George Henry Day

George Henry Day (1883–1966) was an American organist, choirmaster, composer, and church musician whose career was centered largely in Episcopal parishes in the northeastern United States. He began his musical life as a choirboy at Trinity Chapel in New York City, where he studied with G. Edward Stubbs. In 1911 he became choirmaster at St. Peter’s in Chelsea Square while still working in business as an assistant auditor for the Gorham Manufacturing Company. He later left commercial work, took courses at Columbia University, and pursued formal study at the New York College of Music.

Day served as organist and choirmaster in Youngstown, Ohio, and in Wilmington, Delaware, where he studied with Edward Shippen Barnes. In 1925 he moved to Christ Church in Rochester, New York, and in 1935 became organist and choirmaster of Trinity Church in Geneva, New York, remaining there until his death in 1966. He received a Doctor of Music degree from Lincoln-Jefferson University in 1923 and was active in professional organist organizations during a period when parish choirs, organ recitals, and hymn-tune composition were closely connected parts of American church music.

Hymnary indexes several of Day’s tunes, including GENEVA, MY MASTER, ROCHESTER, DECISION, EDSALL, and CONSOLATION. His best-known hymn tune is GENEVA, composed in 1940 and named for the New York city in which he served. Later hymnals paired it with many different texts, showing the flexibility of its 8.7.8.7 D structure. Day’s broader output also included anthems and other sacred works, and later hymnal companions credit him with a substantial catalog extending well beyond the tunes that remain in common congregational use.