J. E. P. Aldous

John Edmund Paul Aldous (8 December 1853 – 23 January 1934) was a Canadian organist, conductor, composer, and music educator of English birth. His compositional output includes many short pieces for piano, organ, choir, and voice. He also composed four operettas: Ptarmigan or A Canadian Carnival (published 1895), A Golden Catch, Nancy or All for Love, and The Poster Girl (published 1902). Some of his better-known works are Prelude and Fugue for organ, the choral works Grant, We Beseech Thee, Merciful Lord and Blessed Are the Dead That Die in the Lord, and the hymn Egypt, all of which have been reprinted several times. Life and career Born in Sheffield, Aldous began his career as the organist at the chapel of the British Embassy in Paris. In 1876, he earned his BA in Trinity College. He emigrated to Canada in 1877 at the age of 23 to assume the post of organist-choirmaster at Central Presbyterian Church in Hamilton, Ontario. He left there a few years later to assume a succession of similar church posts, first in St. Thomas, Ontario and then in Hamilton at St Mark’s and St Thomas’ churches. In 1884 he returned to Central Presbyterian where he remained for several years. Aldous founde