Educated at Oxford, Stainer served as organist at Magdalen College after graduation. He organized the Oxford Philharmonic Society and in 1872 became the organist for St Paul's Cathedral. There he was responsible for hastening reforms that improved the conditions for musicians. He soon moved on to become church musician, scholar and composer. Failing eyesight caused him to resign as St Paul's organist and he returned to Oxford in 1889 to serve as a music professor. The bulk of Stainer's compositions are cathedral works, and although they were considered fashionable and his choice of texts reflected a sophisticated feeling for literature, the works are not memorable. He himself regretted ever publishing his compositions, saying that he knew they were 'rubbish'. He is remembered more as a trailblazer in the area of English Musicology and was the first English scholar to research music before Palestrina. Along with his daughter Eliza and his son John, Stainer was a contributor to early editions of =Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians=.