Rosa Harriet Newmarch (18 December 18579 April 1940) was an English poet and writer on music.

Biography

Rosa Harriet Jeaffreson was born in Leamington in 1857, the maternal granddaughter of 19th-century dramatist James Kenney. She settled in London in 1880, when she began contributing articles to various literary journals. In 1883, she married Henry Charles Newmarch, thereafter using her married name in her professional work. Beginning in 1897 she did a great deal of research on Russian music, making many visits to Russia and working at the Imperial Public Library of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

under the supervision of Vladimir Stassov. She became one of the first English critics to champion Russian music. After 1915 she performed a similar service for Slovak music. From 1907 she edited the Living Masters of Music book series for John Lane. From 1908 until 1920 she wrote program notes for the New Queen's Hall Orchestra, and for Prom concerts. From 1919 she was assisted in respect of new works to the repertoire by Eric Blom, then in the early stages of his writing career. Newmarch's existing notes for established works continued to appear in the programs. Newmarch and Blom continued to write in tandem until 1927, when the BBC took over the concerts.H. C. Colles, "Newmarch, Rosa", ''Grove's Dictionary'', 5th edition, Eric Blom, ed. 1954 Newmarch died in

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Ho ...

in 1940, aged 82. She was the great-grandmother of comedian

Sara Pascoe Sara Patricia Pascoe (born 22 May 1981) is an English actress, comedian and writer. She has appeared on television programmes including ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown'' for Channel 4, '' QI'' for BBC and '' Taskmaster'' for the digital chan ...

Legacy

On 26 October 2010, Newmarch was the subject of the 30-minute BBC Radio programme "Rosa and Leoš", narrated by Peter Avis. This described her role popularising the music of

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European f ...

in Britain, and organising a visit to Britain by the composer.

Books

*''

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

'' (1900) *''Horae Amoris'' (1903) (poetry) *'' Henry J. Wood'' (1904) *''Songs to a Singer'' (1906) (poetry) *''The Life and Letters of Tchaikovsky'' (1908) *''

César Franck César-Auguste Jean-Guillaume Hubert Franck (; 10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a French Romantic composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher born in modern-day Belgium. He was born in Liège (which at the time of his birth was pa ...

'' (by

Vincent d'Indy Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy (; 27 March 18512 December 1931) was a French composer and teacher. His influence as a teacher, in particular, was considerable. He was a co-founder of the Schola Cantorum de Paris and also taught at the P ...

, as translator) (1910) *''The Russian Opera'' (1914) *''The Russian Arts'' (1917) *''

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...

'' (1939) *''The Music of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

'' (1942) *''The Concert-Goer's Library'' (six volumes, 1928–48). These are collections of her programme notes, arranged by musical form.

Biography

Legacy

Books

References

Further reading

External links