Joseph is described as a clothier, or maker and finisher of woollen cloth, the trade for which the Leeds district was famous until the middle of the twentieth century.

The family's local church was St Thomas's, Stanningley, to which John Varley Roberts’ later donated (and designed) the pipe organ – still in existence – in 1906.

[5] He studied ‘the piano and musical theory under Bird, also taking lessons from Whitley, a bandmaster, and John Burton, brother of the organist of the town’.

Varley Roberts gave his father's Rank or Profession as 'Gentleman' in the Marriage Register, though whether a 'Farmer of Seven Acres', formerly a Clothier, could really pass as a Gentleman in mid-nineteenth-century terms is a moot point.

By 1871 at the latest he was living with his wife and daughter in the newly fashionable area of North Park at 86 King Cross Street, in a house large enough to require the services of a live-in servant, and was describing himself in that year's census as 'Professor of Music'.

The DMus was conferred upon him after a performance by the Halifax Parish Church choir of his cantata Jonah, with text by the Vicar of Hipperholme and Headmaster of Heath Grammar School, the Reverend Thomas Cox.

[21] Varley Roberts’ directing of the singing is immortalised in a painting by Holman Hunt, though, characteristically, the choirmaster complained that he had not been given a more prominent position in the picture.

His book A Treatise on a Practical Method of Training Choristers became one of the best known textbooks for choirmasters, first published in 1898, with subsequent editions in 1900, 1905 and 1914;[24] while Magdalen College Choir was widely regarded as the very best in the country.

[25] He died on 9 February 1920 and was buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, his funeral being attended by the famous organists and choirmasters of their day, as well as past choristers of the College who had been tutored by Varley Roberts.

The Organ Trustees must have been aware of the sinking musical reputation of their church, for not only were the auditions ‘professionally’ conducted (Dr EG Monk of York Minster was the judge) but it was agreed that John Varley Roberts, the successful candidate, should be paid a minimum of £60 per annum - more than double Moore's salary.

At a time when most parish church organists were still playing transcriptions of choruses from Handel's oratorios, Roberts was regularly giving recitals of organ music by Bach and Mendelssohn.

[37] The choir's standard of performance had improved too: Halifax – on Monday the 6th ult., the new organ in Broad Street Wesleyan Chapel... was opened by Mr JV Roberts, Mus.

It is assumed that the ladies of the choir retired when the west gallery was removed, and there are certainly hints in Roberts’ writings that he did not like female voices, and especially contraltos.

Speaking of his time at Halifax Parish Church, Roberts wrote: For some few years it was the experience of the writer of this little Treatise to have a mixed choir of women and men, several of whom were professional singers.

After a certain evensong when Boyce's anthem ‘O where shall wisdom be found’ had been sung, an eminent musician who happened to be in the church, subsequently remarked of the singular and disastrous effect of a ‘thick’ chest voice singing the highest part in the ‘verse’ portion of the anthem...He said the truth; nothing can replace the beautiful thin flute-like tone of the pure Alto...[39]Roberts’ Treatise... gives other interesting insights into his approach to choir training.

For many years the writer of this Treatise found the following system to work well... Emulation was thus promoted, and no payment whatever was given for singing on the Sunday – the surplice and cassock were a sufficient attraction.

Great strides were being made in the technological aspects of organ building, meaning that larger, more powerful instruments could be built and distributed round the church almost at will.

A complete refurbishment, updating and rearrangement of the building, sweeping away the galleries and pews and putting in place a collegiate or cathedral arrangement of a divided choir on opposite sides of the chancel, was required to bring Halifax Parish Church into line with modern ecclesiastical thinking.

[52] To mark the re-opening and re-dedication of the church and the re-building of the organ, an ‘octave’ of services, each with an anthem and a sermon, was held during the week beginning 7 October 1879.

Walter Parratt, Roberts’ predecessor at Magdalen, and one of the pre-eminent players of the time, gave an organ recital on the rebuilt instrument soon after it was completed.

The sub-dean of the Chapel Royal was much put out by me saying, when he asked me how I thought the choir rendered the Litany one Sunday morning, I replied, ‘I should have been ashamed of it at Halifax!’[55]It is interesting to note that later, during his time at Magdalen, Varley Roberts appointed a number of alto, tenor and bass singers with working class backgrounds from northern parish church choirs.

At Magdalen College, Varley Roberts – with the support of the authorities – developed such fully choral services, excluding the congregation from all but passive involvement.

Hymns are rarely sung, the music being primarily of the impressive order, and visitors are admitted only by courtesy to the chapel proper; but the ante-chapel is open to the public until service time.A colourful anecdote reinforces this approach: Whenever anyone in the congregation in Magdalen College was so presumptuous as to sing along with the choir, Roberts would lean over the edge of the gallery and yell, "Shut up!"

Roberts’ music is tuneful, often (as with Call to Remembrance and Seek ye the Lord) beginning with a solo section before the full choir enters, repeating the opening melody, somewhat in the style of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century verse anthems.

The harmonic language is very much of its time, with Mendelssohn and Samuel Sebastian Wesley being two obvious influences, though the textures perhaps also hark back to eighteenth-century models, especially in the organ or piano parts.

A former chorister wrote of his work: The compositions of Roberts, which are numerous though all fall naturally under one of a small number of groups, seem to be in some danger of being underrated through forgetfulness of one quality which marks them in high degree.

It would be a mistake to infer that there is little difference between the performance of a composition by Roberts, whether the executants are a first-rate choir or otherwise; it may be felt to be true on the contrary that the highest efficiency frequently shows itself most markedly in the rendering of a work that is commonly described as ‘easy’.

Nevertheless, his magnetic personality ensured that he was held in great esteem by those who came under his influence: He never spared himself, was seldom absent from the Service...and always exacted the highest standard of attention and effort from all members of the Choir.

There can have been few choristers of Roberts’ time who did not feel affection for him when they have had any experience of his care, not only for their musical improvement, but also for their intellectual and moral development in all respects, and of his continual interest in any of their pursuits or hobbies.

It was the magnetism of his own personality, his natural gift of compelling every member of a choir which came under his sway, man, women, or boy, and especially the latter, to give out their best and fullest response, and his contagious eagerness that the performance should be at once of the most perfect and energetic kind.And of Varley Roberts himself, the obituary continues: A thorough Yorkshireman, in build, in appearance and dialect, full of the rugged humour of his county, of which he was intensely proud, strong in the confidence of his own ability and powers of judgement, he feared no one, neither don nor dignitary.