Early years Goss came from a musical background. His father, Joseph Goss, was organist of
Fareham Parish Church in
Hampshire, and earlier members of the family had been celebrated singers. The master of the choir at that time was
John Stafford Smith, a musician known for composing the song
To Anacreon in Heaven, later used as the tune of the American national anthem. As an educator, Smith combined a harsh discipline with a narrow musical curriculum. He confiscated Goss's score of
Handel's organ concertos on the grounds that choristers of the Chapel Royal were there to learn to sing and not to play.
Organist and teacher In 1821 Goss married his fiancée Lucy Emma New, and secured an appointment as an organist, at Stockwell Chapel (later known as St. Andrew's Church), in south London. He held this post for four years, before winning an open competition for the much more prestigious post of organist at
St. Luke's, Chelsea, then called Chelsea New Church, in December 1824. Goss composed a small amount of orchestral music in this period. Two overtures, in F minor and E flat major, written circa 1824, were performed and published in 1827, with considerable success. Thereafter, Goss avoided orchestral composition, declining a request from the
Philharmonic Society of London for another orchestral piece in 1833. His biographer Judith Blezzard describes Goss as "a distinguished and painstaking teacher, and a tasteful and virtuoso performer on the organ, creating marvellous effects on the then comparatively rudimentary instrument." The cathedral authorities were not interested in raising musical standards. Sydney Smith's view was typical: "It is enough if our music is decent … we are there to pray, and the singing is a very subordinate consideration." Some of Smith's colleagues were indifferent to both considerations, there being frequent absenteeism by the junior clergy, neglecting their duties and failing to conduct services. Goss was noted for his piety and gentleness of character. His pupil,
John Stainer, wrote, "That Goss was a man of religious life was patent to all who came into contact with him, but an appeal to the general effect of his sacred compositions offers public proof of the fact." His mildness was a disadvantage when attempting to deal with his recalcitrant singers. He was unable to do anything about the laziness of the tenors and basses, who had lifetime security of tenure and were uninterested in learning new music. The biographer Jeremy Dibble writes, "Hostility to [Goss's] fine anthem 'Blessed is the man', composed in 1842, undermined his confidence so markedly that he did not compose any further anthems until 1852, when he was commissioned to write two anthems for the
state funeral of the Duke of Wellington. Those new anthems were "If we believe that Jesus died" and "And the King said"; the latter being written so that it moved seamlessly into Handel's
Dead March in Saul, a combination which
Prince Albert reported "had made everyone weep". Goss also composed for the service an
Anglican chant for the
Nunc dimittis, based on
Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. Stainer who was a boy chorister at the time of Wellington's funeral later recalled the effect of Goss's music at rehearsal: "When the last few bars
pianissimo had died away, there was a profound silence for some time, so deeply had the hearts of all been touched by its truly devotional spirit. Then there gradually arose on all sides the warmest congratulation to the composer, it could hardly be termed
applause, for it was something much more genuine and respectful." Stainer was not always so reverential about his teacher. He later recalled the occasion on which he and the young Arthur Sullivan succumbed to laughter when Goss absent-mindedly walked across the pedals of the organ during a service "before he realised that he was the cause of the alarming thunderings which were frightening the congregation and putting a temporary pause in the sermon." In the early 1870s Goss's health began to fail. By 1872 he had decided to retire, and his swan-song at St Paul's was in February of that year at the
national service of thanksgiving for the recovery of the
Prince of Wales from a grave illness. For this service he composed a setting of the
Te Deum and an anthem, "The Lord is my strength". ==Works==