Logier, Frederick (1801–67), organist, teacher, and composer, was born 25 April 1801 in the town of Cavan, the second child of the German pedagogue and inventor Johann Bernhard Logier (qv) and his first wife, Elizabeth Willman (c.1777–1814), the daughter of the English bandmaster John Willman and sister of the celebrated clarinettist Thomas Willman. There were three other children: Elizabeth (Ellen) (b. 1797), Bartholomew (b. 1800), and William Henry (1802–70). After living in Co. Mayo, where Johann Logier was organist in the Church of Ireland church in Westport (1802–7), the family moved to Kilkenny, returning in 1809 to Dublin, where Logier senior was employed as master of the band of the Royal Hibernian Theatre. Frederick received his musical education from his father, becoming a competent organist and pianist.
Following the launch of his father's ‘Logierian’ teaching method in 1815, Frederick was involved in the propagation of the system in the London academies. He then accompanied his father and younger brother William in 1822 to Berlin, assisting in the induction of teachers into the method and in the establishment of academies throughout the Prussian states. At this time he was given a ring by Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia in appreciation of his organ playing at a church service in the royal court.
Logier then moved to South Africa, arriving in Cape Town on 26 February 1826. His business partner in the city was Edward Knolles Green (1793–1828), an English musician and organist who had settled in Cape Town in 1814. Together Green and Logier drew up a prospectus in both English and Dutch for the new Logierian Academy, which opened on 3 March 1826 in Green's music shop at 45 Bree Street. Piano tuition at the school was based upon principles similar to those in other Logierian academies: group teaching, the use of graded manuals, deployment of the chiroplast (an instrument invented by his father), and public exhibitions to demonstrate the pupils’ progress. For the first three years the academy was successful, attracting widespread press interest and a large number of pupils. The curriculum was expanded to include violin, cello, harp, and class singing based on the Logierian principles of group teaching by rote, an expansion which had not occurred in the academies in Europe and America. A public examination of pupils, which was one of the cornerstones of the Logierian method, was held in the stock exchange building in October 1826. Such was the interest in the event that it was oversubscribed, with many people being unable to gain admittance.
After Green's death in April 1828 Logier had difficulty in combining overall management of the school with his teaching commitments. Public interest in the project had also declined, with the last public examination of pupils being held in 1833; the Logierian Academy closed shortly thereafter. Logier was eventually declared bankrupt in 1843 and was forced to sell his home in Roos Street.
The last twenty-four years of Logier's life were spent in a variety of musical roles which he combined to bring in a basic income. He resumed piano teaching in a more modest capacity, advertising instruction in dance music, hymns, and psalms. For a period he was employed as a music teacher on the staff of Dr A. N. E. Changuinon's educational institution in Cape Town. Logier also sold sheet music, pianos, guitars, and strings and composed ‘parlour’ music – waltzes, popular songs, and quadrilles; he is particularly remembered for the hymn Jesus, de ware zondaars vriend ... met nieuwe zangwijze, which was published in 1840 and was the first music printed in South Africa.
In 1839 Logier resumed his previous career as a church organist: between that year and 1849 he played successively at the evangelical Lutheran church and St George's church in Cape Town, and in 1856 he became organist at the Groote Kerke, a post he held until his death. He gained a reputation as a gifted and versatile organist and was frequently asked to advise on organ installations and to play at other churches in the Cape. He also provided piano accompaniment at concerts when foreign musicians visited Cape Town. Logier was host to English visitors to the Cape, and in 1863 he assisted the English naturalist and painter Thomas Baines in the installation of an exhibition in Cape Town. In recognition of the help given and of the friendship which developed between the two men, Baines named a river in his friend's honour.
In 1829 Logier married Anna Elizabeth Berning (1784–1868), the daughter of Frederik Simon Berning and Anna Elizabeth Jurgens, and the sister of Edward Green's widow. The couple lived initially in Castle Street, Cape Town. There were no children of the marriage. Logier died intestate at his home at 1 Dixon Street on 12 October 1867, having contracted typhus in an epidemic which swept throughout the Cape. His assets were insufficient to cover the cost of his funeral; he was buried in Maitland Road cemetery no. 1, Cape Town. After his death lengthy tributes to Logier as organist, teacher, and composer appeared in the Cape Town newspapers the Cape Argus and Het Volksblad.