The composer William Mathias 1934 - 1992



William Methias was born in the small Carmarthenshire town of Whitland, in November 1934. It has been claimed that he rose to become one of the finest and most distinctive 20th-century Welsh composers. His mother, Marian was a piano teacher and organist and this may have influenced his early interest in music.

His work is said to be rich in melodic invention and splendidly accessible. This was a result, it is claimed, of the fact that it rested on sure technical foundations, and his personal desire to communicate directly with audiences. After graduating from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Mathias won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied composition with Lennox Berkeley. He served as Professor of Music at Bangor University from 1970 until his retirement 17 years later, meanwhile working tirelessly on an impressive range of commissioned works.

In 1895 he became cello soloist of the Paris Opera, after having spent some time studying in Paris. His International career began in 1898 when he played as a soloist with Lamoureux Orchestra in Paris and at the Crystal Palace in London. In 1904 he was invited to the White House to play for President Rosevelt, and in March of that year made his debut at Carnegie Hall. Later in 1911 Casals also performed at the London Music Festival at the Queens Hall.

Mathias’s church and choral music brought him great recognition. His first anthems were written in the early 1960s for friends connected with Welsh cathedrals but his infectious and vibrant vocal writing was soon sung all over the English-speaking world. Mathias reached a vast global audience in 1981 when his anthem, Let the People Praise Thee, was performed at the wedding service of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. He subsequently composed many pieces for church use, building on a catalogue of earlier sacred compositions and underlining his international status as a creative artist of great skill and imagination.

The anthem, Let the People Praise Thee, at the express wish of the Prince of Wales, was written in a manner which would not be beyond the reach of most good church choirs. It has indeed gone on to be an extremely popular addition to the repertoire.

Many of Mathias's contributions to the orchestral repertoire, his first three symphonies and an Organ Concerto prominent among them, attracted critical praise not least for their handling of instrumental color and well-judged mix of eclectic elements drawn from jazz and folk genres.

He wrote a suite of carols, Ave Rex, Op. 45, Circa 1970. It included a very attractive composition, Sir Christemas. This anthem was sung by Sanderstead Singers at Southwark Cathedral on 2nd January 2016.

William Mathias was awaded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List of1985. He died on 29th July 1992 and is buried outside St Asaph Cathedral in Denbighshire.


The following is an excerpt from a recording of Mathias'Sir Chistemas sung at Wells at Southwark Cathedral on 2nd January 2016. The conductor was Fred Irvine and the Organist was Dan Soper. The recording is a Dartworth recording.



Acknoledgement: The information about William Mathias, his life and his music has been taken from an obituary in The Independant published on July 30th 1992, and the BBC website archive.

Copyright © Sanderstead Singers

. All rights reserved.