Biography

William Pierce OAM, B.A., FRCO, FTCL, FRSCM, L.Mus.A (1926 – 1996) – Organist 1982–1994

William (Bill) Pierce  was appointed as organist of St. John’s Church, Launceston in June 1982. At the time, he had been organist and choirmaster of St. Martin's Church Killara, N.S.W., a position held since 1975. He was also Music Master at Presbyterian Ladies' College, Pymble, N.S.W.; an examiner in theory, musicianship, piano and organ for the Musical Examinations Board of N.S.W. and a special commissioner for the Royal School of Church Music.

He was organist for a Civic Reception in the Sydney Town Hall tendered in honour of Queen Elizabeth II in April 1970, and was one of a panel of Sydney organists chosen to give the opening series of organ recitals on the then new Grand Organ in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House.

Church Appointments:

Organist and Choirmaster - St. Thomas' Church, North Sydney, N.S.W.

Louth Parish Church, Lincolnshire, England.

Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle, N.S.W.

St. Martin's Church, Killara, N.S.W.

St. John’s Anglican Church, Launceston, Tasmania

Teaching Appointments:

Music Master and Choirmaster of the Probationers, St. Andrew's Cathedral School, Sydney, N.S.W.

Music Master, King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth, Lincolnshire, England.

Music Master, Brisbane Church of England Grammar School, Queensland.

Music Master, Sydney Church of England Grammar School, N.S.W.

Music Master, Presbyterian Ladies' College, Pymble, N.S.W.

Lecturer in theory and organ, Newcastle State Conservatorium of Music.

Conductorships:

Honorary accompanist and deputy conductor, Sydney University Musical Society.

Honorary conductor, Louth Choral and Orchestral Society, Lincolnshire, England.

Honorary conductor, Sydney University Musical Society Graduate Group.

Honorary conductor, Saint Martin's Singers, Killara, N.S.W. 

Launceston City Organist – 1986-1994

Compositions: (as listed by Organs Historical Trust Australia)

Choral prelude on "Petra" 1947 2p. 3m. 
Chorale prelude on "Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier" 1953 2p. 2m. 
Chorale prelude on "Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist" 1953 2p. 2m. 
Chorale prelude without title 1953 2p. 2m. 
Untitled in F major 1953 3p. 2m. Untitled (fughetta) 1953 2p. 2m. 
Fanfare for flute, oboe, trumpet, percussion & organ (arrangement for organ solo, 1974) 1971 2p. 3m. 
Trumpet tune and air 1980 3p. 4m.

William Pierce was married to Margaret, with four children – Simon, Fiona, Louise and Rowan.

At the time of his retirement from St. John’s, he was interviewed by Examiner journalist, Martin Stevenson. 

Mr Pierce became St John’s organist in 1982. 
“It’s a fine organ at St John’s, the best of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere,” he said. 
Mr Pierce has had the ability to compare. He played the Sydney Town Hall organ for 32 years. Numerous other keyboards within Australia and in England (where he lived during the 1970s) have fallen under his spell. 

Born in Sydney, Mr Pierce learned the piano from the age of five. 
“My father was at sea, and my Scottish mother invested a lot of time in our musical education,” he said. 
His memories of the wartime era including a “luridly-covered British weekly music magazine which we always awaited.” There was also much singing around the home piano. 

As a youth, Mr Pierce was apprenticed to printing composition at the Sydney Sun. He left at the completion of his training. 
“I wanted to be a professional musician and. instructor and so extended my education while earning money from church stipends and weddings,” he said. A music scholarship confirmed Mr Pierce’s choice of profession and, more so, a decision made in 1956 to study at the Royal School of Church Music, near Croydon, Surrey. 
“I learned from the top musicians in the world,” he said. “People such as Sir William Harris, the organist at St George’s Chapel, Windsor.” 

He reserves special delight in telling of his life in Lincolnshire as organist and choirmaster. 
“It was ideal, the small-town life, very cosy, the churches, the schools, the university all there to play in.” 

On returning to Australia in 1960, Mr Pierce taught first in Brisbane and then at a Sydney church grammar school. He was organist at the NSW Newcastle Cathedral in 1973-74 and then on the staff of Presbyterian (later Pymble) Ladies College, in Sydney. “They had three grand pianos,” he noted. 

But it was organ music which was Mr Pierce’s main love, and he jumped at the chance to move to Launceston in 1982. “The original St John’s organ dates from 1826, but the subsequent instrument, an 1862 Brindley, has been mostly updated. “It’s now a beautiful Edwardian-era organ, much subsequent work having been undertaken by Launceston builder George Hopkins who rebuilt it around 1910.” “Organ music transcends the ordinary,” he said. “It’s the sheer majesty, the: ecclesiastical setting is so powerful.” Assistance by Messrs Bach Mozart and John Tavener is also appreciated. “They're my favourite composers although it is not always fair to play favourites,” he added. 

One of Bill Pierce’s proudest achievements was to host the 40th annual Royal School of Church Music. National Summer School in Launceston in 1995, with the former director of music at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, Dr Christopher Dearnley, as course director, along with other distinguished musicians and choir directors. 120 people from all over Australia participated.

A further interview took place with Examiner religious columnist Craig Ellis in 1995. 

Mr Pierce, a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, who studied under Francis Jackson of York Minster, has held his position at St John’s since 1982. 
“I have fond memories of St John’s during the past 12 ½ years,” he said this week. “There have been great moments musically within the quiet devotion of the church. Diocesan events have also been a feature.” William Pierce has seen vast changes in church music. While his comments and opinions on current trends are noteworthy, and given in good humour with great wisdom, they cannot always. be quoted in print! But in commenting on the RSCM adopting a changing role in view of changing patterns of worship, Mr Pierce said: “In many churches the robed choir has ceased to exist. We almost have the old village orchestras in the form of instrumental groups coming back into churches with a simpler style of music. “In spite of that outlook, I am optimistic. The challenge, musically, is for the church to look for musicians who need to be more versatile; who can work with young people; who can deal with more innovative, simpler styles of music and vocal work as well as the traditional choral and organ music of the church.” Mr Pierce’s vast musical: experience and knowledge began in humble beginnings after his family’s emigration from Scotland to Mosman, NSW, in the 1920s. “We had regular family sing-songs in which the load fell. on me to play piano,” he said: “I got to know an amazing range of music including music hall and folk songs.” His church music education began as a young player of the American reed organ at his local church. He became organist at St Thomas’, North Sydney, at the age of 22 before his formal studies at Sydney University where he was awarded the Busby Musical Scholarship in 1950. 

His long association with the Royal School of Church Music began in 1955 when he began studies in England. His previous teaching appointments have included Brisbane Grammar School, Sydney Grammar School, Pymble Ladies College, and Launceston Church Grammar School with appointments as choirmaster/organist at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, Newcastle Cathedral, and St Thomas’, North Sydney. Mr Pierce was appointed Launceston City Organist in 1986. In that year he also assumed the mantle of chairman of RSCM (Tas). He will continue as chairman of RSCM until after the 1995 national conference in Launceston and as a private music teacher in Launceston. 

A final article by Alison Andrews of Launceston’s Examiner was published in August, 1996, little more than three months before his death in Sydney.

Launceston organist Bill Pierce drives an ageing black Humber. His flat - a comfortable clutter of deep armchairs, books and music scores - is a quiet oasis from the inner city clamour outside. Recently retired after a career as St John’s Church organist and choirmaster, Mr Pierce’s lifestyle has that genteel air of another, less hurried era. But Mr Pierce, just back from England, vigorously opposes that idea. He says that church music - his forte - has reclaimed its mantle as a big crowd puller, particularly in the United Kingdom. And William Pierce, from tiny Tasmania, has recently been acclaimed as a leader in the field. In England he was one of a select group made a fellow of the Royal School of Church Music at the prestigious Gloucester Cathedral. 
“In the summer season in particular in England, they have thousands coming into the cathedrals for the music, which is of an exceptionally high standard,” Mr Pierce said. “I think that one of the positive influences of the media on music in recent times is that LPs and CDs have taken the very best of music into people’s homes. “In England they’re feeling the benefits: in a marvellous renaissance: of choral music in the second half of the 20th century.” 
Mr Pierce’s Royal School of Church Music fellowship caps an impressive career. He has been both a private music teacher and taught in schools throughout Australia after falling under the spell of piped organ-music in his teens in NSW and deciding to learn. He arrived in Tasmania about 14 years ago and has been The  Examiner's music critic as well as organist and choirmaster at St John’s Church till his retirement. Mr Pierce is also a fellow of the Royal: College of Organists.
 “I thought when received that honour my career was complete,” he said,  “But the Royal School of Church Music fellowship is about as far as you can go in this area — it’s just wonderful.” 

The following notes were included in the programme for an organ recital at St. John’s Church in 1991.

As a minor composer, Pierce has written two carols, an Anglican chant, a unison communion setting for use with An Australian Prayer Book and several anthems for four-part choir and organ. There are also Interludes for brass, strings, percussion and organ on the hymn-tunes Darwell, Leoni and “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”. Pierce is a past President and Honorary Life member of the Organ Society of Queensland and a past Patron and Honorary Member of the Hunter District Organ Music Society. In 1970 he was  organist for the City of Sydney Civic Reception to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family (in St. John’s church). He gave the first Tasmanian performance of the significant organ work, La Nativite du Seigneur - 1935-- composed by the great French composer, Olivier Messiaen, on 10th December, 1988, the composer’s eightieth birthday.     

He was posthumously awarded an Order of Australia for his considerable contribution to church music in Australia.

Mr William Beith PIERCE  Medal of the Order of Australia

Post-nominals: OAM

Awarded on 26th of January 1997

Award event: Australia Day 1997 Honours List

Citation: OAM. FOR SERVICE TO MUSIC AS AN ORGANIST AND CHOIRMASTER. GAZ S13. AUST DAY 1997

On the death notice published in the Examiner, it noted that Bill was reluctant to leave Launceston, but needed to spend his final months in Sydney with his family. His funeral was held at St. John’s Anglican Church, Balmain on 23^rd December 1996. A memorial service was held at St. John’s Launceston on 22^nd February 1997, taking the form of a Choral Evensong, in which choristers of St. John’s and Holy Trinity, Launceston, along with others who had sung with Bill over the years, sang works of his composition, including the setting for Evensong, and others that he was very fond of, including the anthem, ‘God be in my Head’, by contemporary English composer, John Rutter.            

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