Stanley, John (1713-1786)

English composer and organist. His works, which include organ voluntaries (solos) and concertos for strings, influenced Handel. He succeeded William Boyce as Master of the King's Musick in 1779.

Stanley was blind from the age of two, but became a pupil of Maurice Greene and later held various organist's appointments in London. In 1759 he joined John Christopher Smith to continue Handel's oratorio concerts, and when Smith retired in 1774, he continued with the younger Thomas Linley.

Works Opera and choral opera Teraminta; dramatic cantata The Choice of Hercules; music for Lloyd's Arcadia, or The Shepherd's Wedding (1761) and Tears and Triumphs of Parnassus, and Southerne's Oroonoko (1759); oratorios Jephtha (1752), Zimri (1760), and The Fall of Egypt (1774); 12 cantatas to words by John Hawkins; cantatas and songs for voice and instruments.

Orchestral six concertos for strings; solos for flute or violin.