Rosalind Ellicott 1857-1924

[giles.enders]

Rosalind Frances Ellicott   Born Cambridge, England 14.11.1857, died Sea Salter, Kent. 5.4.1924

One of three children ¹. Her initial musical education was private, apart from two years from 1874 at the RAM where she studied piano.  She later studied piano for several years with Thomas Wingham until 1881.  In 1896 she gave a seried of highly successful concerts at Queens Hall, London.
She wrote a number of Cantatas, possibly because her father Charles, was Bishop of Gloucester, who could facilitate performances though it is reported that he had no interest in music. Her mother, Constantia,  was an accomplished musician and singer who established The Handel Society in London in 1882.

Orchestral

Dramatic Overture  1886
Festival Overture  1893
'To Spring' Overture
Fantasia in A minor for piano and orchestra  1895

Chamber

Piano Quartet  1900
Piano trio in G  1889   pub. by C Jeffreys
Piano trio in D minor  1891   pub. by C Jeffreys
String quartet in B flat 1884
Sonata in D for violin and Piano
Sketch for violin and piano  1883   pub. by Mayence
Six pieces for violin and piano  1884   pub. by Novello
Reverie for violin and cello  1888   pub. by Novello
Sonata for cello and piano

Song

'From my sad tears are springing'  words by H Heine  1881
'One alone' (Verlust)  words by H Heine  1884   pub. by Weekes & Co.
'Radiant Sister of the Day' 4 part song words by P B Shelley  1887   pub. by Novello.
'Peace be around thee'  4 part song  1888   pub. by Novello.
'Bring in the bright garlands'  part song  words by T Moore 1889
'A dream of the sea'  words by R S Hitchens  1889   pub. by Boosey.
'I love thee'  words by R S Hitchens   pub by Boosey.
'Sing to me'  duet for soprano and tenor  words by R S Hitchens   pub. by Novello.
'The Sweet blue eyes of springtime' words by H Heine  1881
'To the immortals'  words by D F Blomfield   pub. by Enoch & Sons.

Cantatas

'Elysium'  words by Mrs Hemans 1889   pub. by Novello.
'Birth of Song' for soloist, choir and orchestra  words by L Morris  1892   pub. by Novello.
'Henry of Navarre', for mens voices 1894

Florence Ellicott  1.1851 - 5.10.1921
Arthur Beecher Ellicott  24.9.1849 - 3.6.1931   He was a judge.

[Ser Amantio di Nicolao]

One of my favorites - I even wrote the Wikipedia article on her. :-)  (Which I believe has been translated into Japanese now?)

The Second Piano Trio has been recorded, on a treasure of a disc: http://www.amazon.com/English-Romantic-Trios-Ernest-Austin/dp/B000B6ET4Q/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1336054201&sr=8-10

There used to be a small piece for cello and piano on CD as well, but I can't find it.

[giles.enders]

I do have that CD.  I wish that I could find a complete list of her works though.

[Martin Eastick]

Following on from the Meridian release of the D minor Piano Trio, I was contacted by a family member who informed me that she had possession of ms. scores of the Spring & Dramtic overtures, as well as the piano quartet and some songs - she informed me that another family member had prepared/ was preparing performing material BUT HOWEVER this source has completely dried up and despite several requests, I have had no further contact from this individual (I have since lost all the details - including name, e-mail address etc). She also indicated that there may be more material held with other relations but didn't think the Fantasie (pno & orch) was amongst them. I do sincerely hope that this source resurfaces again - perhaps a recording of the first Piano Trio may provoke some response!

[Ser Amantio di Nicolao]

Following on from the Meridian release of the D minor Piano Trio, I was contacted by a family member who informed me that she had possession of ms. scores of the Spring & Dramtic overtures, as well as the piano quartet and some songs - she informed me that another family member had prepared/ was preparing performing material BUT HOWEVER this source has completely dried up and despite several requests, I have had no further contact from this individual (I have since lost all the details - including name, e-mail address etc). She also indicated that there may be more material held with other relations but didn't think the Fantasie (pno & orch) was amongst them. I do sincerely hope that this source resurfaces again - perhaps a recording of the first Piano Trio may provoke some response!

As I understand, it was not recorded because the last page of the copy which the Trio discovered was missing.  And they say that there are no other copies in existence.  But this is some rather good news...she didn't happen to mention anything about the choral music, did she?  (I saw a passing reference on a blog once which indicated that some of that may be available for perusal.  I'll have to go dig it up again somewhere.)

[Mark Thomas]

Last night I downloaded from iTunes Ellicott's Second Piano Trio and I must say that it is a very satisfying and robust piece of work. I'd certainly be very keen to hear more from her pen.

[Martin Eastick]

I now have a complete score and parts set of the 1st trio and will be please to make this available to anyone who wishes to perform/record it!

[Tippetty]

The first piano trio of Ellicott will be recorded and released on Divine Art:

https://divineartrecords.com/tag/trio-anima-mundi/

[Santo Neuenwelt]

A while back, we were approached by Diana Ambache and asked if we would be interested in reprinting the parts to Ellicott's Piano Trio No.2. We were and had actually been trying to find parts, unsuccessfully from private collectors. Ms Ambache located a set of parts in the British Library and asked the cost of creating a digitalized set. The price was horrendously expensive. Truly the BL should be ashamed of charging the prices they do to reproduce, especially when you consider the fine work that the University of Rochester, Duke and several others are doing to digitalize old music at no cost.

If anyone here has a set of parts, or knows of someone who would be willing to loan or digitalize them, we would be keen to reproduce parts for amateur and professional chamber music players.

[Martin Eastick]

I do have original copies of BOTH trios, and thus was able to introduce the second to the Summerhayes Trio for them to go on to record it for Meridian some years ago. At that time though, I only had an incomplete copy of the first which meant that this was sidelined. Fortunately, I subsequently managed to acquire a further copy of just the first which was however complete! Therefore, I shall be eagerly awaiting the forthcoming recording by the Trio Anima Mundi!

Once again, I will be only too happy to help by providing a copy of the second trio if required if this means it will gain further recognition for this composer's undoubted abilities by means of more performances, or even further recording(s)! However, I would wish to mention that I have no means here to digitalize the material and would therefore require someone to deal with this. 

[Gareth Vaughan]

The price was horrendously expensive. Truly the BL should be ashamed of charging the prices they do to reproduce

At the risk of going temporarily off topic, I do so very heartily agree. They make it very difficult for musicians to study works for performance because their reprographic are SO expensive. And, as I have pointed out before, they have this ridiculpous system whereby you pay a fixed sum for up to 100 pages, whatever the length of the document. I forget what it is now, bit I think I enquired some years ago and it was £50. That's not too expensive if the score is 100 pages - 50p a page; but if it were 101 pages you would be charged another £50 for the 101st page - and if it were only 2 pages you would still have to pay £50 (£25 a page). It is a real disgrace. In the old days one could just go and photocopy the scores oneself for a few pence, unless they were in a delicate condition - but even then it did not break the bank to have a member of staff prepare copies.

[Alan Howe]

ridiculpous system

A combination of ridiculous and culpable just about sums them up...