Oakeley, Sir Herbert Stanley

1830-1903

English organist, composer, professor and conductor; born at Ealing, Middlesex. After going to Rugby, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied harmony under Elvey, and from which he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1853, and Master of Arts in 1856, he went to Germany. At Leipsic he entered the classes of Moscheles, Papperitz and Plaidy at the Conservatory; at Dresden he took organ lessons from Schneider and ended by studying the piano tinder Breindenstein at Bonn. He was professor of music at Edinburgh University from 1865 to 1891, becoming Professor Emeritus the following year. He did great service for Scotland's music, raising the standard of classical music, bringing the Reid concerts, which have become a yearly three days' festival, from a languishing condition to a very flourishing state of excellence, and spreading the love of organ and orchestral music by his organ recitals and the concerts of the University Music Society. His good work brought him many honors. In 1871 he was made Doctor of Music by the Archbishop of Canterbury and by Cambridge. He was knighted at the unveiling of a monument to the late Prince Consort at Edinburgh in 1876; became Doctor of Music of Oxford in 1879. Many other honorary degrees were .conferred on him. He was a good pianist and improvised on the organ. He composed a great many pieces, among them the instrumental works Edinburgh, and Liverpool Festival March; a Funeral March; Suite in Olden Style; a piano sonata; Romance and Rondo capriccioso; and preludes and fugues for the organ. In vocal compositions he has written the cantata, Jubilee Lyric, for the Cheltenham Festival of 1887; Edina, and other hymns; Service in E flat; National Scottish Melodies; choral songs; students' songs, among them an Alma Mater; part-songs; and songs set to German and English words, notably the Bugle Song, and some others, from The Princess, by Tennyson.