George Mursell Garrett was born in 1834 in Winchester, where his father was master of choristers at the Cathedral. He studied with Stephen Elvey at New College, Oxford, returning to Winchester as a pupil and then assistant to Samuel Sebastian Wesley at the Cathedral, before moving to Madras as cathedral organist. In 1857 he became organist at St John's College, Cambridge, succeeding John Larkin Hopkins as University Organist in 1873. His oratorio The Shunamite, performed in Cambridge and at the Hereford Festival in 1882, has long fallen from choral repertoire, but his settings of Church of England services and other church music are still performed. His chant for Psalm 126, is a model of its kind, while the setting for Psalm 93 finds a place for greater implied drama.
