Charles Villiers Stanford

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford is a Compositeur Irish, born the September 30th 1852 with Dublin and deceased the March 29th 1924 with London

Biography

Wire of an eminent lawyer to the chancellery of Dublin, Stanford is high in a musical medium where his/her two parents are senior musicians; his/her father is interested more particularly in the song while his/her mother is pianist. He studies the organ and the composition at Robert Stewart. Its early talents were reported in an article of the Musical Times of December 1898.

It goes to London in 1862 to study with Arthur O' Leary and Ernst Pauer, before arriving in 1870 at the prestigious Queens' College of Cambridge, then with the Trinity College in 1873 when he is in particular organist until 1892. Its nomination at the musical position of director of the company of the university of Cambridge offers an unquestionable notoriety to him.

Between 1874 and 1877, it spends a few weeks of studies in Germany in order to perfect its technique of composition with Carl Reinecke and Friedrich Kiel, before obtaining its university degrees in Cambridge. It meets the violonist Joseph Joachim and the leader Hans von Bülow who will support it with constancy.

Engaged as professor of composition to the Royal College off Music in 1883, he becomes also chief of the Bach Choir of 1886 to 1902, professor of music in Cambridge, as from 1887. He is also chief of the Philharmonic orchestra of Leeds of 1897 to 1909, as well as festival of Leeds of 1901 to 1910.

Among his pupils, one finds the type-setters Arthur Bliss, Herbert Howells, John Ireland, Gustav Holst, George Dyson, Ernest John Moeran, Rebecca Clarke and the leader Eugene Goossens.

With Hubert Parry and especially Edward Elgar, it is one of the type-setters emblematic of the period victorienne.

Principal works

Orchestral works

Symphony n° 1 in major B flat (1876-1877)
Symphony n° 2 in minor D, " Elegiac"
Symphony n° 3 in minor F, " Irish" , COp 28 (1887)
Symphony n° 4 in F, COp 31 (1889)
Symphony n° 5 in D, " The allegro ED it penseroso" , COp 56 (1894)
Symphony n° 6 in E flat, COp 94 (1905)
Symphony n° 7 in minor D, COp 124 (1912)

Concerting works

Concerto for violin in major D, COp 74 (1899)
Continuation for violin, COp 32 (1888)
Concerto for piano n° 1 in G major, COp 59 (1894)
Concerto for clarinet, COp 80
Concerto for piano n° 2 in minor C, COp 126 (1911-1915)
Variations on English topics (" Down among the Dead Men") for piano and orchestra, COp 71 (1898)
Concerto for clarinet in the minor, COp 80 (1902-1903)
Konzertstück for organ and orchestra, COp 181 (1921)

Irish rhapsodies

Irish Rhapsody n° 1 in minor D, COp 78 " dedicated to Hans Richter "
Irish Rhapsody n° 2 in minor F, COp 84 " Ossian"
Irish Rhapsody n° 3 for violoncello, COp 137 (1913)
Irish Rhapsody n° 4 in the minor, COp 141 (1913)
Irish Rhapsody n° 5 (1917)
Irish Rhapsody n° 6 for violin, COp 191 (1922)

Operas

Its first outstanding composition is the incidental music made up in 1876 according to the Queen Mary of Alfred Tennyson.

The Veiled Prophet (the buckled Prophet of Khorasan, Hanover 1881)
Savonarola (1884, Hamburg 1884)
The Canterbury Pilgrims (Pilgrims of Canterbury, Drury Lane 1884)
Shamus O' Brien (Comic Opera 1896)
Christopher Patch (1897)
Much Teenager Butt Nothing (Covent Garden 1901)
The Critic (London 1916)
The Dolly Companion , in 4 acts (Liverpool 1925)

Works choral societies

Nowadays, Stanford is particularly known for its works choral societies. One can quote two Oratorio S, a Requiem (1897), a Stabat MATER (1907) but also of shorter profane works such The Revenge (1886), The Voyage off Maeldune (1889), Songs off the Sea (1904) and Songs off the Fleet (1910).

The made up music for the Church Anglican is played still much.

Anthems and motets

And I Saw Another Angel , COp 37 n° 1
For lo, I raise up , COp 145
Yew Thou Shalt Confess , COp 37 n° 2
The Lord is my Shepherd (1886)
Latin Three Motets , COp 38

Justorum animae
Coelos ascendit hodie
Beati quorum via

Music for the offices

Jubilate Deo and Te Deum in B flat, COp 10
Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in, COp 12
Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in B flat, COp 10
Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in C, COp 115
Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in D for chorus (1923)
Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in E flat (1873)
Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in F, COp 36
Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in F (Queens' Service) (1872)
Magnificat and Nunc dimittis " Grégorien" (1907)

Others

The Blue Bird
Magnificat in B flat for double chorus
Lord's Prayer Noster (1874)

External bonds

Article on the third symphony
Article on its string quartets

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