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Scan 678
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians;, 1904
8 lines. Read by computer on 7 September 2026. Printed page 670. See the scan on archive.org.
1tion of Von Gilm's poem); Hill, Violins and their Makers (two pictures of Stainer's house); Heron-Allen, A Pilgrimage to the House of Jacob Stainer (Musical Times, August 1900). E. H.A.
3Stainer, Marcus, brother of the last mentioned, a celebrated Tyrolese violin-maker. Mark Stainer learned his trade from Jacob, and set up for himself at the village of Laufen. The famous Florentine player Veracini had two violins by this maker, christened 'St. Peter' and 'St. Paul,' and he reckoned them superior to all Italian violins. In sailing from London to Leghorn in 1746 Veracini was shipwrecked and the fiddles were lost. The instruments of this maker are extremely rare. They are made of unusually fine material, of somewhat large size, covered with dark varnish, and are sweet though decidedly feeble in tone. Like those of Jacob Stainer, they usually contain written labels. One of these runs thus: 'Marcus Stainer, Bürger und Geigenmacher in Küfstein, anno 1659.' Occasionally Marcus Stainer yielded to an obvious temptation, and sold his violins under the name of his more famous brother. E. J. P.
5Stainer, Sir John, Mus.D., son of a schoolmaster, was born in London, June 6, 1840, entered the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral in 1847—by which time he was already a remarkable player and an excellent sight-singer—and remained there till 1856, very often taking the organ on occasion. In 1854 he was appointed organist and choirmaster of St. Benedict and St. Peter, Paul's Wharf, of which the Rev. J. H. Coward, classical master to the choristers, was Rector. At the same time he learnt harmony from Bayley, master of the St. Paul's boys, and counterpoint from Dr. Steggall, for whom he sang the soprano part in his Mus.D. exercise at Cambridge in 1852. Through the liberality of Miss Hackett he received a course of lessons on the organ from George Cooper at St. Sepulchre's. In 1856 he was selected by Sir F. Ouseley as organist of his then newly-founded College at Tenbury, where he remained for some time. In 1859 he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, and took the degree of Mus.B. Shortly after, he left Tenbury for Magdalen College, Oxford, where after six months' trial he was appointed organist and informator choristarum. He then entered St. Edmund Hall as a resident undergraduate, and while discharging his duties at Magdalen, worked for his B.A. degree in Arts, which he took in Trinity Term 1863. Meantime, on the death of Stephen Elvey, he had been appointed organist of the University of Oxford, and was conductor of a flourishing College Musical Society and of another association at Exeter College. But nothing interfered with his duties at Magdalen, where he raised the choir to a very high state of efficiency. In 1865 he proceeded to his Mus.D. degree, and 1866 to his M.A., and became one of the examiners for musical degrees. In 1872 he left Oxford and succeeded Goss as organist of St. Paul's Cathedral. The services were at that time by no means what they should have been; but Stainer possessed the confidence of the Dean and Chapter, and his hard work, knowledge, and tact, at last brought them to a worthier pitch of excellence.
7Dr. Stainer did not confine his activity to his own University. He was a member of the Board of Musical Studies at Cambridge, and for two years was also examiner for the degree of Mus.D. there. He was examiner for musical degrees in the University of London; an Hon. Member of the Royal Academy of Music, and Hon. Fellow of the Tonic Sol-fa College; a Vice-President of the College of Organists, and a Vice-President of the Musical Association, of which he was virtually the founder. He was a juror at the Paris Exhibition of 1880, and at its close was decorated with the Legion of Honour. He was attached to the National Training School, London, as a Professor of Organ and Harmony, from its foundation, and at Easter 1881 succeeded Sullivan as Principal. In 1882 he succeeded Hullah as Inspector of Music in the Elementary Schools of England for the Privy Council. He was also a Member of Council of the Royal College of Music. [In 1888 he was obliged to resign his post at St. Paul's owing to his failing sight. In the same year he received the honour of knighthood. He was appointed Professor of Music in the University of Oxford in 1889, was Master of the Company of Musicians in 1900, died at Verona, March 31, 1901, and was buried at Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, April 6, of the same year. See Musical Times, 1901, pp. 297, etc.] His compositions embrace an oratorio, 'Gideon'; a cantata, 'The Daughter of Jairus,' composed by request for the Worcester Festival of September 1878; a cantata, 'St. Mary Magdalen' (Gloucester Festival, 1883); and an oratorio, 'The Crucifixion'—his most popular work—1887. He also wrote many services and anthems, and among his most successful and artistic pieces of church music must be named the well-known 'Sevenfold Amen.' He is the author of the two very popular manuals of Harmony and The Organ in Novello's series, and of a work on Bible music, and was part editor with W. A. Barrett, of a Dictionary of Musical Terms (Novello, 1876 and 1898). He also edited the interesting Dufay and his Contemporaries, 1898. Sir J. Stainer was beloved and esteemed by all who knew him, and was an admirable and efficient musician in all branches; but his great excellence was in his organ-playing, and especially his accompaniments, which were unsurpassed. He was a shining example of the excellent foundation of sound musical knowledge which may be got out of the various duties and shifts of the life of a clever chorister in one of our cathedrals.
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