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