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First name: James C.
Last name: Culwick
Dates: 1845-1907
Category: Quartet
Nationality: British
Opus name: Opus 7 (1884)
Publisher: Breitkopf
Peculiarities: cobbett; Music Library Royal College of Music http://www.libcat.rcm.ac.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/?ps=Gq14HtsVXu/0/209910005/9
Information: Everyone in Dublin knows both the Feis Ceoil and the Culwick Choral Society. But I wonder how many people realise that both were founded within a year of each other by Dr James C Culwick (1845-1907), or that Culwick was a chorister and assistant organist at Lichfield Cathedral before moving to Ireland in 1866. The English composer and organist held a succession of appointments as organist, first in Birr, Co Offaly, and then in Bray, Co Wicklow, before finally settling in Dublin. Culwick moved from Saint Ann’s, in Dawson Street, Dublin, in 1881, to take up the prestigious position of organist and choirmaster in the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle. Meanwhile, he was involved in a number of amateur musical bodies, including the Orpheus Choral Society, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Dublin (Trinity College Dublin) in 1893. His output as a composer includes church services, anthems, finely-crafted secular songs, and notably the dramatic cantata The Legend of Stauffenberg (1890). In 1897, Culwick was a co-founder of Feis Ceoil, and a year later, in 1898, he founded the the Orpheus Choral Society, later renamed the Culwich Choral Society.