The Lord is My Light - Dudley Buck; Evangeline Ng, soprano; Kevin Lee, tenor

David Macfarlane, organist
As streamed at First Presbyterian Church of Englewood NJ on October 11, 2020.
Dudley Buck (1839-1909) was born in Hartford, Connecticut. After studies in Leipzig and Paris, Buck returned to his native Hartford to become organist at the North Congregational Church. He also began touring as a concert organist, dedicated to elevating the taste of the American public. After a two-year tenure at St. James's Episcopal Church in Chicago, where many of his manuscripts were lost in the fire of 1871, Buck returned to Boston. There he accepted the post of organist for the Music Hall Association and joined the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music. In 1875 he moved to New York and assumed the position of organist/choirmaster at Brooklyn's Church of the Holy Trinity. Buck's sacred compositions include large-scale works, 4 cantatas, 55 anthems and 20 sacred songs. He played a central role in the development of organ and choral music in the United States. His first Motette Collection (1869) supplied American church choirs with much-needed literature.