Beati Quorum Via - Music

Beati Quorum Via by Charles Villiers Stanford

Charles Villiers Stanford

Artist Biography For Charles Villiers Stanford

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford September 30 1852 – 29 March 1924 Was An Irish Composer. Stanford Was Born In Dublin The Only Son Of John Stanford Examiner In The Court Of Chancery Dublin And Clerk Of The Crown County Meath. Both Parents Were Accomplished Amateur Musicians His Father Sang Bass And His Mother Was A Pianist. Charles Trained Under R. M. Levey Violin Miss Meeke Mrs Joseph Robinson Miss Flynn And Michael Quarry Piano And Sir Robert Stewart Taught Him Composition And Organ. His Precocious Ability Was Recorded In An Article In The Musical Times In December 1898. He Came To London As A Pupil Of Arthur O'Leary And Ernst Pauer In 1862 And In 1870 Won A Scholarship To Queens' College Cambridge Moving To Trinity College In 1873 And Succeeding J. L. Hopkins As College Organist A Post He Held Until 1892. His Appointment As Conductor Of The Cambridge University Musical Society Gave Him Great Opportunities And The Fame Which The Society Soon Obtained Was In The Main Due To Stanford's Energies. At That Time Women Were Not Allowed In The Chorus But During His Tenure Many Interesting Performances And Revivals Took Place. From 1874 To 1877 He Was Given Leave Of Absence For Part Of Each Year To Complete His Studies In Germany Where He Studied With Carl Reinecke And Friedrich Kiel. He Took His BA Degree In 1874 And MA In 1878 And Was Given The Honorary Degree Of D.Mus. At Oxford In 1883 And At Cambridge In 1888. He First Became Known As A Composer With His Incidental Music To Tennyson's Queen Mary Lyceum 1876 And In 1881 His First Opera The Veiled Prophet Was Given At Hanover Revived At Covent Garden 1893 This Was Succeeded By Savonarola Hamburg April And Covent Garden July 1884 And The Canterbury Pilgrims Drury Lane 1884 . A Long Interval Separates These From His Later Operas Shamus O'Brien A Delightful Piece Of Irish Dramatic Writing Opera Comique 1896 Much Ado About Nothing Covent Garden 1901 The Critic Shaftesbury Theatre London 1916 And The Travelling Companion David Lewis Theatre Liverpool 1925 . He Was Appointed Professor Of Composition At The Royal College Of Music In 1883 Was Conductor Of The Bach Choir From 1886 To 1902 Was Professor Of Music At Cambridge Succeeding Sir G. A. Macfarren From 1887 Conductor Of The Leeds Philharmonic Society From 1897 To 1909 And Of The Leeds Festival From 1901 To 1910. He Was Knighted In 1902. Stanford Was Particularly Known In His Day For His Choral Works Chiefly Commissioned For Performances At The Great English Provincial Festivals. These Include Two Oratorios A Requiem 1897 A Stabat Mater 1907 And Many Secular Works Often With A Nautical Theme Including The Revenge 1886 The Voyage Of Maeldune 1889 Songs Of The Sea 1904 And Songs Of The Fleet 1910 . His Church Music Still Holds A Central Place Among Anglican Compositions And His Editions Of Irish And Other Traditional Songs Were Well Known. His Instrumental Works Include Seven Symphonies Six Irish Rhapsodies For Orchestra Several Works For Organ Concertos For Violin Clarinet And Piano And Many Chamber Compositions Including Eight String Quartets. He Also Composed Songs Part-Songs Madrigals And Incidental Music To The Eumenides And Oedipus Rex As Performed At Cambridge As Well As To Tennyson's Becket. His Music Shows The Influence Of Brahms And Schumann And To A Lesser Extent Of Irish Folk Music He Was Generally Unsympathetic To More Modern Developments. Although There Has Recently Been A Revival Of Interest In His Larger Works After A Long Period Of Neglect His Chief Importance Is Often Held To Be As A Teacher Of Many English Composers Of The Next Generation Including Holst Vaughan Williams Frank Bridge Samuel Coleridge-Taylor And Herbert Howells. He Was Notoriously Irascible And Quarrelled With Many Of His Contemporaries Including Elgar Sullivan And Parry. He Published Several Books Including An Autobiography Pages From An Unwritten Diary 1914 . This Article Incorporates Text From The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition A Publication Now In The Public Domain.