Cassius Clement Stearns | |
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| Born | 23 August 1838 |
| Died | 7 August 1910 Sharon, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | composer, organist and music teacher |
| Known for | church music |
Cassius Clement Stearns was an American composer of church music. [1]
Cassius Clement Stearns | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | 23 August 1838 |
| Died | 7 August 1910 Sharon, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | composer, organist and music teacher |
| Known for | church music |
Cassius Clement Stearns was an American composer of church music. [1]
Stearns came from a musical family. [2] He was born on 23 August 1838 in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, the youngest child of Charles Stearns and Rebecca Green Stearns (née Robbins). [3] He married Gertrude Bottomly [4] of Leicester, Massachusetts, in Boston on 23 October 1872 (a few days before the Great Fire), the celebrant being the Revd. Phillips Brooks. [5] Stearns died on 7 August 1910 in Sharon, Massachusetts. [6]
Stearns showed early promise, playing the bass viol with the choir in the Ashburnham meeting house from childhood. [8] He studied the piano and organ with Professor Benjamin F. Leavens [9] and the cello with Wulf Fries, a member of the Mendelssohn Quintette Club. Starting his musical career in Ashburnham, [10] he moved to Worcester, Massachusetts in 1859, where he was active in the Worcester Music Festival. [11]
Stearns was organist and director in several church choirs. For three or four years from 1867 he was the organist of the Congregational (Unitarian) Church on Court Hill, for whose new pastor he composed an anthem Awake, put on thy strength in 1869. [12] On 4 July 1881 he played the organ at a packed Prayer Meeting at Mechanics Hall following the assassination of the President, James A. Garfield, [13] In 1890 he was the organist and director of music at the Pleasant Street Baptist church. [14] However, he was best known as a teacher and composer, particularly of church music, organ and piano studies and songs. [15] He is described as a music teacher in directories for Worcester between 1860 and 1893 [16] and taught instrumental music at the Oread Institute from 1864 to 1868. [17] Stearns left Worcester in 1893, but after brief spells in Santa Barbara, California and Asheville, North Carolina returned to Massachusetts. [18]
Stearns' numerous compositions included several settings of the Mass and of Vespers including the Magnificat. [19] Other compositions included a Te Deum in G [20] and settings of the Tantum Ergo, O Salutaris Hostia, Regina Coeli and Salve Regina. [21] These were warmly received when first performed, [22] including at the Mechanics Hall, [23] but were later criticized for their 'operatic' style [24] and included on the 'black list' of disapproved music issued after the Motu proprio of Pope Pius X on Sacred Music. [25] Stearns' settings have accordingly been little used since the early 20th century, but interest in them is now reviving. [26] His church anthems, sacred songs, organ voluntaries and a hymnal that he edited were published by White, Smith & Company. [27] Stearns' song The Parish Sexton was dedicated to the operatic comedian Henry Clay Barnabee, who started his career by singing in Boston churches before founding The Bostonians acting troupe. [28]
Stearns' output was summarized in 1890 as follows: "Model Anthems is the title of a new work for quartets and chorus choirs, by Mr. C. C. Stearns, and although only recently published, it is already meeting with a most substantial recognition by some of the best choirs in this city, as well as those in many of the country towns. Choir masters and singers are much interested in the music, which is adapted to the wants and capacities of the most cultivated choirs, and also to those of average ability. Mr. Stearns has also recently published his Easter cantata for Sunday schools, a worthy companion to his Christmas cantata. His masses in D and F, vespers in B flat and G, two masses for children's voices, entitled, Mass of the Angel Guardian and Children's Festival Mass are standard works in Catholic churches throughout the country, and two choice vocal duets, Is Life Worth Living and Hope Abides Forever for concert or church purposes, together with a trio, Father in Heaven, have met with a cordial reception from singers who are on the lookout for something new and interesting. Mr. Stearns's profession as a teacher of the piano and organ has led him to write some available compositions for these instruments and Glad Hours and Loving Hearts' Gavotte are among the most popular piano pieces. For the organ he has written two excellent books which organ students appreciate, [29] also an illustration for the organ, Contemplation [30] founded on the motto: 'An ever-pervading mystery broods over the universe and the soul of man, at times weird and solemn and again calm and reposeful, full of tender memories like a benediction of peace.' All of Mr. Stearns' compositions are published by the White, Smith Music company, of Boston, and the above named are a few of the most prominent ones." [31]
There is a pastoral quality to Stearns' music, as illustrated by the evocative bird song effects in the organ part of Beatus Vir in his Vespers in G. [32] A contemporary wrote that "Mr. Stearns has given an apt expression of his love for his native town and a sensitive appreciation of its scenic attractions, in several musical compositions, suggested by, and dedicated to the mountains and lakes of the landscape." [33]
The Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held annually at the end of July, rotating among the cathedrals of the Three Counties and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme. The large-scale choral repertoire is now performed by the Festival Chorus, but the festival also features other major ensembles and international soloists. The 2011 festival took place in Worcester from 6 to 13 August. The 2012 festival in Hereford took place earlier than usual, from 21 to 28 July, to avoid clashing with the 2012 Summer Olympics. The event is now established in the last week of July. The 300th anniversary of the original Three Choirs Festival was celebrated during the 2015 festival, which took place from 25 July to 1 August in Hereford (the landmark 300th meeting of the Three Choirs does not fall until after 2027 due to there being no Three Choirs Festivals for the duration of both World War I and World War II and COVID-19. The 2023 Festival will take place in Gloucester from 22 to 29 July.
Sir Stephen John Cleobury was an English organist and music director. He worked with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, where he served as music director from 1982 to 2019, and with the BBC Singers.
Herbert Whitton Sumsion was an English musician who was organist of Gloucester Cathedral from 1928 to 1967. Through his leadership role with the Three Choirs Festival, Sumsion maintained close associations with major figures in England's 20th-century musical renaissance, including Edward Elgar, Herbert Howells, Gerald Finzi, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Although Sumsion is known primarily as a cathedral musician, his professional career spanned more than 60 years and encompassed composing, conducting, performing, accompanying, and teaching. His compositions include works for choir and organ, as well as lesser-known chamber and orchestral works.
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Sir Ivor Algernon Atkins was the choirmaster and organist at Worcester Cathedral from 1897 to 1950, and a friend of and collaborator with Edward Elgar. He is remembered for editing Allegri's Miserere with the famous top-C part for the treble. He is also well known for "The Three Kings", an arrangement of a song by Peter Cornelius. Atkins was also a composer of songs, church music, service settings and anthems.
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Kile Smith is an American composer of choral, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music. The Arc in the Sky with The Crossing received a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance, and the Canticle CD by Cincinnati's Vocal Arts Ensemble helped win the 2020 Classical Producer of the Year Grammy for Blanton Alspaugh. A Black Birch in Winter, which includes Smith's Where Flames a Word, won the 2020 Estonian Recording of the Year for Voces Musicales.
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