Walter Cecil Macfarren (28 August 1826 – 20 September 1905) was an English pianist, composer and conductor, and a teacher 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 ...

. His students included

Stewart Macpherson (Charles) Stewart Macpherson (29 March 1865 – 27 March 1941) was an English musician of Scottish descent. He was born in Liverpool, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London with both George Alexander Macfarren and Walter Cecil Macf ...

Tobias Matthay Tobias Augustus Matthay (19 February 185815 December 1945) was an English pianist, teacher, and composer. Biography Matthay was born in Clapham, Surrey, in 1858 to parents who had come from northern Germany and eventually became naturalised Brit ...

and

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 ...

Early life

Macfarren was born in London in 1826, youngest son of the dramatist

George Macfarren George Macfarren (1788–1843) was a playwright and the father of composer George Alexander Macfarren. Life He was born in London 5 September 1788. He was the son of George Macfarren. He was educated chiefly at Archbishop Tenison's school in Cas ...

, and brother of the musician Sir

George Alexander Macfarren Sir George Alexander Macfarren (2 March 181331 October 1887) was an English composer and musicologist. Life George Alexander Macfarren was born in London on 2 March 1813 to George Macfarren, a dancing-master, dramatic author and journalist, wh ...

. In his fourth year he showed gifts for music; he was a choir-boy at

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

under

James Turle James Turle (5 March 1802 – 28 June 1882) was an English organist and composer, best known today as the writer of several widely sung Anglican chants and the hymn tune "Westminster" sung to the words of Frederick William Faber "My God, how wonde ...

(1836–41), and sang at the

coronation of Queen Victoria The coronation of Queen Victoria, Victoria as queen of the United Kingdom took place on Thursday, 28 June 1838, just over a year after she succeeded to the throne of the United Kingdom at the age of 18. The ceremony was held in Westminster Abbey ...

. When his voice broke, he had thoughts of becoming an artist, and took some lessons in painting, and then served as salesman in a piano shop in Brighton. At the persuasion of his brother, Macfarren entered the

in October 1842, studying the piano under W. H. Holmes and composition under his brother and

Cipriani Potter Philip Cipriani Hambly Potter (3 October 1792 – 26 September 1871) was an English musician. He was a composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. After an early career as a performer and composer, he was a teacher in the Royal Academy of Musi ...

Career

In January 1846 Macarren became a Sub-professor of the pianoforte, and remained on the staff of the Royal Academy for fifty-seven years, for many years lecturing there six times annually and teaching the piano. His many pupils included

Ethel Mary Boyce Ethel Mary Boyce (5 October 1863 – 3 March 1936) was an English composer, pianist and teacher. Boyce was born and resided in Chertsey, Surrey, daughter of Justice of the peace George Boyce (1832–1914). She studied piano at the Royal Academy ...

Dora Bright Dora Estella Knatchbull (née Bright; 16 August 1862 – 16 November 1951) was a British composer and pianist. She composed works for orchestra, keyboard and voice, and music for opera and ballet, including ballets for performance by the dancer ...

, Llewela Davies,

and

Agnes Zimmermann Agnes Marie Jacobina Zimmermann (5 July 1847 14 November 1925) was a German concert pianist and composer who lived and worked in England, where she enjoyed a fifty-year performance career, one of the longest unbroken spans before the public.Wilso ...

. The assessment of the ''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' was that "He always remained a sound performer of the older school. He composed many small but solid piano pieces, natural, pleasing, and always highly finished in style, recalling

Felix 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 music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions inc ...

and

William Sterndale Bennett Sir William Sterndale Bennett (13 April 18161 February 1875) was an English composer, pianist, conductor and music educator. At the age of ten Bennett was admitted to the London Royal Academy of Music (RAM), where he remained for ten years. B ...

." Macfarren's vocal works included two church services and many short secular pieces; the part-song "You stole my Love" was successful. He produced an overture to ''The Winter's Tale'' (1844); an overture to ''The Taming of the Shrew'' (1845); and ''Beppo'', a concert overture (1847). From 1873 to 1880 he conducted the concerts at the Royal Academy, and from 1877 to 1880 was treasurer of 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 ...

. Resuming the composition of large works, he produced with success at

Wilhelm Kuhe Wilhelm Kuhe (10 December 1823 – 8 October 1912) was a Czech pianist and piano teacher, composer and administrator born in the city of Prague (modern-day Czech Republic), in the first half of the nineteenth century. Life He exhibited a precocio ...

's Brighton Festivals his ''Pastoral Overture'' (1878), ''Hero and Leander'' (1897), and a Symphony in B flat (1880). A reviewer of the symphony wrote: "The merit of this composition is unquestionable, and nothing but a sustained manner of its own is wanting to place it, as a work of high pretension, beyond the pale of criticism. Mozart, Mendelssohn and Sterndale Bennett, however, continually peeping out, the impression is in a great degree what may be termed kaleidoscopic.... Apart from these considerations, the symphony is interesting throughout...." In 1881 he wrote a concert-piece for piano and orchestra, written for his pupil Miss Kuhe, and the only large composition of his to be printed; and he produced an overture to ''Henry V'' at the Norwich Festival. Macfarren was appointed musical critic to '' The Queen'' newspaper in 1862, and contributed articles until his death. For the music publishers Ashdown and Parry (afterwards Edwin Ashdown) he edited ''Popular Classics'', which reached 240 numbers; he also edited Mozart's complete piano works and Beethoven's sonatas. His complete ''Scale and Arpeggio Manual'' appeared in 1882. On the occasion of his jubilee in 1896 Macfarren founded two prizes, gold medals for pianoforte playing, at the Royal Academy. In 1904 he retired from all active work, save that of contributor to ''The Queen''. He published in the summer of 1905 an autobiography, ''Memories''.

Personal life

Macfarren married Julia Fanner in 1852, the daughter of an artist: she died in 1902 without issue.

Death

Macfarren died in London on 2 September 1905, and was buried in

St Pancras and Islington Cemetery St Pancras and Islington Cemetery is a cemetery in East Finchley, North London. Although it is situated in the London Borough of Barnet, it is run as two cemeteries, owned by two other London Boroughs, London Borough of Camden, Camden (formerl ...

References

Attribution *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Macfarren, Walter Cecil 1826 births 1905 deaths 19th-century English classical composers 19th-century British conductors (music) 19th-century English musicians 20th-century English classical pianists Academics of the Royal Academy of Music Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music English male conductors (music) English male pianists Burials at St Pancras and Islington Cemetery English conductors (music) English male classical composers 19th-century British classical pianists