Introduction

Biography

Hodges’ mu­sic­al gift showed it­self at an ear­ly age. By 1819, he was play­ing the or­gan at St. James’ Church in Bris­tol, and at St. Ni­cho­las’ (1821–38).

He al­so had a me­cha­ni­cal ap­ti­tude, and spurred sev­er­al tech­ni­cal im­prove­ments in or­gan de­sign.

He com­posed a numb­er of ser­vic­es and an­them piec­es, and Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty aw­ard­ed him a doc­tor­ate in mu­sic in 1825. Hodg­es ev­en­tu­al­ly emi­grat­ed, ac­cept­ing a post at the ca­thed­ral in To­ron­to, Ca­na­da, in 1838.

The next year, he be­came mu­sic di­rect­or at Tri­ni­ty Par­ish in New York Ci­ty. He be­came the or­ganist at Tri­ni­ty Church when it op­ened in 1846 (the church had its or­gan built to his spe­ci­fi­ca­tions).

He re­tired for health rea­sons in 1859, and re­turned to his na­tive Eng­land in 1863.

Works

• An Apo­lo­gy for Church Mu­sic and Mu­sic­al Fes­ti­vals, in An­swer…to the Stan­dard and the Re­cord (Lon­don: 1834)
• Essays on the Ob­jects of Mu­sic­al Stu­dy (Bri­stol, Eng­land: 1838)
• An Es­say on the Cul­ti­va­tion of Church Mu­sic (New York: 1841)
• Contributions to the Quar­ter­ly Mu­sic­al Ma­ga­zine & Mu­sic­al World
• Trinity Col­lect­ion of Church Mu­sic (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: 1864) (ed­it­or)