1816–1893 · United Kingdom · Romantic
George Elvey, born in Canterbury in 1816, was an organist and composer from England. From 1835 he held the organ post at St George's Chapel in Windsor, and he wrote mostly church music: anthems, services and psalm chants. He is probably best known for the hymn tune Diademata, which is among the sheet music on the site.
Elvey came into the world in Canterbury in 1816; his father was John Elvey. The family's ties to music in this cathedral city went back through several generations.
As a small boy he joined the choir of Canterbury Cathedral, under Highmore Skeats. Looking after the boys was George's own brother, Stephen Elvey.
Stephen Elvey took the organist's post at New College, Oxford, in 1830. George moved in with him, and it was his brother who finished off his musical training.
His teachers at the Royal Academy of Music were Cipriani Potter and William Crotch. Before turning seventeen he had become a skilled organist, standing in at Christ Church, Magdalen and New College.
His anthem "Bow down Thine ear, Lord" won him the Gresham gold medal in 1834. A year later, in 1835, he took over from Skeats as organist at St George's Chapel in Windsor.
Two royal princes, George of Cambridge and Edward of Saxe-Weimar, numbered among his first pupils. Elvey wrote the anthem "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?" for Edward's confirmation, a well-known piece.
Elvey entered New College in 1838 and took his Mus. Bac. degree that same year. The work he submitted was the oratorio "The Resurrection and Ascension", performed in November 1838 by the Sacred Harmonic Society at Exeter Hall, and afterwards in Boston (USA) and Glasgow.
In 1840 the university chancellor made a special exception for Elvey, letting him become a Doctor of Music two years sooner than the rules permitted. For that degree he composed the anthem "The ways of Zion do mourn".
For the festivals at Gloucester (1853) and Worcester (1857) he wrote two anthems with orchestra, "The Lord is King" and "Sing, Heavens". Elvey's best-known pieces mostly date from 1856 to 1860, and many of them were meant for particular services held in St George's Chapel.
When Prince Albert died in 1861, Elvey lost a patron who had been especially supportive. For the yearly commemorations of the prince he composed two funeral anthems. One is "The Souls of the Righteous"; the other is titled "Blessed are the Dead".
In 1863 he wrote the anthem "Sing unto God", for organ and orchestra, to mark the wedding of the Prince of Wales. At the wedding of Princess Louise in 1871 his festal march became quite popular. Elvey received a knighthood in 1871.
Elvey's final major public occasion was the wedding of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, held at St George's Chapel in 1882. He gave up his organist's post in June of that year, lived quietly for some years and died in 1893.
His first wife, Harriette, was the daughter of his teacher Highmore Skeats. In 1882 he married Mary Savory, Sir Joseph Savory's sister, and she outlived him. Their son was Handel Elvey. His widow wrote a memoir about him, published in 1894.
Church music made up most of what Elvey composed. Nearly everything he wrote was meant for worship: two oratorios, many anthems and services, psalm chants and a few organ pieces. His chants, a "Cantate Domino" and a "Deus misereatur" in D are listed among his favourites with the public.
Elvey also left fifteen part songs, a piece for piano and violin made up of an introduction and a gavotte, and four works for solo piano.
Diademata, a hymn tune, is likely to be the work for which he is best remembered. People usually sing it to the words "Crown Him with Many Crowns" or, alternatively, "Soldiers of Christ, Arise". Another of his tunes, "St George's Windsor", is used for two hymns that are familiar from church services: "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come", and also "Now We Sing a Harvest Song".
The site has Elvey's Diademata among its sheet music: level "Intermediate+", choir SATB.