Gordon Saunders

{{Short description|English composer and music pedagogue}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}

{{Use British English|date=March 2023}}

File:Gordon Saunders and Edith Bird (19331620226).jpg

Joseph Gordon Saunders MusD (1837{{spaced ndash}}17 January 1912){{Cite book |last=Pfitzinger |first=Scott |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ugfWDQAAQBAJ |title=Composer Genealogies: A Compendium of Composers, Their Teachers, and Their Students |date=1 March 2017 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-7225-5 |page=247 |language=en |quote=Hopkins, Edward J. (1818-1901) England. ...Students: Clark, Frederick Scotson; Pearce, Stephen Austen; Saunders, Gordon.}}{{Cite web |title=Saunders, Gordon, 1837-1912 |url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2018043428.html |access-date=3 March 2023 |website=id.loc.gov |publisher=LC Name Authority File (LCNAF)}}{{Cite book |last=Henderson |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ASYKAQAAMAAJ |title=A Directory of Composers for Organ |date=1996 |publisher=John Henderson |isbn=978-0-9528050-0-7 |language=en |lccn=gb97012447 |quote=(Joseph) Gordon Saunders, pupil of Elizabeth Stirling, W. Rea, E.J. Hopkins and H. Litolff, was a co-founder of Trinity College London and a teacher of Granville Bantock. He published many piano teaching pieces and a number of organ pieces.}} was a composer of songs, church music and organ music.{{Cite news |date=3 November 1896 |title=Dr Gordon Saunders – Our Standard of Education |page=3 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14073636?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2FS%2Ftitle%2F35%2F1896%2F11%2F03%2Fpage%2F1361499%2Farticle%2F14073636 |quote=Dr. Saunders is a Doctor of Music of the University of Oxford, and his work on "Counterpoint" has been accepted at Oxford as one of the text books on the subject... ...Dr. Saunders is also known as a composer of songs and church music : but above all may be placed the fact that he is one of the seven original founders of Trinity College. |via=Trove}} He was also a teacher of composition, piano, harmony and counterpoint at the Trinity College of Music.{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6PkBAAAAYAAJ |title=The Educational Annual |date=1890 |language=en |quote=Harmony and Counterpoint. – Prof. Gordon Saunders, Mus. D...}} He was known to have conducted ensemble classes.{{Cite book |last=Baltzell |first=Winton James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pZg7AQAAIAAJ |title=Baltzell's Dictionary of Musicians: Containing Concise Biographical Sketches of Musicians of the Past and Present... |date=1914 |publisher=O. Ditson |language=en |lccn=15000540 |quote=Saunders, Joseph Gordon; b. 1837, London; d. Jan. 17, 1912, [London]; Mus. Doc. Oxford Univ., 1878; a founder of Trinity College, London; teacher of pfte., harmony, and condr. ensemble class; composer of church music, studies for pfte. and organ).}}

Saunders studied with the organist and composer Edward John Hopkins and also with organist and composer Elizabeth Stirling and virtuoso pianist and composer Henry Litolff. He studied at the University of Oxford where he gained a Doctor of Music. Whilst at Oxford, he wrote a textbook on counterpoint, Examples in strict counterpoint (old and new), which was endorsed by the university.

Saunders was the first teacher of British composer Granville Bantock{{Cite book |last=Seddon |first=Dr Laura |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AEmiAgAAQBAJ |title=British Women Composers and Instrumental Chamber Music in the Early Twentieth Century |date=28 October 2013 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |isbn=978-1-4724-0215-8 |language=en |lccn=2013002718 |quote=Bantock, Granville (1868–1946) Bantock was taught firstly by Gordon Saunders at Trinity College and then at the RAM by Frederick Corder.}}{{Cite book |last=Pfitzinger |first=Scott |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ugfWDQAAQBAJ |title=Composer Genealogies: A Compendium of Composers, Their Teachers, and Their Students |date=1 March 2017 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-7225-5 |page=29 |language=en |lccn=2016049946 |quote=Bantock, Granville (1869-1946) England. Teachers: Corder, Frederick; Saunders, Gordon.}} at the Trinity College of Music, London, where he was one of the seven founding members of the college. In 1884, he became conductor of the Clapton Philharmonic Society.{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=James Duff |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=awIQAAAAYAAJ |title=British Musical Biography: A Dictionary of Musical Artists, Authors, and Composers Born in Britain and Its Colonies |last2=Stratton |first2=Stephen Samuel |date=1897 |publisher=S.S. Stratton |pages=363 |language=en |quote=Saunders, Joseph Gordon, pianist and composer, graduated Mus. Bac., 1872, Mus. Doc. 1878, Oxford. Some time conductor of Clapton Philharmonic Society, from 1884.}}

As part of his role at the Trinity College of Music, Saunders was an examiner and in 1896 he travelled to Australia and New Zealand to conduct numerous graded music examinations in multiple cities, Adelaide, Melbourne, Ballarat, Tasmania, and Brisbane.{{Cite journal |last1=Elliott |first1=Frances |last2=Southcott |first2=Jane |year=2021 |title=Examinations in the Life of Studio Music Teachers in Australia prior to 1920 |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1536600619878562 |journal=Journal of Historical Research in Music Education |language=en |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=139–158 |doi=10.1177/1536600619878562 |s2cid=210451618 |issn=1536-6006 |quote=In 1896, Dr. Gordon Saunders (1837–1912), cofounder, senior professor, and registrar of the College, was the examiner sent to assess a larger number of candidates in Adelaide, Melbourne, Ballarat, and the chief cities of New Zealand, Tasmania, and Sydney. |via=Sage Journals|url-access=subscription }}

He was an associate to the Philharmonic Society.