Charles Wood (15 June 1866 – 12 July 1926) was an Irish composer and teacher; his students includedRalph Vaughan Williams atCambridge andHerbert Howells at theRoyal College of Music. He is primarily remembered and performed as an Anglican church music composer, but he also wrote songs and chamber music, particularly for string quartet.
Born in Vicars' Hill in the Cathedral precincts ofArmagh, Ireland, Charles was the fifth child and third son of Charles Wood Sr. and Jemima Wood. The boy was a treble chorister in the choir of the nearby St. Patrick's Cathedral (Church of Ireland). His father sang tenor as a stipendiary 'Gentleman' or 'Lay Vicar Choral' in the Cathedral choir and was also the Diocesan Registrar of the church. He was a cousin of Irish composerIna Boyle.[1] The organist and composer William G Wood (1859-1895), also associated with Cambridge, was his elder brother.[citation needed]
Wood received his early education at the Cathedral Choir School and also studied organ with two organists and masters of the Boys of Armagh Cathedral, Robert Turle and his successor Dr Thomas Marks. In 1883 he became one of fifty inaugural class members of theRoyal College of Music, studying composition withCharles Villiers Stanford andCharles Hubert Hastings Parry primarily, andhorn and piano secondarily. Following four years of training, he continued his studies atSelwyn College, Cambridge until 1889.[2]
He began teachingharmony andcounterpoint at Selwyn College. In 1889 he attained a teaching position atGonville and Caius College, Cambridge, first asorgan scholar and then as fellow in 1894, becoming their first director of music and organist. He was instrumental in the reflowering of music at the college, though more as a teacher and organiser of musical events than as composer. After Stanford died in 1924, Wood assumed his mentor's vacant role as Professor of Music at theUniversity of Cambridge.[1]
According to his successor at Cambridge,Edward J Dent, as a teacher of composition, Wood "was surpassed only by Stanford himself [and] as a teacher of counterpoint and fugue he was unequalled".[3] His pupils at Cambridge included Ralph Vaughan Williams,Nicholas Gatty,Arthur Bliss,Cecil Armstrong Gibbs andW Denis Browne. Dent says that, because Stanford did not reside in Cambridge, Wood took on the real burden of teaching for many years before his own election as Professor of Music, by which time his health was already undermined. He died in July 1926 after only two years in the post.
He married Charlotte Georgina Wills-Sandford, daughter of William Robert Wills-Sandford, ofCastlerea,County Roscommon, Ireland, on 17 March 1898. They had two sons and three daughters, including Lieutenant Patrick Bryan Sandford WoodR.A.F. (1899-1918), who was killed in an aircraft accident during theFirst World War and is buried atTaranto, Italy.[1][4] The family's address in Cambridge was 17, Cranmer Road.
Like his better-known colleague Stanford, Wood is chiefly remembered for hisAnglican church music: there are over 250 sacred works and many hymn tunes. As well as hisCommunion Service in thePhrygian Mode, his settings of theMagnificat andNunc dimittis are still popular with cathedral and parish church choirs, particularly the services in F,D and G, and the two settings in E flat. DuringPassiontide hisSt Mark Passion, written in 1920 forEric Milner-White, the then Dean ofKing’s College, Cambridge, is sometimes performed. It demonstrates Wood's interest in modal composition, in contrast to the late romantic harmonic style he more usually employs.[7]
Wood's anthems with organ,Expectans expectavi, andO Thou, the Central Orb are both frequently performed and recorded; as are his unaccompanied anthemsTis the day of Resurrection,Glory and Honour and, most popular of all,Hail, gladdening light and its lesser-known equivalent for men's voices,Great Lord of Lords. All Wood'sa cappella music demonstrates fastidious craftsmanship and a supreme mastery of the genre, and he is no less resourceful in his accompanied choral works which sometimes include unison sections and have stirring organ accompaniments, conveying a satisfying warmth and richness of emotional expression appropriate to his carefully chosen texts.[8]
Wood collaborated with priest and poetGeorge Ratcliffe Woodward in the revival and popularisation of Renaissance tunes to new English religious texts, notably co-editing three books ofcarols includingThe Cowley Carol Book. Their collaboration also producedSongs of Syon.[9] He was co-founder (in 1904) of the Irish Folk Song Society. Wood's arrangement ofThe Irish Famine Song (The Praties They Grow Small Over Here) was recorded in the early 1920s by the Russian tenorVladimir Rosing, and released on Vocalion A-0168.
After the fashion of the time Wood composed a series of secular choral cantatas between 1885 and 1905, includingOn Time (1897-8, settingMilton),Dirge for Two Veterans (1901, settingWalt Whitman), andA Ballad of Dundee (1904, settingW.E. Aytoun). There were also many part songs (such asFull Fathom Five), madrigals (includingIf Love be Dead, settingColeridge) and solo songs, one of which,Ethiopia Saluting the Colours (settingWalt Whitman) attained high popularity.[10]
He also composed eight string quartets (six numbered, plus theVariations on an Irish Folk Tune and a first movement fragment in G minor), spanning 1885 to 1917.[8] The early quartets show the influence of Brahms, but from No. 3 in A minor (1911) a more personal voice emerges, partly through the use of Irish folk melodies and dance tunes as thematic material.[11] There are modern recording of No. 3 by theLindsay Quartet[12] and of No. 6 by theLondon Chamber Ensemble Quartet.[13] The quartets were edited after the composer's death by Edward Dent and published in a collected edition by Oxford University Press in 1929.[14]
Of the orchestral works, both the Piano Concerto (1886) and thePatrick Sarsfield Variations (1899) remained unpublished, although theVariations received a performance at theQueen's HallBeecham Concerts in 1907.Walter Starkie said the work "shows his power of creating what may be called the Irish atmosphere in music".[15] It has been revived in modern times by theUlster Orchestra, conducted by Simon Joly.[16] However, Wood appears to have lost confidence and abandoned the orchestral medium after 1905. Three symphonies and an opera remained uncompleted.[1]
String Quartet No. 3 in A minor, Lindsay String Quartet, ASV CD DCA879 (1993).
The Choral and Organ Music of Charles Wood, Blackburn Cathedral Choir, David Goodenough (organ), on: Priory Records PRCD 484 (1995).
The Anthems of Charles Wood Vol. 1, Choir of Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, Geoffrey Webber, on: Priory Records PRCD 754 (2001).
The Anthems of Charles Wood Vol. 2, Choir of Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, Geoffrey Webber, on: Priory Records PRCD 779 (2002).
St Mark's Passion, Choir of Jesus College Cambridge, Jonathan Vaughn (organ), on: Naxos 8.570561 (2008).
Nunc dimittis in B-flat,Expectans expectavi,It were my soul’s desire,O Thou the central orb; Charles Wood Singers, David Hill, Philip Scriven (organ), on: Regent Records REGCD 567 (2023).
String Quartet No. 6 in D major, London Chamber Ensemble, on: Somm Recordings SOMMCD 0692 (2024).
Songs for Voice and Piano, Carolyn Dobbin, Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside. Delphian DCD34339 (2025)
^A Guide to Churchill College (Cambridge, 2009), text by Dr.Mark Goldie, pp. 62 and 63.
^J. S. Curl:Funary Monuments & Memorials in St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh (Whitstable: Historical Publications, 2013), pp. 52-53,ISBN978-1-905286-48-5.
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