Nicola Montani
Nicola A. Montani, KCSS (6 November 1880 in Utica – 11 January 1948 in Philadelphia) was a conductor, composer, arranger, and publisher of sacred music. In 1915 Montani cofounded the St. Gregory Guild and the Society of St. Gregory. In 1920, he published the famous St. Gregory Hymnal and Catholic Choir Book, containing mainly his own editions and compositions, similar to Oreste Ravanello's work. He was music director of Newark's Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, and professor of music at the Seminary of the Imaculate Conception. Later he lived in Philadelphia, working at Mater Misericordiae Academy (now the Merion Mercy Academy), the Melrose Academy (run by the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart), and the Academy of Mercy (now the Gwynedd Mercy Academy High School). Pope Pius XI made Montani a Knight Commander of St. Sylvester in 1926. In 1947, in recognition of his pioneering work in the field of sacred music, the Society of St. Gregory awarded him a gold plaque. Selected Compositions 

 O' Girls of the Hallahan High (1916), the alma mater of the J. W. Hallahan Catholic Girls High School. Ecce Sacerdos for organ
 Panis Angelicus for organ
 O Come and Mourn with Me, for choir

Publication
"Essentials in Sight Singing" - a modern method of Selfeggio, Book I, Parts One and Two of the Complete Work Fundamentals. Published by the C.C. Birchard & Company in Boston. ©1931, printed October 1936. Foreword by J. Lewis Browne. References

 Adoramus Bulletin: Online Edition, June 2004, Volume X, Number 4: Hymns, Hymnals, Composers and Choir schools: Philadelphia's Historic Contributions to Catholic Liturgical Music

External links
 
 
 

American performers of Christian music
American male composers
American composers
1880 births
1948 deaths
Composers awarded knighthoods
Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods
20th-century conductors (music)
20th-century American male musicians