Dr Gordon Saunders with student Edith K. Comley (nee Bird), ca.1907–1912 at Trinity College of Music, London.
Joseph Gordon Saunders MusD (1837 – 17 January 1912)[1][2][3] was a composer of songs, church music and organ music.[4] He was also a teacher of composition, piano, harmony and counterpoint at the
Trinity College of Music.[5] He was known to have conducted ensemble classes.[6]
Saunders studied with the organist and composer
Edward John Hopkins[1] and also with organist and composer
Elizabeth Stirling and virtuoso pianist and composer
Henry Litolff.[3] He studied at the
University of Oxford where he gained a Doctor of Music.[4] Whilst at Oxford, he wrote a textbook on counterpoint, Examples in strict counterpoint (old and new),[7] which was endorsed by the university.[4]
Saunders was the first teacher of British composer
Granville Bantock[8][9] at the Trinity College of Music, London, where he was one of the seven founding members of the college.[4]
As part of his role at the Trinity College of Music, Saunders was an examiner and in 1896 he travelled to Australia and New Zealand to conduct numerous graded music examinations in multiple cities,
Adelaide,
Melbourne,
Ballarat,
Tasmania, and
Brisbane.[10]
Works
Eight Traditional Japanese Pieces – for solo tenor recorder, descant recorder or flute (published 1979)[11][12]
Memories (1868) – song. Verse by J. C. Harman, Esq. (Ashdown and Parry, London)[13][14]
I will give thanks. Thanksgiving anthem (1868)[15]
^
abcdefghiHenderson, John (1996).
A Directory of Composers for Organ. John Henderson.
ISBN978-0-9528050-0-7.
LCCNgb97012447. (Joseph) Gordon Saunders, pupil of Elizabeth Stirling, W. Rea, E.J. Hopkins and H. Litolff, was a co-founder of Trinity College London and a teacher of Granville Bantock. He published many piano teaching pieces and a number of organ pieces.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (
link)
^
abcd"Dr Gordon Saunders – Our Standard of Education". The Sydney Morning Herald. 3 November 1896. p. 3 – via
Trove. Dr. Saunders is a Doctor of Music of the University of Oxford, and his work on "Counterpoint" has been accepted at Oxford as one of the text books on the subject... ...Dr. Saunders is also known as a composer of songs and church music : but above all may be placed the fact that he is one of the seven original founders of Trinity College.
^Johnson, Edward (1890).
The Educational Annual. Harmony and Counterpoint. – Prof. Gordon Saunders, Mus. D...
^The Musical World. Vol. 46. United Kingdom: J. Alfredo Novello. 1868. p. 508. Memories. Song. Verses by J. C. Harman, Esq.; music by Gordon Saunders. [London: Ashdown & Parry.] An easy and graceful ballad – music and words being above the average.