John Varley Roberts: Difference between revisions

Varley Roberts composed some forty [[anthem]]s, four complete [[Service (music)|services]], [[Organ repertoire|organ solos]], [[song]]s, [[part song]]s, and the [[cantata]] ''[[Jonah]]'' already mentioned in connection with his 1876 DMus. While at Halifax he composed the anthem, ''Seek ye the Lord,'' which according to Clay in his ''History of the Music of Halifax Parish Church ‘''made known his name unto the ends of the earth’. While this may be something of an exaggeration, it is remarkable that this particular piece – and Varley Roberts’ anthems more generally – are still very popular in countries as far apart as the United States, South Africa and Japan.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BCM6HhqEDQ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX-TW20GzvA; http://blog.daum.net/_blog/BlogTypeView.do?blogid=0SFGI&articleno=31&categoryId=9&regdt=20101203224730#ajax_history_home</ref> Roberts’ music is tuneful, often (as with ''Call to Remembrance'' and ''Seek ye the Lord)'' beginning with a solo section before the full choir enters, repeating the opening melody, somewhat in the style of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century [[verse anthem]]s.  Other anthems are ‘full’ throughout. The style is straightforward, with little counterpoint and unchallenging organ accompaniments. The harmonic language is very much of its time, with [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]] and [[Samuel Sebastian Wesley]] being two obvious influences, though the textures perhaps also hark back to eighteenth-century models, especially in the organ or piano parts. The longer works employ [[recitative]], as for example ''The Passion'''<ref>London: Novello, 1902.</ref>''','' which clearly owes something both to [[John Stainer|Stainer]]’s ''[[The Crucifixion (Stainer)|Crucifixion]]'' and the broader oratorio style. This was not a period of great church or secular music. It was only with the rise of [[Hubert Parry|Parry]], [[Charles Villiers Stanford|Stanford]]<ref>Stanford thought little of Roberts’ training of composers, as evinced by his comments about changes to the Cambridge music degree syllabus – not to include ‘compulsory lectures on Fugue from Varley Roberts!’ Dibble, J., Charles Villiers Stanford: man and musician. Oxford: OUP, 2002, p.402.</ref> and [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]] that both sacred and secular music reached the heights of [[Henry Purcell|Purcell]] and [[George Frideric Handel|Handel]]. Nevertheless, Varley Roberts’ music served a purpose, whether in church or home. A former chorister wrote of his work:

 

 

== Roberts as organist ==