Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924) was an Anglo-Irish composer, teacher and conductor of the late Romantic era. His choral music for the Anglican tradition remains the work for which he is best remembered.
Born in Dublin and trained at Cambridge, Leipzig and Berlin, he became a founding professor of composition at the Royal College of Music and later Professor of Music at Cambridge. He wrote seven symphonies, chamber music, songs and nine operas, yet it is the short sacred pieces that have held the repertory.
The Three Motets, Op. 38—Justorum animae, Coelos ascendit hodie and Beati quorum via—are among the most durable Anglican anthems of their kind, heard on Beatus Vir (MD 3220). His Irish-inflected writing also reaches the piano through transcription, including the March-Jig Maguire’s Kick on Virtuoso Transcriptions (TP088).
Compositions by Charles Villiers Stanford appear on
Beatus Vir
Recorded live on their 1999 European tour, the Choir of Ormond College under Douglas Lawrence presents small-scale sacred works in up to eight parts by Palestrina, Gesualdo, Handl, Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Stanford and Rheinberger.