StanfordSir
Charles Villiers Stanford was born in Dublin,
Ireland
in 1852, and died in London in 1924. He was a composer, conductor and a
teacher, with many famous pupils. He was born before Ireland became the Republic
of Eire, when it was still a part of Great Britain and Ireland. So his
reputation has suffered somewhat simply because he was too British for the
Irish, and too Irish for the British.
He was famous in his day for a huge
output of sacred choral music, in particular, hymns and anthems.
He wrote two Irish Rhapsodies for Orchestra, a Violin Concerto, and two
suites of song settings, about the sea and ships.
He studied in Dublin and
London and became Organ Scholar at Queen's, Cambridge, but moved to Trinity on graduation.
He also studied in Germany, in Leipzig
and Berlin. In 1877 he became Professor of Music at Cambridge. He was also
Professor of composition at the Royal College of Music. In 1902 he was knighted,
and died two years later, to be buried beside Purcell
in Westminster Abbey.