Maurice Greene (composer)
Maurice Greene(12 August 1696 – 1 December 1755) was an Englishcomposerandorganist.
Biography[edit]
Born inLondon,the son of a clergyman, Greene became achoirboyatSt Paul's CathedralunderJeremiah ClarkeandCharles King.He studied the organ underRichard Brind,and after Brind died, Greene became organist at St Paul's.
With the death ofWilliam Croftin 1727, Greene became organist at theChapel Royal,and in 1730 he became Professor of Music atCambridge University.[1]In 1735 he was appointedMaster of the King's Musick.At his death, Greene was working on the compilationCathedral Music,which his student and successor as Master of the King's Musick,William Boyce,was to complete. Many items from that collection are still used inAnglicanservices today.
He wrote very competent music in the style prevalent in Georgian England, particularly longer Verse Anthems. His acknowledged masterpiece,Lord, Let Me Know Mine End,is a representative example. Greene sets a text full of pathos using a polyphonic texture over a continuous instrumental walking bass, with a particularly effective treble duet in the middle of the work. Both this section and the end of the anthem contain superb examples of theNeapolitan sixth chord.His organ voluntaries - published only some years after his death - are closer toThomas Roseingravein style than, say, John Stanley or William Boyce, and are more contrapuntal than melodic. They display a more reflective and profound character, and do not specify manuals or stops unlike later contemporaries such as Bennett, Boyce and Stanley. Instances of 'false relation' can be heard frequently in these works.
He died in 1755 aged 59 and was initially buried atSt Olave Old Jewry.On the church's demolition in 1887, he was reburied inSt Paul's Cathedral.[2]
Works[edit]
Greene wrote a good deal of both sacred and secular vocal music, including:
- theanthemHearken Unto Me, Ye Holy Children(1728).
- theoratorioThe Song of Deborah and Barak(1732)[3]
- theoratorioJephtha(1737), libretto byJohn Hoadly(1711–76).
- theoperaFlorimel(1734).
- settings ofsonnetsfromEdmund Spenser'sAmoretti(1739).
- a collection ofanthems(1743), of which the best-known isLord, Let Me Know Mine End.
- the operaPhoebe(completed 1747).
He also published keyboard music, including:
- Choice Lessons,for harpsichord or spinet (London, 1733).
- 6 Overtures… in Seven Parts,arranged for harpsichord or spinet (London, 1745).
- A Collection of Lessons,for harpsichord (London, 1750).
- Twelve Voluntarys,for organ or harpsichord ((published posthumously by J. Bland of Holborn) London, 1779).
References[edit]
- ^"Greene, Maurice (GRN730M)".A Cambridge Alumni Database.University of Cambridge.
- ^"Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral"Sinclair, W.p. 471: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909.
- ^"Greene, Maurice".Grove Music Online.doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.11707.Retrieved10 March2024.
- Johnstone, H. Diack. "Greene, Maurice",Grove Music Onlineed. L. Macy (Accessed 4 October 2004).
External links[edit]
- Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)..Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 538.
Free scores[edit]
- Free scores by Maurice Greenein theChoral Public Domain Library(ChoralWiki)
- Free scores by Maurice Greeneat theInternational Music Score Library Project(IMSLP)
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
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- 1696 births
- 1755 deaths
- 18th-century classical composers
- 18th-century English composers
- 18th-century keyboardists
- 18th-century British male musicians
- Professors of Music (Cambridge)
- Cathedral organists
- English classical composers of church music
- English Baroque composers
- English opera composers
- English classical organists
- English male opera composers
- Masters of the King's Music
- Members of the Academy of Ancient Music
- Composers from London
- People educated at St. Paul's Cathedral School
- English male classical organists