George Robertson Sinclair (28 October 1863 – 7 February 1917) was an English cathedral organist, who served at

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its ...

and

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

cathedrals. As a young man, Sinclair was destined for the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

priesthood, but in 1880 his father died and Sinclair needed to earn a living immediately. He became the first cathedral organist of the new

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

. He moved from Truro to become organist of Hereford Cathedral in 1889, where he remained for the rest of his life. At Hereford, Sinclair was conductor of eight

Three Choirs Festival 200px, Worcester cathedral 200px, Gloucester cathedral The Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held annually at the end of July, rotating among the cathedrals of the Three Counties (Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester) and originally featu ...

s between 1891 and 1912, working with leading British musicians of the day, including

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

, who incorporated into his ''

Enigma Variations Edward Elgar composed his ''Variations on an Original Theme'', Op. 36, popularly known as the ''Enigma Variations'', between October 1898 and February 1899. It is an orchestral work comprising fourteen variations on an original theme. Elgar ...

'' a portrait of Sinclair and his bulldog.

Life and career

Early years

Sinclair was born in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

, the son of Dr R S Sinclair, director of public education in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

."Dr. G. R. Sinclair, Conductor of the Hereford Musical Festival"
''The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular'', Vol. 41, No. 692 (October 1900), pp. 661–662 The family had Irish connections, and at the age of eight, Sinclair entered the

Royal Irish Academy of Music The Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) in Dublin, Ireland, is one of Europe's oldest music conservatoires, specialising in classical music and the Irish harp. It is located in a Georgian building on Westland Row in Dublin. An institution which ...

in Dublin. In 1873, aged ten, he gained a choral scholarship at

St. Michael's College, Tenbury St. Michael's College (the College of St. Michael and All Angels) was founded by Sir Frederick Ouseley in 1856 as a boys Preparatory School. Ouseley created the school to provide a model for the performance of Anglican church music. Choral se ...

, under the headship of Sir Frederick Ouseley. He remained there for six years, singing in the choir at the daily services and deputising as organist. 1879 Sinclair became assistant organist to

Charles Harford Lloyd Charles Harford Lloyd ( Thornbury, 16 October 1849 – Eton, 16 October 1919)Gloucester Cathedral Gloucester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, in Gloucester, England, stands in the north of the city near the River Severn. It originated with the establishment of a minster dedicated to S ...

and parish organist of St Mary-de-Crypt,

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

. It had been expected that he would become an

priest, but when he was seventeen his father died, and Sinclair was obliged to earn an income at once. In 1880,

Edward White Benson Edward White Benson (14 July 1829 – 11 October 1896) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1883 until his death. Before this, he was the first Bishop of Truro, serving from 1877 to 1883, and began construction of Truro Cathedral. He was previousl ...

, first

Bishop of Truro The Bishop of Truro is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Truro in the Province of Canterbury. History There had been between the 9th and 11th centuries a Bishopric of Cornwall until it was merged with Crediton ...

, asked Ouseley for advice on a suitable organist for the new

Truro Cathedral The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Truro, Cornwall. It was built between 1880 and 1910 to a Gothic Revival design by John Loughborough Pearson on the site of the parish church of St Mary. It i ...

. Ouseley recommended Sinclair, who was appointed, aged 17. He designed a high-specification four-manual organ built by

Father Willis Henry Willis (27 April 1821 – 11 February 1901), also known as "Father" Willis, was an English organ player and builder, who is regarded as the foremost organ builder of the Victorian era. His company Henry Willis & Sons remains in busin ...

, and assembled and trained a choir.

Hereford and the Three Choirs Festival

In 1889,

Langdon Colborne Langdon Colbourne (15 September 1835 – 16 September 1889) was an English cathedral organist, who served at Hereford Cathedral. Background Colbourne was born in Hackney, London, the son of Thomas Colborne and Elizabeth Hobson.''Cambridge Uni ...

, organist of

Hereford Cathedral Hereford Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Hereford in Hereford, England. A place of worship has existed on the site of the present building since the 8th century or earlier. The present building was begun in 1079. S ...

died, and Sinclair was appointed to succeed him. In a profile of him in ''

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainze ...

'' in October 1900, the anonymous author wrote: In 1900 Sinclair was appointed conductor of the Birmingham Festival Choral Society, one of whose members drew a caricature of Sinclair and his bulldog Dan, from whom he was inseparable, and who attended all rehearsals. Sinclair's friend

depicted Dan in the ''

''. The eleventh variation, in G minor, ''Allegro di molto'' headed "G.R.S." portrays Dan falling into the

River Wye The River Wye (; cy, Afon Gwy ) is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the UK, stretching some from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn estuary. For much of its length the river forms part of Wal ...

and, in Elgar's words, "paddling upstream to find a landing place; and his rejoicing bark on landing. G.R.S. said, 'Set that to music'. I did; here it is."Golding, Robin (1986). Liner notes to EMI CD CDM 7 64015 2, OCLC 407025089 The variation also depicts Sinclair's impetuous character and his skilful organ pedalling. Fuller Maitland, J A and Christopher Kent
"Sinclair, George Robertson"
''Grove Music Online'', Oxford Music Online, accessed 30 October 2011 At Hereford, Sinclair was chief conductor of the

s of 1891, 1894, 1897, 1900, 1903, 1906, 1909 and 1912. He modernised the repertoire of the festivals, introducing music of peripheral religious relevance, including ''

Parsifal ''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival'' ...

'',"Mr G. R. Sinclair", ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 9 February 1917, p. 9 and of wholly secular character, such as

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

's '' Pathétique'' Symphony."The Hereford Musical Festival"
''The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular'', Vol. 41, No. 692 (October 1900), pp. 657–661 In a country still suspicious of

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

, Sinclair programmed

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

Requiem A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

, and made a considerable success with it in 1900. He, together with Elgar and

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

and the soloists, sent a telegram to the aged composer reporting "una recita splendida del Requiem Festival di Hereford". Sinclair died suddenly in Birmingham, aged 53, after conducting a rehearsal.

Dedications and memorials

Sinclair was also the dedicatee of Elgar's ''Te Deum and Benedictus'' (1897), "Pomp and Circumstance March" No.4 (1907) and ''A Christmas Greeting'' (1907). A biographical tablet was erected to his memory in Hereford Cathedral in 1920.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinclair, George English classical organists British male organists Cathedral organists 1863 births 1917 deaths People from Croydon 19th-century English musicians 19th-century British male musicians 19th-century classical musicians Male classical organists