Leo Rowlands, O.F.M. Cap. (1891–1967) was a Welsh Catholic priest and musical composer, associated with

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

Early life

Rowlands was born to Welsh parents (his father was a Congregationalist missionary) in Madagascar on 17 September 1891 and spent the first seven years of his life there before returning to be educated in schools in London and Wales. In 1912 he graduated in music from the University of Wales, Cardiff, going on to the Royal Academy of Music where he studied the piano, composition and singing with Frederick Corder and

York Bowen Edwin York Bowen (22 February 1884 – 23 November 1961) was an English composer and pianist. Bowen's musical career spanned more than fifty years during which time he wrote over 160 works. As well as being a pianist and composer, Bowen was a ...

and took his doctorate in music in 1914. In the same year he was received into the Roman Catholic Church and joined the army, serving as a cyclist and gunner in Italy and Flanders. He was captured in Neuve Chapelle in March 1918 and remained a prisoner until the end of the war.

Musical career

After a period as a music teacher at the Seaford School in Seaford on the south coast of England, Rowlands joined the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in 1920 and was ordained a priest in 1926. He spent the 1930s-1940s at the Friary of St Francis,

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

, as part of a mission of the British Capuchin

Province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

to the United States. There he established the Gregorian School of Music and the Catholic Choral Society of Providence in 1935 as well as a reputation as a lecturer and recitalist. Rowlands returned to Great Britain in 1952 where he was introduced to the poet

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, some of whose verse he is said to have set to music for voice and piano. He died at the Franciscan House in

Crawley, West Sussex Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

, in 1967.

Compositions

*''Canticle to the Sun'' (cantata) *''Symphony of Narragansett Bay'' (orchestra) *''Elevation'' (sacred song, setting of a poem by C Martindale) Burns, Oates & Washbourne, London (1933) *''Bon Soir'' (song) 1958 *''Dansa Brasileira'' (piano) Axelrod, Providence, Rhode Island (1945) *''O Jesu Christe'' (J van Berchem) arranged by Leo Rowlands, McLaughlin & Reilly Co, Boston (1940) *''Missa Kyrie Fons Bonitatis'' (STB and organ) McLaughlin & Reilly Co, Boston (1948) *''In convertendo Dominus'' (When God the Lord) Psalm 125 (SATB and organ) McLaughlin & Reilly Co, Boston (1951) *''St Francis of Assisi'' (hymn) *''Entrata'' (organ solo) L'Organista D'Oggi (date unknown) *''Canzonica'' (organ solo) L'Organista D'Oggi ((May–June 1962) *''Finale'' (organ solo, L'Organista D'Oggi (May–June 1965) *Various hymns for the ''Notre Dame Hymnal''

Books

*''The Holy Sacrifice'' (1941) *''Guide Book for Catholic Church Choirmasters'' (1938)

References

* The Caecilia, June/July 1936 page 255 *The Caecilia January 1937 page 553
Biographical Dictionary of the Organ
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowlands, Leo 1891 births 1967 deaths Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music British Army personnel of World War I World War I prisoners of war held by Germany 20th-century composers Capuchins Welsh Roman Catholic priests 20th-century British Roman Catholic priests American male composers Alumni of the University of Wales 20th-century British composers 20th-century Welsh musicians 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians