Annie Jessie Fortescue Harrison (30 December 1848 – 12 February 1944), also known as Annie, Lady Hill and Lady Arthur Hill, was an English

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

s and

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

pieces. She composed two operettas that were staged in London, but is best known as the composer of the 1877 popular ballad '' In the Gloaming''. The song was adopted as the regimental march of the

2nd Middlesex Artillery Volunteers The 2nd Middlesex Artillery was a Volunteer unit of Britain's Royal Artillery. First raised in the Victorian era among Customs officers in the Port of London, it later became the 3rd London Brigade, Royal Field Artillery in the Territorial Force a ...

Life

Harrison was born in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

, the daughter of James Fortescue Harrison, MP of

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

(other sources record her birth as taking place in Crawleywood, Sussex in 1851). She was composing solo piano pieces, such as ''The Elfin Waltzes'', by the age of 13. In 1865, the family moved to

Crawley Down Crawley Down is a village in the Mid Sussex District, Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. There is one church, one school, and a number of social groups. It lies east of Crawley and east of London Gatwick Airport, Gatwick Airport. Cr ...

, Sussex, where her father built a mansion called Down Park. Her most popular song was " In the Gloaming" (1877), with lyrics by Meta Orred was written a year earlier, when she was considering a marriage proposal from widowed

Lord Arthur Hill Colonel Lord Arthur William Hill PC, DL, JP (28 July 1846 – 13 January 1931), was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Conservative politician. He served three times as Comptroller of the Household between 1885 and 1898 in the Conservative administr ...

. Musicologist Derek B. Scott reports that as soon as Arthur Hill heard the song, he was desperate to marry Annie Harrison. His first wife had died shortly after the birth of their son, a year into their marriage. Harrison married Lord Arthur in 1877, and they had daughter nine months later. Arthur Hill was the commanding officer of the 2nd Middlesex artillery, and they adopted the song as their regimental march. Harrison also composed two operettas. The first, ''The Ferry Girl'', was first performed in 1883 at St. George's Hall in London, and revived and exapnded into two acts at the

Savoy Theatre The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy ...

for amateur performance in 1890. It also played at the Gaiety Theatre. The second operetta, ''The Lost Husband'', was produced at the

Opera Comique The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, located between Wych Street, Holywell Street and the Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and K ...

in London in the spring of 1886. Harrison died on 12 February 1944 in Easthampton, Berkshire, predeceased by her husband in 1931.

Works

Operettas *''The Ferry Girl'' (1883, rev. 1890) (text Dowager Marchioness of Downshire) *''The Lost Husband'' (1886) Ballads * ''At Noontide'' * ''In the Gloaming'' (1877) * ''In the Moonlight'' (sequel to above) * ''I want to be a soldier'' * ''Let Me Forget Thee'' * ''Yesteryear'' Piano''The Book of World Famous Music, Popular, Classical and Folk'' (1966) by James Fuld. * ''The Elfin Waltzes'' * ''Our Favourite Galop''

References

External links

A Forty-Sixth Garland of British Light Music Composers
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Annie Fortescue 1848 births 1944 deaths English composers English women composers Musicians from Kolkata People from Crawley Down Wives of younger sons of peers