CYRIL B. ROOTHAM

Cyril Bradley Rootham (1875-1938) was born in Redland, Bristol, England, son of a well-known singing teacher and director of the Bristol Madrigal Society. He was trained at St. John’s College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music where he studied under Walter Parratt, Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford. He held organist appointments at Christ Church, Hampstead, and St. Asaph Cathedral in north Wales. In 1901, he was appointed organist at St John’s College, Cambridge, a post he held until the end of his life. He became a Fellow of St. John’s and taught Counterpoint and Harmony. He was also conductor of the Cambridge University Musical Society. He composed a number of works, including an opera, two symphonies, several smaller orchestral pieces, chamber music and various choral works. Rootham was most comfortable writing for chorus and voice. Stanford, his teacher at the RCM, reportedly once said to him: “You can write for voices, me boy.”

All are mixed chorus; some contain divisi.

SET

TITLE

VOICING

TEXT

LISTEN

A shepherd in a glade   Elizabethan
LISTEN
X

Stop audio before closing

  Happy streams, whose trembling fall  
LISTEN
X

Stop audio before closing

Love and laughter   Arthur Gray Butler
LISTEN
X

Stop audio before closing

Madrigal SSATB Thomas Campion
LISTEN
X

Stop audio before closing

Strew on her roses   Matthew Arnold
LISTEN
X

Stop audio before closing

Sweet content  
LISTEN
X

Stop audio before closing

Sweet echo
LISTEN
X

Stop audio before closing