Crotch’s mu­sic­al gift showed it­self ear­ly; at age two, he was play­ing the or­gan which his fa­ther built. With­in a year, he was giv­ing pub­lic re­cit­als in Lon­don, and aca­dem­ics wrote pa­pers about the young pro­di­gy. He was play­ing violin and pi­a­no by age 7, and by 11 was as­sist­ant or­gan­ist to John Ran­dall at King’s Coll­ege, Cam­bridge. He com­posed an ora­tor­io by 14, and at 15 was the or­gan­ist at Christ Church, Ox­ford; he re­ceived his doc­tor­al de­gree at age 24. In 1822, he helped found the Roy­al Acad­e­my of Mu­sic. He had a dis­ting­uished ca­reer com­pos­ing, teach­ing, and lec­tur­ing.

Crotch pos­sessed an un­u­su­al fa­cil­i­ty in the use of his hands, and was able to write as ea­si­ly with his left as with his right. It is al­so said that, in or­der to save time, he would oft­en write down the notes of two sep­a­rate staves of mu­sic si­mul­tan­eous­ly.

West, p. 86

• Frost, p. 668
• Hustad, p. 228
• Lightwood, pp. 180-81
• Nutter, p. 455
• West, pp. 85-86

1. St. Mi­chael