Thomas Attwood Walmisley

This English organist and composer studied with his godfather, Thomas Attwood who had studied with Mozart. Though he studied at Cambridge, receiving his Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate, the musical program at Cambridge was not a particularly keen choice as very few students, and fewer faculty went to Cambridge for this purpose. Through the course of events that followed, Walmisley became the chair of music when he was only twenty two years old. Elevating the interest and station of music at Cambridge through lecture series that included examples, he opened the music program to majors and non-majors alike stimulating interest in music. Walmisley's organ playing, improvement of the organ at Trinity College and choir leadership made him not only indispensable at the university -- he was organist for both Trinity and St. John's Colleges -- but to the community as well for he had also motivated amateur interest in music. Before he came to Cambridge the choir was mediocre if that but under Walmisley's guidance it not only began to perform Bach's music but read, on sight, Spohr's "Last Judgment." The most important work that Walmisley composed was his "Evening Service in D Minor" which was a singular composition that helped to renew an interest in English Cathedral music, another accomplishment by this innovator. ~ Keith Johnson, Rovi