George French Flowers
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George French Flowers (1811 – 14 June 1872) was an English composer and musical theorist. He founded a society to promote counterpoint, and a music school for young singers.
Flowers was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, the fourth son of the Rev. Field Flowers. He studied music in Germany with Christian Heinrich Rinck and Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee, and went on to graduate BMus from Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1839. In 1865 he obtained DMus.[1]
He was organist successively at the Chapel of the British Embassy in Paris,[1] at St Peter, Vere Street,[2] at St Mark's Church, Myddelton Square,[1] at St John's, Paddington.[1]
Contrapuntist's Society and publications
Flowers founded the Contrapuntists' Society in 1843.[1] In a letter to the Musical Examiner he wrote that the object of the society "will be the encouragement and promotion of a more scientific feeling in regard to music than hitherto has existed in England. My notion is ... that, to obtain admittance into the ranks of the society, a candidate shall compose a fugue, of at least one hundred and fifty bars in length, in each bar of which the subject shall be introduced.... A more generally scientific feeling infused among musicians, would go far to gain from them that respect from the members of other professions, which assuredly they do not now enjoy.... It will bring the most accomplished members of the profession together....[3]
He was responsible for some contrapuntal and musical reviews in the Literary Gazette about that time, and was author of an analysis of John Goss's An Introduction to Harmony and Thorough-Bass in the Fine Arts Journal (1847, p. 445 et seq.).[1]
His Essay on the Construction of Fugue appeared in London in 1846.[1] It was reviewed in the Musical World: "Mr. Flowers has fought most manfully in support of counterpoint and fugal compositions.... his object was to draw the attention of students to the works of Sebastian Bach and other classical writers.... The essay under notice is an endeavour on the part of Mr. Flowers to carry his point, by giving examples and musical illustrations. There are 44 pages... containing a vast amount of detail on the subject.... There are several fugues... all worthy of the best attention of students, to whom we recommend the essay."[4]
His Pictorial Representation of the Science of Harmony, a translation of Basler's Reisekarte, appeared in 1850, and a poem on Muscular Vocalisation in 1861.[1]
Flowers introduced and developed Georg Joseph Vogler's system of progressive cadences. He contributed opinions on musical matters for many years to the Musical Examiner and Musical World.[1]
