Rosabel Grace Watson (September 1865 – 5 October 1959) was an English conductor, theatre music director and all-round musician. She was the founder of the first all-female orchestra in the UK.

Education and early career

Watson became interested in music by regularly attending the August Manns concerts at

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

in the late 1870s. In 1880 she began her professional training at the

Guildhall School of Music The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz along with dram ...

, studying piano with Lindsay Sloper.Hoffmann, Freia. (2002
Rosabel Watson, biography
''Sophie Drinker Institut'' (in German) She was described in ''Etude Magazine'' as "a first-rate all-round musician and a most capable conductor. She is the best woman horn-player in England, and plays the piano and all the stringed instruments extremely well, especially the double bass".Florence G. Fidler

in ''Etude Magazine'', October 1901 After graduating Watson was active as a soloist and chamber music musician from the early 1880s. She taught music in schools and composing and conducting theatre music. She performed in and arranged concerts at venues including the People's Palace, Mile End and

Toynbee Hall Toynbee Hall is a charitable institution that works to address the causes and impacts of poverty in the East End of London and elsewhere. Established in 1884, it is based in Commercial Street, Spitalfields, and was the first university-affili ...

. With her friend the pianist Anne Mukle she worked on philanthropic music and drama productions in one of the poorest areas of London,

Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common la ...

.Paula Gillett. ''Musical Women in England, 1870-1914'' (2000), p. 60-62 In 1911 she was appointed director of music at the Institute School of Music in

Hampstead Garden Suburb Hampstead Garden Suburb is a suburb of London, north of Hampstead, west of Highgate and east of Golders Green. It is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations. It is an example of early twentieth-century ...

(founded by social reformer

Henrietta Barnett Dame Henrietta Octavia Weston Barnett, DBE (''née'' Rowland; 4 May 1851 – 10 June 1936) was an English social reformer, educationist, and author. She and her husband, Samuel Augustus Barnett, founded the first "University Settlement" at ...

), until it closed down at the outbreak of war in 1914.

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 ...

was president of the school and lectures were given there by

Gustav Holst Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite ''The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...

Frank Bridge Frank Bridge (26 February 187910 January 1941) was an English composer, violist and conductor. Life Bridge was born in Brighton, the ninth child of William Henry Bridge (1845–1928), a violin teacher and variety theatre conductor, formerly a ...

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 ...

. Cellist May Mukle (sister of Anne and a member of the Aeolian Orchestra) was on the teaching staff.

Aeolian Ladies' Orchestra

In 1886 Watson founded the Aeolian Ladies’ Orchestra, said to have been the first all-female orchestra in the UK. In her years on the concert circuit she had already worked with many of the leading female musicians of the day, including violinist Kitty Althaus, oboist Leila Bull, the Chaplin sisters (Nellie, Kate and Mabel), Clara Farrow (horn), Catherine Fidler (trumpet), Anna Lang (violin), Constance Moss (trombone), the Mukle sisters (Lilian, Anne and May), Lucy Mumby (bassoon), flautists Anita Paggi and Edith Penville, Beatrice Pettit (cornet) and clarinetist Frances Thomas. The orchestra, which flourished in the 1890s and still performed occasionally over the following two decades, employed many of these and other female students and scholars who had trained 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 ...

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 ...

and Guildhall School of Music. The orchestra toured nationally - including engagements at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

(1896) and in

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, and also played at many

suffrage Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

gatherings. Other women only orchestras of this era included the English Ladies' Orchestral Society, the Haresfoot Ladies' Band, the Lady William Lennox's Orchestra and Mrs. Hunt's Ladies' Orchestra.

Theatre music

Watson became an authority on incidental music for the theatre, mostly, but not exclusively

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

. She frequently worked in Stratford at the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

as a music director, from 1916 up until around 1944, often with

Donald Wolfit Sir Donald Wolfit (born Donald Woolfitt; 20 April 1902 – 17 February 1968) was an English actor-manager, known for his touring productions of Shakespeare. He was especially renowned for his portrayal of King Lear. Born to a conventional midd ...

and also with

William Poel William Poel (22 July 1852 – 13 December 1934) was an English actor, theatrical manager and dramatist best known for his presentations of Shakespeare. Life and career A son of William Pole, he grew up among Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood paint ...

and the

Elizabethan Stage Society The Elizabethan Stage Society was a theatrical society dedicated to putting on productions of drama from the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, particularly (but not exclusively) those of William Shakespeare. It was founded in 1895 by William Poel. It ...

. She selected, arranged and sometimes composed the incidental music as well as conducting, though the extent of her contribution is not always clear. For the 1925 production of ''King John'', for instance, the surviving score and parts do not name any composer. Typically she is credited as musical director and/or arranger. She also worked between 1933 and 1953 at the

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre Regent's Park Open Air Theatre is an open-air theatre in Regent's Park in central London, established in 1932. Originally known for its Shakespearean productions, the theatre now features a wide variety of performances, including musicals, ope ...

under Robert Atkins, who was in charge there from 1932 until 1961.Sandland, Richard
''Rosabel Watson, The Suffragist Pioneer'', RSC
www.southbanksinfonia.co.uk For instance, she directed the music for ''Twelfth Night'' (1934) and the 1937 production of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (using

Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonie ...

's music) featuring

Leslie French Leslie Richard French (23 April 1904 – 21 January 1999) was a British actor of stage and screen. French was primarily a theatre actor, as well as a director, singer and dancer, with a varied career that included the classics, music ...

as Bottom and

Fay Compton Virginia Lilian Emmeline Compton-Mackenzie, (; 18 September 1894 – 12 December 1978), known professionally as Fay Compton, was an English actress. She appeared in several films, and made many broadcasts, but was best known for her stage per ...

as Titania. She also conducted elsewhere, such as the

Ballet Rambert Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingd ...

's performances at the Arts Theatre in Cambridge in December 1943.

Final years

Watson continued to work regularly into her old age. One of the last theatre music performances she is credited with was a July 1956 production of ''Twelfth Night'' at the Open Air Theatre. Watson died in London on 5 October 1959 at the age of 94.Obituary, ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 100, No. 1401 (November 1959), p. 619 Her papers, including original manuscripts, are held at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin, among the papers of actress Chris Castor and Castor's husband Donald Wolfit.Chris Castor. An Inventory of Her Papers at the Harry Ransom Center
norman.hrc.utexas.edu

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Rosabel 1865 births 1959 deaths Women horn players Fellows of the Royal Academy of Music Musicians from London 20th-century British musicians 20th-century British classical musicians 20th-century English women musicians 20th-century British conductors (music) 19th-century British conductors (music) British women conductors (music) Women's orchestras