Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a member of the rock band Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Moore was ranked 34th in Rolling Stones 2004 edition of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

In 2012, Moore started a new band Chelsea Light Moving, whose eponymous debut was released on March 5, 2013. In 2015, Chelsea Light Moving disbanded after one studio album release. Moore and the other members of the band continue to make music under his solo project and other bands.

Early years
Moore was born July 25, 1958, at Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables, Florida, to George E. Moore, a professor of music, and Eleanor Nann Moore. In 1967, he and his family (including brother Frederick Eugene Moore, born 1953, and sister Susan Dorothy Moore, born 1956) moved to Bethel, Connecticut. Raised Catholic, he attended St. Joseph's School in Danbury, CT followed by St. Mary's School in Bethel and attended Bethel High School from 1973 to 1976. He enrolled at Western Connecticut State University in fall 1976, but left after one quarter and moved to East 13th Street between Aves A and B in New York City to join the burgeoning post-punk and no wave music scenes. It was there that he was able to watch shows by the likes of Patti Smith and spoken-word performances by William S. Burroughs. At that time, the arrival of new groups changed his view on music and all of his records "got kind of put into the basement. And they were supplanted by [...] the Sex Pistols and Blondie and Talking Heads and Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was a completely new world, a new identity of music that was an option for youth culture." In 1980 he moved in with Kim Gordon to an apartment at 84 Eldridge St. below artist Dan Graham, eventually befriending him, sometimes using records from Graham's collection for mix tapes.

Once in the city, Moore was briefly a member of the hardcore punk band Even Worse, featuring future The Big Takeover editor (and future Springhouse drummer) Jack Rabid. After exiting the band, Moore and Lee Ranaldo learned experimental guitar techniques in Glenn Branca's "guitar orchestras". Moore has spoken about influences on his music tastes at this time, including British bands Wire, the Pop Group, the Raincoats, the Slits, and Public Image Ltd ("I used to have these fantasies in the 70s about leaving New York and coming to London to hang out with Public Image").

Sonic Youth

Moore met Kim Gordon in 1980 at the final gig of The Coachmen, the band he was in with J.D. King, Daniel Walworth (replaced by Dave Keay), and Bob Pullin. Moore, with Gordon, Anne Demarinis and Dave Keay formed a band, appearing under names like Male Bonding, Red Milk, and the Arcadians, before settling on Moore's choice of Sonic Youth just before June 1981. The band played Noise Fest in June 1981 at New York's White Columns gallery, where Lee Ranaldo was playing as a member of Glenn Branca's electric guitar ensemble as well as in duo with David Linton as Avoidance Behavior. Moore invited Ranaldo, who he had known when The Coachmen shared a CBGB stage with Ranaldo's 1970s band The Flux, to join the band. The new trio played three songs at the festival later in the week without a drummer. Each band member took turns playing the drums, until they met drummer Richard Edson. The band signed to Neutral Records, then to Homestead Records, and then to SST Records.

Moore and Ranaldo make extensive use of unusual guitar tunings, often heavily modifying their instruments to provide unusual timbres and drones. They are known for bringing upwards of fifty guitars to every gig, using some guitars for one song only. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Moore and Ranaldo the 33rd and 34th Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Thurston Moore has explained the band's decision to sign with DGC Records at a time when many were fiercely dedicated to independent record labels like SST, Dischord and Sub Pop:
"We noticed Hüsker Dü's music hadn't changed when they signed to Warner. On the independent labels we dealt with, SST Records, Blast First Records and Neutral Records, if there was accounting, it was always somewhat suspect. With Geffen, we would get an advance that would allow us to be able to pay our rents, get health insurance, have a slightly better lifestyle, and maybe, just maybe, not have to work day jobs. We felt like we could negotiate a contract that would make sense."

When Steve Albini accused corporate labels of ripping off artists Moore wrote in response that a band "getting butt fucked by corporate labels [must] be really stupid". He defended the band's decision to sign with DGC Records explaining that they knew what they were getting into and viewed it more as "buying in" than "selling out".

In 2011, Moore and his wife, Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon, separated; shortly afterward, Sonic Youth went on indefinite hiatus. Though his marriage was ending Moore never claimed that Sonic Youth was finished.

Work outside Sonic Youth
In addition to his work with Sonic Youth, Moore has also released albums as a solo artist. He and Gordon released a few songs as Mirror/Dash. Moore established Protest Records as an online gesture of activism but the project has since lapsed. Moore has collaborated with scores of musicians, including Maryanne Amacher, Lydia Lunch, Don Dietrich and Jim Sauter of Borbetomagus, DJ Spooky, William Hooker, Daniel Carter, Christian Marclay, Mike Watt, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Dredd Foole, William Winant, The Thing, Nels Cline, Cock E.S.P., John Moloney, Glenn Branca, Yamantaka Eye, Beck, My Cat is an Alien, John Russell, Steve Noble, John Edwards, Haino Keiji, John Zorn, Yoko Ono, Takehisa Kosugi, and others.

In the early 1990s, Moore formed the side band Dim Stars, with Richard Hell, Don Fleming, Steve Shelley with a guest appearance by Robert Quine. Moore performed solo on the side stage of the 1993 Lollapalooza tour. Additionally, Moore also contributed guitar work and backing vocals on "Crush with Eyeliner", which appeared on R.E.M.'s Monster. He played Fred Cracklin in the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode dedicated to Sonny Sharrock. In 2000 he contributed improvised guitar pieces for a collaborative project with conceptual artist/guitarist Marco Fusinato. Since 2004, he has recorded and performed with the noise collective To Live and Shave in L.A., the lineup of which also features Andrew W.K. He recorded with the band at Sonic Youth's former studio in Manhattan, and later performed with them at the George W. Bush "anti-inaugural" Noise Against Fascism concert in Washington, D.C., which Moore curated, named in reference to Sonic Youth's 1992 song "Youth Against Fascism". Moore curated the "Nightmare Before Christmas" weekend of the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival in December 2006.

On September 18, 2007, Moore's label Ecstatic Peace released a solo album titled Trees Outside The Academy. The album was recorded at J Mascis' studio in Amherst, Massachusetts. The album features Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and violinist Samara Lubelski. The album also features collaborations between Mascis and Charalambides' Christina Carter, who performs a duet with Moore on the track, "Honest James".

On September 24, 2008, Moore was working on a song with former Be Your Own Pet vocalist Jemina Pearl, a cover of the Ramones song "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker". The song was recorded for the teenage drama Gossip Girl and was featured in the episode "There Might Be Blood".

Since 2008, Moore has provided narration for a variety of documentaries on the National Geographic Channel. His work includes Inside: Straight Edge and the Hard Time series about life in prison.

On September 25, 2012, Moore and Kim Gordon released a collaborative album with Yoko Ono titled Yokokimthurston.

In 2012 Moore started a new band called Chelsea Light Moving. Their first track, "Burroughs", was released as a free download. Their eponymous debut album was released on March 5, 2013. The release coincided with the 2013 SXSW Festival where they made numerous appearances including a free show at Mellow Johnny's bike shop.

In July 2012 Moore had joined the black metal super group Twilight.

On November 24, 2013, he played guitar on "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" alongside Ron and Russell Mael in a Sparks concert at the Union Chapel, Islington, London.

In September 2014, Moore released The Best Day, a solo album featuring Steve Shelley and My Bloody Valentine's Debbie Googe as rhythm section, and James Sedwards on guitar.

In April 2018, Moore presented at London's Barbican Centre his work 'Galaxies', an experimental 12-string guitar ensemble. Among the twelve person orchestra were Deb Googe, Jonah Falco, Ray Aggs, Joseph Coward and others.

In 2019, Moore released Spirit Counsel, an avant-garde rock three-disc box set. The first track, "Alice Moki Jayne", is a 63-minute long song named for the spouses of John Coltrane, Don Cherry, and Ornette Coleman. The 28 minute "8 Spring Street" is named for the former address of Glenn Branca. The 55-minute final track, "Galaxies (Sky)", was inspired by a poem by Sun Ra.

In late 2020, Moore released a solo album entitled By the Fire which featured guitarist James Sedwards and bassist Debbie Googe as on the earlier The Best Days album.

In February 2021, Moore surprise-released an instrumental album entitled Screen Time.

Work on soundtracks

In 1994, Moore teamed up with Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs, Don Fleming of Gumball, Mike Mills of R.E.M., and Dave Grohl of Nirvana/Foo Fighters, to form the Backbeat Band, which recorded the soundtrack album to the movie Backbeat. In 1998 Moore played on the soundtrack of the film Velvet Goldmine as a member of Wylde Ratttz. Moore composed original music for such films as Heavy (1995), Bully (2001), and Manic (2001). In 2007, Moore also appeared with noise/improv group Original Silence, featuring Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, guitarist Terrie Ex, Jim O'Rourke, saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and bassist Massimo Pupillo. The group released the live album The First Original Silence in 2007, on Oslo (Norway) label SmallTown Superjazz, and a second album The Second Original Silence in 2008.

Moore scored the 2022 HBO miniseries Irma Vep.

Record label and writings
Moore and other Sonic Youth members published the irreverent music zine Sonic Death. Moore runs the record label Ecstatic Peace! Beginning in 1993, this label jointly released records with rock critic Byron Coley's label, Father Yod, as Ecstatic Yod Records.

Moore reviewed new music in Arthur in a column entitled "Bull Tongue" written jointly with Byron Coley. Since the demise of Arthur, Bull Tongue exists as a fanzine edited by Coley and features underground music writing. Moore created, with Chris Habib, the website Protest Records, named for its protest against United States' invasions in the Middle East. Moore was the editor/overseer of the 2005 book Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture. He published a highly influential list of collectible free jazz records in Grand Royal magazine.

Ecstatic Peace Library is the book publishing company founded by Thurston Moore and visual book editor Eva Prinz in 2010. The company publishes mainly poetry, but also a collection of books about the early Norwegian black metal scene, experimental jazz from the 70s and other niche subjects.

Teaching
In 2015 Moore was appointed honorary professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory (RMC) in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he periodically conducts workshops and master classes.

Politics and activism

Moore is anti-capitalist, and since the 1980s, Moore and his bandmates have been described as anarchists, a label Moore has denied. However, in 2013, he would commend the Occupy Wall Street protests by announcing his support for its anarcho-communist elements.

Since the founding of Sonic Youth, Moore and members of the band have been famously critical of the music industry and what he calls the monopolization of youth culture, with Moore stating in 1991 during filming of The Year Punk Broke,
"People see rock and roll as youth culture, and when youth culture becomes monopolized by big business, what are the youth to do? I think we should destroy the bogus capitalist process that is destroying youth culture".

Since 2004, Moore has participated in a cultural boycott of Israel, likening the country to an apartheid state and criticizing bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Radiohead for performing in the country.

In June 2016, Moore endorsed the candidacy of Bernie Sanders, releasing a track featuring excerpts from Sanders' speeches to coincide along his endorsement.

In November 2019, along with other public figures, Moore signed a letter supporting Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn describing him as "a beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia and racism in much of the democratic world" and endorsed him in the 2019 UK general election.

In October 2022, Moore expressed support for former president Lula in the 2022 Brazilian general election.

Personal life

On June 9, 1984, Moore married Sonic Youth bassist/vocalist Kim Gordon. They have a daughter: Coco Hayley Gordon Moore (born July 1, 1994) better known for work on the Gilmour Girls and being a fashion model. On October 14, 2011, the couple announced that they were separating due to an extramarital affair Moore engaged in with art book editor Eva Prinz, who was also married at the time. Moore and Gordon divorced in 2013.  Moore was residing in Stoke Newington, London, with Prinz. Moore and Prinz were married in late 2020.

Moore released his memoirs, Sonic Life: A Memoir, in October 2023.

Equipment
Moore uses a large selection of Fender guitars during Sonic Youth gigs, most frequently a Jazzmaster.  His primary stage amp has been the Peavey Roadmaster paired with a Marshall cabinet.  He has used the ProCo Rat, Big Muff, and MXR Blue Box pedals in various combinations to achieve his unique distorted and feedback-laden guitar sound.

Moore is a key figure in the popularization and resurrection of the Fender Jazzmaster. In 2009, Fender introduced a Lee Ranaldo signature edition of a Sapphire Blue Transparent version featuring two Fender Wide Range humbucking pickups and a Forest Green transparent finish for Moore, equipped with a pair of Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Jazzmaster single-coil pickups.

In 2016 Yuri Landman made a special 10-string drone guitar for Moore at the request of Premier Guitar.

Discography

Solo
 Psychic Hearts (Geffen, 1995)
 Trees Outside the Academy (Ecstatic Peace!, 2007)
 Demolished Thoughts (Matador, 2011) (UK chart peak: No. 119)
 The Best Day (Matador, 2014) (UK chart peak: No. 78)
 Rock n Roll Consciousness (Caroline, 2017) (UK chart peak: No. 65)
 Spirit Counsel (2019)
 By the Fire (2020)
 Screen Time (2021)

As member
With Sonic Youth

With Chelsea Light Moving
 2013 Chelsea Light Moving

With Pvre Matrix
 2015 Burning Sulfur

With Twilight
 2014 III: Beneath Trident's Tomb
 2018 Trident Death Rattle

Collaborations
 1990 – Barefoot in the Head – with Jim Sauter & Don Dietrich, liner notes by Thomas Pynchon
 1993 – Shamballa – with William Hooker & Elliott Sharp
 1995 – Klangfarbenmelodie & the Colorist Strikes Primitive – with Tom Surgal
 1996 – Pillow Wand – with Nels Cline
 1996 – Piece for Yvonne Rainer – with Yoshimi & Mark Ibold
 1997 – MMMR – with Loren Mazzacane Connors, Jean-Marc Montera & Lee Ranaldo (Numero Zero Audio)
 1998 – Foot – with Don Fleming & Jim Dunbar
 1998 – Root – Remix Project
 1999 – The Promise – with Evan Parker & Walter Prati
 2000 – New York – Ystad – Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley, Mats Gustafsson
 2000 – TM/MF – Thurston Moore, Marco Fusinato
 2001 – In The Fishtank – Thurston Moore/Sonic Youth/ICP/The Ex (Koncurrent)
 2001 – Three Incredible Ideas – Thurston Moore/Walter Prati/Giancarlo Schiaffini
 2012 – Yokokimthurston – Yoko Ono,/Thurston Moore/Kim Gordon
 2013 – "@" – John Zorn/Thurston Moore
 2014 – Cuts of Guilt, Cuts Deeper – Merzbow/Balázs Pándi/Mats Gustafsson/Thurston Moore
 2014 – Live – The Thing & Thurston Moore
 2018 – Cuts Up Cuts Out - Merzbow/Balázs Pándi/Mats Gustafsson/Thurston Moore

Limited edition noise, experimental, drone
 2006 – Flipped Out Bride 12 (Blossoming Noise, 2006), limited edition of 500 blue marbled vinyl
 2006 – Free/Love (Blossoming Noise, 2006), limited edition of 90 cassettes
 2007 – Black Weeds-White Death (Meudiademorte, 2007), limited edition of 200 cassettes
 2008 – Sensitive/Lethal
 2008 – Blindfold (Destructive Industries), limited edition of 200 cassettes
 2008 – Built for Lovin (Lost Treasures of the Underworld), limited edition of 500 vinyl
 2010 – Suicide Notes for Acoustic Guitar EP
 2010 – Schwarze Polizei with Kommissar Hjuler, Goaty Tapes, limited edition of 50 cassettes
 2021 - Screen Time

Free improvisation
 2004 – Thurston Moore - Kapotte Muziek by Thurston Moore Korm Plastics, Kapotte Muziek)
 2007 – The Roadhouse Session Vol. 1 with Chris Corsano/Paul Flaherty/Wally Shoup
 2008 – Untitled with Paul Flaherty, Bill Nace
 2011 – Les Anges Du Péché with Jean-Marc Montera, Lee Ranaldo
 2011 – Solo Acoustic Volume Five – Part of the VDSQ (Vin Du Select Qualitite) acoustic guitar series
 2013 – @ with John Zorn

Live
 1996 – Piece for Jetsun Dolma with Tom Surgal and William Winant at Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, released by Les Disques VICTO
 2012 – Play Some Fucking Stooges with Mats Gustafsson on tour in 2009. Limited edition of 450 copies.
 2013 – Vi Är Alla Guds Slavar with Mats Gustafsson, Cafe OTO, September 22 & 23, 2012. Limited edition of 1000 copies.
 2013 – The Only Way to Go is Straight Through with Loren Connors, NYC 2012. Limited edition of 3,000 copies.
 2013 – Comes Through in the Call Hold with Clark Coolidge, Anne Waldman], Harry Smith cottage at Naropa, June 30, 2012, released by Fast Speaking Music.
 2013 – Last Notes with Joe McPhee, Bill Nace, Roulette NYC, May 31, 2012. Limited vinyl edition of 250 copies.

Caught on Tape series
 2012 – Fundamental Sunshine (Antwerp-Paris-Rotterdam-Amsterdam March 20–23, 2012. Cassette)
 2012 – Caught on Tape (Recorded live to cassette in Europe – March 2012. Limited edition of 133 hand numbered copies)
 2013 – Acting the Maggot (recorded at the Beachland Ballroom 2012. Limited edition of 120 lps)
 2013 – Fundamental Sunshine (Cassette)
 2013 – Banjaxed Blues (Recorded in Baltimore, MD in December 2012 and Belfast, Northern Ireland in January 2013. Edition of 45 copies)
 2013 – Irish-American Prayer (Live in Brooklyn December 2012. Limited CDr)

With Diskaholics Anonymous Trio
 2001 – Diskaholics Anonymous Trio (Recorded at Kulturbro Ystad-Österlen, Sweden, 2000)
 2006 – Weapons of Ass Destruction (Recorded live, Ystads Teater, Sweden, October 6, 2002)
 2006 – Live in Japan Vol. 1 (Recorded live, Tokyo, Japan, 2002)

With Original Silence
 2007 – The First Original Silence (Recorded live, Teatro Ariosto, Reggio Emilia, Italy, September 30, 2005 )
 2008 – The Second Original Silence (Recorded live, Brancaleone, Rome, September 28, 2005 )

With Glenn Branca
 1981 – Symphony No. 1 "Tonal Plexus" with Glenn Branca, Lee Ranaldo, Anne DeMarinis
 1982 – Symphony No. 2 "The Peak of the Sacred"
 1983 – Symphony No. 3 "Gloria" – Music for the first 127 intervals of the harmonic series

With the Coachmen
 1979 – Failure to Thrive

Singles
 "The Church Should Be for the Outcasts, Not a Church That Casts People Out" (7") [as Male Slut] (1995)
 "Sputnik", with Don Fleming on one side, Pete Kember aka Sonic Boom on the other. Gilltery vinyl (1997)
 "Wonderful Witches" (2007)

Split LPs
 From the Earth to the Spheres (split with My Cat Is An Alien, 2004)
 Thrash Sabbatical (Deathbomb Arc, 2008 four-way split 12" + 2x7" w/Men Who Can't Love, Barrabarracuda, Kevin Shields)
 Mature, Lonely + Out of Control/Alternative Hair Styles (Nihilist, 2008 split LP with Graham Moore)

Remixes
 Rising Mixes by Yoko Ono (1996)
 Sacrilege: The Remixes by Can (1996)
 Bustin'and Dronin by Blur (1998)
 7/11 by Un Drame Musical Instantané (1999)

Guest appearances
 1992 – Do You Wanna Dance, Dim Stars
 1994 – Monster, R.E.M.
 1997 – Legend of the Blood Yeti, XIII Ghosts & Derek Bailey
 1998 – Velvet Goldmine – Music from the Original Motion Picture, "T.V. Eye" with the Wylde Ratttz
 2007 – Touch the Iceberg, Owl Xounds Exploding Galaxy)
 2017 — 7/11, Moore's remix of L'homme à la caméra by Un Drame Musical Instantané (transparent vinyl)

Music videos
 "Ono Soul" (1995)
 "Circulation" (2011)
 "Speak To The Wild" (2014)
 "Smoke Of Dreams" (2017)
 "Aphrodite" (2017)
 "Cantaloupe" (2020)

Books
 Alabama Wildman (2000)
 Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture (2005)
 Grunge (with Michael Lavine, 2009)
 Punk House: Interiors in Anarchy (with Abby Banks, Timothy Findlen, 2007)
 No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976–1980. (with Byron Coley, 2008)
 James Hamilton: You Should Have Heard Just What I Seen (with James Hamilton, 2010)
 Lion: Only Noise (And Poems) (2011)
 Sonic Life: A Memoir (2023)

References

External links

Official Myspace page for "Kill Your Idols", a documentary about the Cinema of Transgression featuring Thurston Moore
Sonic Youth.com – Official Sonic Youth website

Ecstatic Peace! Records.
Spike magazine interview.
Writings by Thurston on 2003 NYC power blackout.
Thurston Moore's "Skrewer Boy" published on the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine @ Ubuweb
Pichfork article Working with Jemina

1958 births
Living people
Sonic Youth members
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
Alternative rock guitarists
American male singers
American rock singers
Songwriters from Florida
American alternative rock musicians
American experimental musicians
Noise rock musicians
Musicians from Miami
American noise musicians
Ecstatic Peace! artists
Northern Spy Records artists
People from Coral Gables, Florida
Swans (band) members
No wave musicians
Record collectors
American expatriates in the United Kingdom
Guitarists from Florida
20th-century American guitarists
Rodney & the Tube Tops members
Matador Records artists
Geffen Records artists
American post-punk musicians
Bethel High School (Connecticut) alumni
Dim Stars members
Twilight (band) members
RareNoiseRecords artists
Chelsea Light Moving members
21st-century American memoirists
Memoirists from Florida

Thurston Moore


Henry Francis Lyte (1 June 1793 – 20 November 1847) was a Scottish Anglican divine, hymnodist, and poet.

Biography

Youth and education
Henry Francis Lyte was the second son of Thomas and Anna Maria (née Oliver) Lyte, whose family came originally from Lytes Cary Manor.  He was born at Ednam, near Kelso, Scotland.  Lyte's father was described as a "ne-er do-well ... more interested in fishing and shooting than in facing up to his family responsibilities".  He deserted the family shortly after making arrangements for his two oldest sons to attend Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, in Ulster; and Anna moved to London, where both she and her youngest son died.

The headmaster at Portora, Robert Burrowes, recognised Lyte's ability, paid the boy's fees and "welcomed him into his own family during the holidays". Lyte was effectively an adopted son.

Religious conversion
After studying at Trinity College, Dublin, and with very limited training for ordained ministry, Lyte took Anglican holy orders in 1815 and for some time he held a curacy in Taghmon near Wexford. Lyte's "sense of vocation was vague at this early stage. Perhaps he felt an indefinable desire to do something good in life". However, in about 1816, Lyte experienced an evangelical conversion. In attendance on a dying priest, the latter convinced Lyte that both had earlier been mistaken in not having taken the epistles of St Paul "in their plain and literal sense". Lyte began to study the Bible "and preach in another manner," following the example of four or five local clergy whom he had previously laughed at and considered "enthusiastic rhapsodists".

Early career and marriage

In 1817 Lyte became a curate in Marazion, Cornwall, and there met and married Anne Maxwell, daughter of William Maxwell of a well-known Scottish-Irish family. She was 31, seven years older than her husband and a "keen Methodist." Furthermore, she "could not match her husband's good looks and personal charm."  Nevertheless, the marriage was happy and successful. Anne eventually made Lyte's situation more comfortable by contributing her family fortune, and she was an excellent manager of the house and finances.  They had two daughters and three sons, one of whom was the chemist and photographer Farnham Maxwell-Lyte. A grandson was the well known historian Sir Henry Churchill Maxwell-Lyte.

From 1820 to 1822 the Lytes lived in Sway, Hampshire. Itself only  from the sea, the house in Sway was the only one the couple shared during their marriage that was neither on a river or by the sea. At Sway Lyte lost a month-old daughter and wrote his first book, later published as Tales In Verse Illustrative of the Several Petitions of the Lord's Prayer (1826).  In 1822 the Lytes moved to Dittisham, Devon, on the River Dart and then, after Lyte had regained some measure of health, to the small parish of Charleton.

Brixham

About April 1824, Lyte left Charleton for Lower Brixham, a Devon fishing village.  Almost immediately, Lyte joined the schools committee, and two months later he became its chairman. Also in 1824, Lyte established the first Sunday school in the Torbay area and created a Sailors' Sunday School. Although religious instruction was given there, the primary object of both was educating children and seamen for whom other schooling was virtually impossible. Each year Lyte organised an Annual Treat for the 800–1000 Sunday school children, which included a short religious service followed by tea and sports in the field.

Shortly after Lyte's arrival in Brixham, the minister attracted such large crowds that the church had to be enlarged—the resulting structure later described by his grandson as "a hideous barn-like building."  Lyte added to his clerical income by taking resident pupils into his home, including the blind brother of Lord Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, later British prime minister.  About 1830, Lyte made excavations at nearby Ash Hole Cavern, where he discovered pottery and human remains.

Character and personality

Lyte was a tall and "unusually handsome" man, "slightly eccentric but of great personal charm, a man noted for his wit and human understanding, a born poet and an able scholar." He was an expert flute player and according to his great-grandson always had his flute with him. Lyte spoke Latin, Greek, and French; enjoyed discussing literature; and was knowledgeable about wild flowers. At Berry Head House, a former military hospital at Berry Head, Lyte built a magnificent library —largely of theology and old English poetry—described in his obituary as "one of the most extensive and valuable in the West of England."

Nevertheless, Lyte was also able to identify with his parish of fishermen, visiting them at their homes and on board their ships in harbour, supplying every vessel with a Bible, and compiling songs and a manual of devotions for use at sea.  In theology Lyte was a conservative evangelical who believed that man's nature was totally corrupt. Lyte frequently rose at 6 a.m. and prayed for two or more hours before breakfast.

In politics, Lyte was a Conservative who feared revolt among the irreligious poor.  He publicly opposed Catholic Emancipation by speaking against it in several Devon towns, stating that he preferred Catholics to be "emancipated from priests and from the power of the factious and turbulent demagogues of Ireland."  Lyte, a friend of Samuel Wilberforce, also opposed slavery, organising an 1833 petition to Parliament requesting it be abolished in Great Britain.

Decline and death
In poor health throughout his life, Lyte suffered various respiratory illnesses and often visited continental Europe in attempts to check their progress. In 1835 Lyte sought appointment as the vicar of Crediton but was rejected because of his increasingly debilitating asthma and bronchitis.  In 1839, when only 46, Lyte wrote a poem entitled "Declining Days."  Lyte also grew discouraged when numbers of his congregation (including in 1846, nearly his entire choir) left him for Dissenter congregations, especially the Plymouth Brethren, after Lyte expressed High Church sympathies and leaned towards the Oxford Movement.

By the 1840s, Lyte was spending much of his time in the warmer climates of France and Italy, making written suggestions about the conduct of his family's financial affairs after his death. When his daughter was married to his senior curate, Lyte did not perform the ceremony.  Lyte complained of weakness and incessant coughing spasms, and he mentions medical treatments of blistering, bleeding, calomel, tartar emetic, and "large doses" of Prussic acid. Yet his friends found him buoyant, cheerful, and keenly interested in affairs of the Europe around him.  Lyte spent the summer of 1847 at Berry Head then, after one final sermon to his congregation on the subject of the Holy Communion, he left again for Italy.  He died on 20 November 1847 at the age of 54, in the city of Nice, at that time in the Kingdom of Sardinia, where he was buried. His last words were "Peace! Joy!"

Works
Lyte's first composition was Tales in Verse illustrative of Several of the Petitions in the Lord's Prayer (1826), written at Lymington and commended by John Wilson in the Noctes Ambrosianae. Lyte next published Poems, chiefly Religious (1833), and in 1834, a small collection of psalms and hymns entitled The Spirit of the Psalms. After his death, a volume of Remains (1850) with a memoir was issued, and the poems contained in this, with those in Poems, chiefly Religious, were afterward published in one volume (1868). Three of Lyte's best-known hymns are paraphrases of psalms, published in The Spirit of the Psalms: "Praise, my soul, the King of heaven" (Psalm 103), "God of Mercy, God of Grace" (Psalm 67), and "Pleasant are thy courts above" (Psalm 84).

Lyte's best known hymns are:
 Abide with me! fast falls the eventide
 Jesus, I my cross have taken
 Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven
 Pleasant are Thy courts above.

Abide with me
Of these hymns, "Abide with Me" is the best known. According to the traditional story given in the Remains, Lyte wrote it a few hours after conducting the final service at his church, which was probably 5 September 1847. More likely the hymn was actually written in July or August of that year.

Lyte himself created for the hymn what his biographer has disparaged as "a dull tune." When Hymns Ancient and Modern was published in 1861, the editor, William H. Monk—whose three-year-old daughter had just died—composed his own tune, "Eventide," for Lyte's poem.

The hymn became a favourite of Kings George V and George VI and was sung at the former's funeral. The hymn also inspired Field Marshal Herbert Kitchener and General Charles "Chinese" Gordon, and it was said to have been on the lips of Edith Cavell as she faced a German firing squad in 1915.

"Abide with Me" has been sung prior to kick-off at the FA Cup Final since 1927 when the association secretary substituted the hymn for the playing of "Alexander's Ragtime Band." In Rugby league, the hymn has been sung before the Challenge Cup final since 1929, the first year the match was staged at Wembley Stadium. The hymn was also played by the combined bands of the Indian Armed Forces during the annual Beating Retreat ceremony held on 29 January at Vijay Chowk, New Delhi, which officially marks the end of Republic Day celebrations but was dropped by Narendra Modi's government before the celebrations of Republic day events in the year 2022, citing its foreign origin not in agreement with India's ancient republican ideas. The hymn is the Portora Royal School victory song and is sung at its remembrance service.

Significance
Leon Litvack has written in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography that although Lyte's "poetic energies were directed at scripturally and evangelically minded audiences, his lyric gift was universally appreciated. The example of 'Abide with me' is instructive: intensely personal and contemplative, yet nationally popular—even being sung (always, after its publication in 1861, to W. H. Monk's tune, 'Eventide') on secular occasions such as at football matches, and especially, since 1927, at the English cup final."  The 20th-century hymnologist Erik Routley referred to the "much-loved H. R. Lyte" who "though scriptural and evangelical in his emphases, always writes good literature and is rarely deserted by an exquisite lyric gift. Perhaps the centrally 'romantic' hymn of all hymns is the intensely personal yet, as it has proved, wholly universal hymn, 'Abide with me.'"

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

 Text, MIDI, and piano score from HymnSite.com

 Catalogue of the library of H.F. Lyte
 Heaven Will Bring Me Sweeter Rest: Selected works of Henry Francis Lyte

1793 births
1847 deaths
19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Scottish poets
Classical composers of church music
Church of England hymnwriters
People educated at Portora Royal School
19th-century Scottish Episcopalian priests
Scottish Episcopalian hymnwriters
Scottish evangelicals
Tuberculosis deaths in France
People from Kelso, Scottish Borders
19th-century English Anglican priests
Evangelical Anglican clergy

Henry Francis Lyte


The Dutch Treat Club is a society of illustrators, writers and performers based in New York City. Primarily social in nature, the club has had as members such leading literary figures and humorists as Robert Benchley, Rube Goldberg, Robert M. McBride, and Ogden Nash.

Founding
In 1905, Tuesday was the day of the week when Life Magazine's editors, such as  J. A. Mitchell reviewed the drawings and writings of their regular contributors.

Every Tuesday morning Life's anteroom would be thronged with clever illustrators chatting together sociably as they waited their turns to be ushered into the sanctum of "JAM", and writers waiting similarly for interviews with Thomas L. Masson, the literary editor. Since many of these contributors lived in the suburbs, it was natural that, being in town for the day, they should feel like having a good time in each other's company. And so the "gang" got the habit of lunching somewhere together, each paying for his own meal.

  Life contributors brought friends who had no connection with that magazine. Numbers grew till one Tuesday the bunch organized themselves officially as the Dutch Treat Club, with Masson as President.

The eleven founders included four writers, four illustrators, two editors and a publisher, among them:
James Montgomery Flagg, illustrator later famous for his Uncle Sam
Rupert Hughes
Julian Street
Ellis Parker Butler
Frank Ward O'Malley
Will Irwin
Wallace Irwin
George Barry Mallon, then city editor of the New York newspaper The Sun.

Past members
Richard C. Pionk
Eric Sloane
Lowell Thomas
Isaac Asimov
Clarence Budington Kelland
R.M. Brinkerhoff
Steven Dohanos, illustrator, Saturday Evening Post 1940-50

References

External links
Dutch Treat Club

Cultural history of New York City
Arts organizations based in New York City

Dutch Treat Club