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Allen Orton Gibbs

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Allen Orton Gibbs (1910-1996) was an American composer, pianist, and organist.

Born in Addison, Alabama, she grew up in Pratt City, Alabama, where she began her musical studies with Hattie Whorton and Corrie Handley Rice. She attended Howard College and the Birmingham Conservatory of Music, now Birmingham-Southern College, where she studied piano with Frances and Dorsey Whittington. She taught at the Conservatory while still a student, and she completed her Bachelor of Music degree there in 1935. Following her graduation, she continued to teach piano and theory at the Conservatory, and she began her organ studies with Minnie McNeill Carr. Miss Orton (described as a “brilliant young pianist” by a contemporary account in the Birmingham News[1]) was active as a solo pianist and chamber music performer in Birmingham. In 1937, she began an eight year tenure as organist at Birmingham’s Highlands Methodist Church. She later became organist at McCoy Methodist Church, a position she held for more than 20 years. She also taught organ at Birmingham-Southern College, assisting Sam Batt Owens with his large classes of organ majors and minors. She taught private students as well, including a young blind pianist for whom she learned Braille notation.

Her work as a composer began while at McCoy. In 1949, she jotted down some variations on the folk tune “I wonder as I wander” and played them on at least two occasions in succeeding years. She also began improvising preludes and postludes, listing the improvisations in the church bulletins with generic titles and using the pseudonym “Westlane.” In the mid-1950’s, Mrs. Gibbs collaborated with Hugh Thomas in composing a suite for two pianos in commemoration of the centennial of Birmingham-Southern College. At the request of the two-piano team of Barbara Thomas and Lois Green Seals, she wrote a short work for two pianos, an arrangement of the Scottish folk song “Turn ye to me.” The choir director at McCoy Methodist Church, Raymond Anderson, who was also the choral director at Birmingham-Southern College, asked Mrs. Gibbs for an arrangement of “Amazing Grace.” The resulting piece has been performed by the College’s choirs regularly for more than fifty years, and was later recorded by the Birmingham-Southern Concert Choir, directed by Hugh Thomas. (The piece is now available from St. James Music Press[2] in the authorized edition prepared by James H. Cook.)

In addition to her organ works, Mrs. Gibbs’s compositions include hymns, solo songs, numerous choral anthems, and pieces for handbell choir. Her choral works were published by Augsburg-Fortress, Abingdon Press, Broadman Press, Mark Foster, Alderpoint Press, and most are now available from St. James Music Press. Her complete organ compositions are published by Zimbel Press[3]. She composed a number of commissioned choral works, including anthems for The Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham; Canterbury United Methodist Church, Birmingham; The Concert Choir of Birmingham-Southern College; The Birmingham Boys’ Choir; The Indian Springs School Glee Club; South Highlands Presbyterian Church, Birmingham; St. Mary’s-on-the-Highlands Episcopal Church, Birmingham; St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Birmingham; First Presbyterian Church, Selma; and Memorial Presbyterian Church, Montgomery. Mrs. Gibbs was a member and former dean of the Birmingham Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. She was a member of the National Society of Arts and Letters, the P.E.O. Sisterhood, and the Bush Hills Music Club, which each year presents a scholarship in her honor. In 1987, she was named to the Music Gallery of Honor of Birmingham-Southern College, and in 1989, Birmingham-Southern College honored her with the Distinguished Alumna Award.


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  1. Birmingham News, Feb. 16, 1937
  2. "St. James Music Press -- Allen Orton Gibbs". St. James Music Press.
  3. "Zimbel Press -- Allen Orton Gibbs". imbel.com. Retrieved 2016-02-13.