John Rutter
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John Milford Rutter CBE (born September 24, 1945) is an English composer, choral conductor, editor, arranger and record producer.
Born in London, he was educated at Highgate School, where a fellow pupil was John Tavener. He then read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the choir and then director of music from 1975 to 1979. In 1974, Rutter visited the United States at the invitation of choral musician Melvin (Mel) Olson and conducted the premiere of his cantata "Gloria" in Omaha, Nebraska, in the Witherspoon Hall of Joslyn Art Museum. The composition, commissioned by Olson's Voices of Mel Olson chorale, has become a much-performed favorite over the years. (In the same concert, the Young People's Choir of the Midlands performed Rutter's "Eight Childhood Lyrics" in its premiere US performance.) In 1981 he founded his own choir, the Cambridge Singers, which he conducts and with which he has made many recordings of sacred choral repertoire (including his own works), particularly under his own label Collegium Records. He still lives near Cambridge, but frequently conducts other choirs and orchestras around the world.
In 1980 he was made an honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, and in 1988 a Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians. In 1996 the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred a Lambeth Doctorate of Music upon him in recognition of his contribution to church music. In 2008, he was made an honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple whilst playing a significant role in the 2008 Temple Festival.[1]
He also works as an arranger and editor, most notably (in his youth) of the extraordinarily successful Carols for Choirs anthology series in collaboration with Sir David Willcocks.
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[edit] Compositions
Rutter's compositions are chiefly choral, and include Christmas carols, anthems and extended works such as a Gloria, a Magnificat, and a Requiem. Rutter's world premiere of his Requiem Mass, as well as his authoritative version of Faure's, was with the Fox Valley Festival Chorus, in Illinois, during his tenure with Cambridge. In 2002 his setting of Psalm 150, commissioned for the Queen's Golden Jubilee, was performed at the thanksgiving service in St Paul's Cathedral, London. He has also written an opera for young people called Bang!
He is published principally by Oxford University Press in England and by Hinshaw in the US. Recordings are principally on the Collegium label.
[edit] Influences
Rutter's music is eclectic, showing the influences of the French and English choral traditions of the early 20th century, as well as of light music and American classic songwriting. Almost every choral anthem and hymn that he writes, in addition to the standard piano/organ accompaninment, has a subsequent orchestral accompaniment as well, utilizing various different instrumentations, such as strings only, strings and woodwinds, or full orchestra with brass and percussion, among others.
Despite composing and conducting much religious music, Rutter told the US television program 60 Minutes in 2003 that he was not particularly a religious man, but he is inspired by the spirituality of sacred verses and prayers.[1] The 60 Minutes program, which aired a week before Christmas 2003, focused on Rutter's popularity with choral groups in the United States, Britain and other parts of the world, and on his composition, Mass of the Children, composed after the sudden death of his son Christopher, a student.
[edit] Reputation
Rutter's music is very popular, particularly in the USA (NBC's Today Show called him "the world's greatest living composer and conductor of choral music")[cite this quote]; though in the UK it receives a more mixed reception.[citation needed] Some from the Anglican choral tradition[weasel words] do not regard him as a sufficiently "serious" composer. There is still great appreciation for his work in many parts of the UK, however, as illustrated by the following quotation from a review in the London Evening Standard (25/09/2005): "For the infectiousness of his melodic invention and consummate craftsmanship, Rutter has few peers."
In terms of performances he is probably the most successful choral composer of his generation. For example, his Shepherd's Pipe Carol, written while he was still at school, is reputed to have sold well over one million copies in sheet music alone.[citation needed]
[edit] List of compositions and arrangements
[edit] Carols
- "Angels' Carol" (Original composition)
- "Candlelight Carol" Original composition
- "Carol of the Children" Original Composition
- "Cantique de Noël" Arrangement
- "Christmas Lullaby"
- "Christmas Night" (Arrangement, the title song on the Cambridge Singers's first album)
- "Deck the Hall" (Arrangement)
- "Donkey Carol"
- "Dormi Jesu"
- "For the Beauty of the Earth"
- "I Wonder as I Wander" (Arrangement)
- "Jesus Child"
- "Joy to the World" (Arrangement in the style of Handel)
- "Love Came Down at Christmas"
- "Mary's Lullaby"
- "Nativity Carol" (Original composition)
- "Of a Rose, a lovely Rose"
- "Personent Hodie" (Arranged in the Medieval style)
- "Rocking" (Arrangement and translation of Czech carol called "Hajej, nynej, Ježíšku")
- "Shepherd's Pipe Carol"
- "Silent Night" (Arrangement in the style of Brahms)
- "Star Carol"
- "There is a Flower" (Original composition)
- "The Very Best Time of Year"
- "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" (Arrangement)
- "Wexford Carol" (Arrangement)
- "What Sweeter Music"
- "Wild Wood Carol"
- "Garlic Dressing"
[edit] Choral works
Most of these works are arrangements.
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[edit] Anthems and other compositions
Again, most of these works are arrangements of traditional compositions.
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[edit] External links
- Rutter at the Oxford University Press website
- Collegium Records
- John Rutter interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 28th January 2009 (film)
