George Perry (composer)

Perry was born in Norwich in 1793; his father was a turner and an amateur bass singer who took part in the annual performance of an oratorio at the cathedral, under John Christmas Beckwith.

Shortly after his appointment to the theatre he wrote another oratorio, Elijah and the Priests of Baal, to a text by James Plumptre, which was first performed in Norwich on 12 March 1819.

At their first concert, on 15 January 1833, the programme contained a selection from Perry's oratorios The Fall of Jerusalem and The Death of Abel.

[5] A performance in 1838 of The Fall of Jerusalem by the Society at the Exeter Hall, with Perry "the zealous and enthusiastic leader" of the orchestra, was reviewed: "The prevailing defect is an absence of dramatic feeling....

The choral fugues are not elaborately worked; but yet there are displayed in them a steadiness of purpose, and simplicity of outline, which demand commendation...."[6] Perry also wrote an oratorio, Hezekiah (1847); a sacred cantata, Belshazzar's Feast (1836); a festival anthem with orchestral accompaniment; and Blessed be the Lord thy God, for Queen Victoria's accession (1838).

His Thanksgiving Anthem for the Birth of the Princess Royal (1840) was performed with great success by the Sacred Harmonic Society, the orchestra and chorus numbering five hundred, Caradori Allan being the solo vocalist.