Gerald Hocken Knight (1908–1979) was a
cathedral organist, who served at
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the ...
.
Background
Gerald Hocken Knight was born on 27 July 1908 in
Par, Cornwall, the only son of Alwyne Knight of Par by his first wife Edith Harvey and descended from yeomen, the Knights of Luxulyan. Gerald was educated at
Truro Cathedral School
Truro Cathedral School was a Church of England school for boys in Truro, Cornwall. An ancient school refounded in 1549 as the Truro Grammar School, after the establishment of Truro Cathedral in the last quarter of the 19th century it was respons ...
and
Peterhouse
Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite o ...
,
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
.
[Clive Staples Lewis, ed. Walter Hooper, ''Collected Letters: Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950-1963'' (2006), p. 1015: "Gerald Hocken Knight (1908-78) was educated at Truro Cathedral School and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he took a BA in 1928."] He was an articled organ pupil of
Hubert Stanley Middleton
Hubert Stanley Middleton (11 May 1890 – 13 August 1959) was a Organist#Classical and church organists, cathedral organist who served at Truro Cathedral and Ely Cathedral before taking up a long-standing organist and teaching appointment at Trini ...
at
Truro Cathedral
The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Truro, Cornwall. It was built between 1880 and 1910 to a Gothic Revival design by John Loughborough Pearson on the site of the parish church of St Mary. It i ...
.
Director of the Royal School of Church Music 1954-1973.
He was appointed a Fellow of the
Royal School of Church Music
The Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) is a Christian music education organisation dedicated to the promotion of music in Christian worship, in particular the repertoire and traditions of Anglican church music, largely through publications, tr ...
in 1964.
Publications
Together with
John Dykes Bower, he co-edited the "revised edition" of
Hymns Ancient and Modern
''Hymns Ancient and Modern'' is a hymnal in common use within the Church of England, a result of the efforts of the Oxford Movement. The hymnal was first published in 1861. The organization publishing it has now been formed into a charitable ...
, which was published in 1950. In addition, he published the following compositions and books:
*The Treasury of English Church Music. Volume one. 1100-1545. Edited by Denis Stevens, etc. 1965
*Accompaniments for unison Hymn-singing. 1971
*Christ whose Glory fills the Skies.
nthem for treble voices and organ.Words by Charles Wesley, etc. 1957
*The Coventry Mass. Adapted from medieval sources. Accompaniment by G. H. Knight. 1966
*Incidental Vocal Music to "The Devil to pay," Play by Dorothy L. Sayers. 1939
*Incidental Music to The Zeal of Thy House, Dorothy L. Sayers. 1938
*Twenty Questions on Church Music. Answered by G. H. Knight (Series. no. 3.), 1950
*R.S.C.M. The first forty years. 1968
Career
Organist of:
*
St Augustine of Canterbury, Queen's Gate London 1931 - 1937
*
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the ...
1937 - 1953
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Gerald Hocken
1908 births
1979 deaths
English classical organists
British male organists
Cathedral organists
Hymnal editors
Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
People from Tywardreath and Par
People educated at Truro Cathedral School
20th-century classical musicians
20th-century English musicians
20th-century organists
20th-century British male musicians
Musicians from Cornwall
Male classical organists