Kathleen Dale née Richards (29 June 1895,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

– March 3, 1984,

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...

) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

composer, pianist, musicologist and translator. She used the name Kathleen Richards for her compositions, but from 1921 used her married name Kathleen Dale for recitals, broadcasts and authorship until the end of her life.

Early life and marriage

Kathleen Richards was educated at St Felix School in

Southwold Southwold is a seaside town and civil parish on the North Sea, in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It lies at the mouth of the River Blyth, Suffolk, River Blyth in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths ...

, Suffolk. She studied piano privately with

York Bowen Edwin York Bowen (22 February 1884 – 23 November 1961) was an English composer and pianist. Bowen's musical career spanned more than fifty years during which time he wrote over 160 works. As well as being a pianist and composer, Bowen was a tal ...

from 1914 and later (from 1924) with Fanny Davies. She also studied composition privately with

Benjamin Dale Benjamin James Dale (17 July 188530 July 1943) was an English composer and academic who had a long association with the Royal Academy of Music. Dale showed compositional talent from an early age and went on to write a small but notable corpus of ...

from 1914. In 1916 she performed her ''Pastoral'' with the American violinist

Olga Rudge Olga Rudge (April 13, 1895 – March 15, 1996) was an American-born concert violinist, who had a long-term relationship with the poet Ezra Pound, by whom she had a daughter, Mary. A gifted concert violinist of international repute, her consid ...

, who became a lifelong friend. York Bowen included some of her songs (sung by his wife Sylvia) in an Aeolian Hall recital on July 4, 1916, and he performed her short piano piece ''A Dance in Spring'' at the same venue on 14 March 1919. She became Kathleen Dale by marriage to her former teacher, the pianist and composer Benjamin Dale, in 1921. They sometimes performed as a piano duet. The marriage ended in separation in 1930. She studied Swedish at

University College, London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

(1926–28) and taught harmony and music theory at the Matthay School from 1925 to 1931. Richards was a regular performer in broadcast concerts between 1927 and 1931. She became a tutor and lecturer on musical appreciation at the Worker's Educational Association from the 1940s and was as also a member of the

Society of Women Musicians The Society of Women Musicians was a British group founded in 1911 for mutual cooperation between women composers and performers, in response to the limited professional opportunities for women musicians at the time. The founders included Katharine ...

Composer and author

As a composer, her ''Minuet, Gavotte and Fugue'' for small orchestra was included in a Patron's Fund rehearsal 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 ...

with

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 ...

in 1923. But most of her surviving works are single movement chamber pieces, piano suites and part songs. Christopher Foreman picks out the two suites, ''Versailles'' (1920) and ''Greek Myths'' (1921), which he describes as "attractive pieces, well conceived for piano, with a polished feeling for harmony, akin to Bowen". A performance of ''Dance in Spring'' by Eunmi Ko is currently the only example of her music available as a recording. Under the name Kathleen Dale, she published two books, including a biography of

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period (music), Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, oft ...

in 1970 and a number of professional articles on music and music history, including entries on Swedish music for Grove's Dictionary (5th Edition). For the 'Symposium' series (edited by

Gerald Abraham Gerald Ernest Heal Abraham, (9 March 1904 – 18 March 1988) was an English musicologist, editor and music critic. He was particularly respected as an authority on Russian music. Early career and author Abraham was born at Newport, Isle of Wig ...

) she wrote chapters on the keyboard music of Handel, Schubert, Schumann and Grieg. As a scholar and editor she was the first to publish a "complete" version of Schubert's Piano Sonata in E minor (D.566) in 1948.

Later career

While staying at her parents' house in

(Fir Ridge, Hook Heath), she was for a time a close neighbour of Dame

Ethel Smyth Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (; 22 April 18588 May 1944) was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas. Smyth tended ...

, visiting her in the months before Smyth's death in 1944. As a result she was appointed Smyth's musical executor and produced a study of her works.Christopher Foreman. ''Benjamin Dale — a reassessment'', part 3 (2011)
/ref> In 1953 Richards also helped the musicologist Marion Scott complete her work on the Haydn Catalogue after Scott had been diagnosed with terminal colon cancer. Richards returned to live in Southwold (at 9b, Lorne Road) in the 1960s, and later lived in

Addlestone Addlestone ( or ) is a town in Surrey, England. It is located approximately southwest of London. The town is the administrative centre of the Runnymede (borough), Borough of Runnymede, of which it is the largest settlement. Geography Addlesto ...

, Surrey. She died in Woking at the age of 88. In ''The Times'', Derek Melville talked of her formidable knowledge of languages, and wrote: "her diminutive stature seems to have acted as a spur to her achievement and she commanded a rare intellectual authority".'Mrs Kathleen Dale', ''The Times'', 16 March 1984, p. 16

Selected works

*''Armies in the Fire'', song, text

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

* ''Dance in Spring'' for piano, op. 3 (c 1919, published by Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew) * ''The Flight'', unison or two part song (1949, published by OUP) * ''Two Pieces'', for piano (published Augener, 1948) ** 'Frozen Landscape' ** 'Whither' * ''Greek Myths'' for piano, op. 7 (1921) ** 'Echo' ** 'Ganymede' ** 'Lethe' * ''The Horn'', part song (1947) * ''Minuet, Gavotte and Fugue'' for small orchestra (1923) *''Music for piano op. 22'' * ''Music for Two'', two pianos (1934) **'Sprite' **'Starry Silence' **'Bells' **'Homage' **'Tambura' *''Pastoral'' for violin and piano (1916) *''Six Duets'' for two violins, teacher and pupil *''Two Divertimenti'' for two violins (1940) *''Versailles'' for piano, op. 2 (1920) * ''Wayfaring'' for violin and piano (1939) * ''The Window'', part song (1947) * ''Winter'', part song (1948)

Books and articles published

* ''Hours with Dominico Scarlatti'', in ''Music & Letters'', Vol. XXII, Issue 2, April 1941, pp. 115–122 *

Hans Redlich Hans Ferdinand Redlich (11 February 1903 – 27 November 1968) was an Austrian musicologist, writer, conductor and composer who, due to political disruption by the Nazi Party, lived and worked in Britain from 1939 until his death nearly thirty yea ...

, ''Monteverdi: Life and Works'' (1952), translated by Kathleen Dale * ''Nineteenth Century Piano Music - A Handbook for Pianists'', Oxford University Press (1954) * C. Saint John. ''Ethel Smyth: A Biography'' (with additional chapters by

V. Sackville-West Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (née Sackville-West; 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962), usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer. Sackville-West was a successful nov ...

and Kathleen Dale (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1959) * ''Brahms: a concertgoer's companion''. Clive Bingley (1970)

References

External links

''Dance in Spring'' (1920), Eunmi Ko, piano
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Kathleen 1895 births 1984 deaths 20th-century English classical composers English women classical composers British music educators English biographers 20th-century English classical pianists English women music educators 20th-century English women composers 20th-century English women pianists English musicologists British women musicologists