Birthdays of the Great

[MrGongGong]

I wonder if my name will be appearing on MB equivalents in 50 years time as being a composer born on yesterday's date? Mind you if I keep hiding away what I compose under the bed, somehow I doubt it! I expect my 2nd Piano Sonata when I finish it in the next few weeks will go the way of the 1st, hidden away and uplayed

get someone to play it
postgrad music college students are often looking for interesting repertoire etc
like most composers i have a heap of unfinished / unplayed stuff
I have found that its much better to start something when you know that its going to get an airing rather than write it in the abstract
though having "faith" in your own work is very very hard so its good to have others who will give it a go

[mercia]

belated happy returns to SC, statistician extraordinaire

[antongould]

I wonder if my name will be appearing on MB equivalents in 50 years time as being a composer born on yesterday's date? Mind you if I keep hiding away what I compose under the bed, somehow I doubt it! I expect my 2nd Piano Sonata when I finish it in the next few weeks will go the way of the 1st, hidden away and uplayed

IMHO sharing a birthday with Paul Simon who was 70 yesterday can't be all bad! Many, belated, happy returns SC.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Thanks for the Birthday wishes for yesterday. I also share a Birthday with a certain Margaret Thatcher unfortunately!

I have a sound and music profile MrGG but it hasn't drummed up anything for me as yet. When I have let people look at my compositions they seemed to be very impressed and when I have had the odd work played by local amateurs (the last time was 11 years ago) they sound exactly as intended in my head and I have had positive audience feedback. But guess I've totally lost confidence and I'm very self-critical at times.

[Sydney Grew]

Having found Gerard Cobb's name - only his name - in the Musical Who's Who, and a brief entry in the British Musical Biography but nowhere else, I extracted the following jottings. He does not appear in any editions of Grove's Dictionary; probably he and Grove - who was not really a gentleman - had some kind of falling out.

What I next did of course was idly look for his photo-graph on the inter-net, and to my great delight I discovered not only a fine photo-graph but also an extensive biographical article, full of original research, contributed by Mr. Mackie to the "International Music Web."

Here is a link to it, and I would suggest to members perusing that much more profit is to be obtained from what Mr. Mackie with such detailedness and fervour wrote there than from my own sketch here. I have taken the liberty of reproducing the photo-graph in a reduced form more suitable for the practice of this forum where moderation in all things is usual.

Gerard Francis Cobb was born at Nettlestead exactly a hundred and seventy-three years ago to-day. An education of the customary kind took place at Marlborough College, and subsequently at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which in 1860 he was elected Scholar; and, after taking a double First, in 1863, a Fellow. His musical training took place chiefly in Dresden, presumably subsequent to 1863.

He was President of the Cambridge University Musical Society for some ten years, from 1874; and Chairman of the University Board of Musical Studies for fifteen years, from 1877. His compositions are very numerous, although, from the claims of his official work at the University, it was many years before he was able to devote his attention to Creative Art. His mistake despite his obviously first-rate mind do members not think?

His musical works comprise, among much else:

Psalm 62, for soli, chorus, and orchestra, composed for the Festival of the North-Eastern Choir Association, Ripon Cathedral, 1892.

Seven Church services, including a full Morning, Communion, and Evening Service in C major, for men's voices, composed (by request) for the use of the Choir of St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

Motet, Surge Illuminare (Leslie's Choir, March, 1887); seven anthems.

Prize Glee (four voices), A Message to Phyllis; Prize Madrigal (six voices), Sleeping Beauty, etc.

Six Songs (W. Fergusson); Lieder und Gesänge (six songs); Three English Ballads; Three Sacred Songs; Barrack-Room Ballads (Kipling); Song and Silence, with horn obligato, and many other songs.

Quintette in C, opus 22, for piano-forte and strings (well! that alone would suffice to render him worthy of notice);

Suite for violin and piano-forte;

Suite, Voices of the Sea, for piano-forte, etc., etc.

Again, Mr. Mackie provides a much longer list.

[Sydney Grew]

It will assuredly interest Members to learn that Robert Eitner's renowned Biographisch-bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten der christlichen Zeitrechnung bis zur Mitte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, in ten volumes, is now available on the inter-web in an excellent reproduction. They may be down-loaded via this link.

His life's-work of course. What a contrast to the RISM of to-day, undertaken by "joint committees," whose first decision was to exclude "for practical reasons" all biographical information, even the birth- and death-dates of composers!

[mercia]

"joint committees," whose first decision was to exclude "for practical reasons" all biographical information, even the birth- and death-dates of composers!

ridiculous !!!

[MrGongGong]

My I re-comend this ar-ticle to Mr G-rew

http://ebooks.cambridge.org/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9780511627309&cid=CBO9780511627309A010

[Sydney Grew]

http://ebooks.cambridge.org/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9780511627309&cid=CBO9780511627309A010

"Tortuous bye-ways" - that's professors for you!

It seems hardly necessary to introduce the much-loved English composer John Barnett to the present readership; nevertheless the following may serve to plug a few gaps.

It was exactly a hundred and seventy-four years ago that John Francis Barnett came into this world at London. He was the son of Professor Joseph Barnett (famed also for his tenor voice), and the nephew of another John Barnett, another well-known composer, with whom we should take care not to confuse him. Perhaps that possibility of confusion is an argument for assigning every one an unique computer-generated name, rather than leaving the choice to parents, who can be very irresponsible sometimes in these and indeed other matters. The alternative would be to give every one the same name, such that every man - and even every woman - in Britain would without discrimination be called "John Smith." We wonder how popular such a move would be?

Anyway, this John Barnett received his earliest instruction on the piano-forte from his mother; in 1849 he was placed under Dr. Wylde, and in 1850 won a King's Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. He carefully prosecuted his studies of the instrument, and appeared for the first time in public at a New Philharmonic Concert on the fourth of July, 1853, performing the D minor Concerto of Mendelssohn with great acceptance from both public and critics. Well! Just a day or two ago we read about Cusins making his début in the same way with the same work did we not! - just as most of the aspiring piano players of to-day play Rachmanninoff's Third. And their features, even, have a similar cast.

In 1858 he went to Leipsic - as also did not every one of note - and studied at the Conservatorium under Hauptmann (whom we have just had), Rietz, Plaidy and Moscheles. So let us fast forward back to Britain, where after 1861 Barnett was making his name not only as a performer but at last as a composer. Indeed it may be said that he was becoming exceedingly well known as such. Among his most important productions are:

a Symphony in A minor, 1864;
"The Ancient Mariner," cantata, Birmingham, 1867;
a Symphonic overture, Philharmonic, 1868;
a Piano-forte concerto in D minor, opus 25, 1869;
"Paradise and the Peri," cantata, Birmingham, 1870;
an Overture "A Winter's Tale," British Orchestral Society, 1873;
"Tantum ergo," for eight voices, 1874;
"The Lay of the Last Minstrel," symphonic poem, Liverpool, 1874;
"The Raising of Lazarus," oratorio, Hereford, 1876;
"The Good Shepherd," oratorio, opus 26, Brighton, 1876;
"The Building of the Ship," cantata, opus 35, Leeds, 1880;
"The Golden Gate," scena, 1880;
"The Harvest Festival," symphonic poem, Norwich, 1881;
2 Sketches: "Ebbing Tide" and "Elfland," Crystal Palace, 1883;
"The Triumph of Labour," ode, Crystal Palace, 1888;
2 more Sketches: "Flowing Tide" and "Fairyland," Crystal Palace, 1891;
"The Wishing Bell," cantata, Norwich, 1893;
"Liebeslied" and "Im alten Styl," Crystal Palace, 1895;
"Pensée mélodique" and "Gavotte," London, 1899;
"The Eve of St. Agnes," cantata, London Choral Society, 1913;
"Concerto pastorale," for flute and orchestra;
a Fantasia in F for the organ;
an Offertory in G for ditto;
as well as unspecified "chamber music, pianoforte solos, songs, etc."

Also he completed and instrumentalized a fragmentary Schubert Symphony far more successfully than that rather horrid Italian man did.

In the literary arena Barnett published his "Musical Reminiscences and Impressions" in 1906.

He was married; first from 1875 to Alice Dora Booth, and afterwards to Mary Emily Tussaud in 1891. His principal recreation was sketching, and his usual place of residence 56, Acacia Road, St. John's Wood, N.W.

[mercia]

Mary Emily Tussaud

any relation of the waxworker ................................. I wonder

[Sydney Grew]

The Scotchman John Lang, born at Paisley on the seventeenth of October a hundred and eighty-two years ago, invented the "Union Notation." In this system the notes are indicated to Sol-fa musicians by having the initial letter of the various notes in the Sol-fa scale placed within the head of the ordinary musical characters, and so presenting a combination of both old and new notations. A considerable amount of music has been printed on this system.

[Sydney Grew]

The well-known piano-ist Arthur Cooke arrived in this world at West Bromwich exactly one hundred and thirty-two years ago to-day (in 1879), the son of Arthur William Cooke and his wife Ellen Eliza Wake, making him a direct descendant of Hereward the Wake on his mother's side.

The youth received his musical education under Walter Humphries, of Carr's Lane Chapel, and Percy Stranders of Birmingham; he first appeared as a solo piano-ist at a concert in West Bromwich in 1894. He has since been engaged at the Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts, between 1905 and 1912, and, most remarkably, at the Symphony Concerts of "February 1913," in which he participated in that memorable first English performance of Scriabine's "Prometheus." (Presumably this "February" concert - according to WWiM - was the same occasion when, on "the second of January 1913" - according to Eaglefield Hull - the work was played twice over by "special request," with the idea that a second hearing would make the work more easily intelligible.)

He also played the glorious Delius Piano-forte Concerto (Philharmonic), and at the Palladium, London, in 1911, with the Beecham Orchestra. And of course it would by no means do to forget the Halford Concerts at Birmingham in 1907.

Cooke toured with the late Belle Cole, with Alice Gomez, with Marian Mackenzie, with Zacharewitsch, with William Henley, and with John Dunn.

His compositions include a suite for strings, a piano-forte trio, a piano-forte and violin sonata, a cantata, "The Fountain of Tears," and numerous songs. He conducted his own suite at Birmingham in 1906, and "Fountain of Tears" in December 1912, sung by the Festival Choral Society. He has also himself sung as tenor vocalist in a Song Cycle at Paisley in the place of Charles Chilley, appearing also as solo piano-ist at the same concert.

Arthur Cooke's recreations were footleball and billiards. He was a member of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, and resided at Dunstable Cottage, Victoria Street, West Bromwich.

According to Grove's Dictionary, edited by modern men with sinister and tortuous agenda, Arthur Cooke never existed. But if Members do a "google" they will find his name here and there.

[Sydney Grew]

Adolfo Fumagalli, the "Paganini of the piano-forte," was born one hundred and eighty-three years ago at Inzago in the province of Milan. And it was at that same Milan that in 1848 as an immensely "talented" youth of twenty he made his début as a piano-ist. And here it may be noted what Coleridge thought of that word: "I regret to see that vile and barbarous vocable talented, stealing out of the newspapers into the leading reviews and most respectable publications of the day."

Fumagalli made a great success afterwards as a brilliant fantasia player at Turin, Paris, and Belgium, and was acclaimed for his technical mastery, especially in the left hand, and the brilliance and expressiveness of his tone. He was praised too for his cantabile playing, the growing originality of ideas constructed most simply and most faultlessly, his restraint in ornamentation, and his freedom from the commonplace and banal. He had strong fingers that astonished every one.

In 1854 Fumagalli returned to Italy, where he alternated between concert tours and composing; but alas! two years later he still only twenty-seven but despite those fingers of fundamentally fragile constitution suddenly expired at Florence.

His compositions nevertheless number more than one hundred, and a long list thereof appears in the Wiki-pedia thing. His brother Luca composed operas, including "Luigi" - which puts one in mind of jolly old Nono and his incomprehensibles does it not!

[vinteuil]

here it may be noted what Coleridge thought of that word: "I regret to see that vile and barbarous vocable talented, stealing out of the newspapers into the leading reviews and most respectable publications of the day."

This is excellent; thank you. Carlyle was similarly exercised: -

"Your objections as to phraseology and style have good grounds to stand on; many of them indeed are considerations to which I myself was not blind; which there (unluckily) were no means of doing more than nodding to as one passed. A man has but a certain strength; imperfections cling to him, which if he wait till he have brushed off entirely, he will spin forever on his axis, advancing nowhither. Know thy thought, believe it; front Heaven and Earth with it,—in whatsoever words Nature and Art have made readiest for thee! If one has thoughts not hitherto uttered in English Books, I see nothing for it but that you must use words not found there, must make words,—with moderation and discretion, of course. That I have not always done it so, proves only that I was not strong enough; an accusation to which I for one will never plead not guilty. For the rest, pray that I may have more and more strength! Surely too, as I said, all these coal-marks of yours shall be duly considered, for the first and even for the second time, and help me on my way. With unspeakable cheerfulness I give up “Talented”: indeed, but for the plain statement you make, I could have sworn such word had never, except for parodistic ironical purposes, risen from my inkhorn, or passed my lips. Too much evil can hardly be said of it: while speech of it at all is necessary. — But finally do you reckon this really a time for Purism of Style; or that Style (mere dictionary style) has much to do with the worth or unworth of a Book? I do not: with whole ragged battallions of Scott's-Novel Scotch, with Irish, German, French and even Newspaper Cockney (when “Literature” is little other than a Newspaper) storming in on us, and the whole structure of our Johnsonian English breaking up from its foundations,—revolution there as visible as anywhere else!"

[letter to John Sterling, 4 June 1835]

[Sydney Grew]

An appropriate nugget of Carlyle Mr. V! I am reminded that he said something rather good about music and poetry in his Heroes, which I may transcribe here in the coming days.

Two hundred years ago precisely, Henry Gamble Blagrove came into this world at Nottingham, the son of a professor. To-day is his bicentennial - here a much better word etymologically than "bicentenary."

At four years old he was taught by his father to play on a small violin which he had made for him. And at five years old he already performed in public. His father bringing him to London he played in 1817 at Drury Lane Theatre in a performance called "The Liliputians," and subsequently played in public daily at the Exhibition Rooms in Spring Gardens.

In 1821 - he was nine - he was placed under the tuition of Spagnoletti, and on the opening of the Royal Academy of Music in 1823 - he was eleven - became one of its first pupils, Crotch and F. Cramer being his instructors. In 1824 - he was twelve - he was awarded a silver prize medal for his proficiency.

On the formation of Queen Adelaide's private band in 1830 Blagrove - he was eighteen - was appointed solo violin-ist, and continued so until 1837. In 1832 - he was twenty - he went to Germany for the purpose of studying his instrument under Spohr - of whom we have heard before - and remained there until November 1834.

After his return, he formed a permanent quartette party with H. Gattie, J. B. Dando, and C. Lucas, and gave concerts in the Hanover Square Rooms from 1836 onwards. He was leader of the State band at the coronation of Queen Victoria, and was also violin teacher to the Duke of Cambridge (this was George William Frederick Charles, two months older than his cousin Victoria, for those two months in the line of succession to the British Throne, and later commander-in-chief of the British Army). In 1858 Blagrove again visited Germany, and a few years later played at the Lower Rhine Festival at Düsseldorf. He was one of the most distinguished of English violin-ists, and for upwards of thirty years - until 1872 - occupied the position of concerto player and leader in all the best orchestras.