John Barnard (musician)
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John Barnard was born in 1948. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) and an active developer of church music as a composer, arranger, choir director and organist in North West London, England. He is on the Council of the Hymn Society and has been active in helping to assemble such publications as Hymns for Today's Church, Carols for Today and Psalms for Today. He has been Director of Music at a series of high profile churches and has lately held that post for John Keble Church at Mill Hill.
His musical activities are his hobby. He worked for 28 years at the John Lyon School, Harrow teaching German, and since 2002 he has taught part-time at Aldenham School, Elstree and The Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith.
He has written music and arrangements for hymns and a number of arrangements for spirituals. Arguably, his most famous work is his hymn tune, Guiting Power, which is gaining popularity in services and usually provides the music for Michael Saward's hymn Christ triumphant, ever reigning as hymn no. 336 in Hope's new Worship and Rejoice hymnal (2001) and Hymn No. 173 in Hymns for Today's Church Second Edition (1987).
John has been involved in directing the music for BBC Radio 2's Sunday Half Hour. In (2006) he was a judge for a BBC hymn writing competition, where he composed the tunes (Kirknewton and Gowanbank) for two of the winning entries.
The vast majority of John Barnard's hymn tunes are named after villages/towns in the United Kingdom, for example Guiting Power is a village in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire.
His compositions are represented in the USA and Canada by the Hope Publishing Company and in the United Kingdom by Jubilate Hymns and Oxford University Press.
