| Biography | Cyril Bradley Rootham (5 October 1875 18 March 1938) was an English composer, educator, organist and important figure in Cambridge music life.
Rootham was born in Redland, Bristol to Daniel Wilberforce Rootham and Mary Rootham (née Gimblett Evans). His father Daniel was a famous singing teacher whose students included Eva Turner and Dame Clara Butt, and it is therefore no wonder that his son should be such a successful composer of many choral and vocal works.
Educated at Bristol Grammar School, Cyril entered St. John's College, Cambridge to study classics. He developed his considerable musical talents at Cambridge, and later at the RCM under, amongst others, Stanford and Parry.
Rootham's first appointment in 1898 was as organist of Christ Church, Hampstead, followed by a brief period as organist at St Asaph Cathedral (Wales) in 1901. Then later in 1901 he was appointed organist at St John's, a post he held till the end of his life. He also became a University lecturer at the Cambridge University Music Society (CUMS), which thanks to his inspiring leadership became an important and significant influence on English musical life.
Rootham was also responsible for the revival of Handel oratorios, Mozart operas and other "forgotten" works. Although E. J. Dent and others are usually credited with the textual preparation, it was Rootham who held responsibility for their immense musical success.
In 1909, Rootham married Rosamond Margaret Lucas who supplied him with a great amount of support and encouragement. It was also Rosamond who was in charge of the costume making at the CUMS concerts and the Rootham household was always filled with whatever clothes were needed for a new performance. Their son Jasper St John Rootham was born in 1910.
Apart from Mozart, Handel and Purcell, the CUMS concerts also promoted a great deal of modern music such as Kodály's Psalmus Hungaricus, Honegger's Le Roi David and Pizzetti's 'Mass and Piano concerto, all led by Rootham. In 1930 Rootham invited several contemporary composers to the concert; de Falla, Kodály and Arthur Honegger attended as did Kathleen Long.
In 1914 Rootham became a Fellow of the College after taking over the post of University Lecturer in Form and Analysis of Music and later Senior Lecturer in Counterpoint and Harmony in 1924. He was also a much appreciated teacher of orchestration. His many students include Arnold Cooke, Arthur Bliss, Robin Orr and Percy M. Young. Rootham's enviable physique (he excelled in athletics at St. John's) and genial manner made him highly popular amongst students which explains their commitment to the CUMS concerts all of which were basically extracurricular.
As much as he promoted the works of other composers, Rootham did relatively little to push his own compositions into the repertoire. He conducted the first performance of his opera The Two Sisters in 1922 and three years earlier his own setting Laurence Binyon's For the Fallen (which sparked a controversy as Elgar's setting of the same poem was published shortly after Rootham's. Needless to say, neither composer was basically responsible). Rootham's continued involvement with the CUMS included a performance of Handel's Semele and the revival of the tradition of triennial performances of Greek plays with newly composed music, a venue which continued even after his death.
Later in his life Rootham was plagued by illness, he developed progressive muscular atrophy as the result of a stroke and his active involvement in the CUMS had to be left to Boris Ord in 1936. He completed a few works before his passing including City in the West and his three movement Second Symphony, though the orchestration was completed by his close friend Patrick Hadley. Cyril Rootham died in 1938 at the height of his creative powers, aged sixty-two.
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