Midweek Music spot: John Stanley's trumpet voluntary

John Stanley was born in London on 17 January 1712, seventeen years after the death of Henry Purcell. At about the age of two, he fell on a marble hearth with a china basin in his hand, causing injuries  which left him almost completely blind.

He began studying music at the age of seven. Under the guidance of Maurice Greene, composer and organist at St. Paul's Cathedral, he studied "with great diligence, and a success that was astonishing."  

From the age of nine he played the organ, probably as an occasional deputy, at All Hallows, Bread Street. When he was eleven years old, Stanley was appointed organist to the church at a salary of £20 per annum.

When he was fourteen, and apparently "in preference to a great number of candidates," he was chosen as organist at the church of St Andrew, Holborn, and at the age of seventeen he became the youngest person ever to obtain a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Oxford.

Though almost blind, Stanley had a remarkable memory, which helped him direct many of Handel's oratorios and to enjoy music-making and card games with his many friends. If he had to accompany a new oratorio he would ask his sister-in-law to play it through just once – enough to commit it to memory.

The works composed by Stanley  include the opera Teraminta, the dramatic cantata The Choice of Hercules, twelve other cantatas with texts by John Hawkins, the oratorios Jephtha, The Fall of Egypt and Zimri, and instrumental music, notably three volumes of voluntaries for organ.

This magnificent Trumpet Voluntary is one of my favourites of his pieces.


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