William Crotch

This English composer, organist, theorist and painter was a prodigious talent who was performing at the age of three and earned the Doctorate in Music from Oxford by the age of fourteen. His performance, conducting and arranging were exceptional and highly appreciated by the English public, particularly his oratorio "Palestine" which was the first oratorio performed in London since Handel. With Wesley Crotch helped to keep the keyboard music of Bach and Handel in the public forum. Later in his life Crotch became quite retiring having been psychologically troubled by his mother's insistence on dragging him into the pressures and milieu of public entertainment at such an early age. Oratorios, sacred vocal songs and anthems, concertos, organ works, and sonatas dominated the output of Crotch. Of the instrumental compositions, the organ works approximate the merits of the oratorios -- his forte. Though he rarely superceded the boundaries of the structures and conventions of his time, Crotch successfully employed the use of musical coloration to emphasize textual moods. For example, if a line stated "...in the ancient days..." he would modulate the intonations into the modal harmonies of the Renaissance. He also was adept at using enharmonic modulations which was forthrightly experimental. Crotch was an exceptional polymath in the context of the arts. His compositions, performances, reading, arranging and painting all address this dynamic of his persona. William Crotch was also a diverse writer. In the cntext of music, his volumes included "Elements of Musical Composition," "Practical Through Bass," "Lectures on the History of Music," and "Questions for the Examination of Pupils". ~ Keith Johnson