PUBLICATIONS

John Rutter (DMus) - Distinguished Contemporary Composer

Oration by SJ Gurman

Choral singing, and especially amateur choral singing, is a particular glory of English musical life. Each week, many thousands of people join together, in churches and concert halls, to sing great music for the sheer pleasure of it. Those of you who have ever sung in such a choir will be familiar with the huge role played over the past forty years by John Rutter in shaping these choirs and the music they sing.

John Rutter was born in London, the son of a scientist and grandson of an engineer. In his early years he enjoyed spending his spare time experimenting on the family piano, crafting tunes that pleased him. This early self-training in the production of pleasing melodies is possibly the origin of his penchant for accessible music. His formal musical training began when he went to Highgate School and became a chorister there. The Highgate School choir was far more than an ordinary school choir and as a member of it he recorded Britten's "War Requiem" under the baton of the composer. The choirmaster also required musical composition at the level and frequency with which other masters expected essays. John Rutter was therefore familiar with composition long before he went up to Clare College, Cambridge to read music.

John Rutter's first published music, including the ever-popular "Shepherd's Pipe Carol" appeared in print whilst he was still an undergraduate at Clare. He is still, perhaps, best known to the general public as a composer of carols, of which he has written around two dozen and arranged a similar number. It has been said that a proper Christmas is exemplified by Dickens and Rutter. It is I suppose this conjunction that leads a surprising proportion of the population to assume that he is long dead: as you see, nothing could be farther from the truth.

The large scale works of John Rutter are also well established in the choral repertoire. It was the overwhelming success of one of the first of these, Gloria of 1974, that persuaded him to resign his post as Director of Music at Clare College to devote more time to composing and he is now in the fortunate position of being able to live on his royalties. The powerfully dramatic Gloria, for choir, organ and brass, is perfectly matched to reverberant church acoustics. Amongst his later works, Requiem (1985) is an approachable work regularly performed to good effect by choirs. It combines Latin texts from the Catholic Mass for the Dead with English texts from the Book of Common Prayer. His Magnificat (1990) is a festive piece whose musical energy and rhythm match the joy of the text and are reminiscent of the outdoor celebrations of Spanish feast days. It was given its first performance in the Carnegie Hall. Indeed, the popularity of Rutter's music in the United States is almost as great as it is in this country and the most recent of his large scale works, the "Mass for Children" was first performed there, again in the Carnegie Hall, in February 2003. The first U.K. performance was given in Guildford Cathedral in March of that year.

John Rutter formed the mixed voice chamber choir known as the Cambridge Singers in 1981 and he still directs it. This is a professional choir dedicated to recording. It was formed from a nucleus of former members of the Clare College Chapel choir and is now supplemented by singers from other college choirs. In 1984 John Rutter took advantage of the newly-developed CD technology and formed his own record company, Collegium, with the aim of bringing choral music to a wider audience. He claims that he "just wanted a vehicle for the Cambridge Singers and a way of recording the music I wanted, when I wanted, with the engineers and producers I wanted". That may be so, but the fact that Collegium recordings have achieved massive success and wide acclaim suggest that his wants matched a deeply-felt need. Collegium recordings, many featuring the Cambridge Singers, now feature a wealth of traditional and sacred music, as well as most of Rutter's own work.

For the past thirty years and more, John Rutter, composer, conductor, choirmaster and record label boss, has campaigned for choral music. The results of his efforts are apparent in any record shop and the singing of his music in the thousands of concerts given by hundreds of choirs over the years. He is one of the heroes of 20th and 21st century British music. Choirs up and down the land would be impoverished without his work, and Christmas would not seem the same without his carols. His work has led to the award of Fellowship of the Guild of Church Musicians in 1988. In 1996 the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred on him the Lambeth degree of Doctor of Music. Today, we are proud to honour him.

Mr Chancellor, on the recommendation of the Senate and of the Council, I present John Milford Rutter that you may confer on him the Honorary degree of Doctor of Music.