page_title: John Stainer
section_title: St Paul's Cathedral
hierarchical_section_title: John Stainer / St Paul's Cathedral
caption_attribution_description: English: A view over rooftops of London from about 1860-1883. St Paul's Cathedral is seen in the distance.
context_page_description: Sir John Stainer was an English composer and organist whose music, though seldom performed today, was very popular during his lifetime. His work as choir trainer and organist set standards for Anglican church music that are still influential. He was also active as an academic, becoming Heather Professor of Music at Oxford.
  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 due 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.
context_section_description: 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. Around this time he was asked to help revise Hymns Ancient and Modern, a task he did with enthusiasm. 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. A peal of twelve bells was installed in 1878.
  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. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1879.
  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. He worked towards raising standards in music teaching and toured the country, visiting schools and colleges and examining candidates. He 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. 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.
  In 1885, he was awarded an honorary degree by Durham University, and he became Heather Professor at Oxford in 1889 following the death of Ouseley. He conducted pioneering research into early music, notably the output of Netherlandish Renaissance composer Guillaume Dufay, then scarcely known even among experts. He also contributed a small treatise, Harmony, and another, Composition, to the famous series of Novello musical primers. For budding organists he wrote a primer called, simply, The Organ, which continues to have a following. In recognition of his services to British music, he received a knighthood from Queen Victoria in 1888.
caption: St Paul's Cathedral at about the time Stainer was organist
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