Sir Frederick Ouseley

The Reverend Sir Frederick Ouseley Bt., Precentor of Hereford
Cathedral and Professor of Music at Oxford: in itself this designation
indicates the status of an aristocratic clergyman, composer and scholar
in the mid 19th century.

As a child, Ouseley was musically precocious and his
early efforts at composition and improvisation suggested a budding
Mozart or Mendelssohn.  But music never figured in his formal education
and a growing interest in ecclesiastical matters led him to subjugate
his musical talents to liturgical ideals.  Ordination in 1849 and a
successful submission for an Oxford DMus in 1854 were important
milestones.

Few of his compositions are now in regular use, but his
most enduring memorial was the College of St Michael’s at Tenbury which
he founded in 1856.  His fascination with the Tractarian movement in
Oxford provided the initial inspiration for the founding of a spiritual
and educational community, whose main task was the singing of the daily
offices.  He had attempted a similar project during his curacy at St
Barnabas Pimlico, but met with vociferous opposition in the shape of the
‘no popery’ riots and this caused him to seek a calmer venue in the
Worcestershire countryside.

Standards in church music were at a very low ebb and the
general conduct of the liturgy was often perfunctory.  The purpose of
St Michael’s was to set new standards and to serve as a model in both
these respects.  Ouseley expended most of his considerable wealth on
building and maintaining the College which also housed his priceless
library.  It survived numerous vicissitudes over a period of 129 years
and the library, presided over in due course by such distinguished
figures as E.H. Fellowes and Watkins Shaw, provided source material for
countless visiting scholars.

By 1985 it became clear, not least to the Charity
Commissioners, that the College was no longer solvent owing to an acute
shortage of fee-paying pupils.  Its inevitable closure was received with
sadness and dismay, but it was rightly claimed that Ouseley’s dream had
to some extent been realised.  Though cathedral music continues to be
under financial threat its standards are probably higher than they have
ever been.

Ouseley’s library is now housed at the Bodleian in
Oxford and, following the sale of the College, a Trust was set up, the
income from which was to be applied ‘for the purposes of promoting and
maintaining to a high standard the choral services of the Church of
England …’  Ouseley’s vision is therefore still very much alive.

© Christopher Robinson