Recollections of R.J.S. Stevens An Organist in Georgian London

The career of R DJ S Stevens (17571827) lasted from the late baroque to early romanticism. Trained as a choirboy, he was apprenticed at the age of eleven to William Savage, who undertook to instruct him in the "Science of Musick." After leaving Savage, Stevens pursued, somewhat unsuccessfully at first, a career as an organist. In 1782 his luck changed when he was elected an organist to St. Michael's, Cornhill. He spent the rest of his life earning his living as a composer, organist, and music teacher whose pupils included the illegitimate daughters of Lord Thurlow, the Lord Chancellor. Among Stevens's works isThe Anacreontic Song,which serves as the melody forThe Star Spangled Banner.Argent, Mark is the author of 'Recollections of R.J.S. Stevens An Organist in Georgian London' with ISBN 9780809317905 and ISBN 0809317907.