George Augustus Löhr (20 April 1821 - 20 August 1897) was an organist and composer based in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Life

Born in Norwich, he was educated at

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

where he was a chorister and then

Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

and

Munich University The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

. He was then assistant organist at

Norwich Cathedral Norwich Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. It is the cathedral church for the Church of England Diocese of Norwich and is one of the Norwich 12 heritage sites. The cathedral ...

under the organist

Zechariah Buck Dr. Zechariah Buck (9 September 1798 – 5 August 1879), was an English organist and choir director who is remembered as a preeminent trainer of boys' voices. Early life and family Born to Jeremiah Buck (a tradesman) and Sarah Astbury in Norwich, N ...

. He was appointed to

St Margaret's Church, Leicester St Margaret's Church is an ancient Anglican parish church situated on St Margaret's Way in Leicester, England. It is a Grade I listed building. History Parts of the transept date from c. 1200, and parts of the aisles from the late 13th century. ...

in 1845, a position he held for the next four decades until his death. He pioneered choral services there and was one of the earliest to promote musical harvest festivals. The church "soon became famous for its choir". Lohr also established and conducted the Leicester Harmonic Society in 1856. It survived until 1883. From 1881 he was a music professor. Lohr composed the hymn "St Francis", setting the words "Fountain of good, to own Thy love" by

Philip Doddridge Philip Doddridge D.D. (26 June 1702 – 26 October 1751) was an English Nonconformist (specifically, Congregationalist) minister, educator, and hymnwriter. Early life Philip Doddridge was born in London the last of the twenty children of D ...

. His four part arrangement of

Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositi ...

's "But This Lord is Mindful of His Own" (from the oratorio

St Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

) remains in print. He died on 20 August 1897 and is buried in the Welford Road Cemetery in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

. His youngest son, Richard Harvey Löhr, was born in Leicester in 1856 and studied at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

under

William Henry Holmes William Henry Holmes (December 1, 1846 – April 20, 1933), known as W. H. Holmes, was an American explorer, anthropologist, archaeologist, artist, scientific illustrator, cartographer, mountain climber, geologist and museum curator and ...

Ebenezer Prout Ebenezer Prout (1 March 1835 – 5 December 1909) was an English musical theorist, writer, music teacher and composer, whose instruction, afterwards embodied in a series of standard works still used today, underpinned the work of many British cl ...

and

Sir Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...

. He twice won the

Charles Lucas Sir Charles Lucas, 1613 to 28 August 1648, was a professional soldier from Essex, who served as a Cavalier, Royalist cavalry leader during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Taken prisoner at the end of the First English Civil War in March 1646, ...

medal (in 1877 and 1878). He was the organist at St James's Church, Marylebone. Harvey Löhr composed five symphonies, two piano concertos, orchestral suites, marches and preludes, the operas ''A Border Raid'' (1883) and ''Kenilworth'' (1906), choral works (such as the oratorio ''The Queen of Sheba'', 1900), chamber music (including the Piano Quartet, op 15, c 1980), piano pieces and many songs. His manuscripts are held at the Royal Academy. He died in Hastings on 16 January 1927.Unsung Composers
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lohr, George Augustus 1821 births 1897 deaths English organists British male organists English composers 19th-century British composers 19th-century English musicians 19th-century British male musicians 19th-century organists