Bernard William George Rose, OBE, Doctor in Music, Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, (9 May 1916 – 21 November 1996) was a British

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 ...

, soldier, composer, and academic. A graduate of Cambridge University, he is best known for his compositions of

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 ...

; his Preces and Responses, for use in the Anglican service of

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 became ...

, is widely performed. He served as a soldier in 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 ...

, and went on to become a noted choir master and music tutor, counting among his pupils the composer

Kenneth Leighton Kenneth Leighton (2 October 1929 – 24 August 1988) was a British composer and pianist. His compositions include church and choral music, pieces for piano, organ, cello, oboe and other instruments, chamber music, concertos, ...

, musicians Professor Roger Bray, Professor David Wulstan and

Harry Christophers Richard Henry Tudor "Harry" Christophers CBE FRSCM (born 26 December 1953) is an English conductor. Life and career Richard Henry Tudor Christophers was born in Goudhurst, Kent. He was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral under choirmaster Al ...

, and actor

Dudley Moore Dudley Stuart John Moore CBE (19 April 193527 March 2002) was an English actor, comedian, musician and composer. Moore first came to prominence in the UK as a leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s. He was one of the four writ ...

Education

Bernard Rose was at

Salisbury Cathedral School Salisbury Cathedral School is a co-educational independent school in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, which was founded in 1091 by Saint Osmund. The choristers of Salisbury Cathedral are educated at the school. History The school was founded i ...

and sang as a

chorister A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

at Salisbury Cathedral from 1925 to 1931. There, he also studied the organ under

Walter Galpin Alcock Sir Walter Galpin Alcock (29 December 186111 September 1947) was an English organist and composer. He held a number of prominent positions as an organist and played at the coronations of three monarchs. He was professor of organ in the Royal Co ...

and was appointed as an assistant organist at the cathedral aged just 15. From 1933 to 1935, Rose studied at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including performanc ...

where he continued his organ studies under Alcock. In 1935, he won the

organ scholar An organ scholar is a young musician employed as a part-time assistant organist at a cathedral, church or institution where regular choral services are held. The idea of an organ scholarship is to provide the holder with playing, directing and adm ...

ship to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, beating

Edward Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...

to the position. At Cambridge, Rose studied under Hubert Middleton and

Edward Joseph Dent Edward Joseph Dent (16 July 1876 – 22 August 1957), generally known as Edward J. Dent, was an English musicologist, teacher, translator and critic. A leading figure of musicology and music criticism, Dent was Professor of Music at the Univers ...

from 1935 to 1939.

Career

Oxford university The Queen's College by Fenlio

Rose started his academic career at The

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

. As Rose began his position as a tutor in music, organist of The Queen's College, Oxford, and conductor of the Eglesfield Music Society, the Second World War was declared. With the war having just begun, Rose married his financée, Molly Marshall, at Christmas 1939.

Military service

Rose volunteered and was seen by an army selection board and called up in September 1940, after which he underwent officer training. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry on 26 January 1941. He saw action in the North African and Italian campaigns as a " Desert Rat" with the

4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) The 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army. It was raised in 1901 from Second Boer War veterans of the Imperial Yeomanry. During the First World War it served dismounted at Gallipoli, was remount ...

, and took part in the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...

on 6 June 1944. A week later, Molly was informed that Bernard has been killed in action; in fact he had been captured on 13 June 1944 during the

Battle of Villers-Bocage The Battle of Villers-Bocage took place during the Second World War on 13 June 1944, one week after the Normandy Landings, which had begun the Western Allies' conquest of German-occupied France. The battle was the result of a British attempt to ...

in Normandy, as she later learned. Bernard spent the remainder of the war at

Oflag 79 Oflag 79 was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp for Allied officers. The camp was located at Waggum near Braunschweig in Germany, also known by the English name of Brunswick. It was located in a three-story brick building that had previo ...

, a German POW camp near Brunswick, Lower Saxony, until the

Ninth United States Army The Ninth Army is a field army of the United States Army, garrisoned at Caserma Ederle, Vicenza, Italy. It is the United States Army Service Component Command of United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM or AFRICOM). Activated just eight weeks bef ...

released him and his colleagues on 12 April 1945. He left the army with the rank of captain. Molly Rose also saw service during the war, piloting

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...

Wellington bomber The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its ...

Hawker Typhoon The Hawker Typhoon is a British single-seat fighter-bomber, produced by Hawker Aircraft. It was intended to be a medium-high altitude interceptor, as a replacement for the Hawker Hurricane, but several design problems were encountered and i ...

and

Tempest Tempest is a synonym for a storm. '' The Tempest'' is a play by William Shakespeare. Tempest or The Tempest may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Films * ''The Tempest'' (1908 film), a British silent film * ''The Tempest'' (1911 film), a ...

fighter-bombers in the

Air Transport Auxiliary The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up at the start of the Second World War with headquarters at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire. The ATA ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factori ...

Postwar career

Magdalen College Chapel Interior, Oxford, UK - Diliff

After the war, Rose resumed his academic teaching role at The Queen's College in 1945, and remained there until he was appointed Informator Choristarum (organist and master of the choristers) at

Magdalen College Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

(1957–1981). Rose became a sought-after tutor, particularly for harmony and counterpoint and a distinguished choir master. His pupils included

The Sixteen The Sixteen are a United Kingdom-based choir and period instrument orchestra; founded by Harry Christophers, they started as an unnamed group of sixteen friends in 1977, giving their first billed concert in 1979. The group performs early Engl ...

and his son, Gregory Rose. His special study of the choral music of

Thomas Tomkins Thomas Tomkins (1572 – 9 June 1656) was a Welsh-born composer of the late Tudor and early Stuart period. In addition to being one of the prominent members of the English Madrigal School, he was a skilled composer of keyboard and consort mus ...

was published in ''Musica Deo Sacra''; another major work was his editing of Handel's oratorio '' Susanna'' (Kassel 1967). Former choristers inspired by his leadership include Daniel Sandford, John La Bouchardière and Jonathan Powell. In 1952, Rose conducted the premiere of

An Oxford Elegy ''An Oxford Elegy'' is a work for narrator, small mixed chorus and small orchestra, written by Ralph Vaughan Williams between 1947 and 1949. It uses portions of two poems by Matthew Arnold, " The Scholar Gipsy" and " Thyrsis". The first performa ...

by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Rose introduced Kenneth Leighton to the composer

Gerald Finzi Gerald Raphael Finzi (14 July 1901 – 27 September 1956) was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a choral composer, but also wrote in other genres. Large-scale compositions by Finzi include the cantata '' Dies natalis'' for solo voice and ...

in the late 1940s, and the two developed a close friendship and artistic association. After Finzi's death, Leighton dedicated his ''Veris Gratia Suite, Op. 9'' to his friend, and the choral version was conducted in Oxford by Bernard Rose in 1956. For ten years from 1957 he was president of the

City of Oxford Silver Band The City of Oxford Silver Band is a long-established competing, performing and touring band playing in the British brass band tradition. The band is notable for its emphasis on training and being the progenitor of several other bands in the loc ...

, which he also conducted. Rose served as Vice-President of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1973 to 1975, and was an Emeritus Fellow 1981–1996. He was president of the

Royal College of Organists The Royal College of Organists (RCO) is a charity and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, with members worldwide. Its role is to promote and advance organ playing and choral music, and it offers music education, training and de ...

from 1974 to 1976.

Honours

He was appointed an Officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the

1980 New Year Honours The 1980 New Year Honours were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced on 31 December 1979 to cele ...

"For Services to Music". His wife Molly, who survived him, has featured in a number of seminars and T.V. programmes concerning the role of women pilots delivering aircraft to the front line.

Legacy

Bernard Rose's dedication to high quality choral singing at Magdalen Chapel was highly influential. He is said to have inspired some of Britain's leading choirs, including the Clerkes of Oxenford,

The Tallis Scholars The Tallis Scholars is a British professional early music vocal ensemble normally consisting of two singers per part, with a core group of ten singers. They specialise in performing ''a cappella'' sacred vocal music. History The group was formed ...

and

Ex Cathedra Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope when he speaks '' ex cathedra'' is preserved from the possibility of error on doctrine "initially given to the apos ...

. In 2010, Bernard Rose's son Graham discovered old

tape recording An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...

s of performances of Magdalen College Choir conducted by his father, dating from 1960 to 1976. The recordings were

remastered Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used. Mastering A ...

and released on

audio CD Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA or CD-DA), also known as Digital Audio Compact Disc or simply as Audio CD, is the standard format for audio compact discs. The standard is defined in the ''Red Book'', one of a series of Rainbow Books (named ...

in 2015 by Oxrecs to commemorate the centenary of Rose's birth. a

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

entitled ''Attagirls'' is in development based on the wartime lives of Molly and Bernard, written by Paul Olavesen-Stabb. A book adapted from the screenplay is planned to be published on 1 August 2021. A

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

has been established in conjunction with ''Attagirls'', the Molly Rose Pilot Scholarship, which aims to encourage young women to consider a career as a pilot.

Selected original works

* ''Slow, slow fresh fount'' (

Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...

) * ''Symphony in A minor'' * ''Praise ye the Lord'' ( Psalm 149) * ''Lord, I have loved the habitation'' (

Psalm 126 Psalm 126 is the 126th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream". In Latin, it is known as ''In convertendo Dominus''. It is one o ...

) * ''Preces and Responses'' (2 sets) * ''According to his promise'' () * ''Evening Canticles'' (3 sets) * ''Our blessed lady's lullaby'' (

Richard Verstegan Richard Rowlands, born Richard Verstegan (c. 1550 – 1640), was an Anglo-Dutch antiquary, publisher, humorist and translator. Verstegan was born in East London the son of a cooper; his grandfather, Theodore Roland Verstegen, was a refugee f ...

) * ''Three Introits'' * ''Catharine'' (

Oratorio An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is ...

) * ''Missa vocae choristarum'' * ''Chimes'' (for organ) * ''Feast Song for Saint Cecilia'' (Gregory Rose) * ''Three Addison Anthems'' * ''O Praise God in his holiness'' (

Psalm 150 Psalm 150 is the 150th and final psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Praise ye the . Praise God in his sanctuary". In Latin, it is known as "Laudate Dominum in sanctis eius". In Psalm 150, the psalmist ...

) * ''Surely thou hast tasted'' (St Peter) * ''Lift up your heads'' (Psalm 24) * ''Tongue and Air'' ( John Fuller) * ''Seven Epitaphs'' ( Sir Walter Raleigh) * ''Praise ye the Lord'' (

Psalm 113 Psalm 113 is the 113th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Praise ye the Lord, O ye servants of the Lord". The Book of Psalms is part of the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christian ...

) * ''Almighty God, who art the Giver of all Wisdom'' ( Samuel Johnson) * ''Carol: The Christ Child'' ( G.K.Chesterton) * ''A Magdalen Mass'' * ''Upon Westminster Bridge'' (

Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's '' ...

) * ''If I could tell you'' ( W.H.Auden) Publishers: Novello,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, Addington Press, Minster Music, EECM, Cathedral Music, HHA

References

External links

*Rose's compositions and letters in the Magdalen College Oxford Archive: * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rose, Bernard 1916 births 1996 deaths Military personnel from Hertfordshire Musicians from Hertfordshire English classical organists British male organists Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge Fellows of The Queen's College, Oxford Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Alumni of the Royal College of Music British Army personnel of World War II World War II prisoners of war held by Germany English classical composers 20th-century classical composers Officers of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century English composers Northamptonshire Yeomanry officers 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) officers English male classical composers Classical composers of church music 20th-century organists 20th-century British male musicians British World War II prisoners of war People educated at Salisbury Cathedral School Male classical organists