Introduction

Biography

Almost com­plete­ly self taught, Brown be­gan play­ing the or­gan at age 10.

He was or­gan­ist of Brent­wood Par­ish Church, Es­sex (1842–53); St. Ed­ward’s, Rom­ford (1853–58); Brent­wood Par­ish Church (1858–88); St. Pe­ter’s Church, South Weald (from 1889); and Sir An­tho­ny Browne’s School (to 1926).

He was a mem­ber of the Lon­don Gre­go­ri­an As­so­cia­tion, sup­port­ed the Ox­ford Move­ment, and pio­neered the res­to­ra­tion of plain­chant and Gre­go­ri­an mu­sic in Ang­li­can wor­ship.

Works

Brown’s com­po­si­tions in­clude set­tings of the Can­ti­cles and the Ho­ly Com­mun­ion Serv­ice, a Child­ren’s Fes­tiv­al Serv­ice, an­thems, songs, part songs, and ov­er 800 hymn tunes and car­ols.

Brown ed­it­ed va­ri­ous pub­li­ca­tions, and helped com­pile the Al­tar Hym­nal, and the Serv­ice Book for the an­nu­al fes­tiv­al in St. Paul’s Ca­thed­ral. His oth­er works in­clude:

• In Ex­cel­sis Glor­ia: Car­ols for Christ­mas­tide (Lon­don: Tho­mas Bos­worth, 1885)