James Chater,

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

, was born in

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buc ...

in 1951 and studied music at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, taking the BA in 1973 and the D.Phil. in 1980. His thesis, ''Luca

Marenzio Luca Marenzio (also Marentio; October 18, 1553 or 1554 – August 22, 1599) was an Italian composer and singer of the late Renaissance. He was one of the most renowned composers of madrigals, and wrote some of the most famous examples of the fo ...

and the Italian

Madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number o ...

, 1577-1593'', was published as a book (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press) in 1981. He is the author of many articles on secular music in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in the late 16th century; these have appeared in ''Early Music'', the ''Journal of American Musicology'', ''Journal of Musicology'', ''Music & Letters'', ''

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 ...

'', ''Notes'', the ''Rivista italiana di musicologia'', ''Il saggiatore musicale'', ''Studi musicali'' and other periodicals and Festschrifts. In his writings several previously anonymous madrigal texts are identified, and the intimate ties between poets, musicians and patrons are explored. Chater was a Fellow of th
Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies
(Villa I Tatti, Florence) from 1981–82. From 1982 to 1986 James Chater taught history of music at the

University of Wales The University of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Prifysgol Cymru'') is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by royal charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges – Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff � ...

(Aberystwyth),

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

(USA), the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary instit ...

(BC, Canada) and the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

(Vancouver, Canada). From 1986 to 1997 he was English-language Editor of classical music CD booklets for

Philips Classics Records Philips Classics Records was started in the 1980s as the new classics record label for Philips Records. It was successful with artists including Alfred Brendel, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fi ...

(Baarn, The Netherlands), and has been pursuing a career in publishing ever since then.

Compositions

From the 1990s James Chater has also been active as a composer. The focus of his activities in this field has been the composing and arranging of choral works for liturgical use within the

Orthodox Church Orthodox Church may refer to: * Eastern Orthodox Church * Oriental Orthodox Churches * Orthodox Presbyterian Church * Orthodox Presbyterian Church of New Zealand * State church of the Roman Empire * True Orthodox church See also * Orthodox (di ...

, of which he has been a member since 1995. Most of his liturgical works are written to texts in the English, Dutch and French languages, with a few other compositions in Church Slavonic. In a number of articles and conference papers (which have appeared i
''In Communion''
''The Messenger'', the 2005 and 2007 Proceedings of the International Society for Orthodox Church Music
ISOCM
and ''Sourozh'') he has addressed issues of liturgical music in the Orthodox parishes of countries that are not traditionally Orthodox. These topics include translation, the relationship between text and music, and striking the right balance between conservation and creativity. His works have been performed in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

Recordings

In 2008 a recording of his ''Great

Prokeimenon In the liturgical practice of the Orthodox Church and Byzantine Rite, a prokeimenon (Greek , plural ; sometimes /; lit. 'that which precedes') is a psalm or canticle refrain sung responsorially at certain specified points of the Divine Liturgy or ...

for Forgiveness Sunday'', sung by the Orthodox Choir of Joensuu Universit

directed by Petri Nykänen, was issued on as part of the CD anthology "Oi Kuningas ja Herra" ("O King and Lord").

External links

Official website
*Other compositions can be found at: http://ecmr.t5.fi. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chater, James 1951 births Living people English composers English musicologists Alumni of the University of Oxford Harvard University staff Washington University in St. Louis faculty People from Henley-on-Thames