Sir Donald Francis Tovey (17 July 187510 July 1940) was a British musical analyst,

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

, writer on music, composer, conductor and pianist. He had been best known for his '' Essays in Musical Analysis'' and his editions of works by

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the or ...

and

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

, but since the 1990s his compositions (relatively small in number but substantial in musical content) have been recorded and performed with increasing frequency. The recordings have mostly been well received by reviewers.

Life

He was born at

Eton, Berkshire Eton ( ) is a town in Berkshire, England, on the opposite bank of the River Thames to Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor, connected to it by Windsor Bridge. The civil parish, which also includes the village of Eton Wick two miles west of the town, had ...

, the son of Duncan Crookes Tovey, an assistant master at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

, and his wife, Mary Fison. As a child Tovey was privately educated exclusively by Sophie Weisse. She was impressed by his musical gifts evident at an early age and took it upon herself to nurture him. Through her network of associates he was introduced to composers, performers and music critics. These included Walter Parratt, James Higgs and (from the age of 14)

Hubert Parry Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (27 February 1848 – 7 October 1918), was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. Born in Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is ...

for composition. In 1898, Tovey graduated from

Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, where he had studied the classics and developed his interest in music, particularly that of

. When Tovey was seven or eight years old, he met violinist Joseph Joachim, another acquaintance of Weisse. Tovey played piano with the Joachim Quartet in a 1905 performance of Brahms's Piano Quintet, in F minor, Op. 34. By then Tovey was already composing and had gained some moderate fame, with works performed in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, and London. His large scale Piano Concerto (with Tovey as soloist) made its debut at Queen's Hall in November 1903 under the baton of Sir Henry Wood, and Tovey played it again in 1906 under Hans Richter. During this period he also contributed heavily to the 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', writing many of the articles on music of the 18th and 19th centuries. Sir Donald Francis Tovey

In 1914, he began to teach music at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, succeeding Frederick Niecks as Reid Professor of Music; there he founded the Reid Orchestra. For their concerts he wrote a series of programme notes, many of which were eventually collected into the books for which he is now best known, the '' Essays in Musical Analysis''. In 1917, he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were Ralph Allan Sampson, Cargill Gilston Knott, John Horne and Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker. As he devoted more and more time to the Reid Orchestra, to writing essays and commentaries and producing performing editions of

and

, Tovey composed and performed less often later in life; but the few major pieces he did complete are on a large scale, such as his Symphony of 1913 and the Cello Concerto completed in 1935 for his longtime friend

Pablo Casals Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), known in English as Pablo Casals,Die Kunst der Fuge'' (The Art of Fugue). His edition of the 48 Preludes and Fugues of Bach's '' The Well-Tempered Clavier'', in two volumes (Vol. 1, March 1924; Vol. 2, June 1924), with fingerings by Harold Samuel, for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, has been reprinted continually ever since. His completion of the (presumed) final unfinished fugue in ''The Art of Fugue'' has nothing of pastiche about it, and in fact has often been recorded as the final piece of the set. His influential ''Essays in Musical Analysis'' based on his Reid Orchestra programme notes, were first published at this time, in six volumes between 1935 and 1939. They were edited by Hubert Foss of the

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. He was knighted by King

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...

in 1935, reportedly on the recommendation of Sir Edward Elgar, who greatly admired Tovey's edition of Bach. He died in 1940 in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. His archive, including scores, letters, handwritten programme notes and annotations in the scores of others, is housed in the Special Collections Unit of the University of Edinburgh library. In 2009 Richard Witts created a simple catalogue of the archival material available from the University on-line.

Family

Tovey married his first wife, Margaret "Grettie" Cameron, the daughter of Hugh Cameron R.S.A., on 22 April 1916. In May 1919 they adopted an infant son, their only child, whom they named John Wellcome Tovey. Following a tumultuous relationship, in part strained by Cameron's mental health issues, the couple divorced in July 1922. She died a few years later. On the divorce from his first wife, Tovey's son John was placed under the guardianship of Weisse and Clara Georgina Wallace, who had also been a pupil of Weisse and known to Tovey since boyhood. Clara Wallace and Tovey married on 29 December 1925. She became Lady Tovey upon his knighthood in 1935. They appear to have had a supportive marriage, often travelling together for Tovey's domestic and international engagements. They remained together until his death in 1940. Lady Tovey died in September 1944 at Hedenham Lodge, Norfolk.

Compositions

From the start, the Teutonic heavy seriousness and traditional craftsmanship of Tovey's first concert works in the early 1900s felt somewhat old-fashioned amidst the early stages of the English Musical Renaissance, but they did find more favour on the continent. His official opus 1, the four movement Piano Trio in B minor was already composed on a large scale. It was completed in 1895 during Tovey's first term at Balliol and dedicated "to Sir Hubert Parry as the first work of a grateful pupil".Shore, Peter. Notes to ''Donald Francis Tovey: Chamber Music Volume 1'', Toccata TOCC0068 (2008)
/ref> There were other chamber works during this period, most of them including a piano part for Tovey to play himself: from 1900 he energetically promoted them through a series of regular chamber music performances. Early successes, receiving positive press notices, included the Piano Quintet in C, Op. 6, first performed at St James's Hall in London on 8 November 1900, and the Piano Quartet in E minor, Op. 12, played at the same hall on 21 November 1901. ''The Times'' judged him "a composer with serious aims and a very high standard", although the quartet "was written in a somewhat sombre vein". His patron Sophie Weisse helped fund his concert appearances, and also financed the publication of his epic, but not overtly virtuosic Piano Concerto in A major, Op. 15 in 1903 (though significantly it was published in Germany, not in Britain). The Concerto, with its particularly expressive F minor adagio movement, was first performed on 4 November 1903 by the Queen's Hall Orchestra, conducted by Sir

Henry Wood Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundr ...

, with Tovey himself as the soloist. (Tovey also performed

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

's Piano Concerto in C major, K.503, at the same concert). It was successfully revived in 1906 under Richter, and again in 1913 in

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

, Germany under Fritz Busch.Shore, Peter. Notes to ''Sir Donald Tovey: Symphony in D'', Toccata TOCC0033 (2006)
/ref> Weisse also funded the publication of Tovey's early chamber works between 1906 and 1913, including the two String Quartets, Opp. 23 and 24 (both composed in 1909) and his fourth and final Piano Trio in D major, Op. 27 of 1910. But the most significant new work after the Piano Concerto was another full-scale orchestral piece. The Symphony in D, Op.32, commissioned by Busch after the success of the Piano Concerto performance in Aachen, was written under great time pressure in 1913 and first performed in Aachen under Busch on 11 December 1913. A London performance (by the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

) followed on 31 May 1915. However, further performances were few. Tovey made small revisions in 1923. It was revived in Edinburgh and broadcast by the BBC on 25 February 1937 with the composer conducting the Reid Orchestra. A modern recording was not issued until 2006. From 1914 his academic career took precedence over composition, although his sense of isolation from more modernist trends may also have contributed to the silence. The ''Bride of Dionysus'', an ambitious music drama based on the Greek legend, was begun in 1907, using a text written by his friend R. C. Trevelyan. It took over ten years for Tovey to complete it, and then it had to wait a further decade before its premiere in 1929. There was very little else after that apart from the Cello Concerto, Op. 40, begun in 1933 for

Pablo Casals Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), known in English as Pablo Casals,Usher Hall, Edinburgh. ''The Times'' described it as "a work of considerable power and beauty", but the subsequent London performances, on 11 and 12 November 1935, were ill-prepared and the press notices were negative. Famously, in reviewing a later Queen's Hall performance and broadcast on 17 November 1937 Constant Lambert commented that "the first movement...seemed to last as long as my first term at school".

Tovey as a theorist of tonality

Tovey's belief that classical music has an

aesthetic Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...

that can be deduced from the internal evidence of the music itself has influenced subsequent writers on music. In his essays, Tovey developed a theory of tonal structure and its relation to classical forms that he applied in his descriptions of pieces in his famous programme notes for the Reid Orchestra, as well as in more technical and extended writings. His aesthetic regards works of music as organic wholes, and he stresses the importance of understanding how musical principles manifest themselves in different ways within the context of a given piece. He was fond of using figurative comparisons to illustrate his ideas, as in this quotation from the ''Essays'' (on Brahms' Handel Variations, Op. 24, Tovey 1922):

The relation between Beethoven's freest variations and his theme is of the same order of microscopical accuracy and profundity as the relation of a bat's wing to a human hand.

Similarly in his book on ''Beethoven'', dictated in 1936 but published posthumously in 1944:D.F. Tovey, ''Beethoven'', with an editorial preface by Hubert J. Foss (Oxford University Press, London 1944), p. 29.

We do not expect a return to the home tonic to be associated with a theme we have never heard before, any more than we expect on returning from our holiday to find our house completely redecorated and refurnished and inhabited by total strangers.

Recordings

* Recordings of Tovey performing on piano were made for the National Gramophonic Society
NGS-114-117
on 6 and 11 June, and 4 September 1928, playing Tovey's conjectural completion of

's '' The Art of Fugue'',

's Sonata No. 2 in A Major BWV1015 (1st mvt), and

's 10th Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 96 (complete) with violinist Adila Fachiri. The latter is the celebrated recording in which, on the first side after the first movement exposition, Tovey calls out, "Return to the beginning of the record; second time..." and then resumes playing, so that the listener can take the repeat or omit it, at her/his discretion. The Columbia recording of '' The Art of Fugue'' with th
Roth String Quartet
(1934–1935) has Tovey's conjectural completion of the work, played by Tovey on the piano, on the last 78 side. * ''The Bride of Dionysus'' – Prelude and vocal extracts from the full oper
Dutton Epoch CDLX 7241
also: Prelude
Toccata TOCC 0033
* Cello Concerto, Op. 40 (1935).

Pablo Casals Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), known in English as Pablo Casals,BBC Symphony Orchestra, cond. Adrian Boult, rec. 1937
Symposium 1115
also: Alice Neary, Cello, Ulster Orchestra, cond. George Vassbr>Toccata TOCC 0038
* Cello Sonata in F, Op. 4, Rebecca Rust (cello) & David Apter (piano)
Marco Polo 8.223637
* ''Chamber Music Volumes 1, 2 and 3''. Piano Trios op.1, op.8, Piano Quintet, ''Variations on a Theme by Gluck'', London Piano Trio, Ormesby Ensemble
Toccata 00680226
Complete Cello Sonatas, Alice Neary, cello, Kate Gould, cello, Gretel Dowdeswell, pian
Toccata 0497
* ''Elegiac Variations for cello and piano'', Op. 25, Alice Neary (cello) and Gretel Dowdeswell (piano
Toccata TOCC 0038
* Piano Concerto in A, Op. 15: Steven Osborne, piano; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, cond. Martyn Brabbins
Hyperion CDA 67023
* Piano Trio, op. 27, Piano Quartet, op.12, ''Sonata Eroica'', op.29 for solo violin, London Piano Trio

* ''Sonata Eroica'', op. 29 for solo violin, Rupert Marshall-Luc
EM Records EMRCD079 (2023)
* String Quartet in G, op.23, ''Aria and Variations'', op.11, Tippett Quartet

* Symphony in D, Op. 32 (1913): Reid Orchestra, cond. Donald F. Tovey, rec. 25 February 1937
Symposium 1352
also: Malmö Opera Orchestra, cond. George Vass
Toccata TOCC 0033

Selected publications

* Donald Francis Tovey (1931). ''A Companion to Beethoven's Pianoforte Sonatas (Complete Analyses)''. London, The Associated Board of The R.A.M. and The R.C.M. * Sir Donald F. Tovey (1936) – ''Normality and Freedom in Music'' The

Romanes Lecture The Romanes Lecture is a prestigious free public lecture given annually at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, England. The lecture series was founded by, and named after, the biologist George Romanes, and has been running since 1892. Over the years, ...

Delivered in The

Sheldonian Theatre The Sheldonian Theatre, in the centre of Oxford, England, was built from 1664 to 1669 after a design by Christopher Wren for the University of Oxford. The building is named after Gilbert Sheldon, List of Wardens of All Souls College, Oxford, Wa ...

20 May 1936. Oxford, At the Clarendon Press. * Sir Donald F. Tovey, editor, Forty-Eight Preludes and Fugues, JS Bach, 1924, published by (British) Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music

Notes

External links

* *
Sir Donald Francis Tovey (1875–1940)
website (Peter R. Shore)
''Men and Music: Donald F Tovey'', by Dr Erik ChisholmPortrait of Donald Tovey by William Rothenstein, National Portrait GalleryPortrait of Donald Tovey by Philip Alexius De Laszlo, University of Edinburgh

Dave Lewis (AllMusic) on the Symphony in D
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tovey, Donald Francis 1875 births 1940 deaths 19th-century British classical composers 19th-century British composers 19th-century British male musicians 20th-century British classical composers 20th-century English composers 20th-century Scottish musicians 20th-century British male musicians English Romantic composers English classical composers English male classical composers English musicologists English music theorists Scottish classical composers Scottish opera composers Scottish writers about music British male opera composers Composers awarded knighthoods Musicians awarded knighthoods Knights Bachelor Academics of the University of Edinburgh British writers about music Presidents of the Independent Society of Musicians Bach scholars Beethoven scholars Brahms scholars Haydn scholars Felix Mendelssohn Mozart scholars Schubert scholars