Charles Wood

(1866 - 1926)
Charles Wood
Photo
Thames Publishing; A Division of WILLIAM ELKIN MUSIC SERVICES

Charles Wood stood for most of his life in the shadow of Charles V. Stanford, with whom he studied at the Royal College of Music, London and whose teaching duties at Cambridge were taken over by Wood. Only after Stanford’s death did Wood become Professor at Cambridge for the remaining two years of his life. Though living in England, Wood preserved a lively interest in Ireland and in 1904 co-founded the Irish Folk Song Society in London. Several of his chamber works and songs use Irish material. Wood, however, is mainly remembered as a fine composer for the church and together with Stanford is the most often played composer in the Church of England. This is reflected in his discography, which mainly concentrates on his liturgical music and does not quite represent his real work list, in which his eight string quartets stand out.