Composer, Organist, Musicologist. He was an important English musician of the Victorian era, noted for his Anglican liturgical music. The 1887 oratorio "The Crucifixion" is considered his masterpiece and is still performed today. Its numbers "Cross of Jesus", "All for Jesus", and "God So Loved the World" have independent life as church anthems. In this piece, he set to music the Bible verse John 3:16. Stainer was born in London, into a poor but music-loving family. A childhood accident left him blind in one eye and he pursued a varied musical career while struggling to preserve his remaining eyesight. He sang in the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral in London from 1847 to 1856, and after his voice broke, he was chosen as organist for the new St. Michael's College, Tenbury, which had been founded to improve the performance standards of Anglican church music. Stainer would make this his personal mission for the rest of his life. From 1860 to 1872 he was organist at Magdalen College, Oxford, and he held the prestigious position as organist of St. Paul's from 1872 until 1888, when he had to resign due to encroaching blindness. Queen Victoria knighted him in 1888 and the following year, he became a professor of music at Oxford. He died of a heart attack at 60, while vacationing in Italy. Apart from madrigals and some organ pieces, Stainer's music was intended for church use. It includes the oratorios "Gideon," which was written for his Oxford doctoral thesis, 1865, "The Daughter of Jairus" in 1878 and "St. Mary Magdalen" in 1887, seven Anglican service settings, over 40 church anthems, a Magnificat, motets and hymns. As a scholar of early music, he did pioneering research of Renaissance composer Guillaume Dufay, who at that time was known only to specialists. He also co-edited the popular "Christmas Carols New and Old" in 1871 and his arrangements of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", "Good King Wenceslas", and "The First Nowell" became standard.