Monk who composed organ and choral works at Buckfast Abbey
DOM SEBASTIAN WOLFF OSB, who has died aged 93, was a Benedictine monk at Buckfast Abbey and a noted organist and composer.
For more than half a century, as he dedicated himself to the work and worship of the Abbey, he proved no less assiduous when serving the wider Devon community as a parish priest. He also somehow found time to supplement the regular cycle of liturgical prayer with an extensive output of original choral and organ compositions.
Born on October 4 1929 in Loughrea in Ireland, east of Galway, Francis Joseph Wolff was the third of nine children of German parents, Karl and Dorothea. Karl, a graduate of the Berlin Conservatoire, had moved to Loughrea in 1927 to become organist of St Brendan’s Cathedral.
Enduring a tough childhood, Francis was initially educated at the National School, then by the De La Salle order. As well as learning the organ, he showed prowess as a bagpiper, helping to lead the local pipe band.
He moved to England in 1948 to join the Benedictine Order at Buckfast Abbey, where he developed his organ technique in the company of Lionel Dakers, at that time Organist of Exeter Cathedral. Elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists in January 1963, soon afterwards Wolff was appointed a music adviser to the Diocese of Plymouth.
Wolff ’s arrival at Buckfast coincided with the completion of the new abbey organ. Initially built in 1922 as a modest twomanual instrument by Hele of Plymouth, 12 years later a new solo organ was added. Improvements under the supervision of Ralph Downes were finally completed in 1952. The result was an English organ that had the fiery sound and tone of a continental instrument.
Wolff revelled in integrating the historical repertoire of organ music into the ecclesiastical calendar. While his technique at keyboard and console perhaps became more fallible with the passage of time, his liturgical contributions grew increasingly remarkable, his accompaniment of the chant, together with his improvisatory powers providing a background tapestry of great subtlety and beauty to the Abbey’s regular cycle of prayer and liturgy.
Wolff ’s close affinity with the liturgy meant he was able to write well for voices. At the core of his output remains the three year cycle of Responsorial Psalms, completed in 1991. Tripartite in structure, each psalm comprises a response, a psalm tone as well as a meditative organ interlude.
Also notable among his choral works is his quiet beguiling six part motet, Ave Maria and, occupying a more expansive canvas, his Missa Brevis, written for the Feast of Our Lady of Buckfast in 1985, and a Requiem, finished in 1991.
Wolff ’s more extensive output for organ displays a highly developed melodic, contrapuntal and structural grasp. In his Fantasia and Fugue in D minor he set a well-crafted piece of sonata-like architecture against the assured contrapuntal writing of the fugue. The Bach influence also infuses his Two Partitas, one dedicated to the recitalist, Jennifer Bate, while Carillon pays homage to the French masters, Mulet and Vierne. A joyful Processional was written for the wedding of his sister.
Old enough never to have been required to pass a driving test, Wolff was something of a terror behind the wheel. Those who accepted an invitation to be a passenger rarely wished to repeat the experience. In 2008, driving along the A38 at Ashburton, he collided with a stationery vehicle and overturned his own car, yet somehow escaped unscathed. He was subsequently found to be struggling with cataracts in both eyes.
A biography appeared in 2018, while a double CD of his complete works for organ, recorded at Buckfast, was released recently.
Dom Sebastian Wolff, born October 4 1929, died December 19 2022