Elizabeth Estelle White (4 December 1925 – 9 February 2011) was a British composer who wrote over 160 hymns, several Masses, and music for theatre.[1] White grew up in a musical family on
Tyneside, where she learned to play the piano, guitar, clarinet and tenor saxophone.[2] Her musical influences included
Duke Ellington,
Count Basie, and
musical theatre.[3] White's first works were composed during her years as a nun; some were published or copyrighted under the name Sister Estelle, though most were published under the name Estelle White.
World War II
White joined the
Auxiliary Territorial Service during
World War II, when she was 17, and played saxophone with a British army band on many ceremonial occasions, including the 1946 Victory Parade. She also travelled to entertain troops in the Central Mediterranean Force in
Palestine and
Egypt.
After World War II
After the war, White trained as a physiotherapist at Newcastle on Tyneside, and worked with children who had cerebral palsy. She acted, directed, painted scenery and composed music for productions at the People's Theatre in Newcastle before moving to
Ontario, Canada, for 18 months, where she joined the
Roman Catholic Church. White returned to
England in 1965 and became a nun, taking temporary vows with the Corpus Christi Carmelite Sisters. She trained at
Digby Stuart College in
Roehampton and qualified to teach theology and music.
1970–2011
White left the convent in 1970 and taught in Catholic schools in the north of England until she retired. She also wrote articles for the
Guardian newspaper and various women's magazines.[4] During this time, she studied Hebrew and Greek, earning an MA with Distinction from
Leeds University in 1989.[5] She directed the church choir at St Josephs,
Dewsbury, from 1984 until 1991.
White's hymn for harvest festival, "Autumn Days", is included in
Come and Praise. The hymn caused controversy in 1996, when choir members of the 12th-century St. Mary's Church in
Wroxham,
Norfolk, walked out rather than sing the hymn. They found the reference to "jet planes meeting in air to be refuelled," to be inappropriate.[6] White explained that she had written the hymn for the children at a school under a flight path to sing.
Many of White's compositions were published by McCrimmon Publishing Company. Her compositions include:
^"Hymnology". hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
^Hixon, Donald L. (1993). Women in music : an encyclopedic biobibliography. Hennessee, Don A. (2nd ed.). Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press.
ISBN0-8108-2769-7.
OCLC28889156.
^Cohen, Aaron I. (1987). International encyclopedia of women composers (Second edition, revised and enlarged ed.). New York.
ISBN0-9617485-2-4.
OCLC16714846.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
^"Estelle White". www.yorkshirepost.co.uk. Retrieved 9 September 2020.