Eleanor Clementine Rudall (26 April 1881 – 6 May 1960) was a composer and pianist, who after a promising start while a student at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

struggled to find more widespread recognition. She continued her career teaching piano, harmony and composition, and in 1927 became the second wife of composer

Frederick Corder Frederick Corder (26 January 1852 – 21 August 1932) was an English composer and music teacher. Life Corder was born in Hackney, the son of Micah Corder and his wife Charlotte Hill. He was educated at Blackheath Proprietary School and start ...

. She was a friend and collaborator of English composer and pianist

Emma Lomax Louise Emily (Emma) Lomax (22 June 1873 – 29 August 1963) was an English composer and pianist. She was born in Brighton, daughter of the curator of Brighton Free Library and Museum. She attended the Brighton School of Music and then the Royal Ac ...

Education and early career

Rudall was born at 25 Upper Phillimore Place,

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

(now Kensington High Street), the daughter of composer and author Henry Alexander Rudall (1837–1896) and Jane Sinclair Bails. H.A. Rudall wrote a biography in the ''Great Composers'' series on

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 ...

in 1890. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where she won the R.A.M. Club prize for composition in 1906. Her ''Introduction and Allegro'' for string octet was played at a Royal Academy concert in 1906. Four ''Orchestral Illustrations'' (inspired by the paintings of G F Watts), were performed at a

Queen's Hall The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect Thomas Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. Fro ...

student concert on 25 June 1907. Rudall won the Charles Lucas Medal for composition in 1908 for her ''Suite of Three Movements'' for orchestra. Her orchestral ''Variations on an Irish Air'' was also performed that year. The ambitious operatic prelude ''The Rock of Aesjoen'' for soloists, chorus and orchestra was heard at another Queen's Hall student concert on 30 June 1909, conducted by Frederick Corder.

Marriage and later career

On 7 November 1927 in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

Rudall became Corder's second wife. By then aged 75, he had retired from the music profession three years earlier. They lived at his house, 13, Albion Road (now Harben Road),

South Hampstead South Hampstead is an affluent part of the London Borough of Camden in inner north London. It is commonly defined as the area between West End Lane in the west, the Chiltern Main Line (south), Broadhurst Gardens north and north-west followed ...

, where she continued to live after his death in 1932. By the mid-1930s Rudall was a professor of harmony and composition at the Royal Academy, while also teaching piano at the

Tobias Matthay Tobias Augustus Matthay (19 February 185815 December 1945) was an English pianist, teacher, and composer. Biography Matthay was born in Clapham, Surrey, in 1858 to parents who had come from northern Germany and eventually became naturalised Brit ...

Piano School. On 9 November 1938 she organized a concert of her compositions at the Queen Mary Hall, Great Russell Street, including two String Quartets. She became involved in the running of the Society of Women Composers and this resulted in performances of her music at Society concerts, such as the ''Phantasie'' for violin and piano played in July 1934, and a string trio in November 1950. She died in May 1960, aged 79. In her 1950 entry for ''Who's Who in Music'', Rudall listed more of her compositions, now all unknown, including three String Quartets, a Piano Quintet, a Cello Sonata, ''To a Passer By'' for chorus and orchestra, and ''Ballad of Summer Waters'', for female voices. There are published song settings of

Robert Bridges Robert Seymour Bridges (23 October 1844 – 21 April 1930) was a British poet who was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor by training, he achieved literary fame only late in life. His poems reflect a deep Christian faith, and he is ...

' ''The Robin'' and

Christina Rossetti Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romanticism, romantic, devotional and children's poems, including "Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well k ...

's ''Spring Quiet'', and the ''Spring Pastoral'' for piano four hands.Published by Bosworth
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bright, Dora 1881 births 1960 deaths English classical composers English women classical composers English classical pianists Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music 20th-century English women composers 20th-century English women pianists