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Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) He was born in Dublin. The only child of John James Stanford, one of Dublin's most eminent lawyers, and his second wife, Mary (née Henn), who also originated from a distinguished Irish legal family, Stanford grew up in a highly stimulating cultural and intellectual environment made up of his father's friends, most of whom emanated from the ecclesiastical, medical or judicial professions. His home, at 2 Herbert Street, was the meeting-place of numerous amateur and professional musicians – his father, a capable singer and cellist, among them – and on various occasions celebrities such as Joachim came to the house. At Henry Tilney Bassett's school Stanford's education was firmly rooted in the classics (which later formed the basis of his degree at Cambridge), while his musical training consisted of tuition on the violin, piano and organ. In composition Stanford showed early promise and came under the influence of Dublin's most prominent musicians: Robert Stewart, Joseph Robinson and Michael Quarry (a pupil of Moscheles). In the province of church and organ music he learnt much from the example of Stewart; he admired the conducting skills of Robinson; and from Quarry he gained an invaluable insight into the music of Bach, Schumann and Brahms which supplemented his already wide knowledge of Handel and Mendelssohn. Later, in 1862, he became a composition pupil of Arthur O'Leary in London, where he also took piano lessons from Ernst Pauer.
In 1870 he gained the consent of his father (who had originally wished him to enter the legal profession) to pursue a career in music. The same year he won an organ scholarship at Queens' College, Cambridge, and in June 1871 gained a classical scholarship. Even before Cambridge Stanford had begun to show a prodigious ability in composition, producing church music, songs and partsongs, and orchestral works including a Rondo for cello and orchestra (1869, written for Wilhelm Elsner) and a Concert Overture (1870). At Cambridge this energy remained unabated: he composed an incidental score for Longfellow's play A Spanish Student (1871), a Piano Concerto in B, evening services in F and E and more songs. Moreover, after being elected assistant conductor to the Cambridge University Musical Society (CUMS) in 1871 to assist the ailing John Larkin Hopkins, he was appointed conductor in May 1873. Perhaps inevitably a conflict emerged between his preoccupation for music and his degree studies, which he at times threatened to abandon. In 1873 he moved to Trinity College, where, after Hopkins's death, he was appointed organist in February 1874. As part of the agreement of his appointment at Trinity, Stanford was able to spend the last six months of both 1874 and 1875 in Leipzig, where he studied the piano with Robert Papperitz and composition with Reinecke. Though he composed prolifically during this period – one which included two choral works, The Resurrection and The Golden Legend, a Piano Trio (now lost), some fine songs to words by Heine and a Violin Concerto for Guido Papini – the time passed with Reinecke was, according to Stanford, unprofitable. On Joachim's recommendation he went to Berlin for the last half of 1876 to work with Friedrich Kiel, an association that proved to be much happier.
By the time he returned to Cambridge in January 1877 Stanford had already established his name in British music with the Piano Suite op.2 and Toccata op.3 (both published by Chappell in 1875), the First Symphony (which won second prize in the Alexandra Palace competition in 1876) and incidental music for Tennyson's play Queen Mary (1876). He attempted to combine this flair for composition with his energy for organization and his abilities as a performer and conductor. He rapidly brought the CUMS into prominence with first English performances of Brahms's works, including the First Symphony (conducted by Joachim), the Neue Liebeslieder waltzes and the Alto Rhapsody; he introduced a number of his own works, such as the Second Symphony, Psalm XLVI (op.8) and the Piano Quintet, and figured frequently as pianist in CUMS ‘Popular Concerts’ of chamber music. In addition he was highly successful in attracting major artists to Cambridge, namely Hans Richter, Joachim, Piatti, Dannreuther, Hermann Franke and Robert Hausmann as well as native composers, including Parry, Cowen, Goving Thomas and Mackenzie. As organist at Trinity he was equally active, though, as he claimed later (in a paper to the Church Congress in 1899), more constrained by clerical authority. He undertook to continue the regular series of organ recitals (initiated by Hopkins) and raised their profile through the invitation of important performers such as Walter Parratt, Basil Harwood, Frederick Bridge and C.H. Lloyd. The standard of the chapel choir also rose markedly, a fact underlined by the production of some highly distinctive church music such as the Service in B (op.10), the anthem The Lord is my shepherd (1886) and the motet Justorum animae (1888). In 1887, at the age of 35, he was appointed professor of music at Cambridge, an office he used effectively to help augment the status of the university's MusB degree by the introduction (in 1893) of residence as a condition of supplication. His relationship with Cambridge was not altogether happy. He resigned his post as organist at Trinity in 1892, though he continued as conductor of CUMS until 1893 in order to oversee the society's jubilee celebrations, an occasion which brought Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, Boito and Bruch to the university to receive honorary doctorates.
In 1883 he joined the staff of the newly inaugurated RCM as professor of composition and conductor of the orchestra. In both areas he exerted considerable influence, though it is for the impressive list of pupils such as Benjamin, Frank Bridge, Butterworth, Coleridge-Taylor, Dyson, Gurney, Howells, Hurlstone, Ireland, Moeran and Vaughan Williams that he is best remembered. One other substantial contribution to life at the RCM was the instigation of the opera class, an initiative which soon led to an annual production. Stanford's enthusiasm for opera is demonstrated by his lifelong commitment to a genre in which he enjoyed varying success: several of his operas, The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan (first performed at Hanover, 1881), Savonarola (1884, Hamburg), Shamus O'Brien (1896, London) and Much Ado about Nothing (1901, London), enjoyed a modicum of national and international recognition (Shamus O'Brien was also performed at the Broadway Theatre, New York, on 5 January 1897), while his two last and arguably best operas, The Critic (1916) and The Travelling Companion (1919), had still not attracted the attention of professional opera companies by the mid-1990s. Such persistence reflected his profound belief in opera as the vital catalyst in Britain's musical renaissance. He proselytized untiringly for a national opera (especially in his essay ‘The Case for National Opera’, in Studies and Memories, 1908) and spearheaded a petition to the London County Council in 1898. Regrettably the venture failed, although he persisted until his death in fighting the cause through articles and letters to the newspapers. Besides conducting at the RCM and CUMS, Stanford was also conductor of the Bach Choir (1886–1902), the Leeds Philharmonic Society (1897–1909) and the Leeds Triennial Festival (1901–1910), while also appearing occasionally for the Philharmonic Society. He received many honours, including honorary degrees from Oxford (DMus 1883), Cambridge (MusD 1888), Durham (DCL 1894) and Leeds (LLD 1904). He was knighted in 1902.
Grove
The Travelling Companion, ópera en cuatro actos (1916). Fragmento.
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