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Gerrard Williams
John Gerrard Williams (10 December 1888 – 7 March 1947), most commonly known as Gerrard Williams, was an English composer and arranger. Williams was born in London - his birth name was John Gerard Williams. He had no formal music education (other than some informal advice from Richard Henry Walthew), but learned through amateur performing in choirs and orchestras and through concert going. He trained and worked as an architect, though began composing in his spare time from around 1911. He gave up architecture after 1920, and began organising concerts of his music. These included a concert at the Pump Room in Bath on 2 February 1921. 16 of his songs were sung by the tenor Osmond Davis with the composer at the piano. A further concert of his chamber music, including the second string quartet, piano works and songs, was held at the Aeolian Hall on 27 March 1922. In 1924 the BBC broadcast an hour long programme of his chamber music, and another hour of orchestral and choral musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Henry Walthew
Richard Henry Walthew, often known as Richard H. Walthew (4 November 187214 November 1951) was an English composer and pianist, and an important figure in English chamber music during the first half of the 20th century. Life Richard Henry Walthew was born in Islington in Middlesex, the only son of Richard Frederick Walthew (1833-1910) and his wife Emily Jeffreys (1842-1930), and was educated at Islington Proprietary School. William Heath Robinson was also at the school and he remained a lifelong friend. Walthew was a pupil of Hubert Parry for four years at the Royal College of Music (1890–1894). A contemporary at the RCM was Ralph Vaughan Williams. Recognition as a composer came early, with the success of his cantata ''The Pied Piper'' (performed by the Highbury Philharmonic Society on March 20, 1893, and published by Novello) and the Piano Concerto (first performed at Queen's Hall on 3 May 1894 by the Strolling Players´ Amateur Orchestral Society with the composer as soloist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eugene Aynsley Goossens
Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens (; 26 May 189313 June 1962) was an English conductor and composer. Biography He was born in Camden Town, London, the son of the Belgian conductor and violinist Eugène Goossens (''fils'', 1867–1958) and Annie Cook, a Carl Rosa Opera Company singer. He was the grandson of the conductor Eugène Goossens (''père'', 1845–1906; his father and grandfather spelled Eugène with a grave accent; he himself did not). He studied music at the age of ten in Bruges, three years later at Liverpool College of Music, and in 1907 in London on a scholarship at the Royal College of Music under composer Charles Villiers Stanford and the violinist Achille Rivarde among others. He won the silver medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians and was made associate of the Royal College of Music.Banfield, Stephen'Goossens, Sir (Aynsley) Eugene' in Grove Music Online, 2001 He was a first violin in Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orchestra from 1911 to 1915 and as second v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1888 Births
In Germany, 1888 is known as the Year of the Three Emperors. Currently, it is the year that, when written in Roman numerals, has the most digits (13). The next year that also has 13 digits is the year 2388. The record will be surpassed as late as 2888, which has 14 digits. Events January–March * January 3 – The 91-centimeter telescope at Lick Observatory in California is first used. * January 12 – The Schoolhouse Blizzard hits Dakota Territory, the states of Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas, leaving 235 dead, many of them children on their way home from school. * January 13 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C. * January 21 – The Amateur Athletic Union is founded by William Buckingham Curtis in the United States. * January 26 – The Lawn Tennis Association is founded in England. * February 6 – Gillis Bildt becomes Prime Minister of Sweden (1888–1889). * February 27 &nda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queenie Scott-Hopper
Queenie Scott-Hopper was the pen name of Mabel Olive Scott-Hopper (1881 – 6 February 1924), an English author of children’s stories, poetry, and devotional literature. Biography Mabel Olive Scott-Hopper was one of four children born to solicitor Robert Scott-Hopper and Sarah Anne Hopper (née Orwin).“Whitley Tragedy: Miss 'Queenie' Scott Hopper.” ''Shields Daily News'', February 6, 1924, p. 1. Scott-Hopper was born in Gateshead, then part of County Durham, England, and later moved with her parents to Whitley Bay, Northumberland. A biographical note from the anthology ''Pearls of Poesy'' (1911) attests that "the whole of her education was the work of her mother, who is her constant companion and abiding inspiration." Literary historian Jane Platt theorizes that the family struggled financially due to bankruptcy filings by Robert Scott-Hopper in 1889 and 1905. Her younger brother, father, and mother died within years of each other, and eventually Scott-Hopper took her ow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Swinburne wrote about many taboo topics, such as lesbianism, sado-masochism, and anti-theism. His poems have many common motifs, such as the ocean, time, and death. Several historical people are featured in his poems, such as Sappho ("Sapphics"), Anactoria ("Anactoria"), and Catullus ("To Catullus"). Biography Swinburne was born at 7 Chester Street, Grosvenor Place, London, on 5 April 1837. He was the eldest of six children born to Captain (later Admiral) Charles Henry Swinburne (1797–1877) and Lady Jane Henrietta, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Ashburnham, a wealthy Northumbrian family. He grew up at East Dene in Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight. The Swinburnes also had a London home at Whiteha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Blake
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. What he called his " prophetic works" were said by 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led 21st-century critic Jonathan Jones to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. While he lived in London his entire life, except for three years spent in Felpham, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich collection of works, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God" or "human existence itself". Although Blake was considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, he is held in high regar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his first pieces, "Timbuktu". He published his first solo collection of poems, '' Poems, Chiefly Lyrical'', in 1830. "Claribel" and "Mariana", which remain some of Tennyson's most celebrated poems, were included in this volume. Although described by some critics as overly sentimental, his verse soon proved popular and brought Tennyson to the attention of well-known writers of the day, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Tennyson's early poetry, with its medievalism and powerful visual imagery, was a major influence on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Tennyson also excelled at short lyrics, such as " Break, Break, Break", "The Charge of the Light Brigade", " Tears, Idle Tears", and " Crossing the Bar". Much of his verse was based on classica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Rodney Bennett
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (29 March 193624 December 2012) was an English composer of film, TV and concert music, and also a jazz pianist and occasional vocalist. He was based in New York City from 1979 until his death there in 2012. Zachary Woolfe"Richard Rodney Bennett, British Composer, Dies at 76" ''New York Times'', 30 December 2012 Life and career Bennett was born at Broadstairs, Kent, but was raised in Devon during World War II. His mother, Joan Esther, née Spink (1901–1983) was a pianist who had trained with Gustav Holst and sang in the first professional performance of ''The Planets''. His father, Rodney Bennett (1890–1948), was a children's book author, poet and lyricist, who worked with Roger Quilter on his theatre works and provided new words for some of the numbers in the '' Arnold Book of Old Songs''. Bennett was a pupil at Leighton Park School. He later studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Howard Ferguson, Lennox Berkeley and Cornelius Cardew. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Checkmate (ballet)
''Checkmate'' is a one act ballet created by the choreographer Ninette de Valois and composer Arthur Bliss. The idea for the ballet was proposed by Bliss, and subsequently produced by de Valois for the Vic-Wells Ballet. It was first performed on 15 June 1937 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris. ''Checkmate'' is widely regarded as de Valois' signature ballet and a cornerstone of the British ballet repertoire, being performed regularly by the Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet. Overview After World War I, Bliss developed an interest in ballet, after seeing the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev in London. Bliss composed ''Checkmate'' for the Vic-Wells Ballet (later the Sadler's Wells Ballet), who produced the first performance at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 1937. Constant Lambert conducted the Orchestre Lamoureux, and the premiere dancers included the following: * June Brae (Black Queen) * Harold Turner (Red Knight) * Michael Somes (Black Knight) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Coates
Eric Francis Harrison Coates (27 August 1886 – 21 December 1957) was an English composer of light music and, early in his career, a leading violist. Coates was born into a musical family, but, despite his wishes and obvious talent, his parents only reluctantly allowed him to pursue a musical career. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Frederick Corder (composition) and Lionel Tertis (viola), and played in string quartets and theatre pit bands, before joining symphony orchestras conducted by Thomas Beecham and Henry Wood. Coates's experience as a player added to the rigorous training he had received at the academy and contributed to his skill as a composer. While still working as a violist, Coates composed songs and other light musical works. In 1919 he gave up the viola permanently and from then until his death he made his living as a composer and occasional conductor. His prolific output includes the '' London Suite'' (1932), of which the well-known "Kni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Felix Harold White
Felix Harold White (27 April 1884 31 January 1945) was an English composer, music teacher and pianist. Early career and war White was born in Fetcham, Surrey into a Jewish family originally called Weiss.Stewart R. Craggs: "Felix White: A Centenary Note", in ''The Musical Times'', April 1984, p. 207–8. He was the oldest of five children, and initially worked with his coal merchant father and his brothers transporting coal around Surrey. But his mother had taught him piano from the age of five and he made rapid progress, and soon developed a career as a music teacher. Other than that he was largely self taught, though Hubert Parry took an interest in his work and helped secure some early performances. In 1914, White married Marta Scholten, a Swiss-German, and in 1916 he registered as a conscientious objector. For the rest of the war he was sent off away from his family to work on a farm in Cornwall, and then to another farm in Hemel Hempstead. His ''Fanfare for a Challenge to A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Bliss
Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss (2 August 189127 March 1975) was an English composer and conductor. Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army. In the post-war years he quickly became known as an unconventional and modernist composer, but within the decade he began to display a more traditional and romantic side in his music. In the 1920s and 1930s he composed extensively not only for the concert hall, but also for films and ballet. In the Second World War, Bliss returned to England from the US to work for the BBC and became its director of music. After the war he resumed his work as a composer, and was appointed Master of the Queen's Music. In Bliss's later years, his work was respected but was thought old-fashioned, and it was eclipsed by the music of younger colleagues such as William Walton and Benjamin Britten. Since his death, his compositions have been well represented in recordings, and many of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
