The Worcester Cathedral organist who got a little too merry at Christmas

But that’s just what happened to a gentleman called Hugh Blair back in 1895, when he celebrated Christmas Day “not wisely, but too well” and got so sozzled he was unable to take his seat at the organ for the evening communion service.

The episode promised all the hallmarks of comedian Les Dawson at the keyboard, but it had a terrible effect on the career of the talented Blair, to such an extent his name has been almost airbrushed out of the list of distinguished musicians who have held the cathedral’s exalted post.

However for enthusiasts of choral music that could be about to change, because the first warts and all biography of Blair, a hugely popular man incidentally, has been written by Kevin Allen, a former Worcester Cathedral chorister now living in Hampshire.

Author Kevin Allen

Entitled Hugh Blair – Worcester’s Forgotten Organist, it describes him as “a progressive musician ahead of his time” and someone “who is long overdue for fuller appreciation”.

There is another reason why Worcestershire owes Blair recognition: his support for the fledgling genius that was to become Sir Edward Elgar. According to Kevin Allen: “He may be said to have launched the career of Elgar by promoting one work in particular, the cantata The Black Knight, which first made the composer’s name among the choral societies of the Midlands.”

Hugh Blair’s predecessor as Worcester Cathedral organist William Done, to whom he became an articled pupil

Indeed Blair was one of Elgar’s earliest advocates and the pair forged a close relationship, working together to mount an ambitious and pioneering series of choral and orchestral concerts with Elgar as conductor of a revived Worcester Festival Choral Society. The eclectic  programme drew on a wide repertoire of music of all schools and periods and revolutionised Worcester’s musical life.

Allen adds: “Blair used his position to intervene significantly in the composer’s development by commissioning works and ensuring first performances.”

Hugh Blair, talented but flawed

Hugh Blair was born in Worcester on May, 26 1864, the first of seven children of the Reverend Robert Hugh Blair and his wife Margaret, a well-to-do Yorkshire farmer’s daughter with a bent for poetry. Several of her works were published in local papers.

Blair senior had arrived in Worcester three years previously to take up the post of senior assistant master at King’s School. He was ordained deacon in 1863,  priest the following year and then became the vicar of St Michael’s, a parish including the Cathedral, College Green and the Bishop’s Palace. Six years later he took on the challenge of nearby St Martin’s parish, then notorious for its slums and crime, and made a great success of it.

But Robert Blair’s greatest legacy to the city was the founding of a school for the blind, a national first and its successor still exists today. “The father left his mark on Worcester no less than the son,” writes Allen.

Book cover of Hugh Blair – Worcester’s forgotten organist

Meanwhile Hugh Blair had been progressing in his musical career and gained the coveted position of an article pupil to William Done, Worcester Cathedral’s organist. Blair’s talent blossomed and in 1887 he was appointed assistant organist at Worcester. When Done died in 1895 – having been Cathedral Organist for 51 years – Blair succeeded him.

However, overwork and the pressures of the job led him to rely more and more on the crutch of alcohol. Which is not so muddled as it may seem, for as Kevin Allen writes: “Elgar’s own organist father was known for nipping out for a quick one during a sermon.”

Adding: “It used to be a standing joke that drink might be the organist’s occupational hazard, hidden away up in the loft with nothing to do during long stretches of pulpit oratory.”

Edward Elgar working on The Dream of Gerontius

Although this might cast church organists in an entirely new light, it should not reflect too badly on the progressive ambition and musical development of Hugh Blair, who after all directed the Three Choirs Festivals of 1893 and 1896 and conducted the Festival’s first performance of the Verdi Requiem.

After resigning his post at Worcester Cathedral following his excess of Christmas cheer, he moved to London and enjoyed successful spells at Battersea and Marylebone. Blair was a man who deserves to be celebrated for his talent and not castigated for his demons.

After all these years Kevin Allen’s book does just that, bringing Hugh Blair out of the shadows, where he has been for far too long. Something which is surely worth raising a glass of holy water to in the coming Season of Goodwill.