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John Barnard (composer)

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Nationality
  
British

Education
  
The John Lyon School

Role
  
Music composer


Name
  
John Barnard

Religion
  
Christian - Anglican

Books
  
Understanding Hymn Tunes

John Barnard (composer) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumb7

Born
  
20 April 1948 (
1948-04-20
)
London, England, UK

Occupation
  
part-time school teacher of German.

Known for
  
writing the hymn tune Guiting Power to Christ triumphant, ever reigning.

Criminal charge
  
Making indecent images and possessing indecent photographs

Criminal penalty
  
Four-month suspended prison sentence

Similar People
  
Timothy Dudley‑Smith, Malcolm Archer, David Willcocks, Graham Kendrick

John Barnard (born 20 April 1948) is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), an Associate of the Royal School of Church Music (ARSCM) and an active developer of church music as a composer, arranger, choir director and organist in North West London, England.

Contents

Barnard is on the Council of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland and has been active in helping to assemble such publications as Hymns for Today's Church, Carols for Today and Psalms for Today. He has been Director of Music at a series of high-profile churches, which include Emmanuel Church (Northwood), St Alban's Church (North Harrow), John Keble Church (Mill Hill) and St John the Evangelist Church (Stanmore). He returned to John Keble Church in September 2010, following the appointment of Canon Chris Chivers as Vicar.

Life and work

Barnard was educated at The John Lyon School, Harrow between 1959 and 1966 where he excelled as a pupil and later went up to Cambridge University to study Modern and Medieval Languages at Selwyn College followed by a PGCE at Exeter University.

He taught Modern Languages and Music at Cheltenham Grammar School in the early 1970s.

He remains very fond of John Lyon School and was offered a teaching job there from 1974 to 2002. He remained as a dedicated and loyal German and French teacher, often organising and leading school trips to Switzerland, and spent the last 15 of his 28 years’ tenure as Deputy Headmaster. John was a much loved and respected teacher and administrator at John Lyon School and his expeditions were enjoyed by many. His style of management was familial and he was much more of a "you can do it" deputy head than a you are in trouble one. He always invited new staff to a meal with him before the New year began. Barnard's own father was previously Head Boy at John Lyon School. From 2003 to 2004, Barnard taught at the Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith and in 2004 taught part-time at Aldenham School, Elstree where he was a successful German teacher; he was welcomed back to Aldenham School in 2007 to continue teaching.

His musical activities are his hobby. He has written music and arrangements for hymns and a number of arrangements for spirituals. Arguably his most famous work is his hymn tune Guiting Power, which is gaining in popularity in services and usually provides the music for Michael Saward's hymn Christ triumphant, ever reigning, published for example as Hymn No. 336 in Hope's new Worship and Rejoice hymnal (2001) and Hymn No. 173 in Hymns for Today's Church, Second Edition (1987).

Barnard has been involved in directing the music for BBC Radio 2's Sunday Half Hour. In 2006, he was a judge for a BBC hymn-writing competition, for which he composed the tunes Kirknewton and Gowanbank for two of the winning entries.

The vast majority of John Barnard's hymn tunes are named after villages or towns in the United Kingdom; for example, Guiting Power is a village in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire.

His compositions are represented in the United States and Canada by the Hope Publishing Company and in the United Kingdom by Jubilate Hymns and Oxford University Press.

Of his interests outside the subject of church music, it is well known among friends that railways have always held a fascination for him. If a journey offers reasonable transport alternatives that include rail, there need be no doubt about his choice.

Conviction

In April 2015, Barnard plead guilty to possession and printing of pornographic images of 14- to 16-year-old boys. He received a suspended jail sentence and has since been suspended as Head of Choir at John Keble Church, Edgware, London.

List of original hymn tunes

Asthall (7 8 7 8), Barnard Gate (11 10 11 10 Dactylic), Bekesbourne (10 10 7 7), Bishops Cannings (6 6 6 6 8 8),

Bless the Lord (Irregular), Buttermere (LM), Calypso Praise (8 8 8 8 10 8), Checkendon (8 6 8 6 8 6 8 6 7 7 8 7),

Chedworth (10 10 10 10), Chedworth (10 11 11 11), Christingle Praise (7 7 7 5 7 7 5), Coln Saint Dennis (9 9 10 9),

Coulston (4 6 8 8 4 4), Edington (10 10 4 4 10 10), Ewelme (8 8 8 4), Eythorne (7 6 8 6 8 6), Fossebridge (LM),

Freshford (12 12 12 12), God is in Bethlehem (8 7 8 7 and Refrain Trochaic), God is the King (Irregular), Gowanbank (8 7 8 7 D),

Great Cheverell (10 10 7 8 10), Great Stanmore (10 10 10 10), Guiting Power (8 5 8 5 7 9), Harrow Weald (5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4),

Heanish (8 7 8 7 D Trochaic), Kirknewton (11 10 11 10 D), Little Barrington (4 4 4 4 4 4 4), Little Stanmore (8 8 8 6),

Long Crendon (11 11 11 5), Ludlow (11 11 9 10), Manton Hollow (8 8 8 4), O Sing to the Lord (Irregular),

Patrixbourne (8 7 8 7 7 7), Riseley (8 6 8 6 6), Roxeth (7 7 7 4 D), Stanton (CM), Stanton Harcourt (6 6 6 6 3 4 5),

Steeple Ashton (SM), Swyncombe (6 6 8 4), Temple Guiting (6 6 10 5), Tenhead (5 6 6 4), Upton Cheyney (7 4 7 4 D),

Upton Scudamore (10 10 10 10), Wealdstone (8 7 8 7 D Trochaic), West Ashton (10 10 10 10 Iambic), Widford (13 13 7 7 13),

Wings of Joy (6 4 4 6 4), Withington (8 6 8 8 8 6), Yanworth (10 10 10 10 Iambic), You are my Refuge (10 7 6 6 10)

References

John Barnard (composer) Wikipedia