William Crotch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Crotch (July 5, 1775–December 29, 1847) was an English composer and organist and an artist. Born in Norwich to a master carpenter he showed early musical talent (a child prodigy). His composition The Captivity of Judah was played at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, on June 4, 1789; his most successful composition in adulthood was the oratorio Palestine (1812). He may have composed the Westminster Chimes in 1793.
In 1797 Crotch was given a professorship at Oxford University, and in 1799 he acquired a doctorate in music. While at Oxford, he became acquainted with the musician and artist John Malchair, and took up sketching. He followed Malchair's style in recording the exact time and date of each of his pictures, and when he met John Constable in London in 1805, he passed the habit along to the more famous artist.
In 1834, to commemorate the installation of the Duke of Wellington as chancellor of the University of Oxford, Crotch penned a second oratorio titled The Captivity of Judah. The 1834 work bears little resemblance to the oratorio he wrote as a child in 1789.
In 1822, Crotch was appointed to the Royal Academy of Music. He spent his last years at his son's house in Taunton, where he died suddenly in 1847.
