Born to a musical family, Goss was a boy chorister of the Chapel Royal, London, and later a pupil of Thomas Attwood, organist of St Paul's Cathedral.

Three years later he went to London under the care of his uncle, John Jeremiah Goss, an alto singer who sang in the choirs of the Chapel Royal, St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.

[2] The master of the choir at that time was John Stafford Smith, a musician known for composing the song To Anacreon in Heaven, later used as the tune of the American national anthem.

[2] One of Goss's early compositions was a "Negro Song" (1819) for three voices, scored for a small orchestra (strings, flutes, oboes, clarinets, and two horns).

[3] Another was a romantic song, "Wert thou like me," to words by Walter Scott,[2] which Goss dedicated to his fiancée, Lucy Emma Nerd (1800–1895), whom he married in 1821.

[3][4] In 1821 Goss married his fiancée Lucy Emma New, and secured an appointment as an organist, at Stockwell Chapel (later known as St. Andrew's Church), in south London.

[7] His biographer Judith Blezzard describes Goss as "a distinguished and painstaking teacher, and a tasteful and virtuoso performer on the organ, creating marvellous effects on the then comparatively rudimentary instrument.

"[4] In 1833 Goss entered his anthem, "Have mercy upon me, O God," in the Gresham Prize Medal competition for the best original composition in sacred vocal music.

His pupil, John Stainer, wrote, "That Goss was a man of religious life was patent to all who came into contact with him, but an appeal to the general effect of his sacred compositions offers public proof of the fact.

[12] Those new anthems were "If we believe that Jesus died" and "And the King said"; the latter being written so that it moved seamlessly into Handel's Dead March in Saul, a combination which Prince Albert reported "had made everyone weep".

He later recalled the occasion on which he and the young Arthur Sullivan succumbed to laughter when Goss absent-mindedly walked across the pedals of the organ during a service "before he realised that he was the cause of the alarming thunderings which were frightening the congregation and putting a temporary pause in the sermon.

By 1872 he had decided to retire, and his swan-song at St Paul's was in February of that year at the national service of thanksgiving for the recovery of the Prince of Wales from a grave illness.

They quote a contemporary as saying that Goss's music "is always melodious and beautifully written for the voices, and is remarkable for a union of solidity and grace, with a certain unaffected native charm.

"[17] Judith Blezzard, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, writes: Goss was one of the most important early Victorian church composers, his anthems and services being most notable for their flexibility of phrasing, attention to detail in word-setting, and sense of proportion and balance.

… Some of his anthems, including "The Wilderness" (1861), "O taste and see" (1863), and "O saviour of the world" (1869), have held a modest but enduring place in the repertory of English church music.

[4]Blezzard adds that Goss is chiefly remembered for his two most famous hymn tunes: "Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven" (1869) and "See, Amid the Winter's Snow" (1871).

[4] In the Dictionary of National Biography in 1890, J A Fuller Maitland wrote, "The best of Goss's works are distinguished by much grace and sweetness, underlying which is a solid foundation of theoretic and contrapuntal science.

Among Goss's works, Fuller Maitland singled out for particular praise the glee "Ossian's Hymn to the Sun", and the anthems "The Wilderness," "O taste and see," and "O Saviour of the World".