Basil Harwood

Infobox musical artist
Name = Basil Harwood


Background = classical_ensemble
Birth_name = Basil Harwood
Born = birth date|1859|4|11|df=y
Woodhouse, Gloucestershire, England
Died = death date and age|1949|4|3|1859|4|11|df=y
London, England
Instrument = Organ
Genre = Organ music
Occupation = Organist and Composer
Years_active = 1883-1935

Basil Harwood (11 April 1859–3 April 1949) was an English organist and composer.

Life

He was born in Woodhouse, Gloucestershire (the second youngest of 12 children) on 11 April 1859. He was educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Oxford (MusB 1880, BA 1881, MA 1884, MusD 1896). He then studied for a further year at the Leipzig Conservatory under Carl Reinecke and Salomon Jadassohn. He became organist of St. Barnabas Church, Pimlico in 1883 then moved to Ely Cathedral in 1887. His final appointment was at Christ Church, Oxford from 1892 to 1909. Whilst there he co-founded and conducted the Oxford Bach Choir, served as pre­cent­or of Keble College, Oxford and con­duct­ed the Ox­ford Or­ches­tral As­so­ci­a­tion (1892-1898) and was mu­sic­al ed­it­or of the 1908 Ox­ford Hymn Book.

During this time, he met and married Mabel Ada Jennings (the daughter of George Jennings) at All Souls St. Marylebone, London (27 December 1899). Mabel had studied music herself and was also a writer. She may well have composed lyrics for some of his lesser known tunesFact|date=September 2007.At an advanced age she wrote a small volume of collected poems named Questing Soul.

He was a keen walker, and named many of his hymn tunes after local places that he loved to visit.

He retired early at 50 (in 1909) after the death of his father, Edward Harwood, from whom he inherited the family estate of Woodhouse having outlived his seven older brothers. He continued to compose after this time. Part of the estate was later sold to his contemporary Robert Baden-Powell who was two years older than him and who had also attended Charterhouse School.

After a long life, he died on 3 April 1949 at Courtfield Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington, London. Mabel survived him, dying shortly before her 103rd birthday on 20 July 1974. He was survived by two sons; Major John Edward Godfrey Harwood (1900-1996) and Basil Antony Harwood (1903-1990) Senior Master of the Supreme Court, Q.B.D. and Queen's Remembrancer.

His remains are interred in St. Barnabas Church, Pimlico and marked by a plaque inset in floor of the chancel, close to where he would have stood to conduct the choir.

Works

He composed cantatas, church music and works for the organ; his Service in A flat, the anthem "O how Glorious" and the hymn tunes "Luckington" ("Let all the world in every corner sing") and "Thornbury" ("Thy hand O God has guided"), first used during a fes­ti­val of the Lon­don Church Choir As­so­ci­a­tion, remain in the Anglican repertory.

Organ and Choral Works

*Op.2 No.1 Agnus Dei
*Op.2 No.2 O Salutaris
*Op.5 Sonata No.1 in C sharp minor 1886
*Op.6 Evening Service in A flat major (Choir)
*Op.7 Dithyramb
*Op.12 O How Glorious is the Kingdom
*Op.13 No.1 Sing and Rejoice
*Op.15 No.1 Communion in F major 1902
*Op.15 No.2 Interlude in D major 1902
*Op.15 No.3 Paean 1902
*Op.15 No.4 Short Postlude for Ascensiontide 1902
*Op.15 No.5 Requiem Aeternam 1902
*Op.15 No.6 Andante Tranquillo 1902
*Op.16 Capriccio for Organ 1903
*Op.18 Two Sketches for Organ 1903
*Op.20 As by the Streams of Babylon (Choir) 1907
*Op.26 Sonata No. 2 in F sharp minor 1912
*Op.32 In an Old Abbey 1923
*Op.34 Christmastide 1920
*Op.38 Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in E minor (Choir)
*Op.38 Rhapsody for Organ 1922
*Op.40 Wedding March 1923
*Op.41 O How Plentiful is Thy Goodness
*Op.42 Three Preludes on Anglican Chants (Organ) 1925
*Op.44 Processional (Organ) 1926
*Op.45 Three Short Pieces for Organ 1927
*Op.46 In Exitu Israel (Organ) 1928
*Op.49 Toccata (Organ)
*Op.51 Prelude, Larghetto and Finale (Organ) 1931
*Op.54 Let the People Praise Thee O God
*Op.60 No.2 All My Heart this Night Rejoices
*Op.64 Draw Nigh to God
*Op.70 Voluntary for Organ in D flat major 1926
*Te Deum and Benedictus in A flat major
*Communion for Organ on the hymn tune “Irish”
*This is the day which the Lord hath made
*Evensong for St Etheldreda
*Lullaby

Hymn Tunes

*Luckington - Let All the World in Every Corner Sing
*Thornbury 1898 – Thy Hand O God hath Guided
*O How Glorious is The Kingdom 1894
*Draw Nigh to God
*I am the Living Bread
*In God's Holy Dwelling
*Great God, and Wilt Thou Condescend?
*Blessed Thomas, Doubt No Longer
*Sweet Saviour, Bless Us
*O Jesus I Have Promised
*O Sacred Banquet

Psalm settings

*I waited patiently for the Lord

References and bibliography

*Jeremy Dibble, "Harwood, Basil (1859-1949)" "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" (Oxford University Press, 2004) http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33749 accessed 1 Feb 2005
*A booklet by Valerie Ruddle entitled "The Life and Hymn Tunes of Basil Harwood" was published by the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland in 1996.
*Basil Harwood also donated some compositions to the Bodleian Library, Oxford in 1947. http://www.cecilia-uk.org/html/search/verb/GetRecord/1098
*After his death, his executors gave many manuscript and printed copies of his music to the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM). http://www.cecilia-uk.org/html/search/verb/GetRecord/892
*There are also some letters and other compositions in the Royal College of Music Library and the Charterhouse Archives.