Frederick Ouseley

Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley, 2nd Baronet (12 August 18256 April 1889), was an English composer, organist, musicologist and priest. Biography Frederick Ouseley was born in London, the son of Sir Gore Ouseley, and manifested an extraordinary precocity in music, composing his first piece at the age of three, and writing hundreds more in the following years. He composed two youthful operas, the first of which (Tom and His Mama) was written at the age of seven. His next opera (L’Isola disabitata) was written at the age of eight years and is frequently cited as the most advanced of his juvenilia. In 1844 he succeeded to the baronetcy. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1843, where he graduated BA in 1846 and MA in 1849. He 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 studied composition and the theory of music under Dr. Stephen Elvey at Oxford. Throughout his life, Ouseley experienced a social conflict between his aristocratic heritage and his interest in the performance of Anglican church music, an activity which was seen as beneath someone of his stature. In 1850 he took the d