Davies, Sir Henry Walford (1869-1941), was a British composer, organist, and educator. He also became famous for his broadcast talks on music. Critics consider Davies’s finest music to be his choral and organ works, which reveal his spiritual qualities, skill, and wit. Among his most successful works were the oratorio Everyman (1904) and the organ piece “Solemn Melody.”
Davies was born on Sept. 6, 1869, in Oswestry, Shropshire, England. He served as an organist at several London churches. He was a professor of music in Aberystwyth, Wales from 1919 to 1926 and became a professor of music at the University of London in 1924. Davies was organist at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor from 1927 to 1932. He was knighted in 1922. Davies began a popular radio series called “Music and the Ordinary Listener” in 1926. He was made master of the king’s music in 1934. Davies wrote several books on music and music education, notably The Pursuit of Music (1935). He died on March 11, 1941.
