Son of a lawyer, Stanford at­tend­ed Cam­bridge in 1870; he earned his ba­che­lor’s de­gree in 1874. He stu­died in Leip­zig and Ber­lin, Ger­ma­ny (1874-6), and earned his mas­ter’s de­gree in 1877. He was or­gan­ist at Trin­i­ty Coll­ege 1873-1882, and com­posed and con­duct­ed mu­sic­al so­ci­e­ties. In 1883, he be­came the first pro­fes­sor of com­po­si­tion and or­ches­tra at the Roy­al Coll­ege of Mu­sic. From 1885-1902, he con­duct­ed the Lon­don Bach Choir. From 1887-1924, he taught at Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty. From 1901-1910, he con­duct­ed the Leeds Fes­ti­val. He was knight­ed in 1902.

In ad­di­tion to a bo­dy of church and cham­ber music, Villiers’ works in­clude:

• Piano Suite op. 2, 1875
• Piano Toccata op. 3, 1875
• Music for Ten­ny­son’s Queen Ma­ry in Lon­don, 1876
• The Veiled Prophet of Khorossan, an op­era, 1877
• Philip Doddridge, D.D., (New York: A. C. Armstrong and Son, 1881)
• Irish Symphony op. 28, 1887
• Shamus O’Brien, an op­era, 1896
• Pages from an Unwrit­ten Di­a­ry, 1914
• Musical Com­po­si­tion, 1911

Sources

Music

1. Airedale
2. Engelberg
3. Fitzroy
4. Geronimo
5. Luard
6. St. Basil the Great
7. St. Patrick’s Breastplate