George Oldroyd (1 December 1886, Healey, West Riding of Yorkshire, England –26 February 1951, London, England) was an English organist, composer of organ and choral music, and a teacher of Anglican church music. [1]
Oldroyd studied with the organist and composer Arthur Eaglefield Hull and took violin lessons from Johann Rasch and Frank Arnold. [2] He graduated with a B.Mus (1912) and D.Mus (1917) at the University of London. [3] In the middle of his studying he spent a year in Paris as the organist of St George's English Church. [4]
He was organist of St. Alban's Church, Holborn from 1919 to 1920, and then of St Michael's Church, Croydon from 1920 until his death in 1951. Both are churches firmly rooted within the Anglo-Catholic tradition in the Church of England. In the 1920s he taught at Trinity College, London, and from 1933-1948 was Director of Music at Whitgift School in Croydon. From 1944 he was Dean of the Faculty of Music at London University, becoming King Edward Professor of Music from 1951, succeeding Stanley Marchant. [5]
He composed numerous settings of the mass, but is best remembered for his Mass of the Quiet Hour composed in 1928, whose swooping melodies and lush harmonies recall the "Palm Court" style of that era. It was dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang, in whose diocese St. Michael's at that time lay, and is still part of the repertoire of many English cathedrals and parish churches. There is also a large scale Stabat Mater (1922), and Jhesu Christ, St Mary's Sone: A Spiritual Rhapsody (1931) for voices and orchestra. [6] This piece was successfully revived by Harrison Oxley at Bury St Edmunds in 2001. [7] There is a recording of the anthem When Jordan hushed his waters still by the choir of Leeds Parish Church. [8]
His organ works are mostly short. The earlier pieces, published by Augener, include Contemplation (1913), the Prelude in F sharp minor (1914), Lune de Miel (1919, a wedding piece with the title a play on the words 'Honey Moon'), Canticle (Deus Miseratur) (1919), Three Hymn Tune Meditations (1924), and the Phantasy: Prelude and Chorale (1924, using the chorale melody 'Nun danket'). From the 1930s OUP was his publisher for organ works, including the Three Liturgical Preludes (1938) and the Three Liturgical Improvisations (1948). [1] Other works include the part song, 'Lute book lullaby' and pieces for piano and for violin. [3]
Oldroyd was an authority on counterpoint, and published The Technique And Spirit Of Fugue: An Historical Study in 1948 [9] and Polyphonic Writing for Voices in 6 and 8 Parts in 1953. [10] He was also the co-author of a manual on plainchant accompaniment, with Charles William Pearce (1856–1928). [11]
Johann Pachelbel was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ schools to their peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most important composers of the middle Baroque era.
Maurice Gustave Duruflé was a French composer, organist, musicologist, and teacher.
Samuel Scheidt was a German composer, organist and teacher of the early Baroque era.
In music, a chorale prelude or chorale setting is a short liturgical composition for organ using a chorale tune as its basis. It was a predominant style of the German Baroque era and reached its culmination in the works of J.S. Bach, who wrote 46 examples of the form in his Orgelbüchlein, along with multiple other works of the type in other collections.
Chorale settings refer to a wide variety of musical compositions, almost entirely of Protestant origin, which use a chorale as their basis. A chorale is a simple melody, often based on Gregorian chant, written for congregations to sing hymns. Chorale settings can be vocal, instrumental, or both.
James Healey Willan was an English and Canadian organist and composer. He composed more than 800 works including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and piano. He is best known for his church music.
The organ repertoire is considered to be the largest and oldest repertory of all musical instruments. Because of the organ's prominence in worship in Western Europe from the Middle Ages on, a significant portion of organ repertoire is sacred in nature. The organ's suitability for improvisation by a single performer is well adapted to this liturgical role and has allowed many blind organists to achieve fame; it also accounts for the relatively late emergence of written compositions for the instrument in the Renaissance. Although instruments are still disallowed in most Eastern churches, organs have found their way into a few synagogues as well as secular venues where organ recitals take place.
Paul Otto Manz, was an American composer for choir and organ. His most famous choral work is the Advent motet "E'en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come", which has been performed at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge, though its broadcast by the neighbouring Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, in its Advent Carol Service precipitated its popularity.
The Orgelbüchlein BWV 599−644 is a set of 46 chorale preludes for organ — one of them is given in two versions — by Johann Sebastian Bach. All but three were written between 1708 and 1717 when Bach served as organist to the ducal court in Weimar; the remainder and a short two-bar fragment came no earlier than 1726, after the composer’s appointment as cantor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig.
Leo Salkeld Sowerby was an American composer and church musician. He won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1946 and was often called the “Dean of American church music” in the early to mid 20th century. His many students included Florence Price and Ned Rorem.
Sir Ivor Algernon Atkins was the choirmaster and organist at Worcester Cathedral from 1897 to 1950, as well as a composer of songs, church music, service settings and anthems. He is best known 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 as a choral work for Epiphany.
Patrick Larley is a British composer.
Hendrik Franciscus Andriessen was a Dutch composer and organist. He is remembered most of all for his improvisation at the organ and for the renewal of Catholic liturgical music in the Netherlands. Andriessen composed in a musical idiom that revealed strong French influences. He was the brother of pianist and composer Willem Andriessen and the father of the composers Jurriaan Andriessen and Louis Andriessen and of the flautist Heleen Andriessen.
The Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes, BWV 651–668, are a set of chorale preludes for organ prepared by Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig in his final decade (1740–1750), from earlier works composed in Weimar, where he was court organist. The works form an encyclopedic collection of large-scale chorale preludes, in a variety of styles harking back to the previous century, that Bach gradually perfected during his career. Together with the Orgelbüchlein, the Schübler Chorales, the third book of the Clavier-Übung and the Canonic Variations, they represent the summit of Bach's sacred music for solo organ.
Alfred Melville Cook was a British organist, conductor, composer and teacher.
"Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" is a Lutheran chorale of 1524 with words written by Martin Luther, based on "Veni redemptor gentium" by Ambrose, and a melody, Zahn 1174, based on its plainchant. It was printed in the Erfurt Enchiridion of 1524.
Arthur Eaglefield Hull was an English music critic, writer, composer and organist. He was the founder of the British Music Society.
Camil Anton Johan Van Hulse was a Belgian-American pianist, organist, teacher, and composer.
A chorale is the name of several related musical forms originating in the music genre of the Lutheran chorale:
Dom Gregory Murray OSB was a British monk of Downside Abbey, and an organist and composer. His over-riding interest as a musician was to provide music that would enhance the Roman Catholic liturgy.