John Varley Roberts
John Varley Roberts was an English choirmaster, organist, and composer. He spent most of his career at Magdalen College, Oxford.
Life
Family and early years
John Varley Roberts was born on 25 September 1841 at Stanningley, near Leeds, the fourth son of Joseph Varley Roberts, and his wife Elizabeth. John Varley was baptised on 2 January 1842 at St Wilfred's, Calverley. He had at least seven siblings: Sarah Ann, Esther, Charlotte Elizabeth, Joseph, James, Frances Eliza and Charles Hartley Roberts. Charles was the only child not to survive into adulthood. Joseph is described as a clothier, or maker and finisher of woollen cloth, the trade for which the Leeds district was famous until the middle of the twentieth century. The children were involved in what was in this period still very much a family business, usually run from home with the offspring working either as spinners or as weavers or burlers.By 1851, Joseph Varley Roberts was described as a farmer, with seven acres of land to his name. All but two of the children were still living at home. Three had by this time become school teachers. One was still a ‘woollen cloth manufacturer’. The family's local church was St Thomas's, Stanningley, to which John Varley Roberts later donated the pipe organ – still in existence – in 1906. He studied ‘the piano and musical theory under Bird, also taking lessons from Whitley, a bandmaster, and John Burton, brother of the organist of the town’.
Leeds and Halifax
At the age of 12, John Varley Roberts was appointed organist of nearby St John's, Farsley. He then went to study at the recently opened York and Ripon Diocesan Training College for Masters. In 1862, he became organist of St Bartholomew's, Armley. Varley Roberts was not the organist at St Bartholomew's Church that we know today, complete with its world-famous Schulze organ, but the predecessor building and instrument, though he would have been there when the plans for the new building, though not the organ, were well advanced. By this time, Roberts wished to marry Elizabeth Yates Jane Maning, daughter of the Vicar of Farsley. The Reverend Maning strongly disapproved, however. For a time, her father may have sent her away in an attempt to cool Roberts’ ardour and break up the relationship, but the couple later eloped together. They were married in May 1866 at Ilkley Parish Church by licence, with no member of her family signing the register. Elizabeth Varley Roberts died in July 1917. Their one child, Gertrude, was born in 1868. Varley Roberts gave his father's Rank or Profession as 'Gentleman' in the Marriage Register, though whether a 'Farmer of Seven Acres', formerly a Clothier, could really pass as a Gentleman in mid-nineteenth-century terms is a moot point.Roberts moved to Halifax Parish Church in 1868. By 1871 at the latest he was living with his wife and daughter in the newly fashionable area of North Park at 86 King Cross Street, in a house large enough to require the services of a live-in servant, and was describing himself in that year's census as 'Professor of Music'. The family were still resident there ten years later. Interestingly, his next door neighbour in 1881, Thomas L Booth, also described himself as a 'Professor of Music'.
Oxford
In 1871, having matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, he was awarded the external degree of BMus from the University. He graduated DMus five years later in 1876, the same year that he became a Fellow of the College of Organists – the highest honour and qualification for an organist, then as now. The DMus was conferred upon him after a performance by the Halifax Parish Church choir of his cantata Jonah, with text by the Vicar of Hipperholme and Headmaster of Heath Grammar School, the Reverend Thomas Cox. Cox was also Lecturer at Halifax Parish Church, having been appointed by Archdeacon Musgrave in 1871. Sydney Morton was the bass soloist in the title role at the first performance with the Parish Church Choir. Morton was a Worsted Goods Manufacturer in Halifax.File:William Holman Hunt - May Morning on Magdalen College, Oxford, Ancient Annual Ceremony - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|344x344px|May Morning on Magdalen Tower, by Holman Hunt, 1890. Varley Roberts is pictured on the left, directing the choir.
On 9 November 1882, on the recommendation of Sir FAG Ouseley, Dr Purey-Cust, Dean of York, and Sir George J Elvey, late Organist of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Roberts was elected organist and informator choristarum at Magdalen College, Oxford, in succession to Sir Walter Parratt. He held this post for thirty-seven years, resigning with effect from 31 December 1918. In 1885, Roberts became a Freemason. He was initiated in Apollo University Lodge No.357. He became a familiar if ‘incongruous’ figure in Oxford musical life, and on 22 February 1916 was awarded the degree of Master of Arts for his services to the university. During his time in Oxford, he was also organist of St Giles Church, founding Conductor of the University Glee and Madrigal Society and director of the Oxford Choral and Philharmonic Society. He led the May Morning singing from Magdalen Tower, a tradition going back over 500 years and which continues to this day. Varley Roberts’ directing of the singing is immortalised in a painting by Holman Hunt, though, characteristically, the choirmaster complained that he had not been given a more prominent position in the picture.
Roberts was an examiner for musical degrees at the university and a lecturer in harmony and counterpoint there. He composed many anthems, together with part-songs and cantatas as well as a number of organ works. He also gave organ recitals, though it was as a choir trainer that he was really famed. His book A Treatise on a Practical Method of Training Choristers became one of the best-known textbooks for choirmasters, first published in 1898, with subsequent editions in 1900, 1905, and 1914; while Magdalen College Choir was widely regarded as the very best in the country. He died on 9 February 1920 and was buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, his funeral being attended by the famous organists and choirmasters of their day, as well as past choristers of the college who had been tutored by Varley Roberts. His house at 18 Holywell Street still exists.
Appointment to Halifax Parish Church
When Joseph Henry Frobisher resigned in 1862, having been organist of Halifax Parish Church since 1838, the vacant post was not an attractive one. The salary was only £25 per annum and had been so since the eighteenth century, although the ‘Organ Trustees’ promised to supplement this amount with money from the church's general subscription. However, the salary was below what could be expected for a post at a major parish church. Compare the £25 salary with the case of the organist of Leeds Parish Church, who at this time was being paid £200 per annum. The organ was very out of date compared with the latest fashion. The opportunities for choral music were also limited.Henry Edwin Moore, Deputy Organist at Leeds Parish Church, was appointed organist in succession to Frobisher. However, under his direction, the choir of the Parish Church seems to have deteriorated, and he was asked to resign in 1868. Moore remained in Halifax as Organist of All Souls, Haley Hill and a ‘professor of music’ as well as a conductor of local choirs. Thirty-seven people applied for the post vacated by Moore. Seven of these candidates were selected to take part in an open contest. The Organ Trustees must have been aware of the sinking musical reputation of their church, for not only were the auditions ‘professionally’ conducted but it was agreed that John Varley Roberts, the successful candidate, should be paid a minimum of £60 per annum - more than double Moore's salary.
Roberts and the organ
Roberts was an intelligent church musician with a wide knowledge of the repertoire. At a time when most parish church organists were still playing transcriptions of choruses from Handel's oratorios, Roberts was regularly giving recitals of organ music by Bach and Mendelssohn. On his arrival at Halifax, Varley Roberts found the organ in a dreadful state – the action was noisy, the instrument was tuned to ‘mean-tone’ temperament, and the pedal organ of one stop was virtually useless. Largely due to his efforts, sufficient money was raised to begin work on the Snetzler instrument in 1869. Hydraulic blowing was installed, obviating the need for a human organ blower, while the manual compasses were standardised, a proper pedal section installed, and more fashionable stops added, while preserving the essence of the original 18th century work. At this time, the instrument remained in the west gallery, where the choir was also located.Roberts and the choir
We know from Mary Tankard, the well-known local soprano, that the choir was very small before Varley Roberts arrived. Tankard joined Halifax Parish Church in 1851, becoming principal soprano the following year, remaining for most of the next twenty years until her marriage in 1872. Under Frobisher and Moore, she was one of only nine singers. Upon her return to the Parish Church in 1871, there were sixteen voices.Within a few years of Varley Roberts' appointment, the number of choristers had risen from sixteen to seventy, and there were reports of even higher numbers at various times during the 1870s. In his Treatise, Roberts spoke of the ‘many years’ in a ‘large manufacturing centre where he had a choir of one hundred voices, thirty-eight of whom were boys’. The choir's standard of performance had improved too:
Halifax – on Monday the 6th ult., the new organ in Broad Street Wesleyan Chapel... was opened by Mr JV Roberts, Mus. Bac., Oxon...The programme consisted of an organ recital and service of song, and was selected from the works of the most classical writers. The vocal pieces were rendered by the Parish Church choir...The local papers speak in the highest terms, both of the performance of Mr Roberts and the singing of his choir.
The choristers were also capable of performing an extensive repertoire. In 1877, a list of anthems used at the Parish Church was published. No fewer than 1004 anthems were listed, mainly by nineteenth-century English composers, but music by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English composers, Beethoven and Brahms were also included.
By the time of the re-opening of the Parish Church in 1879 after the major refurbishment, the choir was an all-male one. It is assumed that the ladies of the choir retired when the west gallery was removed, and there are certainly hints in Roberts’ writings that he did not like female voices, especially contraltos. Speaking of his time at Halifax Parish Church, Roberts wrote:
Roberts’ Treatise... gives other interesting insights into his approach to choir training. Of attendance at rehearsals, he writes:
Emulation was thus promoted, and no payment whatever was given for singing on the Sunday – the surplice and cassock were a sufficient attraction. The boys were paid weekly, according to the number of attendances at the rehearsals. This frequent payment entailed some little trouble, but it satisfied the boys and ensured better attendance than if the payment had been made quarterly.
Where did the choristers come from? In the case of Magdalen, there was a choir school, and rich parents paid for their male offspring to attend. At Halifax, it would have been more of a case of local recruitment, though there was a Church School in what is now Causey Hall from 1867, and it may well be some boy choristers were recruited there. Roberts’ Treatise also gives us some clues as to the source of boy trebles for the choir.