William Stanley Vann D.Mus Hon FTCL FRCO ARCM (15 February 1910 – 27 March 2010) was an English composer,

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational h ...

, choral conductor, and choir trainer, primarily in the Anglican cathedral tradition.

Early life

Born in Leicester, he started to learn the piano around the age of six. He turned to the organ in 1927, achieving his ARCM, ARCO and FRCO diplomas by 1930.

The start of a musical career

1931 saw his appointment as Assistant Organist at

Leicester Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Martin, Leicester, commonly known as Leicester Cathedral, is a Church of England cathedral in Leicester, England and the seat of the Bishop of Leicester. The church was elevated to a collegiate church in 192 ...

, whilst still a pupil under the organist George Charles Gray. This was followed by his becoming the Organist at

Gainsborough Gainsborough or Gainsboro may refer to: Places * Gainsborough, Ipswich, Suffolk, England ** Gainsborough Ward, Ipswich * Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, a town in England ** Gainsborough (UK Parliament constituency) * Gainsborough, New South Wales, ...

Parish Church in 1933, and then a move to Holy Trinity Church, Leamington Spa to be Organist in 1939. Whilst in Leamington he founded the Royal Leamington Spa Bach Choi

and (in 1940) the Warwickshire Symphony Orchestr

His time at Leamington was interrupted between 1942 and 1946 by service in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. After his initial service, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 17 December 1943, later rising to the rank of captain. In 1949 he was appointed as Organist of Chelmsford Cathedral and Professor of Harmony and Counterpoint at Trinity College, London. Once in Chelmsford, he started the Essex Symphony Orchestra. He also acted as Chorus Master for the Leicester Philharmonic for both Sir Henry Wood and

Sir Malcolm Sargent Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent (29 April 1895 – 3 October 1967) was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works. The musical ensembles with which he was associated include ...

Peterborough

Sargent had himself been a pupil/assistant organist or 'Articled Pupil' at

Peterborough Cathedral Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Pau ...

in 1909 and it was to Peterborough that Vann moved next, being appointed Master of the Music in 1953. He held this post until his retirement in 1977. Much of his discography comes from this period, and bears witness to the extremely high standard to which he raised the choir. In 1971 he was awarded a

Lambeth doctorate A Lambeth degree is an academic degree conferred by the Archbishop of Canterbury under the authority of the Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533 (25 Hen VIII c 21) (Eng) as successor of the papal legate in England. The degrees conferred most commonl ...

by the then Archbishop of Canterbury in recognition of his "eminent services to church music". Following his retirement, he moved the short distance to

Wansford Wansford may refer to the following places in England: * Wansford, Cambridgeshire ** Wansford railway station, headquarters of the Nene Valley Railway * Wansford, East Riding of Yorkshire {{Geodis ...

where he ran the parish choir at St Mary's church and continued giving singing lessons to several local singers. He also continued the composition which had always run in parallel with the various posts he held. He composed over 200 items of vocal or choral music, the majority of which could be classified as

Anglican church music Anglican church music is music that is written for Christian worship in Anglican religious services, forming part of the liturgy. It mostly consists of pieces written to be sung by a church choir, which may sing '' a cappella'' or accompanie ...

. There is also a large body of organ music. Larger scale works are chiefly represented by the Billingshurst Mass, for large chorus and orchestra, a concert setting of the

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

that also interpolates the

Ave Maria The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's ...

into the usual text. Premiered in

Chichester Cathedral Chichester Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester. It is located in Chichester, in West Sussex, England. It was founded as a cathedral in 1075, when the seat of ...

in 2000, following a commission from the

Billingshurst Billingshurst is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. The village lies on the A29 road (the Roman Britain, Roman Stane Street (Chichester), Stane Street) at its crossroads with the A272 road, A272, south- ...

Choral Society (a committee member being a former Peterborough chorister), it was later performed in Peterborough Cathedral. 2000 also marked his 90th birthday, which saw a celebratory concert by the Peterborough Chamber Choir at All Saints' Church, Peterborough, which received favourable reviews in the ''

Church Times The ''Church Times'' is an independent Anglican weekly newspaper based in London and published in the United Kingdom on Fridays. History The ''Church Times'' was founded on 7 February 1863 by George Josiah Palmer, a printer. It fought for the ...

''. 2002 saw him finally leave the Peterborough area, moving to

Richmond, North Yorkshire Richmond is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, and the administrative centre of the district of Richmondshire. Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, it is from the county town of Northallerton and situated on ...

to be closer to family members.

Later life

In 2005 a collection of his major organ works was published, and a scholarship and trust in his name was founded by Major and Mrs Vernon Yon, an American who heard the Peterborough Cathedral Choir whilst posted to the UK. The object of the Trust is to enhance Anglican choral music by the grant of an annual Scholarship (The Stanley Vann Scholarship) for young choir trainers and directors in the Anglican tradition. 24 September 2006 edition of the Sunday BBC Radio 3 programme ''The Choir'' celebrated the forthcoming 80th anniversary of the weekly broadcast of

Choral Evensong Evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. In origin, it is identical to the canonical hour of vespers. Old English speakers translated the Latin word as , which beca ...

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

. Amongst the items selected from across the 80-year period was a recording of Peterborough Cathedral Choir, under Vann, from 23 November 1962, singing the

plainsong Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ''plain-chant''; la, cantus planus) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text ...

hymn ''O blest creator''. This was followed by a series of broadcasts of complete archive editions of Choral Evensong. Peterborough Cathedral Choir was featured on Wednesday 13 December 2006 by the broadcast of a service originally heard on 11 October 1972. On Monday 15 February 2010 Vann celebrated his 100th birthday. The previous day his family and a few former choristers joined him for lunch. To mark his 100th birthday Peterborough Cathedral issued a commemorative CD, ''Harken to the Whispering Angels'', with a compilation of recordings by both the current choir and earlier recordings made during his tenure as organist. Excerpts from the CD, and from Vann's recording of

Sir John Stainer Sir John Stainer (6 June 1840 – 31 March 1901) was an English composer and organist whose music, though seldom performed today (with the exception of ''The Crucifixion'', still heard at Passiontide in some churches of the Anglican Communi ...

's ''

The Crucifixion The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and considere ...

'', were broadcast during BBC Radio 3's ''The Choir'' on 21 February, along with an interview with his former assistant, Barry Ferguson. On 24 February the cathedral choir again broadcast Choral Evensong live on BBC Radio 3 with music composed by Vann and an anthem composed by Herbert Howells, commissioned by Vann during his time at Peteborough. Vann suffered a

fall Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...

at home on 20 March 2010 and broke a hip. Attempts were made to operate, but he suffered a bad reaction to the anaesthetic, and subsequently developed

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

. He died one week later, 40 days after his 100th birthday. His funeral was at Peterborough Cathedral on 19 April 2010, and a memorial service was held there on 18 July 2010, and at its conclusion Vann's ashes were interred in the south aisle of the cathedral.

References

Catalogue of works and discography, as well as biographical information
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110718193603/http://www.music4.me.uk/wso%2022-09-05/history.html Warwickshire Symphony Orchestrabr>Further biographical information included in a CD reviewThe Stanley Vann Scholarship

External links

Stanley Vann: Master of the Music at Peterborough Cathedral
''

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'' (f ...

'', 26 April 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vann, Stanley 1910 births 2010 deaths 20th-century classical composers Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in England British Army personnel of World War II Cathedral organists Deaths from pneumonia in England English centenarians Men centenarians English classical organists British male organists English classical composers English conductors (music) British male conductors (music) People from Leicester Royal Artillery officers Fellows of the Royal College of Organists Associates of the Royal College of Music Bach musicians Musicians from Leicestershire People from Wansford, Cambridgeshire 20th-century British composers 20th-century British conductors (music) Male classical organists