Charles Kennedy Scott

Charles James Kennedy Osborne Scott (16 November 1876 – 2 July 1965) was an English organist and choral conductor who played an important part in developing the performance of choral and polyphonic music in England, especially of early and modern English music.

Early career

Scott was born in Romsey. Educated at Southampton Grammar School, he entered the Brussels Conservatory in 1894. Beginning by studying the violin, he transferred to the organ under the outstanding virtuoso and teacher Alphonse Mailly, who encouraged a special interest in plainchant and in the phrasing of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ music: he also studied composition under Hubert Ferdinand Kufferath (1818–1896) (a pupil of Mendelssohn's), teacher of counterpoint and fugue, and under the organist-composer Edgar Tinel (1854–1912). In 1897 he took the Premier Prix avec distinction and the Mailly Prize for organ playing.

He settled in London in 1898 as a professional organist and teacher, and married a second cousin who had also studied at Brussels.

Oriana Choir

In 1904 Scott founded the Oriana Madrigal Society, consisting of 36 voices, which made its first public appearance at the Portman Rooms in July 1905. Its initially stated object was 'to press the claims of our Elizabethan school', and 'to devote itself solely to the singing of English madrigals.' Scott was by chance shown the publications of the Musical Antiquarian Society, including a volume of madrigals by John Wilbye, and formed the determination to lift English Elizabethan music from its position of comparative neglect. He scored many examples over the next years and held gatherings which became the core of his society. Later on the number of voices was increased to 60, and its work was extended to include modern compositions, both English and foreign, but always with emphasis on the English.