Frances Ridley Havergal
Frances Ridley Havergal ( born December 14, 1836 in Astley, Worcestershire, England; † June 3, 1879 in Caswell Bay, Wales ) was an English religious poet and composer.
Life
Frances Ridley Havergal ( her second first name is a tribute to the martyrs Nicholas Ridley ) was the sixth and youngest child of the Anglican clergyman William Henry Havergal, who was also active as a poet and composer ( he wrote approximately 100 hymns ). In 1842 he was transferred from Astley to Worcester, where his wife Jane died in July 1848.
Frances Havergal proved early as gifted. With three years she could read, with four, she read in the Bible, with seven she began to write my own poems. Until her admission to a public school in 1850, she had already learned six languages. In February, 1851, it experienced under the influence of their teacher Caroline Ann Cooke - five months later Frances ' father married - a conversion.
From 1852 to December 1853, the family held on Havergal in Dusseldorf, where for years the visually impaired father consulted a specialist for eye diseases. Frances visited during this time, the Düsseldorf Luis school and took private lessons with a pastor in Upper Kassel. 1860 the family moved to Hill Share at Wolverhampton in 1867 to Leamington Spa.
After completing her education was devoted to Frances Havergal private theological, linguistic and musical studies and for a time worked as a governess; but above all she wrote and composed. 1860 verses were printed by her in a magazine for the first time. During a second stay in Germany in 1865/66 they put Ferdinand Hiller in Cologne a few songs for review before. Hiller was very appreciative words about them, especially about their harmonies, but advised further studies, eg with George Alexander Macfarren. As Frances Havergal held this composer for second-rate, it did not come Hiller Council after, but got hold of him a Suggested harmonious textbook and studied it intensively. In 1869 she published her first book of poems, The Ministry of Song. Because of her beautiful singing voice, she was also a soloist of the Philharmonic Society Kidderminster in the 1860s.
In the 1870s, Frances Havergal experienced several personal crises that inspired some of their most famous songs. In April 1870 her father died; Beginning in 1874 went to her American publisher in bankruptcy; in the autumn of the same year she became ill with typhoid fever itself difficult; In 1876 the manuscript of a song anthology, where she had worked for months, destroyed, along with the stereotype plates in a fire. When in May 1878 also died her stepmother, Frances Havergal moved with her ( also unmarried ) sister Mary to Wales. Here she died in 1879 at the age of 42 years of peritonitis. On her grave stone her favorite verse 1 John 1.7 was engraved ( " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin ").
Works
From Frances Havergal published six books of poetry:
- The Ministry of Song, 1869
- Under the Surface, 1874
- Loyal Responses, 1879
- Life Mosaics, 1879
- Life Chords, 1880
- Life Echoes, 1883
From their songs are also known in German-speaking countries:
- Take my life and let it be, 1874 (Eng. Take my life, Jesus, you Übs Dora Rappard )
- I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus, 1874 (Eng. I trust you, Lord Jesus, Übs Dora Rappard )
- Like a river glorious, 1876 (Eng. As a power from above, Übs Anni of Viehbahn )
- Light after darkness, 1879 (Eng. light after dark, Übs Johanna Meyer)