David Cooper: Organist and music director at Blackburn and Norwich cathedrals

David Cooper was a dynamic and diverse musician whose influence permeated all aspects of the subject, from the classroom to the choir stall, as organist, teacher, composer, examiner, conductor, lecturer and adjudicator. The breadth of his intellect made him an inspirational guide for many generations of aspiring musicians.

Born in Derby in 1949, Cooper was educated at Derby School before, in 1967, winning an Organ Scholarship to Lincoln College, Oxford, where he read Music. Graduating in 1970, the year he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, he then spent 12 months at York University studying for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. After a short period on the staff of St Peter's School, York, for four years from 1973, he returned to his native county as Director of Music at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Ashbourne.

In 1977, in a change of direction, he was appointed Assistant Organist at Wells Cathedral in Somerset. Here as custodian of the eclectic four-manual Harrison organ, his playing, underpinned by a splendidly natural technique, made an immediate impact. He particularly rejoiced in the performance of 19th- and early 20th- century English organ music. As his recordings and broadcasts of this period so vividly illustrate, his sensitivity to nuance and colour allowed him to take great delight in the occasional grand gesture. While in Vicars' Close, he never missed an opportunity to broaden his artistic palette, regularly working with, among others, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Vienna Boys' Choir.

Six years later, in 1983 he moved north to Lancashire as Organist and Master of the Choristers at Blackburn Cathedral, culturally a total contrast to Wells. The cathedral, situated right at the heart of an ethnically diverse former industrial mill town, has a much more limited catchment area for vocal talent than many similar institutions. Cooper was totally undeterred by the difficulties, and his outlook found a particularly happy expression as he both developed then maintained a consistent, committed and extremely loyal ensemble.

A charismatic choral technician, Cooper was meticulous, exacting and demanding, often impatient with anything less than perfection. Within a short time he had given the cathedral choir a distinct sound, enriched and enhanced the repertoire and expanded all aspects of the cathedral's musical life. Thus, before too long, amid extensive tours throughout Europe and America, the choir were equally happy to exchange choir stall for concert hall, proud ambassadors for their local community.

In addition to his ecclesiastical duties, Cooper also played a pivotal role in the cultural life of the community. He reshaped and refined the former Blackburn Bach Choir into the award-winning Renaissance Singers. He taught at the Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School as well as lecturing at the Royal Northern College of Music. A consummate broadcaster, Cooper found a ready outlet for his talents not only on the Daily Service broadcast on BBC Radio Four but also on the popular television programme Songs of Praise. For many years until the demise of the O-level in 1988, he was a most conscientious and often innovative Chief Examiner in Music at the Joint Matriculation Board.

While Cooper claimed no special merits as a composer, his particular feel for the liturgy allowed him to write well for voices. His motets, chants, responses, anthems and imaginative descants, often written for specific occasions, have retained their place in the repertoire. Among the anthems, two in particular stand out, the beautifully beguiling unaccompanied miniature "Verbum Caro Factum Est", and an imaginative 1984 setting of George Herbert's Easter poem "Come My Way, My Truth, My Life".

In 1994, after 11 very successful years in Lancashire, Cooper was appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers at Norwich Cathedral. Sadly, however, for a variety of reasons his tenure there proved difficult and disappointing, lasting, in all, barely 12 months. Thereafter, as an experienced examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, he now had the freedom to undertake more regular assignments worldwide.

An inveterate traveller, in recent years he had found a special niche in Hong Kong. There he happily contributed both to the university as well as the musical life of St John's Cathedral. Back home in England, he settled in Ripon, North Yorkshire where, though not always in the best of health, he was content amid the conviviality of the local community.

Kenneth Shenton

David Anthony Cooper, organist and composer: born Derby 14 January 1949; Assistant Organist, Wells Cathedral 1977-83; Master of the Music, Blackburn Cathedral 1983-94; Master of the Music, Norwich Cathedral 1994-95; married 1983 Lindsey Thorne (marriage dissolved); died Liverpool 12 June 2008.