Saturday, December 29, 2012

The Ballads of Michael Maybrick

Speranza

 
Michael Maybrick
Michael Maybrick (31 January 1841 - 26 August 1913[1]) was an English composer and singer, best known under his pseudonym "Stephen Adams" as the composer of "The Holy City," one of the most popular and beautiful of the religious songs in English.

 

 

Born at 8 Church Alley, Liverpool, the fourth of the seven sons of William Maybrick (1815–1853?), an engraver, and his wife, Susannah (1815?–1883?), both his grandfather and father served as parish clerk at St Peter's, Liverpool, and were minor composers -- where 'minor' is subjective (cfr. Grosse, "In praise of the minor poet").

His uncle Michael Maybrick (1799–1846) was organist at St Peter's, wrote sacred music, and conducted the Liverpool Choral Society.

Having become proficient on the piano by the age of eight, the young Maybrick studied the organ with W. T. Best and at the age of fifteen became organist of St Peter's.

Maybrick also wrote anthems and had a work performed in London.

 

In 1865 Maybrick went to Leipzig to study keyboard and harmony with Carl Reinecke, Ignaz Moscheles, and Louis Plaidy, but later decided to train as a baritone with Gaetano Nava in Milan.

After gaining experience in Italian theatres, he appeared with great success in London on 25 February 1869 in Mendelssohn's Elijah.

Further success came as Telramund in Wagner's Lohengrin led to appearances with Charlotte Sainton-Dolby, including her farewell concert on 6 June 1870, and to regular engagements at the English festivals and with the Carl Rosa Opera Company.

He appeared as a baritone at all the leading concert venues in London and the provinces, as well as in English opera.

By the early 1870s Maybrick was singing his own ballads, beginning with 'A Warrior Bold’.

Published under the pseudonym Stephen Adams and mostly with lyrics by Fred Weatherly, Maybrick's achieved extraordinary popularity.

His early sea song ‘Nancy Lee’ sold more than 100,000 copies in two years.

Maybrick penned other sea songs including ‘The Tar's Farewell’, ‘They All Love Jack’, and ‘The Midshipmite’, sentimental songs such as ‘Your Dear Brown Eyes’, romanctic numbers like ‘The Children of the City’, and sacred songs like ‘The Blue Alsatian Mountains’, ‘The Star of Bethlehem’, and the well-loved ‘Holy City’.

In 1884 he tours the United States performing his own ballads.

His friends spoke of his charming personality, but others (not necessarily his enemies) thought him arrogant and vain.

 

Maybrick was a keen amateur sportsman, being a cricketer, a yachtsman and a cyclist, and a Captain in the Artists Rifles.

On 9 March 1893 he married his forty-year-old housekeeper, Laura Withers, and settled with her at Ryde on the Isle of Wight.

They were joined there by the two children of his brother, James Maybrick, later a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case, and whose wife Florence was the lead suspect and convicted of his suspicious murder in 1889 (A re-examination of her case resulted in her release in 1904).

Maybrick became chairman of the Isle of Wight Hospital, was a magistrate and was five times mayor of Ryde.

He was also a Freemason.

He had been at Buxton for three weeks being treated for periodic gout when he died in his sleep of heart failure on 26 August 1913.

He was buried four days later at Ryde.

 

  1. ^ Who's Who 1914
  2. ^ a b c d Patrick Waddington, ‘Maybrick, Michael [Stephen Adams] (1841–1913)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/46651, accessed 1 Nov 2009
  3. ^ a b The Liverpool Mercury August 12, 1913

[edit] References

  • 'Obituary: Michael Maybrick', The Musical Times, Vol. 54, No. 848 (Oct. 1, 1913), pp. 661–662

[edit] External links

   
 
 
 
 

Just a song at twilight: the ballads of J. L. Molloy

Speranza


James Lynam Molloy (c. August 1837 - 4 February 1909) was an Irish poet, author and composer.

 

James Molloy attended St Edmund's College (Ware) as a student between 1851 and 1855 along with his brother Bernard, who later became an MP.

After leaving the College, Molloy went to the Catholic University in Dublin, graduating in 1858.

He then continued his studies in London, Paris, and Bonn, being called to the Bar in 1863, although he never practised Law, but the piano.

Molloy started writing and publishing ballads (as he pretentiously called his songs) which soon became popular in concert halls -- notably St. James's Hall, in Piccadilly -- a favourite with the bourgeosie


Initially concentrating on operettas, Molloy later gained popularity with his three ballads "The Old Cottage Clock", "Bantry Bay" and "The Kerry Dance".

In 1884 he had his greatest success of all "Love's Old Sweet Song", a song since very popular with sailors, among others.

With W. S. Gilbert, he wrote several songs, including "Thady O'Flynn" (1868; used in the operetta No Cards), "Corisande" (1870) and "Eily's Reason" (1871).

He also wrote a book in 1874 called Our Autumn Holiday on French Rivers.

References

  1. ^ Kay, David J S. The People of St Edmund's College (The Edmundian Association: 2003) ISBN 0-9546125-0-7
  2. ^ Allen, Reginald (1963). W. S. Gilbert: An Anniversary Survey and Exhibition Checklist with Thirty-five Illustrations, The Biographical Society of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia

[edit] External links

   
 
 
 

Chronological List of Sullivan's 87 Drawing-Room Ballads

Speranza


****************************

1863.

"The Bride from the North"
(aka "The White Plume")
Words by Henry F. Chorley

***************************

1866.

"Arabian Love Song"
Words by Percy Bysshe Shelley

***************************

1867.

"County Guy"
Words by Walter Scott

****************************

1869a
"Dove Song"
Words by William Brough

****************************

1869b
"Birds in the Night"
Words by Lionel H. Lewin

*****************************

1874a.

"The distant shore"
Words by
W. S. Gilbert

******************************

1874b.
"Care is all  fiddle-dee-dee"
Words by F. C. Burnand

******************************

1874c.
"Ay de mi, my bird"
Words by George Eliot.

******************************

1875.
"Christmas bells at sea"
Words by  C. L. Kenney

********************************

1876
"The chorister"
Words by Fred. E. Weatherly

********************************

1894.
"Bid me at least goodbye"
Words by Sydney Grundy.

**********************************

1899.
"The absent-minded beggar"
Words by Rudyard Kipling

***********************************

1889.
"E tu nol sai"- see "You Sleep"
Words by G. Mazzucato

*************************************

1880
"Edward Gray"
Words by Alfred Tennyson

*****************************************


1887.
"Ever"
Words by Mrs Bloomfield Moore

*******************************************

1874.
"First Departure"
see The Chorister. Rev. E. Munroe

***********************************************
1867.
"Give"
Words by Adelaide A. Procter

***********************************************
1872a.
"Golden Days"
Words by Lionel H. Lewin

***********************************************

1872b.
"Guinevere"
Words by Lionel H. Lewin

**************************************************

1863.
"I heard the nightingale"
Words by C. H. Townsend

***************************************************

1868.
"I wish to tune my quiv'ring lyre"
Words by Lord Byron, after Anacreon

*******************************************************

1878.
"I Would I were a King"
Words by A. Cockburn, after V. Hugo.

********************************************************

1859.
"Ich möchte hinaus es jauchzen"
Words by A. Corrodi

*******************************************************

1866.
"If Doughty Deeds"
Words by Robert Graham of Gartmor

********************************************************

1867.
"In the Summers Long Ago"
Words by J. P. Douglas

********************************************************

Let Me Dream Again
B. C. Stephenson1875

*******************************************************

Lied, mit Thränen halbgeschriebenEichendorff1861

**********************************************************

Life that Lives for YouLionel H. Lewin1870

*************************************************************

Little Darling Sleep Again (Cradle Song)anon.1874

****************************************************************

Living PoemsH. W. Longfellow1874

******************************************************************

Longing for HomeJean Ingelow1904

***************************************************
Looking BackLouisa Gray1870

****************************************************

Looking ForwardLouisa Gray1873

********************************************************
Lost Chord, The
Adelaide A. Procter1877

***********************************************************


Love that Loves Me Not, TheW. S. Gilbert1875

***********************************************************

Maiden's Story, TheEmma Embury1867

***********************************************************

Marquis de Mincepie, TheF. C. Burnand1874

********************************************************

Mary MorisonRobert Burns1874

********************************************************

Moon in Silent Brightness, TheBishop Reginald Heber1868

**********************************************************

Mother's Dream, TheRev. W. Barnes1868

********************************************************

My Dear and Only LoveMarquis of Montrose1874

***********************************************************


My Dearest Heartanon.1874

*********************************************************

My Heart is like a Silent Lute. Benjamin Disraeli1904

*****************************************************

My Love - see "There Sits a Bird in Yonder Tree

*************************************************

My Love Beyond the Sea - see "In the Summers Long Ago"

****************************************************

None but I can sayLionel H. Lewin1872

******************************************************

O Fair Dove, O Fond DoveJean Ingelow1868

******************************************************

O IsraelHosea1855

**********************************************************

O Mistress MineWilliam Shakespeare1866

*************************************************************

O Swallow, SwallowAlfred Tennyson1900

*****************************************************************

Oh Sweet and FairA. F. C. K.1868

**********************************************************

Oh! bella mia - see "Oh! Ma Charmante"

**************************************************************

Oh! Ma CharmanteVictor Hugo1872

**************************************************************
Old Love LettersS. K. Cowen1879

***************************************************************
Once AgainLionel H. Lewin1872

****************************************************************
Orpheus with his LuteWilliam Shakespeare1866

*****************************************************************
River, Theanon.1875

******************************************************************
Roads Should Blossom, Theanon.1864

*****************************************************************

RosalindWilliam Shakespeare1866

***************************************************
Sad MemoriesC. J. Rowe1869

******************************************************

Sailor's Grave, TheH. F. Lyte1872

**********************************************************
St. Agnes' EveAlfred Tennyson1879

*************************************************************
Shadow, A.Adelaide A. Procter1886

***************************************************************
She is not Fair to Outward ViewHartley Coleridge1866

**************************************************
Sigh no More, LadiesWilliam Shakespeare1866

***************************************************

Sleep My Love, SleepR. Whyte Melville (author of Good-bye) 1874

************************************************************
Snow Lies White, TheJean Ingelow1868

*********************************************************
SometimesLady Lindsay of Balcarres1877

********************************************************

Sweet Day So CoolGeorge Herbert1864

************************************************************
Sweet Dreamer - see "Oh! Ma Charmante"

*************************************************************

SweetheartsW. S. Gilbert1875

**************************************************************
Tears, Idle TearsAlfred Tennyson1900

**************************************************************

Tender and TrueDinah Maria Mulock1874

****************************************************************
There Sits a Bird on Yonder TreeRev. C. H. Barham1873

******************************************************************
Thou art Lost to Meanon.1865

*********************************************************************
Thou art WearyAdelaide A. Procter1874

********************************************
Thou'rt Passing Hence Felicia Hemans1875

****************************************
To One in ParadiseEdgar Allan Poe1904

****************************************

1869. T"he Troubadour". Words by Walter Scott

********************************************
1870. "The Village Chimes". Words by C. J. Rowe

************************************************
1866. "A Weary Lot is Thine, Fair Maid". Words by Walter Scott

*****************************************************
1875. "We've Ploughed our Land". Words by anon.

*************************************************
1877. "When Thou art Near". Words by W. J. Stewart

***************************************************
1865. "Will He Come?" Words by Adelaide A. Procter

****************************************************
1866. "The Willow Song". Words by William Shakespeare

******************************************************
1889. "You Sleep". Words by B. C. Stephenson

The Drawing-Room Ballads of Arthur Sullivan -- A to Z

Speranza


1)

Absent-minded Beggar, The
Rudyard Kipling
1899

2)

Arabian Love Song
Percy Bysshe Shelley
1866

3)

Ay de mi, My Bird
George Eliot
1874

4)
Bid me at least Goodbye
Sydney Grundy
1894

5)
Birds in the Night
Lionel H. Lewin
1869

6)
Bride from the North
Henry F. Chorley
1863

7)
Care is all Fiddle-dee-dee
F. C. Burnand
1874

8)
Chorister, The
Fred. E. Weatherly
1876

9)
Christmas Bells at Sea
C. L. Kenney
1875

10)
County Guy
Walter Scott
1867

11)
Distant Shore, The
W. S. Gilbert
1874

12)
Dove Song
William Brough
1869

13)
E tu nol sai - see You Sleep
G. Mazzucato
1889

14)
Edward Gray
Alfred Tennyson
1880

15)
Ever
Mrs Bloomfield Moore
1887

16)
First Departure - see The Chorister
Rev. E. Munroe1874

17)
Give
Adelaide A. Procter
1867

18)
Golden Days
Lionel H. Lewin
1872

19)
Guinevere
Lionel H. Lewin
1872

20)
I Heard the Nightingale
Rev. C. H. Townsend
1863

21)
I Wish to Tune my Quiv'ring Lyre
Anacreon (trans. Lord Byron)
1868

22)
I Would I were a King
V. Hugo (trans. A. Cockburn)1878

23)
Ich möchte hinaus es jauchzen
A. Corrodi1859

24)

If Doughty DeedsRobert Graham of Gartmore1866

25)
In the Summers Long Ago
J. P. Douglas1867

26)

Let Me Dream Again
B. C. Stephenson1875

27)

Lied, mit Thränen halbgeschriebenEichendorff1861

28)
Life that Lives for YouLionel H. Lewin1870

29)
Little Darling Sleep Again
(Cradle Song)anon.1874

30)
Living PoemsH. W. Longfellow1874

31)

Longing for HomeJean Ingelow1904

32)

Looking BackLouisa Gray1870

33)

Looking ForwardLouisa Gray1873

34)

Lost Chord, The
Adelaide A. Procter1877

35)
Love that Loves Me Not, TheW. S. Gilbert1875

36)

Maiden's Story, TheEmma Embury1867

37)

Marquis de Mincepie, TheF. C. Burnand1874

38)

Mary MorisonRobert Burns1874

39)

Moon in Silent Brightness, TheBishop Reginald Heber1868

40)

Mother's Dream, TheRev. W. Barnes1868

41)

My Dear and Only LoveMarquis of Montrose1874

42)

My Dearest Heartanon.1874

43)

My Heart is like a Silent Lute
Benjamin Disraeli1904

44)
My Love - see "There Sits a Bird in Yonder Tree

45) My Love Beyond the Sea - see "In the Summers Long Ago"

46)
None but I can sayLionel H. Lewin1872

47)
O Fair Dove, O Fond DoveJean Ingelow1868

48)
O IsraelHosea1855

49)

O Mistress MineWilliam Shakespeare1866

50)

O Swallow, SwallowAlfred Tennyson1900

51)

Oh Sweet and FairA. F. C. K.1868

52)
Oh! bella mia - see "Oh! Ma Charmante"

53)

Oh! Ma CharmanteVictor Hugo1872

54)

Old Love LettersS. K. Cowen1879

55)
Once AgainLionel H. Lewin1872

56)

Orpheus with his LuteWilliam Shakespeare1866

57)
River, Theanon.1875

58)
Roads Should Blossom, Theanon.1864

59)

RosalindWilliam Shakespeare1866

60)
Sad MemoriesC. J. Rowe1869

61)

Sailor's Grave, TheH. F. Lyte1872

62)
St. Agnes' EveAlfred Tennyson1879

63)
Shadow, A.Adelaide A. Procter1886

64)
She is not Fair to Outward ViewHartley Coleridge1866

65)
Sigh no More, LadiesWilliam Shakespeare1866

66)
Sleep My Love, SleepR. Whyte Melville (author of Good-bye) 1874

67)
Snow Lies White, TheJean Ingelow1868

68)
SometimesLady Lindsay of Balcarres1877

69)

Sweet Day So CoolGeorge Herbert1864

70)
Sweet Dreamer - see "Oh! Ma Charmante"

71)
SweetheartsW. S. Gilbert1875

72)

Tears, Idle TearsAlfred Tennyson1900

73)

Tender and TrueDinah Maria Mulock1874

74)
There Sits a Bird on Yonder TreeRev. C. H. Barham1873

75)
Thou art Lost to Meanon.1865

76)
Thou art WearyAdelaide A. Procter1874

77)
Thou'rt Passing Hence
Felicia Hemans1875

78)
To One in ParadiseEdgar Allan Poe1904

79)
Troubadour, TheWalter Scott1869

80)
Village Chimes, TheC. J. Rowe1870

81)
Weary Lot is Thine, Fair Maid, AWalter Scott1866

82)
We've Ploughed our Land
anon.1875

83)
When Thou art NearW. J. Stewart1877

84)
White Plume, The - see "The Bride from the North"

85)
Will He Come?Adelaide A. Procter1865

86)
Willow Song, TheWilliam Shakespeare1866

87)
You SleepB. C. Stephenson1889

The Ballads of Cohen -- the English Schubert

Speranza

COWEN

See: Scott, "The Singing Bourgeois: Victorian drawing-room and parlour songs". Ashgate.

The Border Ballad

I will give you Rest

Buttercups and Daisies

When the Worlds is Fair

The Voice of the Father

The Swallows

Promise of Life

The Chimney Corner

The Reaper and the Flowers

The Better Land

Spinning

It was a Dream

Coweniana (H. F. Cohen) -- the English Schubert.

Speranza

 
Frederic Hymen Cowen
 
Sir Frederic Hymen Cowen (29 January 1852 – 6 October 1935), was a British pianist, conductor and composer.
 

 

 

Cowen was born "Hymen Frederick Cohen" at 90 Duke Street, Kingston, Jamaica, the fifth and last child of Frederick Augustus Cohen and Emily Cohen née Davis.
 
His siblings were Elizabeth Rose Cohen (b. 1843); actress, Henrietta Sophia Cohen (b. 1845); painter, Lionel Jonas Cohen (b. 1847) and Emma Magnay Cohen (b. 1849).
 
At four years old Frederic was brought to England, where his father became treasurer to the opera at Her Majesty's Opera, now Her Majesty's Theatre, and private secretary to William Humble Ward, 11th Lord Ward (1817–1885).
 
The family initially lived at 11 Warwick Crescent, London, in the area known as Little Venice.
 
His first teacher was Henry Russell, and his first published composition, The Minna-waltz, appeared when he was only six years old.
 
Cohen produced his first published operetta, "Garibaldi", at the age of eight.
 
With the help of the Earl of Dudley, Cohen studied the piano with Julius Benedict, and composition with John Goss
 
Cohen's first public appearance as a pianist was as an accompanist in one of his own early songs sung by Mrs Drayton at a concert in Brighton in the early 1860s.
 
Cohen's first genuine public recital was given on 17 December 1863 at the Bijou Theatre of the old Her Majesty's "Opera House", and in the following year he performed Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto in D minor at a concert given at Dudley House, Park Lane, the London home of the Earl of Dudley.
 
At the same venue a year later Cohen premiered his Pianoforte Trio in A major with Joseph Joachim playing the violin part.
 
By the Autumn of 1865 it was the judgment of his instructors, Julius Benedict and John Goss, that they could do little more to further his musical education and recommended that Cohen study in Germany.
 
By coincidence the second competition for the Mendelssohn Scholarship was due to be held that gave its winner three years of tuition at the Leipzig Conservatorium.
 
Cohen attended the examination and won the prize, but his parents intervened, as they were not prepared to give up control of him, as stipulated by the terms of the prize.
 
Instead, they agreed to send him to the same institution, but as an independent student.
 
Swinnerton Heap was awarded the prize in his place.
 
At Leipzig, overseen by Ernst Friedrich Eduard Richter, Cohen studied under Moritz Hauptmann (harmony and counterpoint), Ignaz Moscheles (piano), Carl Reinecke (composition) and Ferdinand David (ensemble work).
 
 Cohen also came into contact with Salomon Jadassohn and Ernst Wenzel, and took some private piano lessons with Louis Plaidy.
 
Cohen's fellow students and companions in Leipzig included Swinnerton Heap, Johan Svendsen, Oscar Beringer and Stephen Adams (aka Maybrick)

 

Returning home on the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War, Cohen appears as a composer for the orchestra in an Overture in D minor played at Alfred Mellon's Promenade Concerts at Covent Garden on 8 September 1866.
 
In the following autumn Cohen goes to Berlin, where he studied composition under Friedrich Kiel and Carl Taubert, and took piano lessons from Carl Tausig, enrolling at the academy created by Julius Stern, known as the Stern'sches Konservatorium.
 
A symphony (his first in C minor) and a piano concerto (in A minor) were given in St. James's Hall on 9 December 1869, and from that moment Cohen began to be recognized as primarily a composer, his talents as a pianist being subordinate, although his public appearances were numerous for some time afterwards.
 
Cohen's cantata, The Rose Maiden, was given at London in 1870, his Second Symphony in F major by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society in 1872, and his first festival work, The Corsair, in 1876 at Birmingham.
 
In that year Cohen's opera, Pauline, was given by the Carl Rosa Opera Company with moderate success. 
 
Cohen's most important work, his Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Scandinavian, which was first performed at St. James's Hall in 1880 and went on to establish itself for a decade as one of the most popular symphonic works in the repertoire, brought him some international recognition.
 
Appearing in 1880, it proved to be the most regularly and widely performed British symphony until the arrival of Elgar's First.
 
In 1884 Cohen conducts five concerts of the Philharmonic Society of London, and in 1888, on the resignation of Arthur Sullivan, became the regular conductor of that society.
 
Cohen's employment there came to an abrupt termination in 1892 when he apologised for any shortcomings in the orchestra's performance of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony before they had rendered it, due to the lack of rehearsal time that he felt he had been given.
 
The directors took umbrage at his remarks and did not renew his contract.
 
In the year of his appointment to the Philharmonic Society, 1888, he went to Melbourne as the conductor of the daily concerts given in connection with the Exhibition there for the unprecedented sum of £5,000.
 
In 1896, Cowen was appointed conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society and of the Hallé Orchestra, succeeding Sir Charles Hallé.
 
He was ousted from the Hallé after three years in favour of Hans Richter.
 
In 1899, he was reappointed conductor of the Philharmonic Society of London.
 
He also conducted the Bradford Festival Choral Society, the Bradford Permanent Orchestra, the Scottish Orchestra (now known as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra) and the Handel Festivals at The Crystal Palace for some years, as well as being a regular attendee at many British music festivals, both as conductor and composer.
 
Cowen’s career, both as composer and conductor, is now almost forgotten -- except among Scott, Speranza, and others -- who LOVE him.
 
Although Cohen regards himself primarily as a symphonist, he was most successful in lighter orchestral pieces when treating fantastic or fairy subjects, where his gifts for graceful melody and colourful orchestration are shown to best advantage.
 
Whether in his cantatas for female voices, his charming Sleeping Beauty, his Water Lily or his pretty overture, The Butterfly's Ball (1901), he succeeds in finding graceful expression for the poetical idea.
 
His dance music, such as is to be found in various orchestral suites, is refined, original and admirably instrumented.
 
Much of his more serious music is commendable rather than inspired and seldom successful in portraying the graver aspects of emotion.
 
Indeed, his choral works, written for the numerous musical festivals around Victorian and Edwardian Britain, typify the public taste of his time.
 
Of his 300 or so "ballads", they encompass everything from the popular parlour or drawing room "bourgeois" ballad to the high art song, the latter of which led him to be described as the 'English Schubert' in 1898.
 
Indeed, the vogue of his semi-sacred songs has been widespread.
 
Cohen received honorary doctorates from Cambridge and Edinburgh in 1900 and 1910 respectively, and was knighted at St. James's Palace on 6 July 1911.
 
Cohen married Frederica Gwendoline Richardson at St. Marylebone Registry Office, London, 23 June 1908.
 
She was 30 years his junior and they had no issue. 
 
Cohen died on 6 October 1935 and was buried at the Jewish Cemetery, Golders Green.
 
His wife died at Hove, Sussex, in 1971.

 

 Operas

Lyceum, London, 1876.
 
Drury Lane, London, 1890
 
in 3 Acts, Teatro dal Verme, Milan, 1893 and later reduced to 2 Acts, Covent Garden, London 1894
 
Covent Garden, London, 1895

Operettas

Garibaldi (1860)
One Too Many (1874)
The Spirit of Carnival (unfinished operetta, 1918?)
Comedy-Opera (unperformed comedy opera, 1921)

Other stage works and incidental music

The Maid of Orleans (incidental music, 1871)
Monica's Blue Boy (pantomime, 1917)
Cupid's Conspiracy (comedy ballet, 1918)
The Enchanted Cottage (incidental music, 1922)

Oratorios

The Deluge (1878)
Ruth (1887)
Jephthah (unfinished, 1900)

Sacred cantatas

St. Ursula (1881)
The Transfiguration (1895)

 Secular cantatas

The Rose Maiden (1870)
The Corsair (1876)
The Sleeping Beauty (1885)
St. Johns Eve (1889)
The Fairies' Spring (female voices, 1891)
The Water Lily (1893)
  • Village Scenes (female voices, 1893)
  • Summer on the River (female voices, 1893)
  • Christmas Scenes (female voices, 1894)
  • The Rose of Life (female vvoices, 1895)
  • A Daughter of the Sea (female voices, 1896)

Other choral works

  • A Song of Thanksgiving (1888)
  • In Memoriam Ode to Carl Rosa (1890)
  • All Hail the Glorious Reign (1897)
  • Ode to the Passions (1898)
  • Coronation Ode (1902)
  • John Gilpin (1904)
  • He Giveth His Belovèd Sleep (1907)
  • The Veil (1910)
  • What shall we Dance? (1914)

[edit] Works for soloist and orchestra

  • The Dream of Endymion (1897)

[edit] Symphonies

  • Symphony No. 1 in C minor (1869)
  • Symphony No. 2 in F major (1872)
  • Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Scandinavian (1880)
  • Symphony No. 4 in B flat minor, The Welsh (1884)
  • Symphony No. 5 in F major (1887)
  • Symphony No. 6 in E major, Idyllic (1897)

[edit] Orchestral works

  • Overture in D minor (1866)
  • Festival Overture (for Norwich Festival) (1872)
  • The Language of Flowers, Suite de ballet, Set 1 (1880)
  • Sinfonietta in A major (1881)
  • Niagara, Characteristic Overture in C major (1881)
  • In the Olden Time, Suite in D major for Strings (1883)
  • Barbaric March (1883)
  • Deux Morceaux (1883)
  • March (for Folkestone Exhibition) (1886)
  • Overture in D major (for Liverpool Exhibition) (1886)
  • In Fairyland, Suite de ballet (1896)
  • Four English Dances in the Olden Style, Set 1 (1896)
  • The Butterfly's Ball, Concert Overture (1901)
  • A Phantasy of Life and Love (1901)
  • Coronation March (1902)
  • Indian Rhapsody (1903)
  • Two Pieces (for small orchestra) (1903)
  • Reverie (1903)
  • Suite of Old English Dances, Set 2 (1905)
  • The Months (1912)
  • The Language of Flowers, Suite de ballet, Set 2 (1914)
  • The Magic Goblet -- The Luck of Edenhall (1934)
  • Miniature Variations (1934)

[edit] Concertos

  • Piano Concerto in A minor (1869)
  • Concertstück, a fantasia for piano and orchestra written for and played by Paderewski (1900)

[edit] Chamber music

  • Piano Trio No. 1 in A major (1865)
  • Piano Trio No. 2 in A minor (1868)
  • String Quartet in C minor (1866)

[edit] BALLADS

The following are among the over 300 songs written by Cowen:[4]

The Border Ballad

 will give you Rest

Buttercups and Daisies

When the Worlds is Fair

The Voice of the Father

The Swallows

Promise of Life

The Chimney Corner

The Reaper and the Flowers

The Better Land

Spinning

It was a Dream

Notes

^ Winston James Baltzell, Complete History of Music. For Schools, Clubs, and Private Reading., pg. 500, Adamant Media Corporation (2001), ISBN 0-543-90739-2
^ Lionel Carley, Edvard Grieg in England, pg. 88, Boydell Press (2006), ISBN 1-84383-207-0
 
^ Michael Kennedy, The Hallé tradition: a century of music, pg. 110, Manchester University Press, (1960), ISBN 0-7190-0213-3
 
^ These songs are advertised on the back cover of songs published by Boosey & Co in 1899 and 1900

[edit] References



[edit] External links

 
 
 
 

Friday, December 28, 2012

The Mines of Sulphur (1963) -- an opera by Richard Rodney Bennett

Speranza

"The Mines of Sulphur" is an opera in three acts by Richard Rodney Bennett, his first full-length opera, composed in 1963.

Beverley Cross wrote the libretto, based on his play Scarlet Ribbons, at the suggestion of Colin Graham, who eventually directed the first production in 1965.

The opera is dedicated to Benjamin Britten, whose Aldeburgh Festival had originally commissioned the opera.

"The Mines of Sulphur" premiered on 24 February 1965 at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London.

It received numerous subsequent performances, including in Cologne, Marseille, Milan, Toronto, Los Angeles, and New York City (at the Juilliard School).

Most productions were well received, except for one directed by John Huston at La Scala.

After the mid-1970s, however, the work was mostly forgotten, until a popular revival by Glimmerglass Opera in 2004.

The Glimmerglass production was then brought to the New York City Opera, and also commercially recorded in 2005.

It had 7 performances at Wexford Festival Opera in 2008.


Roles
Role -- Voice type -- Premiere Cast, February 24, 1965
(Conductor: Colin Davis)

Boconnion, a deserter tenor Gregory Dempsey
Tovey, a tramp baritone Gwin Griffiths
Rosalind, a gypsy mezzo-soprano Joyce Blackham
Braxton, a landowner bass-baritone Frank Olegario
Jenny, an actor soprano Catherine Wilson
Leda, an actor contralto Ann Howard
Fenney, an actor tenor David Hillman
Tooley, an actor baritone David Bowman
Sherrin, an actor/manager bass Harold Blackburn
Trim, a mute silent (mime/dancer)John Fryatt


The opera is set in an old, decaying West Country manor house, in the mid-18th century.

Rosalind has returned to the manor of Braxton, her master, where she had formerly been a servant and where Braxton had been treating her abusively.

Boconnion, a military deserter wanted on charges of killing a man, and the tramp Tovey arrive.

Boconnion, Tovey and Rosalind conspire to kill Braxton, and carry out this plan.

The three steal Braxton's riches and begin to celebrate their new wealth, planning to escape with it as well.

A group of itinerant actors then arrives at the manor.

Boconnion agrees to give them shelter, in return for entertainment.

The troupe bears a resemblance to actors who had visited the manor centuries earlier.

The actors present their newest play, "The Mines of Sulphur", about an elderly count who weds a beautiful girl, who falls in love with the count's valet.

The count threatens the lovers, and the girl urges the valet to kill the count.

The play parallels the prior situation of Boconnion, Braxton and Rosalind.

At the point just before the girl and the valet are about to kill the count, Boconnion halts the play.

The actress Jenny (the wife in the play) faints, and Tooley takes her upstairs, where he discovers the murdered landowner.

Boconnion imprisons the actors in the cellar and plans to set fire to the manor to get rid of them the next morning.

Boconnion then kisses Jenny to taunt Rosalind, but then it is revealed that Jenny has the plague.

A ballad from Jenny reaffirms a link between her troupe and the earlier actors.

The actors then somehow have vanished from the locked cellar, and Jenny takes her leave.

Rosalind, Boconnion and Tovey see that the manor door has the plague mark painted on it, and they stay in the manor, realizing that they are doomed.


Recording

Chandos CHSA 5036(2): Kristopher Irmiter, Beth Clayton, Brandon Jovanovich, James Maddalena, Dorothy Byrne, Brian Anderson, Michael Todd Simpson, Caroline Worra, Andrew Gorell; Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra; Stewart Robertson, conductor (live recording)

References
Elizabeth Forbes, Obituary for Colin Graham. The Independent, 11 April 2007.
Stanley Sadie, "Richard Rodney Bennett's The Mines of Sulphur. Tempo (New Ser.), 73, 24-25 (1965).
Allan Kozinn, "A Dark and Stormy Night, With Doings to Match". New York Times, 25 October 2005.
Andrew Clark, "Arts & Ideas: The Mines of Sulphur, New York City Opera". Financial Times, 26 October 2005.
Review by Andrew Clark, Financial Times, 20 October 2008
Information from AmadeusOnline.net
Joe Law, "The Mines of Sulphur. Richard Rodney Bennett". The Opera Quarterly, 21(4), 775-778 (2005).
Sources
Susan Bradshaw. "The Mines of Sulphur". In L. Macy. Grove Music Online. http://www.grovemusic.com.

Anthony Tommasini (2005-10-21). "A Composer Happily Returns To 'The Mines'". The New York Times: p. E1.


Categories:
English-language operas
Operas by Richard Rodney Bennett
Operas
1965 operas
Operas set in England
Operas based on plays

In memoriam Sir Richard Rodney Bennett

Speranza


Composer Sir Richard Rodney Bennett dies aged 76

Versatile musician was equally at home writing jazz and film scores as music for the concert hall


Richard Rodney Bennett was part of a golden generation of British composers.

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, one of Britain's most versatile and talented composers and performers, has died peacefully on Christmas Eve in his adopted home city of New York, aged 76.

Over the course of a distinguished career he has been equally at home writing music for the concert hall and performing cabaret at the Algonquin Hotel.

As enthusiastic about Cole Porter as Pierre Boulez.

His publisher, Gill Graham of the Music Sales Group, said:

"He was, I think, the last of his kind."

"He wrote 32-bar jazz standards, the most complex serial music, and everything in between."

To a broad audience he is perhaps best known as a prolific writer of scores for film and television, including for Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

His film work earned him two Oscar nominations.

To his friends he will be remembered as a witty and generous host, a fiendish player of Scrabble and an enthusiastic creator of delicious Christmas feasts.

Graham described him as "determined, hilarious and a great influence".

Bennett was born in 1936 and raised in Budleigh Salterton, Devon.

His mother had studied composition with Gustav Holst.

His father was a writer of children's books.

In 1953 he turned down a place at Oxford to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London, part of a golden generation of British composers including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Thea Musgrave, Cornelius Cardew and Sir Harrison Birtwistle.

He told the Guardian last year:

"In fact for me the academy was a disaster."

"I learned much more in the Westminster music library in Buckingham Palace Road, which was an absolute treasure house of 20th-century music."

"But London was very exciting."

"It was cheap and we could live our own lives and be slightly raffish without exactly being bohemian."

Bennett was one of only very few composers to study personally with Boulez, in Paris from 1957-8.

He also visited the Darmstadt summer school.

These were the twin citadels of 12-tone serial composition, and the rigorous attitude among many of the "serious" composers of the time was to discount music written outside its strictures.
All along, though, Bennett was writing music for the screen in popular idioms "to earn money to subsidise my other work."

"But I liked writing music that would be played next week by brilliant musicians."

It was the best training there was," he said.

As a student he also supported himself as a jazz musician and later began to perform regularly with Cleo Laine.

He is regarded as having been one of the most accomplished jazz pianists of his generation.

Major works include three symphonies and AN OPERA, The Mines of Sulphur.

There were concertos for various instruments and concertante pieces including his Actaeon for orchestra and solo horn, and his Sonnets to Orpheus for orchestra and solo cello.

Finally, all these disparate parts of his musical life were reconciled, aided by a move to New York in 1979.

A more relaxed style emerged, with music for the concert hall inflected with flavours of the jazz and film music that he loved.

A 1990 concerto for saxophone fused jazz harmonies and serial technique; recent works have included Reflections on a Scottish Folk Song for cello and string orchestra commissioned by Prince Charles to honour the memory of the Queen Mother.

The critic Tom Service wrote earlier this year:

"In his reflection of so many of the streams, trends and styles of postwar music, and in the unmistakable, personal voice he has found across all of the genres in which he has worked, composed and performed, Bennett is one of the most significant compositional voices we have."

Although the sheer variety of his output means that he has, perhaps, been undervalued, his delight in so many genres and styles has, arguably, prefigured the eclectic musical approach of a younger generation of composers such as Mark-Anthony Turnage and Thomas Adès.

Chris Butler, head of publishing for the Music Sales Group, which owns Chester and Novello, said:

"Richard was the most complete musician of his generation – lavishly gifted as a composer, performer and entertainer in a multiplicity of styles and genres.

He was a loyal friend to music, musicians and music publishing and we will remember him with great respect and affection."