Introduction

Biography

Cooper (ac­tu­al­ly George Coop­er III) came from a long line of or­gan­ists who played at St. Se­pul­chre’s Church, New­gate Street, Lon­don, through­out the 19th Cen­tu­ry.

By age 11, he oft­en took the ser­vice at St. Paul’s for his fa­ther, and at the Fes­ti­vals of the Sons of the Cler­gy, it was the de­light of Att­wood (then chief or­gan­ist) to make him ex­tem­po­rize. On one such oc­ca­sion, Men­dels­sohn is said to have re­marked and praised him.

One of his ear­li­est ap­point­ments, at age 13, was to St. Be­net’s Church in Up­per Thames Street, where lat­er John Stain­er of­fi­ci­at­ed (1854–56).

Cooper was al­so one of the or­gan­ists of the Cha­pel Roy­al (1856), was or­gan­ist and mu­sic mas­ter at Christ’s Hos­pi­tal, and in 1843, he suc­ceed­ed his fa­ther as as­sist­ant to John Goss at St. Paul’s.

He was the first ed­it­or to su­per­vise pro­duct­ion of the new Wes­ley­an Tune-Book. Both he and his suc­cess­or Gaunt­lett passed away while the work was in pro­gress; it was fin­ished by Ed­ward Hop­kins.

Cooper’s works in­clude:

Works

• Organ Ar­range­ments
• Organist’s As­sist­ant
• Organist’s Ma­nu­al, 1851