Introduction

Biography

Wild was or­gan­ist and choir­mas­ter at the Church of the Ho­ly Apos­tles at 9th Ave­nue & 28th Street in New York Ci­ty for ov­er a de­cade (rough­ly 1885–1901). While there, he was in­stru­ment­al in build­ing the re­pu­ta­tion of the church’s male choir.

Around 1901–02, he took a post as or­gan­ist and choir mas­ter at Church of the An­nun­ci­ation, West 131st Street, where he served as or­gan­ist and choir­mas­ter un­til his death.

Some sourc­es re­fer to him as Dr. Wild (like­ly a Doc­tor of Mu­sic de­gree, con­ferred from a de­nom­in­ation­al col­lege in re­cog­ni­tion of his con­tri­bu­tions to Am­eri­can li­tur­gic­al mu­sic). He was a long-stand­ing mem­ber of the Am­eri­can Guild of Org­an­ists, join­ing short­ly after its found­ing in 1896.

Works

In ad­di­tion to cre­at­ing hymn tunes, he com­posed sev­er­al set­tings for the Mag­ni­ficat and Nunc Dim­it­tis, though ma­ny remain in manu­script or were pub­lished in small par­ish col­lect­ions.