Cyril Bradley Rootham

Cyril Bradley Rootham was an English composer, educator and organist. His work at Cambridge University made him an influential figure in English music life. A Fellow of St John’s College, where he was also organist, Rootham ran the Cambridge University Musical Society, whose innovative concert programming helped form English musical tastes of the time. One of his students was the younger composer Arthur Bliss, who valued his tuition in orchestration. Rootham’s own compositions include two symphonies and several smaller orchestral pieces, an opera, chamber music, and many choral settings. Among his solo songs are some settings of verses by Siegfried Sassoon which were made in co-operation with the poet.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Cyril Rootham.

From the period sources

Cyril Bradley Rootham, an able English organist and composer, was born in Bristol in 1875. He received his training at St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he earned his Mus. D. in 1910, and also at the Royal College, London, according to The New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians (1924). Rootham held positions as organist at Christ Church (Hampstead) from 1898, and then at St. John’s College in Cambridge from 1901. His leadership extended to the University Musical Society in Cambridge, which he directed from 1912. His father, D. W. Rootham, was a notable figure in Bristol’s musical life, serving as conductor of the Bristol Madrigal Society from 1864, succeeding J. D. Corfe (Grove’s Dictionary, 1904), and as chorus-master for the Bristol Musical Festival from 1879 to 1896 (Grove’s Dictionary, 1904). Cyril Bradley Rootham’s own choral work, Andromeda, was among those first performed at the Bristol Festivals in 1908 (The New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians, 1924). He also authored Voice-Training for Choirs and Schools.