New book shines light on forgotten Magdalen College musician

John Varley Roberts, one of Victorian England’s most celebrated choral trainers and organist of Magdalen College, Oxford, is the subject of a new book by music scholar Professor David Baker.

It shines a light on the musician’s impact on British church music, tracing a career that took Roberts from Halifax Parish Church in Yorkshire to national recognition.

Professor Baker, director of the Halifax Organ Academy and an accredited tutor with the Royal College of Organists, said: “Roberts’ influence was considerable and enduring at a time when church music was undergoing a significant transformation in Britain.

“He influenced generations of choristers, musicians, and choir directors, sitting alongside John Stainer and Walter Parratt as one of the greats of his generation.

“After becoming organist and choirmaster at Halifax Parish Church in 1868, he transformed music there.”

Roberts went on to become organist at Magdalen, where he served from 1883 to 1918.

During his tenure, the choir was regarded as the best in the country, and his compositions—40 anthems, four full services, organ solos, songs, part songs, and the cantata Jonah—were widely performed.

His anthem Seek ye the Lord remains popular internationally.

Professor Baker first learned of Roberts while studying at Cambridge University in 1968.

He said: “At the time I was organist at St Paul’s, Stanningley, Leeds.

“An elderly lady was a regular attender; she introduced herself as the niece of a famous choirmaster.

“I thought little of the encounter until 1972, when, for my dissertation, I was researching the music of Halifax Parish Church, discovering that Dr John Varley Roberts had been organist and choirmaster there, and the music had been second to none.

“I made the connection and sought out Edith Annie Roberts, the lady in question. As I walked into her front parlour, I saw a huge photograph hanging over the fireplace: Roberts in his Oxford DMus robes.”

Professor Baker said: “I was struck by how little remembered he was.

“Roberts was one of those forgotten Victorians who, in their day, had a considerable impact and influence on Victorian church music.”

Roberts’ music, aside from his most famous anthem, had fallen out of use—even at Magdalen College.

To mark the centenary of Roberts’ death in 2020, Professor Baker edited all of Roberts’ organ works for publication and encouraged his choirs to perform them.

He said: “They all enjoyed doing so, and it became clear that Roberts’ rise from an upper working-class background in mid-nineteenth-century Leeds deserved further study.”

The biography, John Varley Roberts and Religious Musical Life in Nineteenth-Century Britain, will be published by Taylor and Francis on April 21.

Professor Baker will host recitals and lectures to launch the book in both Halifax and Oxford later in the year.