WARD, SAMUEL A.
(1847–1903)
SAMUEL A. WARD (Born in Newark, New Jersey, 1847 — Died in Newark, 1903) An American composer of the latter part of the nineteenth century, Ward’s only lasting composition is “Materna,” a hymn tune published in 1892 in the Episcopal Hymnal. The melody was composed ca. 1882 as a setting for a hymn (set of words) written a century or more prior to that time, the text of which begins “O Mother Dear, Jerusalem.” Ward’s music survives today because of a marriage of his melody to the poetry of…