A surprising number of organists, clergy, parishioners, and other members of the Emmanuel community have composed hymns and other sacred music:
- Silas A. Bancroft (1823-1886): see our Timeline : 1882
- Amy Beach (1867-1944) : see also our Timeline : 1924
- W. Lynnwood Farnum (1885-1930): see our Timeline : 1913, 1914 & 1918
- John Harbison : see also Emmanuel Music’s list & our Timeline: 1989, 1994, 2010 & 2019
- Ben Hogue
- George L Osgood (1844-1922)
- James Primosch (1956-2021)
- Sid Richardson : see also our Timeline: 2022
- Albert Snow (1879-1939): see our Timeline: 1918, 1936 &1939
- Lewis Sabin Thompson (1868-1908)
The Rev. Dr. F. Dan Huntington, our first rector (1860-1869), edited hymnals and wrote hymns. His Elim, or Hymns of Holy Refreshment (Boston: E.P. Dutton, 1865) is available in reprint on Amazon. Hymnary lists it and several other hymnals he compiled along with the texts of his nine hymns. His daughter Ruth Huntington Sessions, mother of composer Roger Sessions, studied music in Leipzig in the 1880s.
Our Music Director Ryan Turner has premiered or commissioned via Emmanuel Music works of composers John Harbison, the late James Primosch, Matthew Aucoin, Brett Johnson, Ben Houge, Sid Richardson, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Yehudi Wyner, Kati Agócs, and many others.