The Social Background and Schooling of some British Composers

[Dundonnell]

As some may have noticed I am an inveterate list-maker

Reading about British composers I began to think a little more about where they were born, their family backgrounds and where they went to school.
Some fascinating (well..to me, that is ) information came to light. So, here is what I have:

Public School Education(ie expensive, usually boarding school unless in London):

Eton:                 Sir Hubert Parry. Parry's father was a wealthy art collector and painter.
                         Robert Still

Winchester:      Cecil Armstrong Gibbs. Father was a soap and chemicals manufacturer
                         Humphrey Searle. Father was a civil servant in Burma.

Charterhouse:  Ralph Vaughan Williams. RVW's father was a Church of England vicar.

Rugby:             Sir Arthur Bliss. Father was an American businessman.

Wellington:      John Gardner. Father was a doctor.

Lancing:           Geoffrey Bush

Gresham's School, Holt: Sir Lennox Berkeley. Father was a captain in the Royal Navy.
                                      Benjamin Britten. Father was a dentist.

Repton:            Arnold Cooke. Father was a carpet manufacturer.

Fettes:             Sir Michael Tippett. (Tippett was removed from this famous Scottish public school after a scandal and finished his schooling at Stamford School).
                                                         Father a lawyer.

Leighton Park:   Sir Richard Rodney Bennett

Douai:                Anthony Milner

Loretto:              Robin Orr

St. Paul's(London):  Peter Racine Fricker

University College School (London): Richard Arnell

Highgate (London):  Alan Bush. Father was a company director.

Dulwich(London):   Gordon Jacob

Mill Hill (London):  Iain Hamilton

Also from wealthy or well-off backgrounds:

private day school in Dublin:   Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. Father was a lawyer.

Sir Granville Bantock was the son of a doctor.

educated mainly at home:      Sir Arnold Bax.
                                               York Bowen. Father was a whisky distiller.
                                               Gerald Finzi. Father was a shipbroker.
                                               Alan Rawsthorne. Father was a doctor.
                                               William Wordsworth. Father was a Church of England clergyman.
                                               George Lloyd

Bradford Grammar School:      Frederick Delius. Father was a wool merchant.

Northampton Grammar School: Sir Malcolm Arnold. Family owned a shoemaking business.

John Ireland's father was a publisher and newspaper proprietor. Ireland went to the Royal College of Music at the age of 14.

Lower- Middle class background/Grammar School education:

Gustav Holst(Cheltenham Grammar School for Boys), son of an organist and harp teacher.
Cyril Rootham(Bristol Grammar School), son of a singing-teacher
Rutland Boughton, son of a grocer in Aylesbury.
Edgar Bainton(King Henry VIII Grammar School, Coventry), son of Congregationalist minister.
Sir William Walton(Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford), son of an Oldham singing-teacher.
William Alwyn (Northampton Grammar School), son of a grocer
Daniel Jones(Bishop Gore Grammar School, Swansea), son of a composer.
Stanley Bate(Sutton High School, Plymouth)
Robert Simpson(Westminster City School, London)
Alun Hoddinott(Gowerton Grammar School, near Swansea)
Kenneth Leighton(Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield)
William Mathias(Whitford Grammar School, Carmarthenshire), son of a schoolteacher
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies(Leigh Grammar School for Boys)
David Matthews (Bancroft's School, Woodford: an independent fee-paying school)

From less-affluent backgrounds:

Sir Edward Elgar (Littleton House School, near Worcester), son of a music shopkeeper.
Havergal Brian: elementary school near Stoke-on-Trent, son of a pottery worker.
Joseph Holbrooke: son of a music-hall touring musician
Herbert Howells: elementary school in Lydney, son of a plumber, painter and decorator.
Edmund Rubbra: elementary school in Northampton, son of clock repair shopkeeper.
Benjamin Frankel: elementary school in London, son of a tobacconist and synagogue beadle.

Some observations -

Northampton has produced three composers: Rubbra, Alwyn and Arnold (both Alwyn and Arnold attended Northampton G.S.)

The area around Greater Manchester has produced an astonishing number of composers: John Ireland(Altrincham), Sir William Walton(Oldham), Alan Rawsthorne(Haslingden), Arthur Butterworth(Manchester), Sir Peter Maxwell Davies(Salford).
The same is true of the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire area(Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Holst, Rootham, Howells).

Amongst the professional backgrounds of the fathers of these composers there are doctors(Bantock, Rawsthorne, Gardner), lawyers(Stanford, Tippett), businessmen(Delius, Armstrong Gibbs, Bowen, Bliss, Alan Bush, Cooke, Arnold), Church of England vicars(Vaughan Williams, Wordsworth) and grocers(Boughton, Alwyn) but only one prominent composer(Lennox Berkeley) from a military background and two whose fathers were singing teachers(Rootham, Walton).

Now....please don't take this too seriously (if you bother with it at all ). It was simply intended as a bit of fun on my part

I have probably made mistakes and certainly there will be omissions and information I have missed or could not find out.

[eschiss1]

Hrm. Wondering where George Lloyd fits in there...

[Dundonnell]

Hrm. Wondering where George Lloyd fits in there...

Added

[Christopher]

With fees of 30,000 pounds and more, none of those doctors/vicars/carpet manufacturers/military men will be able to send their children to those schools now.   I went to one of the ones listed, and asked one of my old teachers who still teaches there about the background of the pupils now there.  He said they are 90% children of investment bankers/city lawyers/hedge fund managers etc.  It will be interesting to see how many of these offspring will pursue a musical or artistic career.  On the one hand they are in a position to take the risk as they may have the luxury of financial cushioning should things not work out, but on the other - will they have the inclination, or is the definition of a successful career path now so narrowed?

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Both odd and rather awful that everyone on the list (and indeed everyone on this forum?) is a wearer of baggy grey flannels, i.e. is a chap. Where are the female composers, and would their inclusion on the lists alter the balance?

I haven't done it (and please don't do so for the exercise wouldn't achieve much and merely soaks up precious time), but off the top of the head I think you get more restricted (and thus more significant) results if you chart the backgrounds and education of 19-20th century British conductors.

[Jimfin]

I think Joseph Holbrooke fits into the 'less affluent' category, which I think accounts for a certain amount of social snobbery he got.

[semloh]

As some may have noticed I am an inveterate list-maker

.......
Now....please don't take this too seriously (if you bother with it at all ). It was simply intended as a bit of fun on my part

Ah, but have you got to the stage when you make a list of your lists, Colin? 

Yes, it's fun but it also highlights the class-based nature of the British classical tradition, and the advantages of a privileged upbringing. I think musical composition and the appreciation of classical music was - and perhaps to some extent still is - considered the preserve of the well-off. Certainly, in my childhood, the appreciation of classical music - as of poetry - was the preserve of the upper classes.

To have humble origins and become a classical composer surely suggests a strong personality.

[eschiss1]

I do remember the thread that contained a list (of course very incomplete) - not all of whose members were strictly speaking British (e.g. Wurm) I guess? . (Ethel Smyth and Rebecca Clarke, too- no works for piano and orchestra from her I think but they'd need to be included in the list of course.

[Dundonnell]

I have added Joseph Holbrooke and apologise for missing him out in the first place

A "List of Lists"....

Christopher's point is a serious one but, since it is a point for serious political/sociological discussion, I shall not go there.

Peter's point about conductors is an interesting one If compiling such a list were to "soak up precious time" it would be my time and I assure you these exercises provide me at least with enjoyment and fun

[Jimfin]

Dundonnell, I'm a list-maker too, though I rarely admit it in public! I completely understand this!