Brewer, John Hyatt

1856-

American composer, teacher and organist. Born in Brooklyn and has lived there all his life. Began his career as a choir boy at the age of six and sang until he was fourteen. At the age of fifteen he was organist of a Brooklyn church. He studied vocal music with Cutler and Wilder, piano and' harmony under Rafael Navarro, organ with Diller, Caulfield and Whitely, and later organ, counterpoint and composition for ten years with Dudley Buck. He has been organist successively of a number of Brooklyn churches, and has conducted numerous glee clubs and orchestras, among them the Boylston, Orpheus, Brooklyn Hill and Damrosch Glee Clubs, the Cecilia Ladies' Vocal Society and the Hoadley Amateur Orchestra. He was a charter member as well as second tenor and accompanist of the Brooklyn Anollo Club, founded in 1878, and in 1903 he became its conductor. He was one of the founders of the American Guild of Organists and has been an active member of the New York State Music Teachers' Association. Since 1899, he has been professor of music at Adelphi College. Brewer's compositions number over one hundred, including the cantatas, Holy Night, The Birth of Love, Hesperus, Sea and the Moon, Herald of Spring, and Firelight Pictures; a suite, The Lady of the Lake, for orchestra; about thirty songs, sacred and secular; pieces for the piano, organ and strings; and also duets for organ and piano. Some of his best works are his cantatas Hesperus and The Birth of Love; the part-songs for men, Fisher's Song, May Song and the Katydid; and for women's voices, Sea Shine and Treachery; and among his songs his Meadowsweet and Heart's Rest.