Thomas Attwood Walmisley

Thomas Attwood Walmisley (21 January 1814 – 17 January 1856) was the son of Thomas Forbes Gerrard Walmisley, a well-known organist and composer of church music. Both in a privileged, musical family, both his father and his godfather Thomas Attwood had a significant influence on the young musician's life and career.

Thomas Attwood Walmisley

Thomas Forbes Gerrard Walmisley (Walmisley' father)

Walmisley senior was born in Westminster, London in 1783, the third son of William Walmisley, Clerk of the House of Lords papers. Like his brothers, he was a chorister at Westminster Abbey, and was educated at Westminster School. He studied music with John Spencer and Thomas Attwood (see below) and in 1796 is recorded as having sung in oratorios in Covent Garden. In 1814 he succeeded Robert Cooke as organist of St Martin-in-the-Fields resigning, with a pension, in March 1854. From 1803 he taught piano and singing becoming famous as a teacher; his alumni included Edward John Hopkins. In 1810 Walmisley married the eldest daughter of William Capon, an architectural draftsman. Thomas Attwood Walmisley was his eldest son (of six sons and four daughters who survived infancy), whose Cathedral Music he edited in 1857. 

Thomas Attwood (Walmisley's godfather)

His godfather was the composer and organist Thomas Attwood wo took responsibility for the boy Walmisley's education and music tuition. Born the son of a musician in the royal band, at the age of nine Attwood became a chorister in the Chapel Royal, where he received training in music from James Nares and Edmund Ayrton. In 1783 he was sent to study abroad at the expense of the Prince of Wales (afterwards King George IV), who had been impressed by his skill at the harpsichord. After two years in Naples, Attwood proceeded to Vienna, where he became a favourite pupil of Mozart. On his return to London in 1787 he held for a short time an appointment as one of the chamber musicians to the Prince of Wales. 

With the support of these two musicians Thomas Attwood Walmisley excellent academically and musically. He was organist of Croydon Parish Church in 1830 before becoming organist at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1833 at the age of 19, where he became well known for his composition. (He was simultaneously organist for the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge.) Graduating in music, he went on to obtain his Doctorate. In 1836 Walmisley was made Professor of Music at Cambridge. His bond with his father sustained throughout his life, his father editing his cathedral music edited after his death. Walmisley died in 1856, and is buried in the churchyard of St Andrew's Church, Fairlight, East Sussex.

John E West has suggested his premature death was 'hastened by an unwise indulgence in lethal remedies'. Stanford commented that 'Walmisley … was a victim of four o’clock dinners in Hall, and long symposiums in the Combination Room after; and being a somewhat lonely bachelor, the excellent port of the College cellars was, at times, more his master than his servant'. As a composer, Walmisley is chiefly known for his setting of the Evening Canticles in D minor, perhaps the only Magnificat which begins with the bass and tenor lines at full volume - certainly not a typical "Song of Mary"!

Rogation and Love at Ascension - a new commandment

Rogation days are days of prayer and fasting in Western Christianity, observed with processions and the Litany of the Saints. The so-called major rogation is held on 25 April whilst minor rogations are held on Monday to Wednesday preceding Ascension Thursday. 

Rogation in History

Historically Rogation has been merged with pagan rites, The Christian major rogation replaced a pagan Roman procession known as Robigalia, at which a dog was sacrificed to propitiate Robigus, the deity of agricultural disease. A common feature of Rogation days in the middle ages was the ceremony of beating the bounds, in which a procession of parishioners, led by the minister, churchwarden, and choirboys, would proceed around the boundary of their parish and pray for its protection in the forthcoming year. (This was also a feature of the original Roman festival, when revellers would walk to a grove five miles from the city to perform their rites.) But the central theme was protection, and in the Christian faith this is derived from our relationship with God. As in any healthy relationship, love is required in both directions - God loves us conditionally, but requires that we also love one another in the same way.

The word rogation comes from the Latin verb rogare, meaning "to ask", which reflects the beseeching of God for the appeasement of his anger and for protection from calamities. 

Rogation and Love

It is pertinent therefore that the days preceding Ascension Thursday are rogation days, following the Sixth Sunday of Easter when we remember Jesus' commandment that we love one another as selflessly as he loved us. 

Grayston Ives

Our anthem in church this week is "O Sacrum Convivium" by Grayston Ives. 

Born in 1948 Ives is a modern British composer. Composing as "Grayston", he prefers to be known as Bill - a nickname given him by his brother. Ives has spent his life in choral music, and until 2009 was Director of Music at Magdalen College, Oxford. In this role he also directed the choir in recordings on the Harmonia Mundi label; "With a Merrie Noyse", made with the viol consort Fretwork and featuring the works of the English composer Orlando Gibbons, was nominated for a Grammy in 2004. Paul McCartney's "Ecce Cor Meum" was written especially for Magdalen College Choir and the subsequent EMI recording won the Classical BRIT Award for Album of the Year in 2007. For his contribution to church music, Ives was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal School of Church Music (May 2008) and a Lambeth DMus (July 2008), conferred by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. He is also an Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.

Bill has spent his life in choral music – as a singer, conductor, teacher and composer (writing as Grayston Ives). A chorister at Ely Cathedral he later studied music at Selwyn College, Cambridge where he held a choral scholarship; taking composition lessons with Richard Rodney Bennett. After Cambridge he sang in Guildford Cathedral Choir before joining The King’s Singers, with whom he recorded and performed worldwide.

(A few years back my youngest son was fortunate enough to perform in a post-workshop concert with The Kings Singers. This was my first exposure to the group, now a household name following their "Carols from Kings" performance with the choristers of Kings College, Cambridge this Christmas.) 

"O sacrum convivium" is a Latin text honouring the Blessed Sacrament. It is included as an antiphon to the Magnificat in the vespers of the liturgical office on the feast of Corpus Christi. (The text is likely attributable to Saint Thomas Aquinas.) It expresses the profound affinity of the Eucharistic celebration,  to the Paschal mystery : "O sacred banquet at which Christ is consumed, the memory of his Passion is recalled, our souls are filled with grace, and the pledge of future glory is given to us."