Cyril Rootham (1875-1938) - Composer Links

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We list here a few interesting dissertations, articles and reviews about Cyril Bradley Rootham (CBR). Please suggest any needed corrections or additions.

Further down: links to composers who taught CBR, who were his contemporaries, whose music he championed, who were his music students, or who are today's composers of choral music.

Cyril Rootham links

the Wikipedia article about Cyril Rootham
article Wikipédia au sujet de Cyril Rootham (en français)
Wikipedia-Artikel über Cyril Rootham (auf deutsch)
Wikipedia articles about CBR in Catalan, Dutch, Italian, Romanian and Russian
an article "The Music of Cyril Bradley Rootham" by Arthur Hutchings, published in The Musical Times Vol. 79, No. 1139 (Jan 1938), pp. 17-22
an obituary of Cyril Rootham by Patrick Hadley published in the RCM Magazine in 1938
John France's Cyril Rootham page on MusicWeb International
the Rootham collections at St John's College Library, listed in the Janus catalogue
"Resurrecting Rootham and Parry": article by Alistair Jones on MusicWeb International
a fascinating dissertation by Cameron Weatherford about CBR's Op.51 "For the Fallen"
Good Music Guide Forum - a lively thread about Cyril Rootham
an interesting blog on Unsung Composers which corrects some CBR dates
multiple Cyril Rootham topics on Revolvy

A group photo

How many would you have recognised in this group of Cambridge musicians around 1925?

Cyril Rootham and other musicians in Cambridge about 1925

Left to right:
Gordon Bryan, Cyril Rootham, Arthur Bliss, Sir Dan Godfrey, George Dixon, Armstrong Gibbs, Patrick Hadley
© 2013 Dan Rootham: photo from the Rootham family album

Festivals, Organisations and Websites

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CBR's life in brief

CBR was born in Bristol in 1875 and was educated at Bristol Grammar School.
At St John's College CBR took a degree in Classics, and then a second degree in Music.
After St John's, CBR studied at the Royal College of Music under Barton, Parratt, Parry and Stanford.
In 1901 CBR was appointed director of music and organist at St John's College, a post he held until his death in 1938.
In 1909 CBR married Rosamond Margaret Lucas, and in 1910 their son (Jasper) was born.
In 1912 CBR became conductor of the CUMS (Cambridge University Musical Society).
Under CBR's lively management, the CUMS revived Handel oratorios, Mozart operas and neglected works by Purcell and others.
While conductor of the CUMS, CBR also promoted the work of contemporary composers such as Vaughan Williams, Kodály, Pizzetti and Honegger.
In 1914 CBR became a Fellow of St John's after taking over the post of University Lecturer in Form and Analysis of Music, and in 1924 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Counterpoint and Harmony.
At Cambridge, CBR's students included Arthur Bliss, Arnold Cooke, Christian Darnton, Armstrong Gibbs, Walter Leigh, Robin Orr, Bernard Stevens and Percy Young amongst others.
When CBR fell ill, he still managed to complete the short-form score for a new symphony (opus 97 "Symphony No 2 in D major") in his own hand. But eventually CBR was too weak to write out his scores, and Patrick Hadley and others acted as his amanuensis.
Thanks to Hadley's efforts, from January 1938 the orchestration of the first two movements of Symphony No 2 proceeded by dictation and was virtually complete when CBR died in March 1938. At CBR's request, the orchestration of the last movement was finished by Patrick Hadley.
CBR's Symphony No 2 received its first performance in a broadcast on the BBC National Programme, on 17 March 1939 - one year after CBR's death. Sir Adrian Boult conducted the BBC Orchestra in a programme devoted to Rootham's music.

Bridge of Sighs, St John's College
Photo: Wikipedia