Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chipp, Edmund Thomas

1359246Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 10 — Chipp, Edmund Thomas1887William Barclay Squire

CHIPP, EDMUND THOMAS (1823–1886), organist and composer, eldest son of Thomas Paul Chipp [q. v.], was born on 25 Dec. 1823, and educated as a chorister in the Chapel Royal under W. Hawes. He studied the violin successively under W. Thomas, J. B. Nadaud, and A. Tolbecque, and in 1842-3 was honorary organist of the Albany Chapel, Regent's Park. He became a member of the Society of British Musicians in 1842, and from 1843 to 1846 was organist of St. John's Chapel, Hampstead. From 1843 to 1846 he was one of the violinists in the queen's private band, besides playing in the orchestras of the Italian opera (where he also acted as organist and the Philharmonic Society. In 1846-7 he was organist at the Percy Chapel, Tottenham Court Road, and from 1847 to 1852 organist at St. Olave, Southwark. In 1848 he became a member of the Royal Society of Musicians, and from 1862 to 1856 organist at St. Mary-at-Hill. In 1855 he succeeded W. T. Best as organist at the Panopticon, Leicester Square (on the site of the present Alhambra), and from 1856 to 1862 filled a similar appointment at Holy Trinity Church, Paddington. In 1859 he took the degree of Mus. Bac. at Cambridge, where his name was entered at St. John’s College, and in 1860 proceeded Mus. Doc. From 1862 until 1866 he was organist of St. George’s Church and the Ulster Hall, Belfast, at the same time acting as conductor to various musical societies. From Ireland he went to Scotland, where he acted as organist of Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, from February, and St. Paul’s, Edinburgh, from May to November 1866. At the end of the year he returned to England, where he was appointed organist ang magister choristarum at Ely Cathedral, a post he retained until his death, which took place at Nice on 17 Dec. 1886. The list of Chipp’s compositions includes two short oratoros, ‘Naomi’, and ‘Job,’ besides several songs, services, and organ and pianoforte music.

[Appendix to Bemrose’s Choir Chant Book, ix.;Grove’s Dict. of Music, i. 346.]

W. B. S.