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John Stanley (composer)
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
.
Biography
Stanley, who was blindBlindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
from an early age, studied music with Maurice Greene
Maurice Greene (composer)
Maurice Greene was an English composer and organist.- Biography :Born in London, the son of a clergyman, Greene became a choirboy at St Paul's Cathedral under Jeremiah Clarke and Charles King...
and held a number of organist appointments in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, such as St Andrew's, Holborn from 1726. He was a friend of George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
, and following Handel's death, Stanley joined first with John Christopher Smith
John Christopher Smith
John Christopher Smith [Johann Christoph Schmidt] was an English composer who, following in his father's footsteps, became George Frederic Handel's secretary and amanuensis.-Life:...
and later with Thomas Linley to continue the series of oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
concerts Handel had established, and succeeded him as a governor of the Foundling Hospital
Foundling Hospital
The Foundling Hospital in London, England was founded in 1741 by the philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram. It was a children's home established for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children." The word "hospital" was used in a more general sense than it is today, simply...
(continuing his tradition of performing "Messiah" for them).
In 1779, Stanley succeeded William Boyce as Master of the King's Musick.
Stanley's works include the opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
Teraminta, the dramatic cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
The Choice of Hercules, twelve other cantatas with texts by John Hawkins
John Hawkins
Admiral Sir John Hawkins was an English shipbuilder, naval administrator and commander, merchant, navigator, and slave trader. As treasurer and controller of the Royal Navy, he rebuilt older ships and helped design the faster ships that withstood the Spanish Armada in 1588...
, the oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
s Jephtha, The Fall of Egypt and Zimri, and instrumental music, notably three volumes of Voluntaries for organ (1748, 1752, and 1754). Nearly all of the voluntaries feature a short, slow introduction followed by either a solo-stop movement (such as the so called trumpet voluntaries
Trumpet Voluntary
Trumpet Voluntary is the name given to some English keyboard pieces from the Baroque era. A trumpet voluntary is most commonly played on the organ using the trumpet stop, hence the name...
) or a fugue. Some of the former have been arranged in modern times for string chamber orchestra and trumpet.
Works
- Opus 1 Eight Solos for Flute and Continuo (1740)
- Opus 2 Six Concertos for strings (or organ & strings or flute & continuo) (1742/1745)
- Opus 3 Six Cantatas (1742)
- Opus 4 Six Solos for Flute and Continuo (1745)
- Opus 5 Ten Voluntaries for Organ (1748)
- Opus 6 Ten Voluntaries for Organ (1752)
- Opus 7 Ten Voluntaries for Organ (1754)
- Opus 8 Six Cantatas (1751)
- Opus 9 Three Cantatas (1751)
- Opus 10 Six Concertos for Organ or Harpsichord solo (1775)