Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob CBE (5 July 18958 June 1984) was an English composer and teacher. He was a professor at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

in London from 1924 until his retirement in 1966, and published four books and many articles about music. As a composer he was prolific: the list of his works totals more than 700, mostly compositions of his own, but a substantial minority of orchestrations and arrangements of other composers' works. Those whose music he orchestrated range from

William Byrd William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continental Europe, Continent. He i ...

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

Life and career

Jacob was born in

Upper Norwood Upper Norwood is an area of south London, England, within the London Boroughs of London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, London Borough of Croydon, Croydon, London Borough of Lambeth, Lambeth and London Borough of Southwark, Southwark. It is north ...

, London, the seventh son and youngest of ten children of Stephen Jacob, and his wife, Clara Laura, ''née'' Forlong. Stephen Jacob, an official of the Indian Civil Service based in Calcutta, died when Gordon was three.Wetherell, Eric
"Jacob, Gordon Percival Septimus (1895–1984), composer"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 30 October 2018 One of his older brothers was Archibald Jacob, choral composer, arranger and author of ''Musical Handwriting'' (OUP, 1937). Jacob was educated at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

, and enlisted in the

Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) was a line infantry regiment of the English and later the British Army from 1661 to 1959. It was the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, behind only the Royal Scots in the British Arm ...

at the outbreak of the First World War. Wetherell, Eric
"Jacob, Gordon"
Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2001. Retrieved 2 November 2018 He was taken POW in 1917 after being one of 60 survivors from a battalion of 800. In the prison camp he studied a harmony textbook in the camp library and began composing. He wrote for an orchestra of his fellow prisoners, with assorted instruments. After the war he studied journalism before turning to music. He took a correspondence course, gained an ARCM diploma and was accepted as a full-time student at the

(RCM) in 1920. There, he was a pupil of

Charles Villiers Stanford Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Anglo-Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic music, Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was ed ...

and

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

(composition), Herbert Howells (music theory) and

Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was a British conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London ...

(conducting), from whom he learned the "economy and decision" of his podium technique. At the end of his student course in 1924, Gordon became a teacher of music, briefly at Birkbeck and Morley Colleges, and then at the RCM, where he remained until his retirement in 1966."Gordon Jacob"
Boosey and Hawkes. Retrieved 2 November 2018 He was professor of music theory, composition and orchestration."Jacob, Gordon (Percival Septimus)"
''Who's Who and Who Was Who'', Oxford University Press, 2007. Retrieved 2 November 2018 Among his students at the RCM were

Malcolm Arnold Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold (21 October 1921 – 23 September 2006) was an English composer. His works feature music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music f ...

Ruth Gipps Ruth Dorothy Louisa ("Wid") Gipps (21 February 1921 – 23 February 1999) was an English composer, oboist, pianist, conductor and educator. She composed music in a wide range of genres, including five symphonies, seven concertos and ma ...

, Imogen Holst,

Cyril Smith Sir Cyril Richard Smith (28 June 1928 – 3 September 2010) was a British Liberal Party and Liberal Democrat politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochdale from 1972 to 1992. Smith was first active in local politics as ...

, Philip Cannon, Pamela Harrison, Joseph Horovitz, Bernard Stevens and

John Warrack John Hamilton Warrack (born 9 February 1928) is an English music critic, writer on music, and oboist. Career Born in London, Warrack is the son of Scottish conductor and composer Guy Warrack and Jacynth Mary Ellerton. He was educated at Winches ...

. In addition to his teaching commitments he was a regular examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, and from 1947 to 1957 he was editor of

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

Musical Scores. He contributed articles to musical journals and to ''

Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and th ...

'' and wrote four books: ''Orchestral Technique, a Manual for Students'' (1931); ''How to Read a Score'' (1944); ''The Composer and his Art'' (1955); and ''The Elements of Orchestration'' (1962). In 1959 a BBC television documentary about Jacob was directed by

Ken Russell Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films were mainly liberal adaptations of ...

; in the following years, under its controller of music William Glock, the BBC was seen as increasingly hostile to living composers who wrote tonal music. It was always denied that Glock had a blacklist, but music by non avant-garde composers, including Edmund Rubbra, Arnold Bax, John Ireland and even

William Walton Sir William Turner Walton (29 March 19028 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include ''Façade'', the cantat ...

, was demonstrably out of favour with the BBC during the 1960s. By this decade a large proportion of a composer's income came from royalties for broadcasts, and like others of his generation, Jacob suffered from the BBC's disinclination to play his music. He was fortunate in having a steady stream of commissions from the US, where his music was popular with university wind bands. He never retired from composing, and went on writing until shortly before his death. Jacob was twice married, first in 1924 to Sydney Gray, elder daughter of the Rev Arthur Gray of Ipswich. She died in 1958, and the following year he married Margaret Sidney Hannah Gray, the niece of his first wife. There were a son and daughter of the second marriage. Jacob died at his home in

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. Th ...

, Essex, in 1984, aged 88.

Awards and honours

While a student at the RCM Jacob won the

Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...

composition prize. He was awarded a doctorate (DMus) by the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

in 1935, and the John Collard Fellowship by the Worshipful Company of Musicians in 1943. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in 1946, and was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music the following year. In 1968 he was appointed CBE.

Music

Compositions

Jacob was a prolific composer. ''Grove'' lists 16 concertos by him for a wide variety of solo instruments, including trombone and timpani. A website dedicated to Jacob lists more than 700 original compositions or arrangements of existing music. His biographer (and former pupil) Eric Wetherell writes that as a composer, Jacob was influenced more by early 20th-century French and Russian examples rather than the German tradition. Wetherell writes of Jacob's "clarity of structure and instrumental writing that shows a keen awareness of the capabilities and limitations of every instrument". Reviewing a concert of his music given in 1939, ''The Times'' said, "As a general description, 'Good, but a little dry' might be justly applied to Jacob's work". In the 1920s and 1930s Jacob composed music for choral societies and school choirs, which provided a steady income, in between more ambitious compositions. From his works of the 1920s, Wetherell singles out a viola concerto (1926), a piano concerto followed (1927) and the First Symphony (1929) dedicated to the memory of Jacob's favourite brother who was killed in the First World War. Large-scale works from the 1930s include an oboe concerto for Léon Goossens (1935) and Variations on an Original Theme (1937) In the 1930s Jacob, along with several other young composers, wrote for the Sadler's Wells Ballet Company (now

The Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded ...

). His one original ballet (other than a student work, ''The Jew in the Bush'' (1928)), was ''Uncle Remus'' (1934), written for them. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Jacob wrote music for several propaganda films, and after the war he provided the score for the feature film '' Esther Waters'' (1948). A more personal take on the war is evident in the austere ''Symphony for Strings'' (1943), written for the Boyd Neel Orchestra. Jacob's Second Symphony, premiered on 1 May 1946 at a BBC studio recording, was considered by one reviewer to be "perhaps the most stimulating work that has yet come from this composer". The reviewer remarked on the work's intensity of feeling, ranging from romantic excitement in the first movement, through poignancy and fury in the two middle movements to a mood of heroism in the final passacaglia. Four new works appeared in 1951, the year of the Festival of Britain: ''Music for a Festival'' (for brass and military bands), concertos for flute and for horn, and the cantata ''A Goodly Heritage''.Ogram, Geoff
"Gordon Jacob (1895–1984)
, Music Web. Retrieved 2 November 2018 Among the original compositions from Jacob's later years was incidental music to a dramatised adaptation of the biblical

Book of Job The Book of Job (), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The language of the Book of Job, combining post-Babylonia ...

, first performed at the Festival of the Arts, Saffron Walden, and later broadcast by the BBC.

Arrangements

Jacob's first major success was written during his student years: the ''William Byrd Suite'' for orchestra based on the

Fitzwilliam Virginal Book The ''Fitzwilliam Virginal Book'' is a primary source of keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods in England, i.e., the late Renaissance and very early Baroque. It takes its name from Viscount Fitzwilliam who bequ ...

. Boult conducted the first performance in February 1923. ''The Times'' called it "a brilliant piece of adaptation", and expressed the hope that it would be heard again. The music critic for ''The Times'' commented in 1932 that there was "something magical" about the way in which Jacob's arrangements transformed the original music into scores that might make the listener think that the new version was what the composer really intended. Most of Jacob's ballet scores were arrangements of existing works, such as '' Les Sylphides'' (1932, using music by Chopin), ''Carnival'' (1932,

Schumann Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...

), ''Apparitions'' (1936,

Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most pro ...

), and ''

Mam'zelle Angot ''Mam'zelle Angot'' is a one-act ballet in three scenes. The choreography and libretto are by Léonide Massine; the music is by Charles Lecocq. The plot is broadly based on Lecocq's 1872 opéra bouffe, ''La fille de Madame Angot''. Background Mas ...

'', (1947, Lecocq). In 1958

composed a one-act work ''London Morning'' for the

London Festival Ballet English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Alicia Markova, Dame Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin (ballet dancer), Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham ...

, which Jacob orchestrated. In 1968, Jacob re-orchestrated the score of

Frederick Ashton Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton (17 September 190418 August 1988) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He also worked as a director and choreographer in opera, film and revue. Determined to be a dancer despite the oppositio ...

's ballet ''

Marguerite and Armand ''Marguerite and Armand'' is a ballet danced to an orchestral arrangement of Franz Liszt's B minor piano sonata. It was created in 1963 by the British choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton specifically for Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. The ba ...

'', replacing a previous orchestration by

Humphrey Searle Humphrey Searle (26 August 1915 – 12 May 1982) was an English composer and writer on music. His music combines aspects of late Romanticism and modernist serialism, particularly reminiscent of his primary influences, Franz Liszt, Arnold Sch ...

of music by Liszt. During the Second World War Jacob was one of several composers who contributed arrangements of popular tunes to the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

comedy show ''

ITMA ''It's That Man Again'' (commonly contracted to ''ITMA'') was a BBC radio comedy programme which ran for twelve series from 1939 to 1949. The shows featured Tommy Handley in the central role, a fast-talking figure, around whom the other ch ...

''. Shortly after the war, on Boult's recommendation, Jacob was commissioned by a music publishing firm to orchestrate Elgar's Organ Sonata (1946). After a single performance in 1947 this version remained unplayed until 1988, when the

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a music organisation based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. Its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmo ...

conducted by

Vernon Handley Vernon George "Tod" Handley (11 November 1930 – 10 September 2008) was a British conductor (music), conductor, known in particular for his support of British composers. Early life and education He was born of a Welsh father and an Irish mothe ...

recorded it for CD. Reviewing the recording, Edward Greenfield commented that dubbing the orchestrated version "Elgar's Symphony No. 0" was amply justified. Jacob's trumpet-heavy fanfare arrangement of the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European ...

was used for the

coronation of Queen Elizabeth II The Coronation of the British monarch, coronation of Elizabeth II as queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey in London. Elizabeth acceded to the throne at the age of 25 upon th ...

in 1953, in 2022 for her funeral, and again in 2023 for the

coronation of Charles III and Camilla The Coronation of the British monarch, coronation of Charles III and his wife, Queen Camilla, Camilla, as Monarchy of the United Kingdom, king and List of British royal consorts, queen of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth re ...

. It was also used in Norway in 2016 for the 25th anniversary of King

Harald V Harald V (, ; born 21 February 1937) has been King of Norway since 1991. A member of the House of Glücksburg, Harald was the third child and only son of King Olav V of Norway and Princess Märtha of Sweden. He was second in the line of succ ...

's accession in 1991 due to the fact that the nation's royal anthem shares the same melody as the

of the United Kingdom.

Recordings

The discography at the Gordon Jacob website lists more than eighty recordings of his works, some of them arrangements of other composers' music, such as the Elgar Organ Sonata and Vaughan Williams's ''English Folk Song Suite'', but mostly original works by Jacob. They include: orchestral pieces such as the First and Second Symphonies, the Little Symphony and ''The Barber of Seville Goes to the Devil''; the two Viola Concertos as well as concertante works for bassoon, clarinet, flute, horn, piano (two concertos), oboe, trombone and trumpet; and chamber works for many different combinations of instruments."Recordings"
Gordon Jacob. Retrieved 2 November 2018

Partial list of works

* ''William Byrd Suite'' (composed 1922, published 1924) * Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (1925) * Concerto for Piano and Strings (1927) * ''An Original Suite for Military Band'' (1928) * String Quartet No. 1 (1928) * Symphony No. 1 (1928–9) * ''Variations on an Air by Purcell'' (1930), string orchestra * ''Passacaglia on a Well-Known Theme (Oranges and Lemons)'' (1931) * String Quartet No. 2 (1931) * Concerto for Oboe and Strings (1933) * ''Uncle Remus'' (1934), ballet * ''Variations on an Original Theme'' (1936); * Suite No. 1 in F (1939) * Clarinet Quintet (1940) * ''Symphony for Strings'' (1943) * Symphony No. 2 (1945) * Sonatina for clarinet (or viola) and piano (1946) * Concerto for Bassoon, Strings, and Percussion (1947) * Suite No. 2 (1948–9); * Suite No. 3 (1949) * ''Fantasia on the Alleluia Hymn'' (1949) * ''Serenade'' (1950), woodwind octet * ''The Nun's Priest's Tale'' (1951), chorus and orchestra * ''Music for a Festival'' (1951), concert band * Concerto for Horn and Strings (1951) * Concerto for Flute and Strings (1952) * Scherzo for Two Trumpets, Horn, and Trombone (1952) * Sextet for piano and winds, "In memoriam Aubrey Brain" * Concerto for Violin and Strings (1954) * Concerto for Cello and Strings (1955) * ''Prelude and Toccata'' (1955), orchestra * Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra (1955) * Piano Trio (1956) * Divertimento for harmonica and string quartet (1956) * Oboe Concerto No. 2 (1956) * Piano Concerto No. 2 (1957) * ''Five Pieces (In the form of a Suite) for Harmonica and Piano'' (1957) * ''Old Wine in New Bottles'' (1958), For wind ensemble: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets * ''Prelude, Meditation and Fanfare'' (1958), organ * ''The Pied Piper'', 2 unaccompanied pieces for solo flute/piccolo: The Spell (solo flute) and March to the River Weser (solo piccolo) (1958) * Overture ''Fun Fare'' (1960) * ''The Barber of Seville Goes to the Devil'' (1960), full orchestra (

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano p ...

's overture to ''

The Barber of Seville ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( ) is an ''opera buffa'' (comic opera) in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's French comedy ' ...

'') * ''Overture for Strings'' (1964) * Divertimento (1968), 8 winds * Suite for Bassoon and String Quartet (1968) for William Waterhouse * Suite for Four Trombones (1968) * Concerto for Piano Duet (3 hands) and Orchestra (1969) * ''York Symphony'' (1970), for brass band * Concerto for Band (1970), concert band * Partita for Bassoon (1970) for William Waterhouse * Introduction and Rondo (1972), clarinet choir * ''Suite for Tuba and Strings'' (1972) * ''Variations on a Dorian Theme'' (1972) * Five Pieces for Clarinet (Unaccompanied) (1973) * ''Swansea Town'', variations for wind ensemble (1973) * Fantasia for Euphonium and Wind Band (1974) * Double Concerto for Clarinet and Trumpet (1975) * Suite for 8 violas (1975), premiered in 1976, in honor of

Lionel Tertis Lionel Tertis, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (29 December 187622 February 1975) was an English viola, violist. He was one of the first viola players to achieve international fame, and a noted teacher. Career Tertis was born ...

' 100th birthday. * ''Pro Corda Suite'' (1977), string quartet and string orchestra * Concertino for Trombone and Wind Orchestra (1977) * ''Symphony AD 78'' (1978), concert band * ''Fantasia on an English folk song (Dashing away with a smoothing iron)'' (published c. 1984), concert band * Sonata for Viola and Piano (1978) * ''Cameos'' for bass trombone (1978) * Sonata for trombone and piano (1979) * Viola Concerto No. 2 (1979)

* Mini-Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra (1980), dedicated to and first performed by Thea King. * ''Fanfare, Pavan and Fughetta'' for alto, tenor and bass trombones (1980) * Trombone Octet (1981) * Cello Serenade (published 1984) commissioned by Ross Pople, funded by the Eastern Arts Association * Concerto for Timpani and Wind Band (1984) * ''Denbigh Suite'' for String Orchestra (or String Quartet) (1929), ''for Howell's School, Denbigh'' * Clarinet Concertino (arranged from two violin sonatas of

Giuseppe Tartini Giuseppe Tartini (8 April 1692 – 26 February 1770) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era born in Pirano in the Republic of Venice (now Piran, Slovenia). Tartini was a prolific composer, composing over a hundred pieces for the ...

) * Two Madrigals for Trombone Choir (manuscript)

Books

* ''Orchestral Technique'' (1931) * ''How to Read a Score'' (1944) * ''The Composer and his Art'' (1955) * ''The Elements of Orchestration'' (1962)

References and sources

References

Sources

* *

External links

*Official site
gordonjacob.net
*
Cradle Song from Five Pieces (in the form of a Suite) For Harmonica and Piano
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jacob, Gordon 1895 births 1984 deaths 20th-century English classical composers 20th-century English male musicians Academics of the Royal College of Music Alumni of the Royal College of Music Brass band composers British Army personnel of World War I British World War I prisoners of war Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Composers from London Concert band composers English light music composers English male classical composers Fellows of the Royal College of Music People educated at Dulwich College Pupils of Charles Villiers Stanford World War I prisoners of war held by Germany English music arrangers