Frederic Cliffe

Frederic Cliffe (2 May 1857 – 19 November 1931) was an English composer, organist and teacher. Life Cliffe was born in Lowmoor, near Bradford, Yorkshire. As a youth, he showed a promising musical aptitude and was enrolled as a scholar of the National Training School of Music, the parent of the Royal College of Music, under its first Principal Arthur Sullivan. As well as Sullivan his teachers there included John Stainer, Ebenezer Prout and Franklin Taylor (1843-1919). In 1873 at the age of sixteen he was appointed organist to the Bradford Festival Choral Society. As organist to the Leeds Festival, Cliffe took part in the first performance of Sullivan’s cantata The Golden Legend on 6 October 1886. He was organist to the Bach Choir between 1888 and 1894. From 1884 to 1931 he held the post of Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music. Their son was the author Cedric Cliffe (1902-1969). He published The Making of Music (1949) and wrote the librettos for operas by Arthur Benjamin, John Joubert and Joan Trimble. Music Cliffe’s career as a composer spanned just two decades, from 1889 to 1910. His principal works were his two symphonies, the first of which was produced by August Mann