When Stainer & Bell (by a circuitous route) acquired the catalogue of A. Weekes and Co. Ltd, it greatly increased its selection of church anthems, due, in the main, to one man – Caleb Simper.
To many, Victorian composers of church music are no longer in vogue, and Simper does not feature in the famous ‘Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians’. However, the original publishers proudly printed on copies of his anthems ‘Sung throughout the civilised world’ – as indeed they were. By 1892, about 2.5 million copies of his anthems had been sold. This increased to around 3.25 million by 1895 and surpassing 5 million by 1920. Halcyon days for a publisher!
Although loved by church and chapel choirs who had little musical knowledge and who found the simplicity of the works within their limited abilities, the anthems were derided by others. Ralph Vaughan Williams said about Simper and Maunder (composer of Olivet to Calvary) ‘Composers with ridiculous names: their names are about the one thing these composers couldn’t help; other aspects of their activities are less innocent.’ And when all things Victorian were out of favour and structures such as the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park and St Pancras Midland Hotel were scheduled for demolition and church choir cupboards cleared, Erik Routley, in his book ‘A Short History of English Music’, wrote: ‘From the Crucifixion you go downwards to the underworld of Michael Costa, Caleb Simper and J. H. Maunder’.
One advocate of Simper’s anthems in recent years was the late Christopher Turner, who, in 1995, persuaded us to publish a volume entitled Five Anthems for the Liturgical Year (Ref D85 £6.00) which has sold surprisingly well. Simper’s organ works, unlike his anthems, have never been out of print, and all twelve books Seventeen Voluntaries (Refs 16010 – 16021 £5.75 per volume) are themselves sold in quantity to the ‘civilised world’. Written on two staves, the voluntaries are tuneful and provide the backbone to many church services.
Born in Barford St Martin, Wiltshire in 1857, Simper was largely self-taught. He attempted a number of professions, including piano tuning, before finding his vocation as an organist. He was briefly manager of a music shop next door but one to the Elgar family business. Ten years later he moved to Barnstaple, and there he remained, occupying a number of posts as organist and choirmaster until shortly before his death in 1942.
So, like the yeast extract ‘Marmite’, who promote their product on a ‘love it or hate it’ basis, the choice is yours. Fortunately enough organists fall into the former category to force us to reprint the Voluntaries on a regular basis.
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