John Henry Maunder

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Henry Maunder (February 21, 1858 – January 21, 1920) was an English composer and organist.

Maunder was born in Chelsea, London, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. He was organist at St Matthew's, Sydenham, from 1876 to 1877, and at St Paul's, Forest Hill, from 1878 to 1879. He also accompanied concerts in the Royal Albert Hall. He was conductor of the Civil Service Vocal Union from 1881, and also trained the choir for Henry Irving's production of Faust at the Lyceum Theatre in 1887.

Maunder produced a large amount of Anglican church music, written in the popular style of his day and aimed at smaller parish choirs. His cantata Olivet to Calvary (1904) used to be a favourite at Passiontide, often being sung every other year in alternation with Sir John Stainer's The Crucifixion. However, although they were for a while widely performed, Maunder's compositions are now largely out of fashion. In the 1955 edition of the Oxford Companion to Music Percy Scholes writes that his "seemingly inexhaustible cantatas, Penitence, Pardon and Peace and Olivet to Calvary long enjoyed popularity, and still aid the devotions of undemanding congregations in less sophisticated areas".