part of their family and he recovered his sanity. He died quietly on the evening of Monday 13 December 1784.
Bernard Rose (1916-1996) wrote the anthem, Almighty God who art the author and giver of all wisdom (1982) as an unaccompanied setting for SATB.
This is one of three prayers by Samuel Johnson set to music for Lichfield Cathedral. The others are: Almighty and most merciful father, written by Ambrose P Potter, for use at the annual Johnson Commemoration; and O Lord, make us this day a setting by Richard Lloyd of a prayer by Dr Johnson, written for the 300th anniversary of his birth (18 September 2009) and first performed at the Eucharist in Lichfield Cathedral on Sunday 19 September 2010.
Although Rose’s anthem is dated Appleton, 26 March 1984, it seems he wrote it in 1982, and he dedicated it to the organist and “the choir of Lichfield Cathedral.”
Rose attended the first performance of the anthem, and it was later broadcast as part of Choral Evensong recorded in Lichfield Cathedral on Friday, 5 October 1984 for Radio 3.
It was later included in 1998 in the album, This Worldes Joie, a collection of choral works by Sir Arnold Bax, Benjamin Britten and Herbert Howells by the Schola Cantorum of Oxford, with Mark Shepherd as conductor and David Goode as organist (Guild, GMCD 7139).
The composer and organist Bernard William George Rose (1916-1996) was a chorister assistant organist at Salisbury Cathedral before studying at the Royal College of Music and Saint Catharine’s College, Cambridge. Indeed, he won the organ scholarship to Saint Catharine’s College over the later Prime Minister Edward Heath.
He began his academic career as a tutor and organist at Queen’s College, Oxford, and later became Informator Choristarum (organist and master of the choristers) at Magdalen College, Oxford (1957–1981), and Vice President (1973–1975). His pupils included Kenneth Leighton, Dudley Moore, Harry Christophers and his son, Gregory Rose.
Almighty God who art the giver by Samuel Johnson and Bernard Rose:
Almighty God, who art the Giver of all Wisdom,
enlighten my understanding
with (good) knowledge of right,
and govern my will by thy laws,
that no deceit may mislead me,
nor temptation corrupt me,
that I may always endeavour to do good,
and to hinder evil.
Amidst all hopes and fears of this world,
take not the Holy Spirit from me,
but grant that my thoughts may be fixed on thee,
and that I may finally attain everlasting happiness,
for Jesus Christ’s sake, Amen.
Tomorrow: ‘Gaudete’ by Steeleye Span (1972/1973)