Background
Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley was born in London, the son of Sir Gore Ouseley, and manifested an extraordinary precocity in music, composing an opera (L'Isola disabitata) at the age of eight years.
composer music theorist musicologist
Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley was born in London, the son of Sir Gore Ouseley, and manifested an extraordinary precocity in music, composing an opera (L'Isola disabitata) at the age of eight years.
In 1844, having succeeded to the baronetcy, Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley entered at Christ Church, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1846 and a Master of Arts degree in 1849. In 1850 he took the degree of Mus.B. at the University of Oxford, and four years afterwards that of Mus.D., his exercise being the oratorio The Martyrdom of St Polycarp.
Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley was ordained in the latter year, and, as curate of St. Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, served the parish of St. Barnabas, Pimlico, until 1851. He was Heather Professor of Music at Oxford from 1855 to 1889. He also became the school's first Warden.
Ouseley's works, which are little known today, include a second oratorio, Hagar (Hereford, 1873), a great number of services and anthems, cantatas, chamber music, organ pieces and songs. Among his instructional treaties on harmony, counterpoint, fugue, and composition are Harmony (1868) and Counterpoint (1869) and Musical Form (1875). He also added a series of chapters on English music to the English translation of Emil Naumann's History of Music, the subject having been practically ignored in the German treatise.
A profoundly learned musician, and a man of great general culture, Ouseley's influence on younger men was wholly for good, and he helped forward the cause of musical progress in England perhaps more effectually than if he himself had been among the more enthusiastic supporters of " advanced " music.
His works include a second oratorio, Hagar (Hereford, 1873), a great number of services and anthems, chamber music, songs, &c. , and theoretical works of great importance, such as Harmony (1868) and Counterpoint (1869) and Musical Form (1875).
