Percy Pitt (4 January 1869 – 23 November 1932) was an English

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

, conductor,

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, and Director of Music of 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 ...

from 1924 to 1930.

Biography

A native of

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 ...

, Pitt studied music in Europe at the

Leipzig conservatory The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig () is a public university in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn as the Conservatorium der Musik (Conservatory of Music), it is the oldest music ...

with Carl Reinecke and Salomon Jadassohn,James Duff Brown, Stephen Samuel Stratton. ''British Musical Biography'' (1897), p. 321 then 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 ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

with Josef Rheinberger, and for six months in Berlin. Returning home in 1893, he became associated with the

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 ...

which Robert Newman (an old family friend) had helped to build in 1893 and put on the first series of Promenade Concerts there in 1895. Pitt took over as accompanist at Queen's Hall in 1896 and accompanied the sung solo items at the first of

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 ...

's Prom concerts in August 1897.BBC Proms archive search
Accessed 3 January 2016. He was appointed by Henry ('Harry') Higgins in late 1902 as Music Advisor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (where

André Messager André Charles Prosper Messager (; 30 December 1853 – 24 February 1929) was a French composer, organist, pianist and conductor. His compositions include eight ballets and thirty , opérettes and other stage works, among which his ballet (1 ...

was Musical Director), also acting as musical coach and assistant stage conductor. He was assistant to Hans Richter in 1903, preparing the chorus and orchestra for a complete '' 'Ring''' cycle (given twice) under Richter's baton.The performances were "busting," according to Pitt in a letter to

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 ...

, "but I need not tell you how great Richter was..." .The very first complete 'Ring' in England was conducted by Anton Seidl at

Her Majesty's Theatre His Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated in the Haymarket, London, Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The building, designed by Charles J. Phipps, was constructed in 1897 for the actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who ...

, 5–9 May 1882
"Wagner's music in England"
''Musical Times'', Vol. 47, No. 763, 1 September 1906, p. 593), and

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...

gave the first at Covent Garden in 1896: . Richter had given the very first complete ''Ring'' at the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival () is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of stage works by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a special ...

in 1876. Richter conducted the Ring (in German) at Covent Garden in 1905, '06 and '07. Pitt became Director of Music at Covent Garden in 1907 after Messager's departure. In 1908, he was again Richter's assistant in a highly regarded production of

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

's '' Ring of the Nibelung'' sung in English. His association with Richter gives special interest to his recordings of extracts from the ''Ring'' (1908 and 1921-2: all made for

His Master's Voice His Master's Voice is an entertainment trademark featuring a dog named Nipper, curiously peering into the horn of a wind-up gramophone. Painted by Francis Barraud in 1898, the image has since become a global symbol used across consumer elect ...

). He remained with the company until 1915, when he joined the Beecham Opera Company as conductor. There he remained until 1920, when he became director of the British National Opera Company; he stayed with that company until 1924, when he was again associated with the Beecham Opera company. From May 1923 he was Musical Director of the

British Broadcasting Company The British Broadcasting Company Limited (BBC) was a short-lived British commercial broadcasting company formed on 18 October 1922 by British and American electrical companies doing business in the United Kingdom. Licensed by the British Gener ...

(succeeding L. Stanton Jefferies, who remained with the company in another role), becoming full-time Director of Music in November 1924, remaining there through its 1927 transition from the commercial to public sector, as the

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

, and until he was succeeded by

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 1930. Pitt died in London in 1932.

Conducting skills

"His conducting methods were a trifle peculiar. He had a habit of burying his head in the score and waving his arms over his head like a gesticulating stag-beetle... This habit rather detracted from the personal magnetism which great conductors exercise, owing to the orphaned orchestra seeing nothing less abstract than a baton."

Composer

Pitt's reputation as a composer, strong in his early career, has been completely eclipsed, with no sign of any modern revival in interest.

gave the first performances of most of his major works after 1896, starting with the ''Coronation March'' and the miniature suite ''Fêtes galantes'' that year. Pitt wrote a Clarinet Concerto for Manuel Gomez in 1897 and a ''Ballade'' for violin and orchestra for Eugène Ysaÿe in 1900. Pieces heard more than once at

The Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

included the ''Air de Ballet'', Op. 1 for violin and piano (1899 and 27 performance up until 1925), and the orchestral works ''Dance Rhythms'' (1901 and 1903), ''Oriental Rhapsody'' (1902, 1905, 1918, 1920) and ''An English Rhapsody'' (1911 and 1929). His G minor Sinfonietta (or Symphony) was written at the request of Hans Richter, who conducted it at the 1906

Birmingham Triennial Music Festival The Birmingham Triennial Musical Festival, in Birmingham, England, founded in 1784, was the longest-running European classical music, classical music festival of its kind. It last took place in 1912. History The first music festival, over th ...

. Pitt also wrote stage music, including the incidental music to

Stephen Phillips Stephen Phillips (28 July 1864 – 9 December 1915) was an English poet and dramatist, who enjoyed considerable popularity early in his career. Biography He was born at Summertown near Oxford, the son of the Rev. Stephen Phillips, precento ...

's play ''Paolo and Francesca'' (1902). There are many piano pieces and songs. One of his biggest successes as a composer came with the song ''Sérénade du passant'' (1913), performed by Luisa Tetrazzini at her first Queen's Hall appearance in 1917. Arthur Jacobs. 'Pitt, Percy' in ''Grove Music Online'' (2001)

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

* (Edited from Pitt's unpublished MS autobiography) *David Ewen, ''Encyclopedia of the Opera: New Enlarged Edition''. New York; Hill and Wang, 1963. * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pitt, Percy 1869 births 1932 deaths English classical organists English conductors (music) English male conductors (music) Pupils of Salomon Jadassohn BBC music executives English male classical organists