Edward George Dannreuther, born in Strasbourg, 4 Nov 1844; family moved to Cincinnati, where his father established a piano factory, 1846; took lessons from Frederick L Ritter and entered the Leipzig Conservatory, 1860; made first complete performance in England of Chopin's F minor Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto to critical acclaim, 1863; toured USA with Carl Rosa and Euphrosyne Parepa and wrote an account of his travels for Charles Dickens' journal All the Year Round, 1865; with Karl Klindworth, Frits Hartvigson, Walter Bache and Alfred Hipkins, formed the Working Men's Society, 1865; founded the London Wagner Society, 1872; conducted two of its series of concerts, 1873-1874; became a close friend of Richard Wagner and did much to promote the London Wagner Festival, 1877; produced numerous writings and lectures on Wagner, 1870s-1880s; became President of the London Wagner Society, 1895; wrote numerous articles on German music, particularly that of Wagner; gave a series of semi-private chamber concerts held at his home at Orme Square, London, which introduced works by Brahms, Scharwenka, Sgambati, Tchaikovsky, Rheinberger, Stanford, Parry and Richard Strauss to English audiences for the first time, 1876-1893; taught Hubert Parry, J A Fuller Maitland, Frederick Dawson, William Hurlstone and James Friskin. took over from Ernst Pauer as a piano professor at the Royal College of Music, 1895; died in London, 12 Feb 1905.
George Grove became a member of the Council and Executive Committee of the proposed Royal College of Music (RCM) in July 1881, and became its first Director in 1882, rather through his abilities in organizing the many fund raising and administrative meetings required prior to the College's opening than by an official appointment. Through Grove, the Director's role gained wide-ranging powers of policy and administration subject to the College's Council. Grove retired in 1894. He was succeeded by Sir Hubert Parry (1895-1918), Sir Hugh Allen (1919-1937), Sir George Dyson (1938-1952), Sir Ernest Bullock (1953-1959), Sir Keith Falkner (1960-1974), Sir David Willcocks (1974-1984), Michael Gough Mathews (1985-1983) and Dr Janet Ritterman (1993-).
The Board of Professors was established from the outset of the College in 1883, in continuance of a similar system previously operating in the National Training School for Music, to assist in general educational matters and policy within the College. The first Board consisted of 10 professors, supported by a larger panel of 30 other teachers. In 1975 the Council decided that three additional members of staff appointed by the Board of Professors were to be eligible to be members of the Council.
Thomas Frederick Dunhill, born, London, 1 Feb 1877; entered the Royal College of Music, 1893; studied composition with Charles Stanford and piano with Franklin Taylor; first RCM student to win the Tagore Gold Medal, 1899; assistant music master at Eton College, 1899-1908; taught harmony and counterpoint at the RCM from 1905; founded a series of chamber concerts devoted to the works of British composers, 1907; first recipient of the Cobbett Chamber Music Medal, 1924; wrote much educational music and was an adjudicator and examiner; published texts on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1927), Sir Arthur Sullivan (1928) and Sir Edward Elgar (1938); editor of the RCM Magazine; awarded an honorary DMus by Durham University, 1940; elected FRCM, 1942; Director of the Royal Philharmonic Society and Dean of the Faculty of Music at the University of London; died Scunthorpe, 13 March 1946. Publications: Chamber Music (London, 1913); Mozart's String Quartets (London, 1927 and 1970); Sullivan's Comic Operas (London, 1928 and 1981); Sir Edward Elgar (London, 1938).
Sébastian Érard (1752-1831) enjoyed a successful career as a piano manufacturer in Paris between 1768-1790, enjoying royal and aristocratic patronage, and pioneering important improvements in the design and manufacture of keyboard instruments. A known royalist, he left Paris in around 1790-1791 for London, and in 1792 founded a business at 18 Great Malborough Street, concentrating on the manufacture of harps, which previously had almost always been imported from France. He patented his single action harp in 1794, the double action in 1810, and his nephew Pierre Orphée Érard (1794-1855) patented the larger 'Gothic' harp in 1835. The London business enjoyed great success, reflecting the rising popularity of the harp among both professional and amateur musicians in the early 19th century. The Érard ledgers show that a large proportion of the 6862 harps listed were purchased by royalty and the aristocracy in Great Britain and abroad, and they provide documentation of the musical activities of the families of George IV, the Duke of Wellington, Louis Philippe, Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austern and Sir Joseph Paxton, beside many other references that illuminate more obscure figures. They reveal details of stringing, materials, repairs, costs and models, the preferences of professional harpists such as Anne-Marie Krumpholtz, Sophia Dussek, the Vicomte de Marin, and Francois Joseph Dizi, and also show details of packing, agents, and transport of harps exported, including harps despatched to the continent, Russia and America. The London business proved so successful that it was able to reimburse all debts incurred by the Érard's Parisian business which had been declared bankrupt in 1813. Sébastian returned to Paris to resume piano manufacture and invention and the London concern was controlled by Pierre from May 1814. On the death of Pierre in 1855, the business passed into the hands of his widow Camille (1813-1889), and a M Bruzaud was nominated as controller of the London business. In the face of declining business, the London factory was sold at auction on 9 Sep 1890, though a few harps continued to be made at the rear of the Great Malborough Street premises until the late 1930s.
Financial administration at the Royal College of Music (RCM) was the responsibility of the Finance Office, under the management of the Bursar.
Herbert Norman Howells, born Lydney, Gloucestershire, 17 Oct 1892; educated Lydney Grammar School and Gloucester Cathedral, where he was a pupil of Sir Herbert Brewer, Gloucester Cathedral; won Open Scholarship in Composition, Royal College of Music, 1912; studied there under Sir Charles Stanford, Sir Walter Parratt, Sir Hubert Parry, Charles Wood, and Sir Walford Davies, 1912-1917; succeeded to the Grove Scholarship, 1915, and became Bruce Scholar, 1916; his first work performed in London was the Mass produced by Sir Richard Terry at Westminster Cathedral, 1912; sub-organist, Salisbury Cathedral, until illness forced retirement, 1917; convalesced and acted as assistant to Sir Richard Terry in editing manuscripts of Tudor church music, and composed much of his own music, 1917-1920; appointed lecturer (later Professor of Composition), Royal College of Music; the death of his son Michael in 1935, acted as an influence on many of his later compositions; Director of Music, St Paul's Girls' School, Brook Green, 1936-1962; organist of St John's College, Cambridge, 1941-1945; appointed King Edward Professor of Music, University of London, 1950 (Emeritus 1962); President of the Royal College of Organists (1958-1959), Incorporated Society of Musicians (1952) and Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society. Hon MusD Cambridge, 1961; Hon DMus RCM 1982; Hon. FRSCM, 1963; Hon Fellow: St John's College, Cambridge, 1962; Queen's College, Oxford, 1977; Master, Worshipful Company of Musicians, 1959 (first John Collard Fellow; elected to John Collard Life Fellowship, 1959); died London, 23 Feb 1983. Selected compositions: Sir Patrick Spens; Sine Nomine Procession; Puck's Minuet; Piano Concerto; Elegy for Strings; Concerto for Strings; Lady Audrey's Suite; Phantasy Quartet; Piano Quartet; Rhapsodic Quintet; First and Third Sonatas for violin and pianoforte; Lambert's Clavichord; In Green Ways, five songs for Soprano and Orchestra; Peacock Pie song-cycle; Sonata for Organ; Hymnus Paradisi; Missa Sabrinensis; Pageantry; A Kent Yeoman's Wooing Song; Four Organ Rhapsodies; Six Psalm Preludes; Music for a Prince (for HRH Prince Charles); Introit (composed for Coronation Service, 1953); Inheritance (commissioned by The Arts Council of Great Britain for A Garland for the Queen, 1953); An English Mass, 1955; Howell's Clavichord (20 pieces); Missa Aedis Christi; Missa, Collegium Regale; Three Figures; Sequence for St Michael; Coventry Antiphon; Stabat Mater; The Coventry Mass.
Sir Henry Walford Davies, born, Oswestry, Shropshire, 6 Sep 1869; trained in choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor, and was was pupil assistant to Walter Parratt; entered Royal College of Music under a composition scholarship, 1890; studied with Charles Parry and Charles Stanford; became teacher of counterpoint, RCM, 1895-1918; organist at St George's Kensington, St Anne's, Soho, and Christ Church, Hampstead; organist and choirmaster at the Temple Church, 1898-1919; conductor of the Bach Choir, 1903-1907; appointed director of music to the Royal Air Force, 1918; professor of music, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1919-1926; chairman of the Welsh National Council of Music; knighted, 1922; appointed Gresham Professor of Music in the University of London, 1926; made his first radio broadcast to schools, 1924; his popular radio series 'Music and the Ordinary Listener' commenced, 1926; records for His Master's Voice Melody Lectures (HMV C 1063 to 1701) and Twelve Talks on Melody (HMV C 1759 to 1767); organist, St George's Chapel, Windsor, 1927-1932; music advisor at the BBC, 1927-1939; appointed Master of the King's Musick, 1934; died, Wrington, Somerset, 11 Mar 1941. Publications and music (a selection): Rhythm in Church (London, 1913); The Pursuit of Music (London, 1935); Symphony in D, 1894; Overture in D minor, 1897; Welshmen in London, 1897; folksong cantata Three Jovial Huntsmen, 1902; oratorio Everyman, 1904; Symphony, in G, 1911; cantata Song of St Francis, 1912; anthem, `Let us Now Praise Famous Men'; Solemn Melody; RAF March Past.
The Junior Department of the RCM was begun in 1897 with 16 pupils, following an aborted scheme of 1895 which had proposed to divide the College into 'Upper' and 'Lower' divisions, though admittedly based on musical experience and ability rather than age. In 1926 a new Junior Department was established on the advice of Angela Bull (the Director's Appointment's Secretary and subsequently General Supervisor of the Junior Department) and Percy Buck, then a Professor at the RCM, which consisted of 36 Junior Exhibitioners from London County Council schools who were taught at the RCM by 36 members of the Teachers' Training Class. By 1966 the Junior Department had grown to 345 pupils of whom 226 were exhibitioners, and a teaching staff of over 100.
The Kirkmans were an English family of harpsichord and piano makers of Alsatian origin. Jacob Kirkman (b Bischweiler, 4 Mar 1710; d Greenwich, buried 9 Jun 1792) came to England in the early 1730s, and worked for Herman Tabel, whose widow he married in 1738. He took British citizenship on 25 Apr 1755, and in 1772 went into partnership with his nephew, Abraham Kirkman (b Bischweiler, 1737; d Hammersmith, buried 16 Apr 1794). Abraham Kirkman in turn took into partnership his son, Joseph Kirkman (i) (dates of birth and death unknown), whose son, Joseph Kirkman (ii) (c1790-1877), worked with his father on their last harpsichord in 1809. The firm continued as piano makers until absorbed by Collard in 1896.
Christian Burkard, one of the signatories of both documents (1) and (2) was a harpsichord builder living in Swallow Street, London and a cousin of Jacob Kirkman.
The action documented in (3) in 1771 by Jacob Kirkman against Robert Falkener was for Falkener's alleged attempts to sell harpsichords made by another maker as Kirkman instruments. Kirkman claimed £500 damages, though the outcome of the suit is not known.
Charles Thornton Lofthouse, born York, 12 Oct 1895; chorister, St Paul's Cathedral, 1904-1910; attended Royal Manchester College of Music; after World War One, studied the organ with Walter Parratt and conducting with Adrian Boult at the Royal College of Music; studied the piano with Alfred Cortot in Paris and the harpsichord with Aimee van der Wiele and Gustav Leonhardt; B Mus, 1930; D Mus, Trinity College, Dublin, 1935; accompanist to the London Bach Choir, 1921-1939; developed art of continuo playing, for which he was the first person to use a harpsichord in the Royal Albert Hall; professor at the RCM, 1922-1971; Director of Music at Westminster School, 1924-1939, and Reading University, 1939-1950; appointed examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, 1923, and acted as external examiner in music for several university institutes of education; created and conducted the University of London Music Society, 1934-1959; performed as a continuo, chamber or solo harpsichordist throughout Europe and in the USA; died London, 28 Feb 1974. Publications: Commentaries and Notes on Bach's Two- and Three-Part Inventions (London, 1956).
Ivor L Foster was a Welsh baritone, active in the period 1905-1925, who studied at the Royal College of Music.
Samuel Ernest Palmer, 1st Baron Palmer of Reading (1858-1948) was a Vice-President and Member of the Council of the Royal College of Music; and elected its first Fellow in 1921. He was raised to the peerage in 1933 for his services to music. In 1903 he endowed the Royal College of Music Patron's Fund with £20,000 for `the encouragement of native composers by the performance of their works'The first use of the funds was to give public concerts of new chamber and orchestral works. A selection committee chose some eight works from a range of 42, for the first performance at St James' Hall on 20 May 1904. Works by Gustav Holst and Arnold Bax featured in the first two concerts. In 1925, he supplemented his Patron's Fund with a Fund for Opera Study, as well as contributions to the fabric of the building. The Fund also gave assistance to young musicians studying abroad and for the publication of compositions. Following World War One, the evening concerts were replaced by daytime concerts in the RCM hall (effectively open rehearsals), the first being performed on 13 Nov 1919. By 1928 there had been 75 such performances, receiving good public attendance and press coverage.
The composer Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was appointed Vice Kapellmeister to the Esterházy court at Eisenstadt, Austria, in 1761, and became Ober-Kapellmeister in 1766. Anton Richter (1802-1854) was an organist and choirmaster at Eisenstadt and father of Hans Richter (1843-1916) the Austro-Hungarian conductor. Anton Prinster and his brother Michael were horn players in Haydn's orchestra at the Esterházy court. Their niece, Fanny Elssler, was the daughter of Johann Florian Elssler (1769-1843), music copyist to Haydn.
Giovanni Battista Viotti, born Fontanetto da Po, 12 May 1755; taken to Turin under the protection of Prince Alfonso dal Pozzo della Cisterna, in whose home he lived and was educated, 1766; studied first with Antonio Celoniat, and with Gaetano Pugnani from 1770; entered the orchestra of the royal chapel at Turin, Dec 1775; occupied the last desk of the first violins in the orchestra, 1775-1780; set out with Pugnani on a concert tour to Switzerland, Dresden and Berlin, 1780; his first publication, the concerto in A (now known as no.3), published in Berlin, 1781; gave concerts in Warsaw and St Petersburg; returned to Berlin, 1781; made his début at the Concert Spirituel, Paris, 17 Mar 1782; instant success established him at once in the front rank of violinists, continued to play to critical praise, 1782-1783; retired from public concerts, 8 Sep 1783; entered the service of Marie Antoinette at Versailles, Jan 1784; also appointed leader of Prince Rohan-Guéménée's orchestra, and may have held a similar position for the Prince of Soubise; established a new opera house called the Théâtre de Monsieur (after July 1791, Théâtre Feydeau), 1788; produced a number of important works, both Italian and French, including the operas of his friend and associate Luigi Cherubini; fled revolution in France to London, Jul 1792; probably half of his published works, including 19 violin concertos, had appeared, 1782-1792; made a successful début at Johann Peter Salomon's Hanover Square Concert, 7 Feb 1793; featured violinist for Salomon's series, 1793-1794; appointed musical director of the new Opera Concerts, 1795; played at Joseph Haydn's benefit concerts, 1794 and 1795; frequent performer in the homes of the wealthy, including the Prince of Wales; acting manager of Italian opera at the King's Theatre, 1794-1795; succeeded William Cramer as leader and director of the orchestra at the King's Theatre, 1797; ordered to leave by the British government on suspicion of Jacobin activity; lived with English friends in Schenfeldt, near Hamburg, where he published a set of duos op.5, 1798-1799; left Germany, Jul 1799; returned to London, c1801; retired from music to concentrate on his wine business, but continued to play for friends and publish music in London and Paris; Director of the Paris Opéra, Feb 1819-Nov 1821; returned to London, 1823; died in the London home of his closest friends, Mr and Mrs William Chinnery, 3 Mar 1824. He produced over 30 violin concertos, 21 trios, 18 string quartets,42 duos, 24 violin solos, 8 piano works and 12 vocal works, and is considered the founder of the 'modern' (19th-century) French school of violin playing.
In 1813 the health of Beethoven's brother Kaspar Anton Karl began to seriously deteriorate through tuberculosis and on 12 April 1813 he signed a declaration appointing Ludwig guardian of his son Karl, then aged six, in the event of his death. Kaspar died on 15 Nov 1815. In his will dated the previous day, Kaspar had assigned guardianship of his son Karl both to his wife Johanna and to Ludwig, in order to encourage Johanna and Ludwig to forego their previous antipathy. The arrangement was not a success, as Ludwig was convinced of Johanna's moral unsuitability to act as guardian, and wished to take charge of all responsibilities for Karl's uprising as a surrogate father. On 9 Jan 1816 Beethoven was appointed by the Imperial and Royal Landrechte of Lower Austria sole guardian of Karl, overturning their decision of the previous November to appoint Johanna and Ludwig as joint guardians and Beethoven 'co-guardian'. Beethoven took Karl away from his mother and placed him in the boarding school in Vienna run by Kajetan Giannatasio del Rio in 1816 where he stayed until the end of January 1818. During this period the court permitted Ludwig to allow Johanna to visit Karl only at certain times sanctioned by Ludwig. Giannatasio del Rio had two daughters, Fanny and Anna (Nanni), who both became close friends of Beethoven. Beethoven composed a piece (MS 4222) for Nanni's marriage in 1819.
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, born Dublin, 30 Sep 1852; educated, Henry Tilney Bassett's school, Dublin; entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as choral scholar, 1870; elected assistant conductor to Cambridge University Musical Society (CUMS), 1871; appointed organist of Trinity College, 1873; third class in classical tripos, 1874; studied in Germany with Carl Reinecke, Robert Papperitz and Friedrich Kiel, 1874-1876; received acclaim for a number of his compositions, including his First Symphony (second prize, Alexandra Palace competition, 1876) and incidental music for Tennyson's play Queen Mary (1876); resumed as conductor of CUMS, 1877; used CUMS to bring major artists to Cambridge, performed as pianist in chamber concerts there and conducted first English performances of works by Brahms; as organist of Trinity (resigned 1892), composed some of his most well known sacred music including his Morning, Communion and Evening Services in B flat (1879) and was responsible for bringing major performers to Trinity for organ recitals; appointed Professor of Composition and conductor of the orchestra, Royal College of Music, 1883; appointed Professor of Music, Cambridge University, 1887; oversaw centenary celebrations for CUMS, 1893; conductor of the Bach Choir, (1886-1902), Leeds Philharmonic Society (1897-1909) and Leeds Triennial Festival (1901-1910); knighted, 1902; died, London, 29 Mar 1924. Selected publications: Studies and Memories (London, 1908); Musical Composition: a Short Treatise for Students (London, 1911); Brahms and his Music (London, 1912); Pages from an Unwritten Diary (London, 1914); Interludes, Records and Reflections (London,1922).
Jenny Lind was born in Stockholm, 6 Oct 1820. The Swedish soprano (nicknamed 'the Swedish nightingale') enrolled at the Royal Opera School, Stockholm in 1830. She made her debut in 1838 as Agathe in Der Freischutz. After numerous performances in Sweden, she made her German debut in Berlin in 1844, and her Viennese debut in April 1846. After further touring in Germany and Austria, she made London debut at Her Majesty's in May 1847, as Alice in Robert le diable, followed by success appearances in La sonnambula, La fille du regiment and I masnadieri. She sang in Sweden during the winter, and made her last Stockholm appearance in April 1848. She then sang for a second season at Her Majesty's followed by an extensive tour of Great Britain. She continued to sing in concerts and oratorios, both in Germany and in England, where she lived from 1858 until her death. In 1883, the year of her last public performance, she became Professor of Singing at the Royal College of Music. She died at Wynds Point, Herefordshire on 2 Nov 1887.
Charles Herbert Kitson, born, Leyburn, Yorkshire, 13 Nov 1874; took his arts degrees at Cambridge where he was organ scholar of Selwyn College, and his music degrees at Oxford as an external student; first major post was organist of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, 1913-1920; while there, was appointed Professor of Music, University College, Dublin, 1915; returned to England and joined the staff of the Royal College of Music, 1920; appointed Professor of Music, Trinity College, Dublin (then a non-resident post), 1920; retired, 1935; died London, 13 May 1944. Selected publications: The Art of Counterpoint, and its Application as a Decorative Principle (Oxford, 1907, 2nd edition, 1924); The Evolution of Harmony (Oxford, 1914, 2nd edition, 1924); Elementary Harmony (Oxford, 1920-1926, 2nd edition 1941).
H F Thornton was a horn student at the Royal College of Music. He subsequently played in the orchestra of the Royal Opera Company and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Wanda Landowska (1879-1959) was a Polish keyboard player and composer. She was a champion of 17th and 18th century music and the leading figure in the 20th century revival of the harpsichord. She first played the harpsichord in public in 1903 and subsequently made concert tours in Europe. In 1909 she published her book Musique ancienne, and in 1913 she began a harpsichord class at the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin. After World War One, she returned to Paris, where she lectured at the Sorbonne and gave classes at the Ecole Normale. In 1925 she settled at Saint-Leu-la-Foret (north of Paris) where she founded an Ecole de Musique Ancienne which attracted students from all over the world to private and public courses; the summer concerts held in its concert hall (built 1927) were to become celebrated. There, in 1933, she gave the first integral performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations. Liz Karger (née Rosenberg) was a student of Landowska in 1929-1930 who made notes of Landowska's lessons.
William Henry Havergal, born 1793; educated Merchant Taylors' School, London, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford (BA, 1815; MA, 1819); ordained, 1816; curate at Bristol, Coaley (Gloucs.), 1820, and Astley (Worcs), 1822; appointed rector of Astley, 1829; rector of St Nicholas, Worcester, 1845; retired to the vicarage of Shareshill (Staffs.), 1860; commenced publishing cathedral music in the 1830s; in 1844 he began to produce a series of publications aimed towards the improvement of psalmody; wrote hymns, sacred songs and carols for the periodical Our Own Fireside and selected, harmonized and arranged vocal music; published two volumes of Sermons (London, 1853) and A History of the Old Hundredth Psalm Tune (New York, 1854) as well as other sermons and religious essays; died 1870.
John Law Dennison, born 1911; educated, Brighton College; entered Royal College of Music, 1932; played the horn in various major orchestras in London and Birmingham, 1933-1939; served in the army, World War Two; appointed Assistant Director of the British Council's music department, and Music Director of the Arts Council, 1948; made CBE, 1960; appointed General Manager of the Royal Festival Hall, 1965; Director of South Bank Concert Halls, 1971-1976.
William Sterndale Bennett founded the Bach Society in 1849, as part of the growing interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach in England in the nineteenth century known as the 'Bach revival'. Bennett had had a brilliant early career as a pianist and composer, which included a friendship with Felix Mendelssohn begun in 1836, himself a renowned promoter and perfomer of Bach's music. The first meeting of the Society, on 27 October 1849, at Bennett's house in Russell Place, formulated the objects of the society, which included the collection and promotion, but not publication, of the works of Bach (though the society did publish a volume of the motets, with English text added, in 1851). A number of concerts were given, and at last the St Matthew Passion had its first English performance (with English words) at the Hanover Square Rooms on 6 April 1854, Bennett conducting. Several other important works were revived before the society disbanded in 1870. Charles Steggall (1826-1905), the organist and composer, was a pupil of William Sterndale Bennett at the Royal Academy of Music, 1847-1851, and was also Secretary of the Bach Society throughout its existence. He edited an edition of Bach's motets for the Society (1851).
Dora Mary Powell, née Penny, born 8 Feb 1874, daughter of Rev Alfred Penny and Dora Mary Heale. Following the death of her mother, she lived at Highfield with her grandmother while her father served in missionary work in the Melanesian and Solomon Islands. She rejoined her father at Wolverhampton, where he had been appointed Rector in 1895. Soon after he married Mary Frances Baker, who was a childhood friend of Caroline Alice Roberts, whom Edward Elgar married in 1889. As well as being stepmother of Dora, she was the sister of William Meath Baker, sister-in-law to Richard Baxter Townshend, and a close friend of Isabell Fitton, all of whom feature in Elgar's 'Enigma Variations'. In this way Dora Penny became acquainted with the Elgars and was to be characterised as 'Dorabella' (Variation X) of the Variations. She also became a close friend of A J Jaeger ('Nimrod' of the Variations). She took singing lessons, sang in the Wolverhampton Choral Society, and kept diaries during her years at Wolverhampton which record in passing this circle of friends. She lost regular contact with the Elgars after their move to Hampstead in 1912, paying a penultimate visit in 1913. She made her final visit to the Elgars shortly after her marriage to Richard Crofts Powell in Jan 1914. The couple moved to East Grinstead, Sussex. Richard Powell died in 1962 and Dora Powell died in 1964.
Anthony Francis Dominic Milner, born Bristol, 13 May 1925; educated at Douai School, Woolhampton, and at the Royal College of Music, where he studied piano with Herbert Fryer and composition with R O Morris, and studied privately with Matyas Seiber; joined teaching staff of Morley College, 1947; appointed London University extension lecturer, 1954; appointed Lecturer in Music at King's College London, 1965; appointed Senior Lecturer in Music at Goldsmith's College, London, 1971; taught as a professor of composition at the RCM; has often visited America as lecturer or as visiting composer at summer schools or music workshops. His work has concentrated on choral music, mostly to religious texts. For further information see Grove Dictionary of Music.
Born Plymouth, 12 Dec 1913; produced and conducted an opera in Plymouth at age 17; won open scholarship to Royal College of Music, 1932; studied there under Ralph Vaughan Williams, R.O. Morris, Gordon Jacob and Arthur Benjamin, one of his fellow students being Peggy Glanville-Hicks, whom he was later to marry; won various prizes and studied under Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Paul Hindemith in Berlin; returned to England and commissioned to write his Piano Concertino, first performed at the Eastbourne Festival, 1937; became associated with the London stage and composed incidental music for a number of plays; two of his ballets Perseus and Cap over mill were produced in London, 1938; visited Australia as a lecturer and a solo performer of his own piano works; toured USA and Brazil in the 1940s where his music was well received, including the premier of his Second Piano concerto under Sir Thomas Beecham with the New York Philharmonic and his Second Sinfonietta at the festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music in California, 1943; received further commissions for ballet and film music; returned to London in 1949; visited Brussels and Amsterdam as a soloist, later performances included the premier of his Concerto Grosso in Paris and the premier of his Third Symphony at the Cheltenham Festival, 1954; became depressed at the lack of recognition his music received in the UK, and committed suicide, London, 19 Oct 1959.
Born Cambridge, Massachussetts, 8 Nov 1906, the eldest son of (Eugène) Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940) a pioneer in the revival of the performance of early music and the building of renaissance and baroque instruments. The family moved to France and then settled in Haslemere, Surrey, in 1914. He was an early and talented player of the harpsichord and viol, and assisted his father in arranging music for the annual festivals of early music in Haslemere. He also formed an orchestra while a teenager of local residents. In 1929 he married Millicent Wheaton, a local school teacher, and also his viola da gamba pupil. The couple gave numerous recitals and recordings of early music during the 1930s. He was the first of the family to show an interest in modern music, both as composer and conductor and broke the family tradition of early music by studying conducting at the Royal College of Music under Constant Lambert and Sir Adrian Boult. He joined the Royal Artillery as a gunner in 1940, and his career was cut short tragically when he was lost at sea on board the liner Ceramic, torpedoed on 7 Dec 1942. His works include the Symphony in D minor (1932); Sinfonietta (1933); Ground and Caprice for orchestra (1934); Concerto for Clarinet, Harp and Orchestra (1939); Concertino for Viola da Gamba and Small Orchestra (1941); Violin Concerto (1942).
Hill was born c1850, and educated at Winchester and Magdalene College, Oxford. He was the incumbent of the parish of East Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, for many years. After his retirement in the 1920s, he lived at Northchurch, Berkamsted, Herfordshire, where he financed and organized the re-hanging of the church bells, and trained a team of handbell ringers.
John Whitridge Wilson was born 21 Jan 1905; educated at Manchester Grammar School and Dulwich College; read Natural Science at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; joined staff of Repton School; left to study piano and organ at Royal College of Music; appointed Assistant Director of Music, Tonbridge School, 1929; appointed Assistant Director of Music, Charterhouse, 1932, and Director, 1947-1965; taught keyboard and score reading, RCM, 1962-1980; resumed Sixth Form teaching, Charterhouse, 1980; died 16 Jul 1992. Hymns for Church and School was published by Novello & Co in 1964. It was the retitled fourth edition of the Public School Hymn Book (PSHB), first published by Novello in 1903. Each edition was edited by a committee of the Headmasters' Conference, established in 1869, and including heads of all the major public schools and others eligible for representation. The 1903 publication comprised some 349 hymns and included hymns by contemporary schoolmaster-composers. A Companion to the Public School Hymn Book by Dr W M Furneaux, Dean of Winchester, was published in 1904, giving biographical details of the authors and indicating the sources of the hymns. A second edition of PSHB appeared in 1919. The volume had increased to 426 hymns and many of those which had appeared in 1903 were excised. Work on a third edition started in 1937 but was interrupted by the war, and it was not published until 1949. Craig Sellar Lang and Ralph Vaughan Williams had collaborated on editing this edition, and which had a supplementary revision in 1958. Some 100 hymns of the 1919 edition were rejected, and 250 new hymns added in their place, to give some 554 hymns and 484 tunes grouped according to seasons and purposes. In 1960, following publication of an article by John Wilson on the 1949 edition in The Hymn Society Bulletin, it was decided to appoint Wilson as Organising Secretary of a Committee of the Headmasters' Conference responsible for publishing a new edition. This contained 346 hymns (with 20 new additions) and 389 tunes, including 23 newly written by among others Sir William Harris, Herbert Howells and John Gardner. The Methodist Hymns and Songs was edited by Wilson and published by the Methodist Publishing House in 1969, as a popular supplement to the 1933 Methodist Hymn Book.
Joan Stocker was a pupil of William Henry Reed (1876-1942), the English violinist and composer, who was the leader of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1912-1935, and also taught violin at the Royal College of Music for many years.
Carl Engel was born in Hanover in 1818 and after being taught the piano and organ there moved to Manchester in 1846, and then to London in 1850. He began to establish an exceptional library and instrument collection. He became organological adviser to the Victoria and Albert Museum and produced a formidable Descriptive Catalogue. Many of his other publications were devoted to European folk music. He died in London in 1882. His publications include The Music of the Most Ancient Nations, particularly of the Assyrians, Egyptians and Hebrews (London, 1864); An Introduction to the Study of National Music (London, 1866); A Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1870, revised 1874); Musical Myths and Facts (London, 1876); 'The Literature of National Music', articles in Musical Times, 1878-1879; 'Music of the Gypsies', Musical Times, 1880; 'Aeolian Music', Musical Times 1882.
Mary Cowden Clarke (1809-1898) was the daughter of Victor Novello (1781-1861), the choirmaster, composer, musician and publisher. She married the author Charles Cowden Clarke (1787-1877) in 1828. She became renowned as a Shakespearean scholar, particularly for her Complete Concordance to Shakespeare (1844-1845). Charles Cowden Clarke published editions of the works of Chaucer, Burns and other poets, and was renowned for the series of lectures on Shakespeare and other dramatists and poets that he gave between 1834 and 1856, many of which were he delivered to audiences at the London Institution.
Sir George Grove, Director of the Royal College of Music, entered into a special relationship with Edith Oldham (1865-1950), a music student from Dublin, who first came to the college in 1883 and which lasted until the end of his life. In this sequence of long and emotional letters, he admitted to her his innermost thoughts and feelings, and to much of the workings of the RCM and the musical establishment. Edith Oldham later returned to Ireland (her married surname was Best), where she continued to work on behalf of musical education.
Born India, 1865. She studied in London with the younger Manuel Garcia and made her debut in 1888 as Micaela at Covent Garden, where she sang regularly until 1897. Her roles included Donna Elvira, Ines (L'Africaine), Mathilde (Guillaume Tell), Aida, Marguerite (Faust), Marguerite de Valois (Les Huguenots), Elsa, Senta, Elisabeth (Tannhauser), Desdemona, Leonora (Il trovatore) and Santuzza. She created Rebecca in Sullivan's Ivanhoe at the Royal English Opera House (1891). She appeared at the Leeds Festival in 1889, 1892 and 1895 and the Birmingham Festival in 1891, and took her role as Elisabeth in Tannhauser to Moscow and Petersburg. She sang Sieglinde at La Scala in the first Milan performance of Die Walkure (1892), and made her only Metropolitan appearance as Margherita (Mefistofele) in 1901. She died in London, Apr 1943.
Born Lowmoor, near Bradford, 2 May 1857; was an accomplished child pianist and organist; studied at the National Training School for Music, joined the piano teaching staff of the Royal College of Music, 1883; also taught at the Royal Academy of Music and travelled extensively as a solo pianist, accompanist and examiner; organist to the 1886 Leeds Festival; organist to the Bach Choir, 1888-1894; compositions included two symphonies and a violin concerto; ceased composing after c1905; retired from RCM,1929; died London, 19 Nov 1931.
Born Aberdeen in 1874; trained in Chicago and Paris; a leading operatic soprano in the 1900s, renowned for her operatic performances in France, particularly at the Opera-Comique. For further details see Grove Dictionary of Music.
Lucy Jane Gibbons, of Gosport, Hants, was born on 14 Aug 1887 and was a student at the Royal College of Music, 1908-1909, studying the organ and piano.
Born 1 Nov 1970; a pupil of Charles Wood at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; student at Royal College of Music, 1925-1927; music master at Stowe School; assisted Mrs Wood and S P Waddington, Wood's literary executor, in a posthumous publication of much of Wood's work; after marriage moved to Texas, where he combined a full professional career as a lecturer, conductor, festival adjudicator, critic and composer together with ranching; died Corpus Christi, Texas, 4 Jul 1970.
Graham Carritt was educated at Rugby and Oxford. He studied piano at the Royal College of Music, and also edited the RCM Magazine. He lectured for many years in music for adult education at the City Literary Institution and for extension classes at the University of London. He also gave lecture-recitals on all periods of music to societies, clubs and schools, specialising in British music of the twentieth century. To this end in 1935 he toured Scandinavian counties for the British Council, performing the works of recent and contemporary British composers. He died on 15 Feb 1980.
Muriel Smith was Secretary of the Lewes Music Club.
Doris M Armitage (died Feb 1974) was a friend and student of the pianist Fanny Davies and an acquaintance of the singer Helen Henschel.
Frank Steward Howes, born 1891; educated at Oxford High School, St John's College, Royal College of Music; joined the staff of The Times in 1925 and succeeded H C Colles as chief music critic, 1943-1960; lectured on musical history and appreciation at the RCM, 1938-1970.
Born 1889; educated at Westminster School, Leipzig Conservatory and Christ Church, Oxford; DMus, 1914, joined the music staff at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1914; conducted first performance of Holst's The Planets, 1918; taught at the Royal College of Music, 1919-1930; assistant musical director, Covent Garden, 1926; musical director of the Bach Choir, 1928-1931; musical director of the City of Birmingham Orchestra, 1924-1930; appointed music director for the BBC, 1930; formed the BBC Symphony Orchestra and toured Europe and the USA; associate conductor of the Proms, 1942-1950; retired from the BBC, 1950; music director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, 1950-1957; musical director of the CBSO, 1959-60; taught at the RCM, 1962-1966; undertook recordings of Elgar and Vaughan Williams for EMI; made his final public appearance and his final recording, 1978; died 1983.
Katharine Goodson, born Watford, 18 Jun 1872; entered Royal Academy of Music at age of 12 to study piano; studied under Oscar Beringer, 1886-1892; studied with Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna for four years; made her London debut, 1897; subsequently played throughout Europe; mader her American debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1907; made a total of seven tours of the USA; following several years of retirement, made a public reappeappearance, 1946; also broadcast on television; died London, 14 Apr 1958. Goodson was married to the composer Arthur Hinton. He was born in Beckenham, Kent, 20 Nov 1869; educated, Shrewsbury School; entered RAM and studied violin and composition; appointed Sub-Professor, RAM; studied composition under Joseph Rheinberger in Munich; appointed Professor of Composition, RAM, and an examiner to the Associated Board; died Rottingdean, Sussex, 11 Aug 1941. His works, include 2 symphonies, an opera Tamara', 2 operettas, chamber music, a suiteEndymion', piano music and songs. His Concerto in D minor for piano and orchestra was frequently performed by his wife.
Sir Charles Santley, born Liverpool, 28 Feb 1834, son of William Santley, a music teacher; sang as a chorister and an amateur singer; studied with Gaetano Nava, Milan, 1855; made his debut at Pavia in 1857 as Dr Grenvil in La traviata; made his first professional English appearance at St Martin's Hall, London, singing Adam in Haydn's Creation, 16 November 1857; thereafter enjoyed a successful career as a baritone, appearing in major opera productions in England, Italy, Spain and the USA; after 1877 he was heard only in concert and oratorio; made Commander of St Gregory by Pope Leo XIII, 1887; celebrated his golden jubilee as a singer at the Royal Albert Hall, 1 May 1907; knighted, 1907; made his farewell appearance at Covent Garden, 23 May 1911; emerged from retirement to sing at the Mansion House, London, in a concert in aid of Belgian refugees, 1915; died London, 22 Sept 1922. Publications: Method of Instruction for a Baritone Voice, edited by G Nava (London, c1872); Student and Singer (London, 1892, 1893); Santley's Singing Master (London, c1895); The Art of Singing and Vocal Declamation (London, 1908); Reminiscences of my Life (London, 1909). Santley wrote a number of religious works for the Roman Catholic Church, and also composed several songs under the pseudonym of Ralph Betterton.
Adelaide Parker was an organist and Fellow of the Royal College of Music. No other information is available at present.
No further information at present.
Tom Haigh was a student at the Royal College of Music in organ and piano, 1894-1898.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) studied composition at the Royal College of Music, 1890-1897. He enjoyed frequent public performances of his music, including concerts at the RCM and in Croydon, Surrey, during this period. He received his first commission, from the Three Choirs Festival, in 1898. This work, the Ballade in A minor for orchestra, was well received at its first performance. His best known work, the cantata 'Hiawatha's Wedding Feast' was given its first performance in the same year and became widely acclaimed in England and the USA. The period 1897-1903 saw prolific composition by Coleridge-Taylor, particularly for festival commissions and incidental music for plays. He was active as a conductor: he worked for the Handel Society, and became their permanent conductor in 1904 until his death. He was also conductor of the Westmorland Festival, 1901-1904, and of many choral and orchestral societies. He also undertook much teaching in and around Croydon, and was appointed professor of composition at Trinity College of Music, London, in 1903. Edith Carr was an amateur violinist in South Croydon and aged in her twenties around the time of the correspondence with Coleridge-Taylor. She appears to have played in musical ensembles under Coleridge-Taylor's conduction.
Stephen Moore was a student in percussion at the Royal College of Music, 1923-1926, and then Secretary of the Worcestershire Association of Music Societies.