Percy Sherwood (1866-1939)

[Alan Howe]

Moved from elsewhere at UC...
Alan Howe

Percy Sherwood (1866-1939)
Anglo-German composer and pianist. His father, John Sherwood, was an English university lecturer in Dresden, and his mother, Auguste Koch, was a German singer. His uncle was the organist and composer Edward Lawrance (b.1836). Percy Sherwood studied piano and composition at the Dresden Conservatory (1885–8) with Felix Draeseke and Theodor Kirchner, and in 1889 he was awarded the Mendelssohn Prize for a Requiem for solo voices and orchestra. He was appointed a teacher at the Dresden Conservatory in 1893, and professor in 1911. He made a name for himself as a pianist, composer and lecturer/teacher in Germany; in Dresden the Villa Sherwood was apparently a centre of musical life and hospitality. A particular speciality of his was the piano sonatas of Beethoven, all thirty-two of which he could play by heart. A group of students formed a 'Beethoven-Bund' to study the sonatas under his direction.

He and his wife subsequently moved to Hampstead, London where they found themselves at the outbreak of war in 1914 (whether by accident or design is unclear). After the First World War, as well as continuing to compose, Sherwood seems to have earned a living by giving private lessons in piano, harmony and counterpoint, advertising himself as visiting Oxford and Cambridge weekly (Musical Times, 1 August 1931) and, in his later years, stayed in Nayland, Suffolk.

Sherwood's compositions include five symphonies (two of which are lost) and several concertos, including two apiece for piano and cello, one for violin (dedicated to Marie Hall) and one for violin and cello. He also wrote a considerable amount of chamber music. The majority of his published works appeared in Germany; they contain a large proportion of small-scale character-pieces for piano, although he is better represented by two substantial cello sonatas.

In general his music belongs to the German tradition of his time. His Symphony no.3 gives evidence of a first-class, professional composer, using the harmonic vocabulary of the period with its Wagnerian overtones, but also showing a certain reserve. A collection of about 40 autograph manuscripts by Sherwood (also copyist's full scores of his Requiem and Piano Quintet) was deposited in the Bodleian Library, Oxford in 1978, allowing a reassessment of his work

Works:
1887 Piano Concerto No.1 in C minor***
1887 Symphony No.1 in C major***
1889 Requiem for Soli, Chorus and Orchestra**(*)
1889 Sextet for Piano, Horn, 2 Violins, Viola and Cello*** (Dresden)
1890 Konzertouvertüre***
1890 rev. 1893 Cello Concerto No.1***
1891? (pub. 1897) Cello Sonata No.1 in D major, Op.10~
? (pub. 1892) 10 Miniaturen für das Klavier, Op.1
1892 Symphony No.2 in B minor*** (Dresden)
? (pub. 1893) Sechs Lieder, Op.2~
? (pub.1894) Walzer, Op.3
1897 Serenade for Orchestra No.1 in F major**
1898 (pub. 1906) Violin Sonata No.1 in F major, Op.12~ (Dresden)
1899 (?) String Quartet in G major (lost)+
? (pub. 1899?) 3 Romanzen, Op.11
1900 (pub. 1908) Cello Sonata No.2 in A major, Op.15~
? (pub. 1900) Humoresken, Op.20
? (pub. 1900) Nachtgesang und Nachtstück, Op.21
1901 Trio for Piano, Oboe and Horn***
1901 Sonata for 2 Pianos in C minor***
1902 Violin Concerto in F major (ded. Marie Hall)** (Appenzell, Switz.)
1902 Cello Concerto No.2 in D minor***
1902 Violin Sonata No.2 in G major*** (Taufers, Tirol - Italy)
1905 Piano Sonatine in B flat major (ded. daughter: Therese
           Sherwood)*** (Dresden)
1905-7 Symphony No.3 in E flat major*** (Highcliffe, UK/Dresden)
1907 Piano Quintet**(*)
? (pub. 1908) Songs from the Golden Treasury, Op.16
? (pub. 1908) Elfin Song, Op.17
1908 Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra*** (Dresden)
1908 Viola Sonata in C major*** (Highcliffe)
? (pub. 1913) 2 Sonatine (unclear if x2 or No.2), Op.22
? (pub. 1913) Suite for 2 Violins, Op.23
1920 Idyls (for piano)*** (London)
1920 Serenade No.2 for Orchestra*** (Bournemouth/London)
1920-1 Violin Sonata No.3 in C minor*** (Bournemouth/London)
1922 Episode for Violin and Orchestra*** (London)
1922-30 String Quartet 'No.6' in A major*** (Nayland, Suffolk)
1925-6 Suite for String Orchestra with Flute, Oboe, Clarinet & Horn***
                (London)
1931-2 Piano Concerto No.2 in E flat major** (Nayland, Suffolk)
193? String Quartet in B minor***

**Autograph manuscript (reduction) in Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK
**(*) Copyist's full score in Bodleian Library
*** Autograph full score (bound, or all parts intact) in Bodleian Library
~ Published score in Bodleian Library
+ See www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~admv/1899.htm

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks Alan. I'd missed this one. A few questions: The work list excludes the two lost symphonies. What is the evidence for them and what do we know of them and the circumstances of their loss? Are there any other lost works or which there is any evidence? What about contemporary reviews of his pieces?

[Alan Howe]

I'm afraid I don't know the answers to your questions - the bio originates from the entry in Grove online with a few additions of my own. As for reviews, I know of very few - which suggests that his music was hardly played post WW1. I imagine that what reviews do exist would be in German and be of performances given in Germany (most likely Dresden) prior to 1914. As with much of his life and work, though, that is pure guesswork on my part.

[JimL]

A minor formatting question.  Would it be possible to put all the entries in bold, in keeping with the format used by Colin and others?

[Alan Howe]

A minor formatting question.  Would it be possible to put all the entries in bold, in keeping with the format used by Colin and others?

I've made the change as requested.

[Mark Thomas]

I've found just one significant English language review, in The Musical Times for 1 April 1893:

"A Dresden correspondent writes to us concerning the favourable reception accorded to a Symphony written by an Englishman, Mr. Percy Sherwood, and produced for the first time at the Gewerbehaus, in the Saxon capital, on the I8th ult. The Dresdener Anzeiger speaks of the work in terms of high praise, characterising it as 'a composition of distinct value; clear and transparent in design, and calculated, by simple and truly artistic means, to arouse a sympathetic warmth and interest in his hearers, even where there are no great flights of imagination.' Mr. Sherwood, who gained the Berlin Mendelssohn Prize in I889, is at present a professor at the Dresden Conservatorium and conductor of the Dresden Choral Society."

Probably the B minor Symphony, which the work list records as having a Dresden première in 1892.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Mark. Fascinating.

[phoenixmusic1]

The liner notes for a CD of Sherwood's music can be downloaded here http://www.toccataclassics.com/cddetail.php?CN=TOCC0145

They contain quite a substantial amount of information about him.

Peter.

[Alan Howe]

The notes are indeed essential reading.

[Mark Thomas]

They really are a model of their kind for CD insert notes introducing an unsung composer and his music.