Introduction

Biography

Stubbs was the son of Emil­ia Hough­ton and Al­fred E. Stubbs, rec­tor of Christ Church, New Bruns­wick.

He be­gan his stu­dies in 1867 with Hen­ry Cut­ler, or­gan­ist of Tri­ni­ty Par­ish, New York Ci­ty. He lat­er stu­died with George Le Jeune, choir­mas­ter of old St. John’s Cha­pel, Tri­ni­ty Par­ish, for 29 years. He later married Le Jeune’s sister Maude.

Stubbs gra­du­at­ed from Rut­gers Uni­ver­si­ty, New Jer­sey, in 1878, then lived se­ver­al years in Con­nec­ti­cut, where he was said to have or­gan­ized the first boy’s choir in that state.

He was serving as or­gan­ist at Mount Cal­va­ry Church, Bal­ti­more, Ma­ry­land, around 1881. About 1886, he be­came choir mas­ter at St. James Pro­test­ant Epis­co­pal Church, New York Ci­ty.

In 1892 he be­came or­gan­ist and choir mas­ter at St. Ag­nes’ Cha­pel, Tri­ni­ty Par­ish, New York, where he served 45 years (121–147 West 91st Street; church was de­mol­ished in 1940s).

He also ad­vised Ca­non Wal­ter Stowe dur­ing the search pro­cess for a new mu­si­cian for Christ Church in 1930.

He later taught mu­sic at the Ge­ne­ral Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry in New York Ci­ty for 13 years.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of the South, Se­wan­ee, Ten­nes­see, con­ferred a Doc­tor of Mus­ic de­gree on Stubbs in 1906.

Works

• Practical Hints on Boy Choir Train­ing (New York: E. & J. B. Young, 1888); re-issued as Prac­ti­cal Hints on the Train­ing of Choir Boys (Lon­don: No­vel­lo, Ew­er, 1897)
• A Ma­nu­al of In­ton­ing for Cler­gy­men
• Current Me­thods of Train­ing Boys’ Voic­es. A Pa­per Writ­ten for the Mas­sa­chu­setts Choir Guild, se­cond edi­tion, 1898
• How to Sing the Cho­ral Ser­vice: A Ma­nu­al of In­ton­ing for Cler­gy­men, 1899
• Congregational Sing­ing, 1906
• The Adult Male Al­to or Coun­ter-Te­nor Voice, 1908