Paul Corder

Who was Paul Corder?

Paul Walford Corder was an English composer and music professor.

Corder was born at Pimlico, London, the son of musician Frederick Corder and his wife Henrietta Walford. He was baptised at St Gabriel's, Warwick Square, London, on 1 March 1880. He studied under his father at the Royal Academy of Music and won the Goring Thomas scholarship for composition in 1901. In 1907 he joined the staff of the Academy as Professor of Composition and Harmony.

His aunt Rosa Corder painted a portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Corder was strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite movement. He composed operas, ballets, cantatas and piano works. Many of his orchestral works remain unpublished and unknown but some of his keyboard pieces were published and achieved some public attention. He was a close friend of Arnold Bax with whom he spent holidays in Cornwall. Bax dedicated the song "Aspiration" and his Fourth Symphony to Corder.

Corder lived for many years at White Cottage, Netley Heath, Surrey.