Brian Judge

[decantor]

The current St Matthew's Northampton thread is paying its respects to Walter Hussey. Among the commissions Hussey inspired is one from Brian Judge in 1962, and it is available on CD by the Finzi Singers.

Does anyone have information about Brian Judge the man - his musical bio, perhaps? I first encountered his name when his Responses were broadcast in a CE (from Ely, I think, or Peterborough) in the early 1960s. I thought they were wonderful - the aural equivalent of Piper's Baptistry window at Coventry, which was in the news at the time. My memory of those Responses casts them as if from a Ligeti mould, but I've seen no mention of them over the succeeding 50 years, and even Google has nothing useful to say. I'd be grateful for any pointer.

[MrGongGong]

I have a distant memory of Brian Judge coming to the church several times
where I was a chorister in the 1970's I think he was a friend of Caleb Jarvis who was the organist ((and also one of my music teachers at the time) but I can't remember singing anything !

[decantor]

My thanks for that, MrGG. I tried using 'Caleb Jarvis' as bait to catch Brian Judge, but Google can find no link between them. The hunt goes on.....

[Roslynmuse]

I have a distant memory of Brian Judge coming to the church several times
where I was a chorister in the 1970's I think he was a friend of Caleb Jarvis who was the organist ((and also one of my music teachers at the time) but I can't remember singing anything !

Caleb Jarvis was my mother's music teacher too (back in the late 1940s)!

[makropulos]

The current St Matthew's Northampton thread is paying its respects to Walter Hussey. Among the commissions Hussey inspired is one from Brian Judge in 1962, and it is available on CD by the Finzi Singers.

Does anyone have information about Brian Judge the man - his musical bio, perhaps? I first encountered his name when his Responses were broadcast in a CE (from Ely, I think, or Peterborough) in the early 1960s. I thought they were wonderful - the aural equivalent of Piper's Baptistry window at Coventry, which was in the news at the time. My memory of those Responses casts them as if from a Ligeti mould, but I've seen no mention of them over the succeeding 50 years, and even Google has nothing useful to say. I'd be grateful for any pointer.

Interesting question. I wonder if he is the same Brian Judge who was Director of Music at Bloxham School from 1966 to 1973 (where he established several choral festivals, ending with Gerontius). ? And also the Brian Judge who arranged RVW's "He that is down need fear no fall" (from Pilgrim's Progress)? And is that the same Brian Judge who conducted The Tudor Singers to whom Carey Blyton dedicated "The Silly Flea" (a madrigal published as a supplement to Musical Times in 1964).

Honestly I've no idea if this could be your man, but any of them seems possible.

[Bullock in D]

When my father was organist and ran achoir at a very high Anglo Catholic church in Brighton, I am sure I remember a Brian Judge coming in to 'dep' from time to time. Was he a Cambridge choral scholar in the early sixties? Is there Brighton connection with the Judge family?

[decantor]

makropoulos, I have tried to follow up all your suggestions - I even found the score of the "Silly Flea" with its dedication inscribed! - but none seem to link the name Judge to liturgical music or a cathedral. It's not impossible, I suppose, that all the references you gave are to the same man, and he may indeed be the one I'm after, but there seems to be no way of telling.

Bullock, if ever there was a Brighton connection, it is now severed, so far as I can discover. I rather doubt that he was a Cambridge choral scholar in the early sixties, as I was at Cambridge myself at that time: it was when my search started, and I'm sure I would have picked it up. However, dep'ing in a 'high' church does sound a possibility, though it's not easy to pursue the lead.

Many thanks to you both for widening my net. I had always assumed, on flimsy evidence, that Brian Judge had a connection (as a lay clerk?) with whichever cathedral delivered the CE I heard 50 years ago.

[VodkaDilc]

There was certainly a Brian Judge at Bloxham in the early 1970s. According to an old (1977) ISM handbook, he went on to be Director of Music at Sherborne. This one was Brian Richard Judge, MA Cantab, ARCO - which would confirm the Cambridge connection someone mentioned.

[decantor]

Thank you for the above, VodkaDilc. The Old Shirburnian pages confirm that Judge was on the staff there until 1984, and that he was an alumnus of St John's Cambridge. St John's, eh? The thick plottens. And we creep nearer to the present.

[french frank]

Thank you for the above, VodkaDilc. The Old Shirburnian pages confirm that Judge was on the staff there until 1984, and that he was an alumnus of St John's Cambridge. St John's, eh? The thick plottens. And we creep nearer to the present.

I wonder when he was born? I found - but deleted my post as probably irrelevant a couple of days ago - a trail which led to Grahamstown, South Africa, where a Brian Judge had been a schools director of music until his retirement in about 1999. He then acted as Choirmaster for a couple of years (1999-2000) to the Rhodes University choir in the same city. Google will probably turn up both references.


Add, re Rhodes University Chamber Choir: "In 1999 and 2000 Brian Judge, who retired as Choral Director of St Andrew’s College and the Diocesan School for Girls, filled the role of Choirmaster. " Click on 'More' and scroll down.

[VodkaDilc]

I wonder when he was born?

If he went to Bloxham in 1966, he must have been at least 30ish, or perhaps older. So he would have been born in the 1930s or earlier.

[decantor]

FF, my thanks for that additional clue. My own researches had revealed a possible South African link, of course, but not the Rhodes Chamber Choir reference. By implication, Judge had retired just before that 1999 season, and that fits in admirably with VodkaDilc's evidence over his age. It also means he was up at Cambridge before me, and so spares my blushes.

The current Headmaster of Diocesan College, SA, and also formerly Head of St Andrew's Prep, is an erstwhile colleague of mine. However, I think on the whole it would be inadmissible to try to re-awaken a 25-year-old association over such a trivial issue. HMs tend to be busy people. But I am now convinced that the Cambridge-Bloxham-Sherborne-Grahamstown Judge is one and the same person.

I am most grateful for the effort members have put in to helping me in this quest. I suppose what I really want is to hear those Responses again, as well as to learn something of their composer.

[Colonel Danby]

My own researches into the life and works of Brian Judge have largely drawn a blank, but I do have the CD in which his work is included. For the record:

The Hussey Legacy: works commissioned by Walter Hussey (1909-1985)
The Finzi Singers
Paul Spicer
Andrew Lumsden (organ)
Stephen Coombs and Christopher Scott (piano duet)
Recorded: St Alban's Church, Holborn 21/22 July, 1988
Balance Engineers: John Whiting and Mike Skeet
Produced by Jeremy Hamilton and Paul Spicer for ABCD Production Ltd
Released by Cantus Records CAN 301-2

Leighton: Let all the World in every Corner Sing (1965)
Britten: Rejoice in the Lamb Op 30 (1943)
Tavener: The Call (1988)
Howells: One thing I have desired of the Lord (1968)
Gordon Crosse: The Covenant of the Rainbow Op 24 (1968)
Brian Judge: Ambrosian Prayer (1962)
Finzi: Lo, the Full, Final Sacrifice (1946)

[decantor]

Thank you for the above, Colonel. But are there no details at all about the composers in the liner notes? The omission would seem strange in an anthology devoted to one man's commissions. And is there any chance of my prevailing on you to give a brief description of the style or musical language of the Judge item? (J shall understand, of course, if your regimental duties demand all your time!)

[Rolmill]

Thank you for the above, Colonel. But are there no details at all about the composers in the liner notes? The omission would seem strange in an anthology devoted to one man's commissions. And is there any chance of my prevailing on you to give a brief description of the style or musical language of the Judge item? (J shall understand, of course, if your regimental duties demand all your time!)

I too have this CD: the Judge piece is only just over 2 minutes long, so not easy to draw out a musical language, but it is both melodic and intense - well worth taking up (needs a confident soprano soloist). The liner notes merely state that the piece was commissioned for the 1962 Festival when Judge was a young composer with a connection to the church. Unfortunately, he is the only one of the featured composers whose photograph is not included in the booklet!

A quick google indicated that he died a few years ago and that the Ambrosian Prayer was considered to be the finest of the miniatures commissioned by the church - but apart from one or two arrangements I can see no reference to any other compositions, not even the responses you mentioned previously. On the (admittedly limited) evidence of the Ambrosian Prayer I would say this is a pity.