Annual Record 2013

Page 157

Fellows, Staff a n d St u den ts

instrument in England, attracted widespread praise. Constructed according to the strictest of classical principles and placed within the restored main case of 1708, it also incorporated pipework from the earlier Father Smith instrument. Completed in 1976, it provided a most colourful palette for its talented custodian. As a composer, his love of the liturgy allowed him to write well for voices. His anthems, services, motets, hymns, responses, chants, and descants, often written for special occasions, enjoyed worldwide popularity and remain in the repertoire. Two works in particular stand out: the exquisite miniature ‘O Lord God’, affectionately inscribed to his former choristers at St. Anselm’s, Kennington Green; and the more challenging ‘Veni, Creator Spiritus’, written for solo soprano and double choir. Both are cleverly and precisely imagined, their structures handled with fluency and care. He proved no less adept at providing special music for particular college occasions – everything from singing on the river to the impressive Epiphany Carol Service. More unusual was his choral setting of Ben Okri’s poem ‘Ode to Newton’. Commissioned in 1992 by Sir Michael Atiyah, then Master of Trinity, it was written for a special commemoration feast held to mark the 350th anniversary of the birth of one of the College’s most distinguished alumni, Sir Isaac Newton. As a scholar, Marlow’s reputation was initially forged with the publication in 1965 of Giles Farnaby: Keyboard Music, the 24th volume in Stainer & Bell’s landmark series Music Britannica. Equally authoritative was his editorial work on behalf of the Church Music Society, anthems by Maurice Greene, motets by JS Bach and Felix Mendelssohn, and Tudor responses by William Smith. In 1997 he produced The Trinity College Chant Book: 150 Anglican Chants, of which 135 were adapted from anthems, motets, canticles, masses, and oratorios of the 16th–19th centuries. Completing the volume were fifteen original creations. Precise, literate, and stylish, he proved to be an equally fine writer, supplying a wealth of finely written and knowledgeable critiques to a wide range of specialist periodicals, including Music and Letters and The Musical Times. More extended examples of his art can be found in the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

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