Capel Bond

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This week Pete Chambers goes even further back in time to the Eighteenth Century to look at the originator of organised music in Coventry, Composer and Holy Trinity Organist Capel Bond.

Capel Bond was born in Gloucester in 1730, but despite his roots, he would have a diverse effect on his adopted City of Coventry. Capel was christened in the church of Mary de Lode in Gloucester, taking his paternal grandmother’s maiden name-Capel. His father was a bookseller in Gloucester and he would attend the towns Crypt School that happened to be run by his uncle the reverend Daniel Bond. By the age of twelve he had become an apprentice under the direction of Martin Smith the organist at Gloucester Cathedral, at a cost of £2.10s. Capel was a good student and took well to the organ, and became an unofficial sub-organist to his master. 

In 1749, the nineteen-year old Capel had moved to Coventry to become the organist at St Michael and All Angels. At the time it was the second largest parish church in England. It of course later became The Cathedral of the diocese of Coventry before it was partially destroyed in the Second World War. Little is known about his time at St Michael and All Angels, but in 1752 he had taken up the post of organist at Coventry’s Holy Trinity. Capel would stay here until his death some thirty-eight years later. During that time he would expand and organise the local Coventry music society to see it also become instrumental rather than just choral. He organised many local subscription concerts in the City and even conducted concerts in Coventry and was responsible for founding Birmingham’s music festival in 1768. Such was his passion for his music, it was little wonder that he would be compelled to write his own. Bond was living in an age where the second period (and in my humble opinion) the most exciting period of orchestral music was developing. 

We are talking Baroque music here. Renaissance music had passed and composers of the day began taking risks with their music, looking for new ideas, and breaking moulds. Henry Purcell and later, Handel would create rich tapestries of sound, and so it was with Bond in 1766, when he created the majestic work Six Concertos In Seven Parts. As with most baroque music, there is always a sense of the majestic, and this was true of Capel’s work. You could almost hear the composer rejoicing in each note of the piece, as if he were saying thank you for the gift of this new music. Unlike in the classical period that would follow, Barouque composers still had the sense of experimentation and creation was a thing for them to cherish. His Six Concertos In Seven Parts was well received and in 1976 he had composed his second publication Six Anthems in Score.

In 1770, he was awarded a £10 per annum increase to his £30 annual salary for his ‘superior merit’ and regular attendance as organist at Holy Trinity. He was blighted at this point by ill health and was sufficiently worried as to write his will (he left everything to his wife Ann). He would however live for another nine years, although his music activities were to be less in evidence. He died on 14th February 1790 and was buried in St Bartholomew’s Church in Binley Coventry. His headstone reads. “Capel Bond, 40 years organist of the Churches of St Michael’s and Holy Trinity in Coventry. He was an eminent musician and indulgent husband and steady in his friendships exemplary in the constant practice of his Christian and social duties he died February 14th 1790 aged 59.” 

In 1990 Six Concertos In Seven Parts was recorded by The Parley of Instruments and conducted by Roy Goodman. I asked Roy about that recording, this is what he had to say. “The Capel Bond project was a wonderful eye-opener for me. I’d never heard of him, until my colleague Peter Holman told me about a major thesis he had suggested to one of his students, and the CD is the result of that. Including one of the earliest bassoon and trumpet concertos! I guess we were rather old fashioned in the UK, still writing in the 1760’s the kind of music that the Italians were composing 50 years earlier. It certainly has great charm and appeal and is very well crafted, but owing much more to the Baroque of Handel rather than J.S. Bach. Recording these pieces may have been slightly ‘unfamiliar’ but in no way difficult. It was an unexpected and enjoyable discovery, maybe even owing something to Johann Christian (the ‘London’) Bach. Very galante in style”.

The cover of the CD depicts the two most important churches in Bond’s his life, St Michael’s and Holy Trinity. It’s a superb recording, rousing and uplifting, and a credit to all involved especially its Coventry composer Capel Bond. Now being so passionate about Coventry music in all its forms, I have a wish, you may be aware of Spires Music, it is a brand new organisation that exists to give Coventry greater access to the riches of the classical repertoire from professional musicians. I had the pleasure to attend one of their wonderful concerts recently and it struck me how good would it be to hear a Coventry based ensemble playing something that was composed in this great City of ours. I passed on the information to conductor and driving force of Spires Music Colin Touchin. Now Colin being a busy man, I don’t foresee any Capel Bond concerts in the very near future, but one day, well you never can tell!

Capel Bond facts

For more Backbeat information go to www.covmusic.net 

Contact Pete at backbeat@covmusic.net 

You can hear Pete Chambers’ “Pop Into The Past” on Bob Brolly’s Friday Show every 

Fortnight from 3.00 p.m. and The “Sound Chamber” on Anita Miah’s Monday 

evening show every Fortnight from 8.00pm on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire.

Posted in Capel Bond, Pete Chambers.
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