Algernon Ashton 1859-1937

[giles.enders]

While the 'Composer Reference' section was running, I expected someone would do Ashton.  Having looked more closely at him as a composer I wonder how good or bad he was.  All his orchestral music is lost, it often being suggested that it was during the bombing.  I went to look at the house where he died in 1937 and it was a very modest affair which would suggest that though prolific, he wasn't very successful.  Was any of his orchestral music published, I doubt it.  His principal publishers seem to be Simrock, Hofbauer and Peters.  I have to say that the recent issue of the piano sonatas on two labels, though interesting hardly made me want to return to them with any frequency.  The chamber music written during the 1880's and 90's may be worth exploring but works composed later, when I suspect he composed for the sake of it  24 string quartets, 24 piano sonatas etc.

Has anyone any thoughts about him or can anyone shed any light on how his orchestral music was received.

[phoenixmusic1]

I've had a search for reviews of any of his orchestral music but can't seem to find much. There's a review, in The Times, of his Three English Dances which were performed at the Proms in 1912. However, these are just arrangements of piano pieces. Here's the review anyway:

There was one novelty last night... It consisted of a set of three English dances by Mr. Algernon Ashton, written apparently as long ago as 1883 in the shape of pianoforte duets, though they have only been recently scored. The scoring itself is not of much account, at any rate in the first and third of the dances, where the composer seems to have thought only of his tunes. These it must be admitted are neither very original nor very enlivening; the third dance, in fact, hardly suggests a dance at all. The first has something of a rustic dance-spirit in it, but the total effect, partly from want of contrast in the material, partly from the heavy touch in utilizing it, is monotonous. The second dance, in 6-8 time, is more interesting and much more effective. The composer has got hold of a graceful little tune which clarinet and oboe divide between them, and if only he had ruled his double bars about halfway through the recapitulation and refrained from using the trumpet at a moment when the tune cannot well bear any extra weight, he might have made his dance into a tiny chef d'oeuvre exactly suited to be an entr'acte in a popular play. As itis, it just misses being playfully epigrammatic, though it was good enough to win an encore last night.  The Times, October 25, 1912, p. 12.

There is also a brief mention of a Toy Symphony in the Musical Times:

A 'Toy Symphony' by Mr. Algernon Ashton caused a good deal of amusement, and no little pleasure, at Steinway Hall on March 27. Musical Times, May 1, 1919, p. 238.

If I find anything more interesting I'll post it on here.

Peter.

[phoenixmusic1]

Also found this in an article entitled 'The Outlook for British Music'.

In chamber music and in symphony, I think we shall follow Algernon Ashton rather than Stanford or Parry: for in his quartets, trios, sonatas, &c., while we realise the presence of musical scholarship in a high degree, there is never the faintest suggestion of the schoolmaster; and in his symphonies I find a more truly Britannic archetype than in any of the imitations of modern continental extravagances that some of our younger men indulge in. It is the inherent simplicity, dignity and purity of Ashton's methods that make him "so English, you know." For him, the potentialities of pure harmony are by no means exhausted; he finds it still possible to charm with a common chord, and to surprise with a dominant seventh. And his ideas are not of such a tottering feebleness that they must needs be shored up with overgrown orchestration on forty or fifty stave paper.

The writer of this article, who obviously admires Ashton, goes on to say:

I cannot help reaffirming my conviction that Algernon Ashton will be looked on by posterity as one of the greatest pioneers of the new era. He is the man who could tell us more perhaps than any as to the present state and the probable future of music in this country. !

Henry Saint-George, 'The Outlook of British Music', Musical Opinion and Music Trade Review, 28 (Aug. 1905), pp. 809 - 810.



Peter.

[Alan Howe]

That is fascinating, isn't it? What a tragedy we can't hear more of his music...

[semloh]

No music, I'm afraid Alan. 

This is the entry in Brown & Stratton's British Musical Biography (1897), where it notes that he was a sometime pupil of Raff:

Ashton, Algernon Bennet Langton, composer and pianist, third son of Charles Ashton (q.r.), born at Durham, December 9, 1859. On the death of his father, the family went to reside at Leipzig, and Moscheles took a great interest in the boy, whose talent was manifested at a very early age. His first instructors at Leipzig were Franz Heinig and Ivan Knorr. At the age of fifteen he entered the Conservatorium, his teachers being Reinecke, E. F. Richter, Jadassohn, R. Papperitz, and Coccius. On leaving, in 1879, he was awarded the Helbig prize, having on two previous occasions taken the yearly prizes for composition. He then visited England for a short time, returning to Germany for further study under Raff, at Frankfort, 1880-1. After that time he took up his residence in London, and in 1885 was appointed Professor of the pianoforte at the Royal College of Music. He has given many concerts in London and elsewhere, and has appeared as pianist at Leipzig, and in 1894 toured on the Continent with Mr. Ben Davies, the vocalist. His compositions are very numerous, the following list including the most important of them.
Works.—Orchestral : Three concert overtures (one in F, produced at the Hanley Festival, 1888); Concerto, pf. and orchestra; Concerto, violin and orchestra. Chamber Music : Quintets in C, op. 25 ; in E minor Quartets, F shai-p minor, op. 34 ; C minor; Trios, in E flat ; in A, op.88, all for pf. and strings ; Quartet in B flat, strings (Musical Artists' Society Prize, 1886) ; Sonatas in F, op. 6 ; in G, pf. and violoncello ; in A minor, op. 14 ; in E, op. 38 ; in C minor, op. 80, pf. and violin ; Op. 44, pf. and viola ; and many pieces in smaller form. Pianoforte : Suite in F, for two pianos ; Six sets of duets ; Three pieces, op. 63 ; " Aquarellen," seven pieces, op.87, etc. Vocal : Salvum fac regem, for chorus, op. 27 ; Part-songs for men's voices, and for mixed choirs ; Duets ; Four songs (Geibel), op. 46 ; Six songs, op. 52 ; Nine songs, op. 89, etc. Organ : Interludium, op. 11 ; Minuet in C, op. 81, etc..

[Mark Thomas]

Ashton's Second Cello Sonata is now available on a new Centaur CD - details and sound extracts here. It's a good piece, not as good as the Stanford with which it shares the disc, but that's setting the bar quite high.

[eschiss1]

Well, there's a few chamber works with piano at IMSLP. I can only suggest having a look over there and seeing what people think- if someone is impressed and has a performing group at their beck and call- just joking. Alas, no string quartets seem to survive either, I gather...

[Alan Howe]

Here's a new article on Ashton at MusicWeb:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/May13/Ashton_Webb.htm

[giles.enders]

Does anyone know if any of Ashton's music with orchestra was ever published ? I ask because he seemed to be quite successful with having his chamber and solo piano music published.

[eschiss1]

I'm under the general impression it went the way of his chamber music without piano (and some of his chamber music with piano. BTW he wasn't _that_ successful at having his music published; a comparison of his surviving, published works with a worklist published in British Musical Biography in 1897- if one has access to Google Books, see this document - already shows a number of- one presumes- lost works... three concert overtures ; two concertos ; string quartet in B-flat ; etc. ...

[Alan Howe]

The MusicWeb article by Partick Webb - do read it! - says:

<<Basil Hogarth, the writer, reports on a visit that he made to the composer in 1924, that there were some three hundred and fifty completed works in the composer's house, over two hundred being in print, and one hundred and fifty in manuscript; these included what Ashton believed to be his most important works, namely the five Symphonies, the Symphonic Suite, the Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto and his most recent String Quartet. Mention is also made of a further thirteen String Quartets, a Septet for Piano and Strings, a String Quintet, a String Sextet, a Septet for Piano, Strings and Wind, an Octet, a Nonet for Strings and Wind, and a number of works for various combinations of piano and strings. Ashton was still composing vigorously at the time of Hogarth's visit, and the 24 String Quartets in all the major and minor keys were already underway. Hogarth concludes his article:

'the time is certain to come when Ashton will receive his full share of acclaim; in the meantime let us ask him to compose more of his fine music and, dare I whisper it, may we expect, in the near future, a Cello Concerto which will be acclaimed as one of the few masterpieces for that instrument!'

Of the 350 works mentioned above, it has to be assumed that the larger part was to perish in 1940, when incendiary bombs fell on 22 Carlton Terrace, St John's Wood, where the composer's widow, Ethel, then lived.>> (emphasis added)

So the issue is whether any of these lost works ever made it into print. Personally, I think they're probably lost, but who knows?

[eschiss1]

I have read it, though not recently and not thoroughly, but I am trying to remember if he mentioned -where- Basil Fogarth reported that- personal correspondence, an article,... - well, will look again.

[giles.enders]

Looking at his opus numbers, it seemed that he did quite well but perhaps he only assigned opus numbers when the music came to be published.  I was interested to see that Alan mentions five symphonies as I have never been able to get any details about the fifth. 

[giles.enders]

Algernon Bennet Langton Ashton  born 9.12.1859  died 10.4 1937

He was the son of Charles Ashton, a music teacher.  The British Music Society Annual of 1920 lists the works of British composers who have submitted a list of their works to them. This implies that the lists are by the composers themselves.

Ashton has submitted what would appear to be an edited list.  I list below all the orchestral music he has in his list plus the piano sonatas which he lists and for reference the list of piano sonatas by him which were researched and compiled by Patrick Webb, one can see that they differ.  I am wondering if anyone has an explanation.

Orchestral Works

Symphony No.1 in F minor  1895
Symphony No.2 in G major  1889
Symphony No.3 in A minor  1901
Symphony No.4 in B flat major 1902
Symphony No.5 in C minor
Concert Overture in F  1888
Concert Overture 'Macbeth'
Concert Overture 'Julius Caesare'
Orchestral Suite
Turkish March 'Bag and Baggage'
Three military marches
Toy Symphony
Suite in A major - four movements
English, Scottish and Irish dances for orchestra
Three orchestral waltzes
Piano concerto in B minor  1882
Violin concerto in D minor  1887

'Elysian' concert aria for soprano and orchestra
'Johanna Sebus' for mens solo voices, chorus and orchestra

All of the above works were in MS (NOW PRESUMED LOST)


Piano Sonatas

Ashton's list                                                                   Patrick Webb's list

No.1 in G major  in MS                                                 No.1 in E flat minor Op.101 published by Hofbauer
No.2 in B flat  published by Hofbauer                             No.2   Op. 150                         
No.3 in D minor  in MS                                                 No.3 in B major Op.161 published by Ries and Erler
No.4 in F sharp minor  in MS                                         No.4 in D minor Op.164 published by Ries and Erler
No.5 in A minor  published by Hofbauer                         No.5 in F sharp minor Op.168 published by R Forberg
No.6 in C sharp minor  in MS                                        No.6 in A minor  Op.170 published by Murdoch and Co.
                                                                                  No.7 in C sharp minor  Op.172
                                                                                  No.8 in A major Op.174 published by Goodwin and Tabb


Married in 1870 to Ethel Clara

[Gauk]

A word about that Turkish march - the correct title is "Bag and baggage", after a speech made by Gladstone in 1876 - "Let the Turks now carry away their abuses, in the only possible manner, namely, by carrying off themselves. Their Zaptiehs and their Mudirs, their Bimbashis and Yuzbashis, their Kaimakams and their Pashas, one and all, bag and baggage, shall, I hope, clear out from the province that they have desolated and profaned." The march was based on the motifs B-A-G and B-A-G-G-A-G-E. It had a Proms performance on 16 October 1900.