Programme for Concert

in

Merriott Church

16th October 2004

Location

Merriott Church

Directions - click  for  maps

Composer Biographical Notes

Clément Janequin enjoyed a long career in the service of the Church, of members of the nobility and finally in the service of the King of France. He was a master of the French chanson of the period.

Jacques Arcadelt, Probably French by birth, Arcadelt spent time in Italy in Florence and Venice, as well as in the papal service, before returning to France, to the service of Charles of Lorraine.

Josquin Desprez  was born sometime around 1440, probably in France, where he was a choirboy at the collegiate church of St Quentin. The latter part of his life was spent in Italy, where he was a singer at Milan Cathedral from 1459 to 1472 in the service of the Duke Galeazzo Maria. After the assassination of the Duke, Desprez went to work for a brief period in the private chapel of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, after which he returned to France. There, he served as a non-resident composer in the court of Louis XII.
Later he went into the service of Ercole d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara.

John Dowland of English or possibly Irish origin, was born in 1563, probably in London. He was a lutenist of distinction but failed, allegedly because he was a Catholic, to win a position in the royal service, seeking his fortune abroad at Kassel and later, in 1598, at the court of Christian IV of Denmark. He was forced by debt to return to England in 1606 and eventually won appointment as one of the King's Lutes in 1612. He performed during the funeral ceremonies of King James I and himself died the following year.

Claudio Monteverdi, Born in Cremona in 1567, Claudio Monteverdi served at the court of the Dukes of Mantua from the early 1590s until 1612, when he moved to Venice as maestro di cappella at the basilica of St. Mark, a position he retained until his death in 1643.

Joseph Barnby son of organist Thomas Barnby, was a composer, conductor and (like his father) an organist. He entered the choir of York Minster at age seven, began to teach other boys at ten, and was an organist and choirmaster at twelve. At fifteen, he was appointed music master. In 1854 he went to London and entered the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied under Cipriani Potter and Charles Lucas.

Charles Villiers Stanford was born in Dublin in 1852, Charles Villiers Stanford established himself in England as a leading figure in the musical life of the country, appointed professor of composition at the Royal College of Music in London at its foundation in 1883 and four years later elected to the chair of music at Cambridge.

Gabriel Faure was a pupil of Camille Saint-Saëns at the Ecole Niedermeyer and served as organist at various Paris churches, including finally the Madeleine, but had no teaching position until 1897 at the Conservatoire, where his pupils included Ravel and Enescu. In 1905 he became director of the Conservatoire in the aftermath of the scandal of the refusal of the Prix de Rome to Ravel and introduced a number of necessary reforms. He retired in 1920, after which he was able to devote himself more fully again to composition, notably two final chamber works, a piano trio and a string quartet. He died in Paris in 1924.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The youngest child and only surviving son of Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus was born in Salzburg in 1756, the year of publication of his father's influential treatise on violin-playing. He showed early precocity both as a keyboard-player and violinist, and soon turned his hand to composition. In late November 1791 Mozart became seriously ill and died in the small hours of 5th December.

Camille Saint Saens made an early impression as a pianist. Following established French tradition, he was for nearly twenty years organist at the Madeleine in Paris and taught at the Ecole Niedermeyer, where he befriended his pupil Gabriel Fauré. Prolific and versatile as a composer, by the time of his death in 1921 his popularity in France had diminished very considerably, as fashions in music changed.

Robert Lucas Pearsall, born at Clifton, March 14, 1795, of an old family originally of Halesowen, Worcestershire. He was privately educated for the bar and was called in 1821, going to the western circuit for four years. At the age of thirteen he wrote a cantata, "Saul and the Witch of Endor", which as privately printed. In 1825, being abroad for the benefit of his health, he sttled at Mainz and studied music under Josef Panny, remaing there until 1829, when he returned for a year to England, staying at his property, Willsbridge in Gloucestershire.

Dr Frederick Bridge English organist and composer of many oratorios, including The Inchcape Rock, Mount Moriah, The Repentance of Nineveh, Boadicea and The Cradle of Christ.)

Oley Speaks

Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan was born in Lambeth, London, in 1842 to a very musical family. His father was a bandmaster at the Royal Military College and before age 10 Sullivan had mastered all of the wind instruments in his father's band. Sullivan composed his own anthem when he was 8 years old.

At age 14 he entered, as the youngest participant, and won the competition for the first Mendelssohn Scholarship. He also won scholarships at several prominent academies and conservatories, the last of which was located in Germany where Franz List listened to Sullivan's final "thesis." Sullivan returned to England at age 20, wrote the "Tempest" and became famous.

Harold Arlen was born Hyman Arluck 1905 in Buffalo, New York, music was always at the centre of Arlen's life. At seven, he sang in the choir of the synagogue where his father was cantor, and his family arranged for him to take piano lessons in the hope that he'd become a music teacher. By the time he had graduated from Hutchinson High School in Buffalo, however, Harold had developed a passion for ragtime.

Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5^th 1946 in Zanzibar, to parents Bomi & Jer Bulsara. Freddie moved to India in 1947. He attended boarding school in Panchgani, just outside Bombay. Whilst there he began his piano lessons, reaching Grade 4 in practical and theory. The family, with the addition now of younger sister Kashmira, moved to England in 1963.

Brian May was born in Hampton, Middlesex, in July 1947, he showed an interest in music at a very early age -- learning to play the ukulele and piano before receiving his first guitar as a present on his seventh birthday. Shortly thereafter, May and his father began to build a custom guitar from scratch. Completed two years later, the one-of-a-kind instrument would become known as the Red Special, a guitar that would later become May's sonic and visual trademark throughout his career.