Chope, Richard Robert

Author

(not in Praise! index), b Bideford, Devon 1830; d Wimbledon, Surrey 1928. Exeter Coll Oxford (BA, MA); ordained 1856, serving west country curacies in Stapleton, Sherborne, Upton Scudamore and Brompton, he trained Warminster singers for the first Choral Festival in Salisbury Cathedral. Moving to W London in 1865 he became incumbent of the parish of St Augustine’s Queen’s Gate, Kensington, where he stayed until 1916. In retirement he lived at St Leonards-on-Sea. He edited the Congregational Hymn and Tune Book in 1857 and 1862; in the same year as its 2nd edn he issued a new version of the BCP Canticles ‘Noted and Pointed’ (i.e. for chanting). He was an author, compiler and editor of many more hymn and carol books including Carols for Use in Church during Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension and Harvest (complete edn 1894) and the posthumously published Cornish Song Book (1929). The journals The Choir and Musical Record and The Literary Churchman owed much to his managerial and editorial work. He is sometimes recognised for his contribution to what came to be the accepted text of ‘Ye holy angels bright’; see notes. No.202.