Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley, 2nd Baronet (12 August 1825 – 6 April 1889) was an English composer, organist, and musicologist.
He was born in London, the son of Sir Gore Ouseley, and manifested an extraordinary precocity in music, composing an opera at the age of eight years. In 1844, having succeeded to the baronetcy, he entered at Christ Church, and graduated B.A. in 1846 and M.A. in 1849. He was ordained in the latter year, and, as curate of St. Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, served the parish of St. Barnabas, Pimlico, until 1851.
In 1850 he took the degree of Mus.B. at the University of Oxford, and four years afterwards that of Mus.D., his exercise being the oratorio St Polycarp. He was professor of music at Oxford from 1855 to 1889. In 1856 he became vicar of St Michael's College on the outskirts of Tenbury Wells.[1]
His works, which are little known today, include a second oratorio, Hagar (Hereford, 1873), a great number of services and anthems, cantatas, chamber music, organ pieces and songs. Among his instructional treaties on harmony, counterpoint, fugue, and composition are Harmony (1868) and Counterpoint (1869) and Musical Form (1875). One of his most useful works is a series of chapters on English music added to the translation of Emil Naumann's History of Music, the subject having been practically ignored in the German treatise.
A learned musician, and a man of great general culture, Ouseley's influence on younger men was wholly for good, and he helped forward the cause of musical progress in England.
Ouseley died in Hereford, where he had been precentor at Hereford Cathedral since 1855. Probably his most notable student was Sir John Stainer.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.