Introduction

Biography

Hal was the son of Ru­ben Sed­wick Hop­son and Et­ta Pearl Whit­ton.

He stu­died at Bay­lor Uni­vers­ity (BA 1954); the South­ern Bap­tist Se­mi­na­ry, Lou­is­ville, Ken­tuc­ky (MSM 1956); and taught church mu­sic at West­min­ster Choir Col­lege (1983–84) and Scar­ritt Gra­du­ate School (1984–88).

He has ov­er 1,200 pub­lished works to his cre­dit. With a spe­cial in­ter­est in con­gre­ga­tion­al song, he made a sig­ni­fi­cant con­tri­bu­tion to the re­per­toire of hymn tunes and re­spons­or­ial psalm set­tings in new­ly pub­lished hym­nals and psalm col­lect­ions.

His can­ta­ta, God with Us, was one of the few com­po­si­tions chos­en by a pa­nel at the Ken­ne­dy Cen­ter, Wash­ing­ton, DC, to be placed in a cap­sule dur­ing the Am­eri­can Bi­cen­ten­ni­al in 1976; the cap­sule is to be op­ened in 2076.

Active as a con­duct­or and cli­ni­cian, he was in The In­ter­na­tion­al Who’s Who in Mu­sic, Cam­bridge, Eng­land, and was award­ed the ti­tle of Na­tion­al Pa­tron by Del­ta Omi­cron, a pro­fes­sion­al fra­ter­ni­ty of mu­si­cians.