Last year marked the three-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Maurice Greene (1696-1755), the composer who dominated English cathedral music during the first half of the eighteenth century. He was director of music at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, director of music for the Chapel Royal, and honorary professor of music at Cambridge University. Greene wrote fourteen full anthems, forty-four verse anthems, twenty-two solo anthems (often with a choral conclusion), and twenty-three orchestral anthems. His Forty Select Anthems was first published in 1743 by John Walsh and was reprinted in 1743, 1755, and 1780 by Vincent Novello, who realized the figured bass. Greene also wrote a Service in C and three oratorios: The Song 0/ Deborah and Barak (1732), Jephtha (1737), and The Force o/Truth (1744). He wrote birthday odes, New Year odes, and a St. Cecilia’s Day Ode (1730) on a text by Alexander Pope. He wrote several masques, three dramatic pastoral operas, seven Te Deum settings, thirty-three Italian secular cantatas, canons, catches, harpsichord lessons, and pieces for the organ. The Twelfth Chandos Anthem, formerly thought to be by Handel, is now attributed to Greene. In 1735 he took the Doctor of Music degree from Oxford (by incorporation), and the same year was made Master of the King’s Music. He held this post until his death.
Greene’s life and works have been obscured, probably due to the overwhelming popularity of Handel. During the first half of the eighteenth century, Handel was charming London audiences with his operas and oratorios. Greene and Handel were acquainted, and Handel often practiced the organ at St. Paul’s because it was one of the few organs in London that had pedals. Greene sought the friendship of Handel, even to the extent of serving as bellows-blower during Handel’s practice sessions at St. Paul’s. Handel learned of Greene’s friendship with his operatic rival, Giovanni Bononcini (1670-1747), and he would have no further association with Greene. Handel considered Greene’s compositions inferior and also disdained his physical deformity. He later disparagingly referred to Greene as “my bellows-blower.”
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