Dyer, Arthur Edwin

1843-

An English composer and organist, who was born at Frome, England. Was trained almost entirely by private tutors, and received the degrees of Bachelor of Music and Doctor of Music from Oxford. From 1865 to 1875 he was the organist of the Parish Church at Weston-super-Mare, and in the later year became organist and director of the music of Cheltenham College. He was also the conductor of the Musical Society. He wrote an opera, The Lady of Bayonne, which was produced at Cheltenham in 1897, but his compositions consist mainly of cantatas and anthems. Among them are Salvator Mundi, a sacred cantata and chorus for the Gloucester Festival of 1883; 1 Wish to Tune My Quivering Lyre; and an anthem composed for the college jubilee in 1891. He also wrote the music to Sophocles' Electra, produced at Cheltenham College, June, 1888. His brother William Chinnock Dyer, organist of St. Peter's, Norbiton, England, and conductor of the Norbiton Choral Society, invented and patented an attachment of pedals to the piano.