Alfred Gaul

Alfred Robert Gaul (30 April 1837 — 13 September 1913) was an English composer, conductor, teacher and organist. Life and career Gaul was born in Norwich, where he studied under Zechariah Buck. By the age of nine he was a chorister at Norwich Cathedral, and at the age of seventeen he was appointed as the organist of the parish church at Fakenham. In 1859 he moved to Birmingham, where at the age of twenty two he was appointed organist at St. John’s Church, Ladywood. later becoming Professor of Orchestration and Composition at the school. In 1887 he succeeded William Cole Stockley as conductor of the Walsall Philharmonic Society. He taught singing and harmony at the King Edward VI High School for Girls At the time of Gaul’s death in 1913 it was the most performed work of English choral music in history, The Holy City and his earlier cantata Ruth (1881) were also popular in the United States. In 1914, following the composer’s death, his Executors published an announcement in The Musical Times to the effect that they were :“prepared to grant licences to approved applicants (under certain restrictions) to orchestrate Gaul’s The Bard of Avon for a public performance; and are further prep