Biography of Harold W. Friedell Born in New York’s Borough of Queens, on the 11th of May in 1905, Harold Friedell studied organ at an early age, and played services in the Methodist Church of Jamaica, Long Island. His talents led him to undertake studies with some of the leading musicians of the day. Organ and improvisation with Clement Gale and David Mc K. Williams, and composition with Bernard Wagenaar and Roger Sessions. Harold Friedell served on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music, the Guilmont Organ School, and for many years following the second world war, he taught composition at the Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music. Serving as Organist-Choirmaster at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jersey City, New Jersey, he began his career in composition. In 1939, he began his duties at Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City, where he directed the Sunday services as well as numerous oratorios and recitals. His anthem output continued in these years until 1946, when he was asked to succeed his famous teacher, David Mc K. Williams, as Organist-Choirmaster at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church on Park Avenue in New York City. During these years, large numbers of people would crowd into St. Bartholomew’s to hear the excellent choir sing weekly Sunday afternoon oratorios, and to enjoy the Anglican services sung by a paid choir of seventy voices. Harold Friedell was noted for his exceptional Hymn playing and his masterful improvisations performed on an extraordinary Aeolian-Skinner organ of five manuals. Harold Friedell was awarded the Fellowship of the American Guild of Organists, as well as The Fellowship of Trinity College, London. The year before he died, Missouri Valley College awarded him a doctor of Music degree. The famous anthem “Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether” was composed during the years at St. Bartholomew's. It was based on a simple communion hymn written years before at Calvary Church. On February 17, 1958, Harold Friedell was stricken with a fatal heart attack while walking through a snowstorm in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, on his way to the morning train. The output of compositions by Harold Friedell is not large, but many of them remain as mainstays of countless choirs throughout the country. The Palm Sunday anthem “The Way to Jerusalem” or “Jesus so Lowly” and “King of Glory” are not soon to be forgotten experiences for many a singer or organist. We have attempted to maintain some of these fine compositions here in our store at Pine Hill Press. In additions, we have found many hitherto unpublished works of Harold Friedell, which we feel are well worthy of publication.

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