Born in London, Aug 12, 1696
Died in London, Dec 1, 1755
- Greene trained at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, first as a choirboy under Jeremiah Clarke and later as an organist. Soon he succeeded as organist at St. Paul’s.
- Greene’s organ students included prominent figures in the next generation of English organists, like William Boyce and John Stanley.
- Greene was a founder-member of a secular music performance organization, The Academy of Ancient Music (the original one, not the one founded in the 1970s).
- With his friend, composer and violinst Michael Festing, Greene helped found the Fund for the Support of Decay’d Musicians (which became the Royal Society of Musicians and is still supporting retired, injured or ill musicians).
- Near the end of his life Greene was working on an anthology of historical and modern English music. He did not complete the project, but his pupil William Boyce did, producing the massively influential collection Cathedral Music.
Fun (?) Facts: The Beef Between Handel and Greene.
- Greene was close friends with Handel for a time: apparently Handel loved playing the organ at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where Greene was organist.
“From Greene’s great admiration of Handel’s manner of playing, he had literally condescended to become his bellows-blower, when he [Handel] went to St. Paul’s to play on the organ…. Handel, after the three o’clock prayers, used frequently to get himself and young Greene locked up in the church together, and in summer often stript unto his shirt, and played till eight or nine o’clock at night.”
Charles Burney, music historian and acquaintance of Handel.
- Unfortunately they had a falling out when Greene became friendly with Handel’s rival, the composer Bononcini. It is also possible that Handel envied Greene’s position in the Chapel Royal.
“Dr. Greene has gone to the devil!”
Handel, on the occasion of Greene founding a concert series with Bononcini
“For many years of his life, Handel never spoke of [Greene] without some injurious epithet.”
Charles Burney 1
Sources
- H. Diack Johnstone, “Greene, Maurice,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed February 11, 2020, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000011707.