Winfred Douglas, the son of Virgil Chittenden Douglass
(1820 - 1883) and Caroline Amanda Church Douglass (1834 - 1873), and a
descendant of Thomas Douglas (1679-1724) of New London and Hannah
Sperry, of New Haven.
Canon Charles Winfred Douglas was largely
responsible for bringing plainsong, the ancient music of liturgical
worship, into general use, and with it the full choral service.
In the
annals of church music in the 20th century, the name of Charles Winfred
Douglas still shines brightly. Musician, linguist, priest and poet, his
translations and arrangements of medieval and reformation hymnody have
greatly enriched the Episcopal Church. He moreover was largely
responsible for bringing plainsong, the ancient music of liturgical
worship, into general use, and with it the full choral service.
Winfred Douglas, born at Oswego, N.Y., in 1867, received the Mus.B. at
Syracuse University, and after local study at St. Andrew's Divinity
School, was ordained deacon. Shortly thereafter, in 1894, he went west
for his health to Denver, as minor canon at St. John's Cathedral,
settling nearby at Evergreen, where he was priested in 1899. It was
here, years later, that he founded the Evergreen Conference and its
famed School of Church Music, still in continuance today, where each
summer participants had the benefit of his scholarly teaching, gentle
humour and deep spirituality. He studied extensively in England, Germany
and France, especially with the Benedictine monks of Solesmes.
From 1906 he was music director of the Community of St. Mary at
Peekskill, N.Y. Here he carried on the adaptation of English texts to
the austerely beautiful chant tunes, and the production of countless
music editions, articles, and books. He had become canon in the Diocese
of Fond du Lac in 1907, and later a trustee of Nashotah House, which
gave him an honorary doctorate. An acclaimed musicologist and liturgist,
he lectured widely, and headed numerous learned societies.
Over
the years he edited many definitive works, notably The Choral Service,
American Psalter, Plainsong Psalter, Monastic Diurnal. In 1933 he
published the St. Dunstan Kyrial, his compilation of 12 plainsong masses
and other service music.
As a member of the Joint Commission on
Hymnal Revision his work on The New Hymnal of 1916 led to the transition
from the heavily Victorian content of its predecessor. For The Hymnal
1940, with Canon Douglas as music editor, contained his many
translations or arrangements of German chorales, Latin office hymns, all
the plainsong tunes, and the Missa Marialis, a plainsong setting for the
Eucharist. His hymnody lives on in The Hymnal 1982, which also features
seven plainsong masses and plainsong for other services.
Episcopalians today know and love the Christmas chorale Vom Himmel Hoch,
the great medieval processionals Lauda Sion, Pange Lingua, Vexilla
Regis, and his own familiar He who would valiant be. And whole
congregations now sing the Communion Service to Missa de Angelis.
In 1943 he started work on The 1940 Hymnal Companion, but did not
live to see its completion. A year later he began composing an organ
prelude one day, finished it the next, and died that evening, January
18, at the age of 77.
Of the myriad tributes from around the
world, his colleagues on the hymnal commission said it best: "He was
Catholic in the complete sense of the word, a member of the Universal
Church who was happily at home in all parts of it ... He began his
career dedicated to the Praise of God. He ended his life with the Praise
of God on his mind and pen, and in his heart."
His portrait is the
frontispiece of The Hymnal 1940 Companion, which is dedicated to his
"dear and honored memory," and his library is now at the Washington
National Cathedral for the use of future scholars
He married
twice; Josepha Williams Douglas (1860 - 1938) and Anne Woodward Douglas
(1895 - 1985).
He had a son by Josepha,
Frederic Huntington
Douglas (1897 - 1956)
He was buried in Fairmount Cemetery,
Denver, Colorado. |
