Norman Demuth (15 July 1898 – 21 April 1968) was an English composer and musicologist, remembered largely for his biographies of French composers.
Biography
Early life
Demuth was born in
Croydon
Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...
, Surrey, at 91 St James' Road. On leaving
Repton School
Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, private, boarding and day school in the public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England.
Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school which was th ...
in 1915, he volunteered as Rifleman No. 2780 with the 5th
London Regiment London Regiment may refer to two infantry regiments in the British Army:
* London Regiment (1908–1938)
The London Regiment was an infantry regiment in the British Army, part of the Territorial Force (renamed the Territorial Army in 1921). Th ...
(London Rifle Brigade) in the City of London on 17 September 1915, falsifying his age by adding one year on enlistment to seek active-service for which he was then under-age. In early March 1916 he was sent to France with a reinforcement draft to the Regiment's 1st Battalion on the
Western Front, and was wounded in the leg by shrapnel fragments from the accidental detonation of a
Mills Bomb
"Mills bomb" is the popular name for a series of British hand grenades which were designed by William Mills. They were the first modern fragmentation grenades used by the British Army and saw widespread use in the First and Second World Wars ...
on 28 June 1916 in the frontline village of
Hebuterne during the prelude of the
Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme (; ), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 Nove ...
. He was medically evacuated to England and subsequently discharged from the
British Army
The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
as medically unfit for further war service in November 1916.
In ''
Forgotten Voices of the Great War'', Demuth says:
Almost the last feather I received was on a bus. I was sitting near the door when I became aware of two women on the other side talking at me, and I thought to myself, "Oh Lord, here we go again". One lent forward and produced a feather and said, "Here's a gift for a brave soldier." I took it and said, "Thank you very much—I wanted one of those." Then I took my pipe out of my pocket and put this feather down the stem and worked it in a way I've never worked a pipe cleaner before. When it was filthy I pulled it out and said, "You know, we didn't get these in the trenches", and handed it back to her. She instinctively put out her hand and took it, so there she was sitting with this filthy pipe cleaner in her hand and all the other people on the bus began to get indignant. Then she dropped it and got up to get out, but we were nowhere near a stopping place and the bus went on quite a long way while she got well and truly barracked by the rest of the people on the bus. I sat back and laughed like mad.
In between the World Wars
Although Demuth studied for a time 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 ...
under
Thomas Dunhill and
Walter Parratt, also receiving much encouragement from the Bournemouth conductor
Dan Godfrey, he was essentially self-taught.
He played the organ in London churches and became a choral conductor.
His orchestral piece ''Selsey Rhapsody'' was one of his first compositions to be noticed. It was first performed 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 ...
under
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 1925. Further performances followed, mostly outside of London in the South East of England, where he was active as a conductor or orchestral and choral societies. One of these, for the Bogner Philharmonic Society on 1 April 1927, marked his first appearance on BBC Radio as conductor and composer. Between 1929 and 1935 Demuth was conductor of the Chichester Symphony Orchestra.
From 1930 he taught 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 ...
, and latterly at the
University of Durham
Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to ...
. Among his pupils was
Gordon Langford, whose surname was originally Colman (and who changed the name on Demuth's advice).
[Interview with Gordon Langford]
at musical-theatre.net. Retrieved 2 April 2008 Other pupils included
Norman Fulton,
King Palmer,
Hugh Shrapnel and Bob Simans.
World War II
Demuth was active in the
Home Guard
Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense.
The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting ...
and received a commission with the rank of lieutenant in the British Army on 23 October 1942. He served in the
Pioneer Corps, for whom he composed the Regimental March in 1943. During this period he also wrote a series of handbooks on military strategy, including ''Harrying the Hun: A Handbook of Scouting, Stalking and Camouflage'' (1941), and ''A Manual of Street Fighting''.
Music and writing
Greatly sympathetic to French music, Demuth wrote a number of books on the subject. The first two, on
Albert Roussel
Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (; 5 April 1869 – 23 August 1937) was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. His ...
and
Maurice Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...
, both appeared in 1947. Further books on
César Franck
César Auguste Jean Guillaume Hubert Franck (; 10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher born in present-day Belgium.
He was born in Liège (which at the time of h ...
,
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...
,
Vincent d'Indy
Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy (; 27 March 18512 December 1931) was a French composer and teacher. His influence as a teacher, in particular, was considerable. He was a co-founder of the Schola Cantorum de Paris and also taught at the Pa ...
, French Piano Music and French Opera were published over the following fifteen years. His ''Musical Trends in the 20th Century'' (1952) took a broader focus, though its judgements on German and American music are largely unsympathetic. In a scathing review in ''Tempo'',
Hans Keller, noting the hostility towards Teutonic music (especially the British émigré composers), observes that "Mr Demuth's all too transparent personal prejudices come into play" and feels obliged to sign himself off with the words "The present writer is an Austrian-born British Jew".
The French preference is evident in his own compositions, of which there were many. Demuth produced nine symphonies between 1930 and 1957, six operas between 1947 and 1959 (including ''Volpone'', 1949, and ''The Orestia'', 1950), and numerous orchestral ballets, concertos and overtures, works for military band, chamber music and songs, as well as much incidental music written for
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 ...
radio plays. His orchestral set of Ravel-inspired ''Valses graves et gaies'' were premiered at the
Proms in 1942 (postponed from 1940). Mason
[ characterises his melodic style as somewhat austere, "in which definable tunes have little part", and his harmony as ranging from intense late Romantic Franckian chromaticism (the ''Threnody'' for strings of 1942) to more brittle Stravinskian neoclassicism (''Overture for a Joyful Occasion'', 1946).
The ''Viola Concerto'' (1951) received its first performance in 1956 with Herbert Downes as soloist. Hugh Ottaway said of the work "Designed in two linked sections, one slowish, the other quick, it made an impression through its capable workmanship and sense of purpose but did not offer much of imaginative distinction. A certain monotony of rhythm and texture was acutely felt, especially in the opening section, which is a rather busy meditation whose concertante viola part is inclined to fuss and fidget." Demuth wrote his ''Processional Fanfare'' for three trumpets and organ for the enthronement of the Lord Bishop of Chichester in 1958.
]
Death
Demuth married the pianist and teacher Edna Marjorie Hardwick in November 1943. She died in March 1965. He died three years later in Chichester at the age of 69.[Obituary, ''The Times'', 22 April 1968] His pupil Gordon Langford has expressed regret at the complete neglect of Demuth's achievements as a composer.[
]
Selected compositions
Selected books and articles
References
External links
Obituary of Vaughan Williams by Demuth
in ''The Musical Times
''The Musical Times'' was an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom.
It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer's Musical Times and Singing Circular'', but in 1844 he sold it to Alfr ...
''
*
* Morgan, David.
Proms composer Demuth’s music is overdue an encore
, ''Inside Croydon'', 26 June 2022
Royal Pioneer Corps March, performed by The Band of the Royal Logistic Corps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Demuth, Norman
1898 births
20th-century English classical composers
People from Croydon
1968 deaths
British Army personnel of World War I
English male classical composers
Musicians from Surrey
20th-century English writers
20th-century English biographers
English male biographers
20th-century English male writers
20th-century English musicologists
20th-century English male musicians
London Rifle Brigade soldiers
Military personnel from the London Borough of Croydon
British Home Guard soldiers
British Army personnel of World War II
Royal Pioneer Corps officers