church, and Redland Park Congregational Church. His longest tenure was at Redland Park, where he served from 1882 to 1910. He also conducted the Bristol Free Church Choir Association and taught music for many years at Clifton College. At the invitation of editor Alfred Stone, he contributed tunes to later editions and supplements of The Bristol Tune Book, one of the important regional collections of nineteenth-century English congregational music.
His best-known tune is ST. CHRISTOPHER, written specifically for Elizabeth Clephane’s “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” and published in the 1881 supplement to The Bristol Tune Book. Maker also composed other hymn tunes, anthems, piano music, and the cantata Moses in the Bulrushes. He died in Bristol on January 1, 1927. His enduring reputation rests chiefly on music shaped for congregational use and on his long service to the Free Church musical life of his native city.
Hymns by Frederick Charles Maker
Beneath the Cross of Jesus
Role: Composer
My God, I Thank Thee
Role: Composer