Roy Galbraith Henderson CBE (4 July 1899 – 16 March 2000) was a British

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

singer, conductor and teacher. Born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and raised in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

, Henderson began singing in public during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, entertaining his army colleagues. After the war he enrolled 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 ...

(RAM) in London, where he won numerous prizes. Professionally he came to public notice in 1925 deputising at short notice in the difficult and important baritone part in

Frederick Delius file:Fritz Delius (1907).jpg, Delius, photographed in 1907 Frederick Theodore Albert Delius (born Fritz Theodor Albert Delius; ; 29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934) was an English composer. Born in Bradford in the north of England to a prospero ...

's '' A Mass of Life'' at a London concert. He maintained a successful concert career for the next 27 years, taking part in the premieres of many works by British composers. Henderson appeared in opera in two seasons at

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

in 1928 and 1929, and was a founding member of the company of the

Glyndebourne Festival Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England. History Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, e ...

, singing there in every season from 1935 to 1939. He was also well known as a recitalist, performing classic and new songs. He made many recordings, mainly for the

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label * Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, musical theater record label * Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...

company, although he is particularly remembered for recordings from Glyndebourne and a 1938 Columbia recording of

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 ...

's '' Serenade to Music'' in which Henderson and fifteen other leading British singers took part. In addition to singing he was a conductor, mostly of choral music, and made some recordings in that capacity. From the start of his career Henderson aimed to be a teacher of singing. He took pupils from the late 1920s onwards, and was a professor at the RAM from 1940. In 1953 he retired from public performance and devoted himself to full-time teaching. Among his many pupils the best-known was Kathleen Ferrier, and others included Jennifer Vyvyan (soprano), Constance Shacklock (mezzo-soprano),

Norma Procter Norma Procter (15 February 1928, Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire – 2 May 2017, Grimsby)Thomas Round (tenor) and John Shirley-Quirk and Derek Hammond-Stroud (baritones).

Early years

Henderson was born in

, the third child and elder son of the Rev Alexander Roy Henderson and his wife, Jean Boyd, ''née'' Galbraith. Alexander Henderson was minister of the Augustine Congregational Church between 1895 and 1902, when he moved to England to take charge of Castle Gate Congregational Church,

. Henderson attended Nottingham High School, where he received a classical education and became captain of the cricket team."Roy Henderson", ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 17 March 2000, p. 27 During the

Henderson served in the Artists Rifles and the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment.Steane J. B
"Henderson, Roy Galbraith"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2006. In his hut were two well-known baritones, Percy Heming and Charles Mott, the latter being particularly helpful to him. Henderson joined an army concert party entertaining the troops, and he began learning the knack of what he called "putting it over" to an audience. According to his colleague Keith Falkner, it was then that Henderson learned to sing in public, "practising what was to become a flexible and immaculate voice during late-night sentry duty". Before he returned to civilian life he auditioned for a well-known

bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three ...

, Robert Radford, who recommended a career as a singer: "He told me the raw material was there, and the rest depended on myself". After the war Henderson gained a government grant of £150 a year to study at the

(RAM)."Singer's Leap to Fame", '' The Daily News'', 4 April 1925, p. 7 There he won thirteen awards, including the Betjemann gold medal for singing, the Worshipful Company of Musicians' medal, and the medal for the most distinguished student of the year. In addition, he led the RAM's cricket team against 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 ...

, captained by Falkner, who later described his opposite number as "a passionate sportsman, playing cricket (a crafty spin-bowler) and football (a tenacious goalkeeper)".Falkner, Sir Keith
"Roy Henderson: Baritone and singing teacher whose life spanned a century of music"
''The Guardian'', 17 March 2000 While still a student Henderson made his first broadcast in August 1922, for the

Marconi Company The Marconi Company was a British telecommunications and engineering company founded by Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 which was a pioneer of wireless long distance communication and mass media broadcasting, eventually becoming on ...

, shortly before the establishment 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 ...

. Senior students could be appointed sub-professors − assistants to faculty members − and while serving in that capacity Henderson decided in 1923 that when he reached the age of fifty he would retire from singing and devote himself to teaching. Before the end of the 1920s he was giving private lessons in "voice production and the interpretation of song" alongside his singing career. On 27 March 1926 Henderson married Bertha Collin Smyth (1901–1985), a fellow student from the RAM. They had a son and two daughters.

Singing career

Concerts

In April 1925 Henderson came to public notice by stepping in at short notice to sing the baritone part in Delius's '' A Mass of Life'' at 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 ...

for the

Royal Philharmonic Society The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) is a British music society, formed in 1813. Its original purpose was to promote performances of instrumental music in London. Many composers and performers have taken part in its concerts. It is now a memb ...

when the intended soloist, Percy Heming, withdrew.Lloyd, p. 3 A London newspaper reported the next day: Singing from memory was Henderson's lifelong preference. He found it inhibiting to have to look at a score while singing. After his 1925 success in ''A Mass of Life'' he sang in all further British performances of the work − thirteen in all − between then and 1946.Blyth, Alan
"Henderson, Roy (Galbraith)"
''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2004 Six were conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham, whom Henderson admired, although finding himself instinctively more in rapport with Sir Hamilton Harty: "I felt with Harty that there was a sort of joint effort − whatever I did he responded to, and whatever he did I responded to".Lloyd, p. 6 After a performance of the ''Mass of Life'' with Harty in 1932 Delius wrote to Henderson saying that it had been the best performance he had heard. The composer sent him a signed photograph inscribed "To the unequalled interpreter of Zarathustra". He asked for Henderson as soloist in his '' Sea Drift'', and in 1933 Henderson sang in the premiere of Delius's ''Idyll'' at a promenade concert under Sir Henry Wood. With Beecham, Henderson performed Delius's '' Songs of Sunset'' and ''An Arabesque'' at the 1934 Leeds Festival. Other works by British composers in which Henderson was soloist at the first performance include Bliss's ''Serenade for Orchestra and Voice'', under

Malcolm Sargent Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent (29 April 1895 – 3 October 1967) was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works. The musical ensembles with which he was associated include ...

(1929),

Dyson Dyson may refer to: * Dyson (surname), people with the surname Dyson * Dyson (company), a Singaporean multinational home appliances company founded by James Dyson * Dyson (crater), a crater on the Moon * Dyson (operating system), a Unix general- ...

's '' The Canterbury Pilgrims'' under the composer (1931), Vaughan Williams's '' Five Tudor Portraits'' (1935) and '' Dona nobis pacem'' (1936), both conducted by the composer, and E. J. Moeran's ''Nocturne'' (1935). He was one of the sixteen soloists chosen for the '' Serenade to Music'' (1938), which Vaughan Williams composed as a tribute to Wood for the latter's golden jubilee as a conductor. The composer wrote the music with each soloist's voice in mind, and like the other singers, Henderson is commemorated in the published score which prints each soloist's initials alongside his or her lines, in Henderson's case "Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds". Henderson's concert repertory was wide and varied. He was closely associated with the choral works of

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 ...

, and sang under the composer's baton in ''

The Dream of Gerontius ''The Dream of Gerontius'', Opus number, Op. 38, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from The Dream of Gerontius (poem), the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man' ...

'' in 1933. Henderson was greatly admired in Elgar's '' The Apostles'', In ''

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 ...

'',

Alan Blyth Geoffrey Alan Blyth (27 July 1929 – 14 August 2007) was an English music critic, author, and musicologist who was particularly known for his writings within the field of opera. He was a specialist on singers and singing. Born in London, Blyth ...

quotes a review from ''

'': ''The Times'' called Henderson's performance of Mendelssohn's ''

Elijah Elijah ( ) or Elias was a prophet and miracle worker who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab (9th century BC), according to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah defended the worsh ...

'' "unforgettable in its dramatic eloquence" and praised the nobility of his Jesus in Bach's ''

St Matthew Passion The ''St Matthew Passion'' (), BWV 244, is a '' Passion'', a sacred oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander. It sets the 26th and 27th chapters of th ...

''.

Opera

Henderson's professional operatic career began in 1928. He had played Ford in '' Falstaff'' in RAM student productions at the Scala Theatre in 1925 and 1926, receiving strong praise, and he made a well-received record for Vocalion of a scene from the opera, singing the parts of both Ford and Falstaff. His professional debut in opera was in the 1928 international season at

. He sang Donner in ''

Das Rheingold ''Das Rheingold'' (; ''The Rhinegold''), Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, WWV 86A, is the first of the four epic poetry, epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Literary cycle, cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nib ...

'' and Kothner in ''

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditio ...

''. In the following Covent Garden season he appeared again in ''Das Rheingold'' and sang the Herald in ''

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wo ...

'', conducted respectively by

Bruno Walter Bruno Walter (born Bruno Schlesinger, September 15, 1876February 17, 1962) was a Germany, German-born Conducting, conductor, pianist, and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French people, French cit ...

and

Robert Heger Robert Heger (19 August 1886 – 14 January 1978) was a German conductor and composer from Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine. Life and career He studied at the Conservatory of Strasbourg under Franz Stockhausen, then in Zurich under Lothar Kempt ...

. Also in 1929, conducted by John Barbirolli, he played Ford in ''Falstaff'' for the British National Opera Company, opposite his RAM Falstaff, Arthur Fear. Glyndebourne 2

After 1929 Henderson made no further appearances at Covent Garden. In 1931 he was the baritone soloist in a concert performance of

Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was a Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20t ...

's opera '' Master Peter's Puppet Show'', conducted by the composer. He became closely associated with the

. In 1934 he sang Count Almaviva in ''

Le nozze di Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' (, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna ...

'' on the opening night of the festival's inaugural season and at twelve further performances in 1934 and 1935. Thereafter he appeared at Glyndebourne every year until the outbreak of 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 ...

in 1939. His other roles there were Papageno in ''

Die Zauberflöte ''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...

'' (16 performances, 1936−1937), Guglielmo in ''

Così fan tutte (''Women are like that, or The School for Lovers''), Köchel catalogue, K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written ...

'' (19 performances, 1936−1939) and Masetto in ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...

'' (36 performances, 1936−1939). Of these, his favourite roles were Papageno and Guglielmo: "not the Count which I didn't enjoy particularly. It's an angry, jealous part and I'm much more inclined to comedy". The conductor was Fritz Busch, who was, along with Harty, the conductor Henderson most liked working with.Lloyd, p. 7 In 1940 the Glyndebourne company went on tour with a production of '' The Beggar's Opera'' in which Henderson played Peachum and was scheduled to take over from Michael Redgrave as Macheath, but the fall of France and evacuation from Dunkirk forced the cancellation of the tour.

Song recitals

Throughout his singing career Henderson gave song recitals. While still a student he sang in his home town, Nottingham, as early as 1920 (in "a variety of songs more or less modern"). The accompanist Gerald Moore wrote that Henderson's "quiet unobtrusive manner concealed a probing mind and an imagination that made every song he sang vital": Moore added, "Our enjoyable work together apart, I know of no colleague with a livelier humour and keener sense of fun". The music critic Alan Blyth wrote of Henderson, "Though his voice was not intrinsically very beautiful, he used it with intelligence and charm".

Conductor and teacher

Alongside his career as a singer Henderson developed what ''The Times'' described as "a sideline as a talented and highly respected choral conductor" He was conductor of the Huddersfield Glee and Madrigal Society from 1932 to 1939, and trained the Nottingham Harmonic Society, which during the inter-war years was a particularly well known choir. In 1936 he founded the Nottingham Oriana Choir and directed it until 1952. From 1942 to 1953 he conducted the Bournemouth Municipal Choir. Henderson retired from public performance in March 1952 to concentrate on teaching, as he had long planned. By then he had been a professor at the RAM for twelve years and continued in that capacity until 1974. After retiring from the academy he continued to teach privately for many years. His pupils at the RAM and elsewhere included the sopranos Jennifer Vyvyan, Rae Woodland, Pauline Tinsley and Marie Hayward, the mezzo-sopranos Constance Shacklock and Gillian Knight, the contraltos Kathleen Ferrier and

Norma Procter Norma Procter (15 February 1928, Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire – 2 May 2017, Grimsby)Thomas Round, the baritones John Shirley-Quirk and Derek Hammond-Stroud, and the bass Hervey Alan.Obituary
''Delius Society Journal'', Autumn 2000, pp. 82−84 After Ferrier's early death, Henderson contributed a chapter on being her teacher and friend in a memorial volume edited by

Neville Cardus Sir John Frederick Neville Cardus, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (2 April 188828 February 1975) was an English writer and critic. From an impoverished home background, and mainly self-educated, he became ''The Manchester Gua ...

in 1954.

Recordings

Henderson began making records in the days of

acoustic recording A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The g ...

, and in his old age it pleased him to be, as he put it, "one of the last people alive to have sung into a horn". Some of his early recordings were included in a 1999 CD set released to mark his centenary.

Decca

Henderson had a long association with the

record company from its early days in 1929. As a singer he made these Decca recordings: :Source: Decca. As a conductor Henderson made three sets for Decca: :Source: Decca.Stuart, Philip
''Decca Classical 1929–2009''
Retrieved 25 September 2022.

Other recordings

Henderson made studio recordings for EMI and other labels; these and recordings of him singing in live concerts and broadcasts have been issued, including: :Source: Naxos Music Library.Naxos Music Library
Retrieved 5 October 2022

Last years

Until his final years Henderson continued to teach, at his house in

Belsize Park Belsize Park is a residential area of Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden, in the Inner London, inner North West London, north-west of London, England. The residential streets are lined with Georgian and Victorian villas and mews houses. ...

, London. He contributed reminiscences and comment to many BBC radio programmes in his retirement, including one in 1989 in which he and the two other surviving soloists discussed the origins and premiere of the ''Serenade to Music'' half a century earlier, and another in 1991 in which he and Falkner were in conversation with Richard Baker about their long careers."Roy Henderson"
BBG Genome. Retrieved 5 October 2022 To celebrate his hundredth birthday a compilation of his recordings was issued on compact disc, the earliest of them dating back to 1925. Henderson died at the

Musicians' Benevolent Fund Help Musicians (formerly Musicians Benevolent Fund), is a United Kingdom charity offering help for musicians throughout their careers. History It was created by Victor Beigel in 1921 as the Gervase Elwes Memorial Fund, following the death of En ...

nursing home, Ivor Newton House,

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...

, south-east London, on 16 March 2000, aged 100. He was survived by his son and one daughter; his wife and a daughter predeceased him.

Notes, references and sources

Notes

References

Sources

Books

* * * * *

Journals

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Roy 1899 births 2000 deaths 20th-century British male opera singers Artists' Rifles soldiers British Army personnel of World War I Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Decca Records artists English operatic baritones Fellows of the Royal Academy of Music British men centenarians Musicians from Edinburgh Musicians from Nottingham People educated at Nottingham High School