Ethel Barns (1874?-1948)

[eschiss1]

I've seen this composer's name turn up several times now, including in HMB for her chamber works (violin sonatas for instance) - not sure how much of her music has survived though. Will try to look into this, have begun to become curious. Anyone familiar with her biography and compositions etc. if I may? ...
(oh, the "any" part was easily answered- her 1911-published 4th violin sonata is in some libraries in the first edition, and some recent compilations of music by female composers seem to include works of hers, I think...)

[TerraEpon]

Check out this CD if you haven't:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ARTMX4/

A very pleasant disc.

[albion]

Anyone familiar with her biography and compositions etc. if I may? ...

There is a stub on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Barns

which points to entries in both The Pandora guide to women composers: Britain and the United and The Norton/ Grove dictionary of women composers, neither of which I have, but others members might ...

[albion]

According to Philip Scowcroft at Musicweb, Ethel Barns

composed a Concertstück for violin and orchestra, premiered at a 1907 Prom (she also wrote a Violin Concerto first played at Bournemouth) and published songs like the very popular Soul of Mine, recorded by Louise Kirkby Lunn, and violin and piano pieces like Swing Song and L'Escarpolette, her compositions also included two trios, a Phantasy for two violins and piano, five violin sonatas and a Humoresque said to resemble Dvorak's more famous example.

I've checked Stephen Lloyd's book on Godfrey and the Concerto was played on 10th November 1904 with the composer as soloist. The Concertstück for Violin in D minor, Op 20 was premiered (again with the composer as soloist) under Henry Wood on 17th October 1907.

[eschiss1]

Ah, thanks. Hoping to be on the lookout at least for a few of the sonatas (not to play- I was a violist and a horrible one at that, though I enjoyed it well enough), and created a Barns page on IMSLP with a brief violin work to start it off.

[eschiss1]

ah. the Proms Archive database shows the concertstück premiere, indeed (link) - 20 or so performances of her works (mostly solo songs) and 8 in which she was a violinist or pianist (if the description of her work in her own "O Soul of Mine" as pianist on 19 September 1917- which leads to a piano/organ/vocal work- is accurate) in her own or others' works in the covered time period.

[semloh]

Barnes, Ethel (b. London, 1880, d Manchester 31 Dec 1948)
English composer, violinist and pianist. She studied at the RAM with Emile Sauret (violin), Ebenezer Prout (composition) and Frederick Westlake (piano), and made her debut at the Crystal Palace in 1896, probably playing the violin. She toured in England and the USA, and in 1899 married the baritone Charles Phillips. Her Second Violin Sonata was played by Joseph Joachim in Germany in 1903; her Concertstück for violin and orchestra was given at the Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts in 1910; and her Fantaisie Trio was frequently performed by Sauret. Barn's initmate knowledge of the potential of the violin resulted in music satisfying for beginners and virtuosi alike. Her music is emotionally highly charged in the manner of Tchaikovsky and Grieg, and her best works (such as the Fantaisie Trio and the Concertstück) are those in which her rhapsodic style - she was somewhat restricted by sonata form - had room to expand. Her piano pieces exhibit the same strength of personality, but her songs are effusive and sentimental.

WORKS (printed works published in London)
Orch.: Concerstück, vn, orch, ?1908, arr vn. pf, 1908; L'Escarpolette, str, arr. vn, pf (1907); Vn. Conc.
Chamber: (for vn, pf, unless otherwise stated) Romance (1891); Polonaise (1892); Mazurka (1894); Valse Caprice (1894); Tarantella (1895); Chanson Gracieuse (1904); Sonata No.2 in A, Op.9 (1904);  etc etc...... & 3 sonatas, 2 trios unpub.
Pf.: 4 Sketches (1899); 2 Dances (1907); etc etc
Songs; ... many! 

[The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, 1994]

[albion]

Thanks!

[eschiss1]

2nd and 4th (G minor, opus 24) violin sonatas, I think, published simultaneously in Mainz (Mayence if you like, as it was at the time) and London by Schott, around 1904 and 1911 respectively-- not sure about her 3rd (so named- don't know about the actual ordering with unpublished works included. This according to Worldcat and my memory of listings in Hofmeisters. I'd hoped - on noticing - that the newish Naxos CD had one of the violin sonatas, but it has another work. Still, maybe sometime.

[eschiss1]

Library of Congress also has a Fantasy for 2 violins and piano entered for the Cobbett Competition. Was there a plan at one point to record a number of the lesser-known winners and other works submitted there or am I misremembering something (or just completely getting something wrong... ) (Ah. No 4 of the Cobbett (something- LoC is not handling French diacriticals, and the title is partially in French) commissioned by the Company of Musicians.  (Worshipful omitted?) Mainz: Schott, 1912. ) LoC also has the sonata no.4, though I don't think they'll scan it- at this time they only scan in US-published things (whoever composed them)- for now anyway. Maybe someone will..

[eschiss1]

Hrm, I see her 2nd and 4th violin sonatas -have- been recorded, on a CD called "Swing Song" (MP3-available at Amazon.com, released 2005.)

[TerraEpon]

That's the CD I pointed to above.

[semloh]

Barnes, Ethel
[The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, 1994]

Apologies - my mistake - Barns, not Barnes, but it is an unusual spelling for a surname!

That CD noted by TerraEpon is tempting!

[eschiss1]

sorry about that!