Saturday music spot: Sir John Stainer, "I saw the Lord"

Sir John Stainer was born in Southwark, London in 1840 (145 years after the death of Henry Purcell) and was already a prolific composer when he was appointed organist of Magdalen College Oxford at the age of 20 (29 years before Elgar's first published work.) 

He was knighted by Queen Victoria in  1888 for his services to music and his other honours included being invited to be a juror at the French Exhibition in Paris in 1878, an  adjudicator at the Welsh Eisteddfod at Caernarvon in 1880. He was also made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour by France in in 1879.

The piece for which he is perhaps best remembered and which is most often heard today is his major work "The Crucifixion" but my favourite piece by Stainer, also still performed, especially for Trinity Sunday, is the anthem "I saw the Lord"

 

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