John Stainer
Sir John Stainer (6 June 1840 – 31 March 1901) was an English composer and organist whose music, though seldom performed today (with the exception of
Stainer was born in Southwark, London, in 1840, the son of a schoolmaster. He became a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral when aged ten and was appointed to the position of organist at St Michael's College, Tenbury, at the age of sixteen. He later became organist at Magdalen College, Oxford, and subsequently organist at St Paul's Cathedral. When he retired owing to his poor eyesight and deteriorating health, he returned to Oxford to become Professor of Music at the university. He died unexpectedly while on holiday in Italy in 1901.
Early years
John Stainer was the eighth of nine children born to William Stainer and his wife Ann (née Collier) on 6 June 1840. At least three of the children died in infancy, and John was much younger than his brother, William, and his three sisters, Ann, Sarah and Mary.
In 1849, after a year's probation, young Stainer became a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral. He was already an accomplished player on keyboard instruments and possessed perfect pitch and a fine treble voice and soon became the choir's principal soloist.
In 1854, he was invited to sing in the first English performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion under William Sterndale Bennett at the Hanover Square Rooms. He travelled each day between his home in Streatham and the cathedral by steamboat. The choristers were required to sing for services at 9:30 a.m. and 3:15 p.m. In between these times the choristers were instructed in Latin, arithmetic, writing and other subjects, and Stainer probably received a much better education there than he would have done had he been educated at the local elementary school.[3] A house in the cathedral's present choir school has since been named after him. He received organ lessons at St. Sepulchre's Church, Holborn from George Cooper, assistant organist at St Paul's Cathedral under John Goss. At this time he might have met future composer Arthur Sullivan, his junior by two years. Certainly the two young men later became friends and undertook activities together on half-holidays.[4]
In 1855, he was offered a six-month contract as organist at
At the age of sixteen, Stainer was appointed by Sir
Ouseley was an antiquarian and had an extensive library. He was much interested in the history of music and acted as Stainer's mentor. Under his guidance, Stainer became the youngest ever successful candidate for the Bachelor of Music degree at Oxford.[8] For this, Stainer wrote a cantata, Praise the Lord, O my soul, with text from Psalm 103. Its traditional style was designed to appeal to the examining board and sounds stilted when set against his later works. About this time he wrote several anthems, the most successful of which was I saw the Lord, a bolder and more original work in a more contemporary idiom.[9]
Magdalen College
In 1860 he became organist at Magdalen College, Oxford, initially for a period of six months, at a salary of £120 per year. His duties included playing for services, training the choir and leading them on Fridays, a day on which the organ was not used. A new organ had been installed five years earlier that was ideal for developing his talent. He proved satisfactory in the post, and his contract was made permanent. He was permitted to study for a degree as long as it did not interfere with his duties, and he chose to do so in the expectation that it would raise his social status. He gained his BA in 1864 and his MA two years later and was keen to proceed to his Mus Doc, which would raise his standing within the university.[10]
Unfailingly conscientious as a choirmaster, Stainer introduced new anthems and service music, bringing the choir to a higher level of attainment than it had previously seen.[11] It had been the custom for the adult choir members, the lay clerks, not to attend practice at all; but Stainer had a magnetic personality and persuaded them to come. Their more regular attendance enabled the repertoire to be enlarged. Stainer's skill on the organ was much respected, and he was regarded as "the finest organist Oxford had seen in many generations".[12] The vice chancellor, Francis Jeune, was an admirer and in 1861 appointed Stainer to the prestigious post of University Organist at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. Here he was expected to play for a service every Sunday (at a later time in the morning than the Magdalen service).[12]
At this time he was composing liturgical music and developing his musical style. There were several anthems and two more technically assured multi-sectioned verse anthems, "Drop down, ye heavens from above" and "They were lovely and pleasant in their lives". His routine included two services daily, rehearsals, lectures, tutorials, attendance at Ouseley's lectures, and visits home to Southwark in the vacations. He must have performed his duties with diligence as his salary was raised by £10 a year and after 1862 he received an allowance towards his rent.[13]
Stainer was also conductor of the Magdalen Madrigal Society, which gave concerts in the College Hall, and the Magdalen Vagabonds, which performed during vacations. The latter gave concerts in various towns and cities and raised money for church restoration. He wrote some
After Stainer had obtained his doctorate, Ouseley enrolled him as an examiner for Oxford musical degrees. In this capacity Stainer met and later became friends with
Stainer was interested in the history of music and traditional folk songs. He encouraged contralto, composer, and festival organizer Mary Augusta Wakefield, who shared this interest.There was a revived interest in carols at the time, and he rediscovered old carols, provided new settings for others and introduced contemporary works. Many of his harmonisations are still in use today. He published a volume Christmas Carols New and Old which was a considerable success, with thousands of copies sold. He followed this up with another edition the following year to which he persuaded Arthur Sullivan to contribute. He also composed several hymn tunes, and some of these are still to be found in Anglican hymnals, with "Love divine, all loves excelling" being popular at wedding services.[17] Other parish music followed with a congregational Te Deum in C which was regularly sung at Magdalen on Sundays and a verse anthem "Sing a song of praise". Two more substantial anthems, intended for use in cathedrals, were "Lead kindly light" composed in 1868, followed by "Awake, awake, put on thy strength" in 1871. He also produced two evening canticles and a comprehensive set of music for morning, communion and evening services. He had also been working for a long time on his first theoretical work, A Theory of Harmony Founded on the Tempered Scale, published by Novello in 1871.[18]
St Paul's Cathedral
In 1871, Goss resigned as organist of St Paul's Cathedral and Stainer was appointed to the position early in 1872 at a salary of £400 per annum. By this time he had been married for seven years and had five children with another due shortly. The organ was in the process of being rebuilt, by the organ builder Henry Willis to Stainer's design, with portions on either side of the entrance to the choir stalls.[19] Around this time he was asked to help revise Hymns Ancient and Modern, a task he did with enthusiasm.[20] At St Paul's, he soon set about reinvigorating the choir. The appointment of vicars choral was for life, and the tenor and bass voices saw no need for rehearsal, meaning that the repertoire was static. Stainer was able to change their attitude, and new anthems and liturgies were introduced, a choir school built, and the number of choristers increased from twelve to thirty-five. When William Sparrow Simpson was appointed Succentor, the raising of standards continued, and St Paul's Cathedral became the focus of religious ceremony in the capital, including state occasions, ceremonial events, memorial services and the funerals of the great and famous.[21] A peal of twelve bells was installed in 1878.[22]
Further appointments followed. Stainer became an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 1877 and an examiner for the Doctor of Music degree at Cambridge and London Universities. He accepted the post of musical director of the Madrigal Society of London. He was particularly honoured to be asked to be a juror at the French Exhibition in Paris in 1878 and in 1880 was an adjudicator at the Welsh Eisteddfod at Caernarvon.[23] He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1879.[24]
In 1882, Stainer was offered the post of Inspector of Music in Schools and Colleges, a position he took with great seriousness and which he occupied for six years. His assistant was William Gray McNaught. Together they worked towards raising standards in music teaching and toured the country, visiting schools and colleges and examining candidates. Stainer advocated the use of musical notation and tonic sol-fa rather than the learning-by-ear method previously used. He was by now treated with the greatest respect in musical circles, but his many activities diminished the time available for composition.[25] The flow of new anthems and service music slowed down, but in 1883 he completed his oratorio Mary Magdalen. This was followed in 1887 by The Crucifixion, the work for which he is most remembered.[26]
In 1885, he was awarded an honorary degree by
Retirement
Following a childhood accident, Stainer had lost the use of one eye. There is some confusion about this and he may merely have had a lazy eye, but for a brief period in 1875 he feared he was losing the sight of the other eye. This proved not to be the case, but he suffered from eye strain and impairment to his vision for much of his life. This was a major reason for his decision to retire from St Paul's Cathedral in 1888,[28] while still in his forties. As Bumpus was to write, "Such honours as are at the disposal of his fellow musicians have been freely showered upon him, for he is universally beloved and esteemed, but his many onerous duties, his organistship of this, his presidency of that, and his incessant hard work as an examiner, have all involved responsibility and constant application, and the result is that his sight and general health have given way under the severe strain of sheer hard work."[29]
In later life, he and his wife took to travelling to the
Lady Stainer was devastated by his death and went into mourning for a year, but as she confided to a friend, the pianist Francesco Berger, "I am thankful he has been spared long illness and the weariness of old age, which he always dreaded".[31] She gave a memorial stained glass window to St Cross Church and arranged for a monument to be erected at Magdalen College. Her husband's valuable library of antiquarian music books passed to his elder son, J F R Stainer, who allowed its use for study and research purposes. The collection was sold to an American collector in 1932 who, on his death in 1973, had it bequeathed to the Bodleian Library, where it remains. Lady Stainer died in 1916 leaving six children. She is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, beside her husband.[31]
Legacy
Stainer's output of sacred music was extensive, including the
His work as a composer was much esteemed during his lifetime but is not well known today - and Stainer himself was dismissive of his own work, telling
Selected list of works
A list of Stainer's more prominent works is provided below.[37]
Anthems
- Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion
- Blessed is the man that endureth temptation
- Drop down, ye heavens, from above
- God so loved the world (chorus from The Crucifixion)
- Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God
- Hail, Gladdening Light, of His pure glory poured
- Holy Father, God Almighty
- How beautiful upon the mountains
- I could not do without thee
- I desired wisdom
- In the cross of christ I glory
- I saw the Lord
- Jesus, tender shepherd, hear me
- Lead kindly light
- Leave us not, neither forsake us
- Lift up your heads, rejoice
- Lord Jesus, think on me
- O dayspring
- O Zion, that bringest good tidings
- We sing the glorious conquest
- What are these that are arrayed in white robes
Services
- Full services in E-flat, D/A, B-flat and D
- Communion services in A, F and C
Hymn tunes
- Sebaste ("Hail Gladdening Light") (1875)[38]
- Wycliff ("All for Jesus") (1887)
- Cross of Jesus (1887)
- Love Divine (1889)
Oratorios
Stainer wrote four oratorios:[39]
- Gideon (1865)
- The Daughter of Jairus (1878)
- St. Mary Magdalen (1883) Written, by request, for a performance at the Triennial Music Festival of 1883
- The Crucifixion (1887)
Books with carols and hymns
- Christmas Carols, New and Old with Henry Ramsden Bramley (London: Novello, Ewer & Co., 1878)
- A choirbook of the office of holy communion from the Cathedral Prayer Book (London: Novello & Co., 1883)
- The Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer with accompanying tunes with Edward Henry Bickersteth, Charles Vincent, D.J. Word and John Stainer (1890)
- Church Hymnary, John Stainer (ed.), 1902
Organ music
- The Village Organist, John Stainer (ed.), 1893
Books on musical theory, history and instruments
- A Theory of Harmony founded on the tempered scale, with questions and exercises for the use of students (1871)
- A theory of harmony founded on the tempered scale with questions and exercises for the use of students John Stainer (1872)
- Composition (1877?)
- The Music of the Bible: with an account of the development of modern musical instruments from ancient types (London, Novello, Ewer & Co., 1879)
- A Treatise on harmony and the classification of chords with questions and exercises for the use of students' John Stainer (1880)
- The Present State of Music in England: An Inaugural Lecture delivered in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, November 13, 1889 (Oxford, England: Horace Hart, 1889)
- A Dictionary of Musical Terms ed. John Stainer and W.A. Barrett (1889)
- Catalogue of English song books forming a portion of the library of Sir John Stainer, with appendices of foreign song books, collections of carols, books on bells John Stainer (1891)
- Music in Relation to the Intellect and Emotions (1892)
- Harmony with an appendix containing one hundred graduated exercises (London: Novello, Ewer & Co.,1893)
- The Organ (1909)
References
Footnotes
- ^ a b c Dibble, pps. 5–6.
- ^ Bumpus, p. 175.
- ^ Dibble, pps. 11–12.
- ^ Dibble, p. 34.
- ^ Dibble, p. 36.
- ^ Tenbury Wells and the Teme Valley, 2007, p10
- ^ Dibble, p. 42.
- ^ Dibble, p. 52.
- ^ Dibble, pp. 55–62.
- ^ Dibble, pps. 102–104.
- ^ Bumpus, p. 176.
- ^ a b Dibble, p. 73.
- ^ Dibble, pps. 84–85.
- ^ Dibble, pps. 104–105.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35393. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Dibble, pps. 109–115.
- ^ Dibble, pps. 118–119.
- ^ Dibble, pps. 124–129.
- ^ Bumpus, p. 59.
- ^ Dibble, p. 138.
- ^ Dibble, p. 194.
- ^ Dibble, p. 196, 237.
- ^ Dibble, pps. 199–201.
- ^ "Stainer, Sir John". Who's who biographies, 1901. 1901. p. 1054.
- ^ Dibble, pps. 214–238.
- ^ a b Bumpus, p. 178.
- ^ Dibble, p. 247.
- ^ Dibble, pps. 108–109.
- ^ Bumpus, p. 180.
- ^ Dibble, p. 308.
- ^ a b Dibble, pps. 309–310.
- ISBN 0-7546-5208-4(p. 129)
- ^ E H Fellowes. English Cathedral Music (1941)
- ISBN 0-19-353315-4.
- ISBN 978-0-7153-8387-2.
- ^ Charles William Pearc, A Biographical Sketch of Edmund Hart Turpin, 1911
- ^ "John Stainer". NetHymnal. 2011. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
- ^ Luff, Alan (2001). "Hail, gladdening Light – Sebaste". www.hyperion-records.co.uk. Hyperion Records Limited. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
- ^ "John Stainer". Center for Church Music. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
Bibliography
- Bramley, H.R. (words) and John Stainer (music), eds. 1871. Christmas Carols, New and Old. London, Novello.
- Bumpus, John Skelton (1891). The Organists and Composers of St Paul's Cathedral. Bowen, Hudson &. Co.
- Charlton, Peter. 1984. John Stainer and the musical life of Victorian Britain. Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles.
- ISBN 978-1-84383-297-3.
- The Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford University Press, 1928), pp. xvi–xvii.
- Gatens, William J. 1986. Victorian Cathedral Music in Theory and Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-26808-0. See especially chapter 9.
External links
- Free scores by John Stainer in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- Works by or about John Stainer at Internet Archive
- Sir John Stainer website
- Free scores by John Stainer at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- The Stainer Archive at Durham University Library
- St Mary Magdalen at St Mary Magdalene Church