At our Evensong on Saturday May 14 (5pm) we’ll be singing Walmisley’s Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in D minor.
Thomas Attwood Walmisley (1814–1856) was from a musical family, and though his output was sizeable, he is mainly remembered for this evensong setting, composed in 1855. Walmisley nevertheless had a significant impact on English church music, and not just as a composer: he was also recognized as a brilliant choirmaster and organist. According to Sarah Langdon:
Besides Wesley, Thomas Attwood Walmisley (1814–1856) was the composer most instrumental in raising the tradition of English church music out of the mire into which it had sunk earlier in the nineteenth century.
The photo is of the chapel of St John’s College, Cambridge, where Walmisley was organist while simultaneously holding the same position at Trinity College.
Source: Sarah Langdon, 1987, Program notes, Hyperion, https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W2952_66249
Photo: Diliff – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34166099
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