(b Edinburgh, 22 Aug 1847; d London, 28 April 1935). Scottish composer and conductor. He studied in Germany and at the RAM, by 1865 becoming known in Edinburgh as a violinist and conductor. In the 1880s he won a reputation as one of England's leading composers, chiefly with the oratorio The Rose of Sharon (1884). From 1885 he lived in London, conducting the Novello Oratorio Concerts and, from 1888, serving as an influential principal of the RAM he also conducted for the Philharmonic Society (1892-9) and occasionally for the Royal Choral Society, making a tour of Canada in 1903. He was knighted (1895) and created KCVO (1922). A work-manlike composer, he produced successful choral works, vocal settings (many of Scottish poets) and descriptive orchestral pieces, often imaginative and satisfying if also derivative.
