William Henry Bell 1873-1946

[giles.enders]

William Henry Bell  born 20.4 1873, St Albans, England   died 13.4 1946 Cape Town, South Africa

Attended the St Albans Grammar School.  Between 1889 and 1893 he was at The Academy College of Music where he studied under Frederick Corder, Alexander Mackenzie and Reginald Steggall.  During this period he also studied privatly with Charles Stanford.  He was a successful composer, pianist and professor of music.  Thirteen of his works were performed at The Crystal Palace Concerts and others were performed at the Promenade Concerts.  He is known to have destroyed a quantity of his own music mostly pre 1912.

From 1912 he resided in Cape Town where he became principal of The South African College of Music. 

Orchestral

Prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales  1898
The Pardoner's Tale symphonic poem  1899
Three Chaucer Symphonic poems  1898
Symphony No.1  in C minor  'Walt Whitman symphony'  1900
Symphony  1908  most likely destroyed
Symphony No.2 in A minor  1918
Symphony No.3 in F major 1919
Symphony No.4 in A  'A South African Symphony'  1927
Symphony No.5 In F minor  1932
Symphonic Variations  1915
'Aeterna Munera'  symphonic fantasy  1941
'Mother Cary'  symphonic Poem; Outward bound, In the night watches, In the focsle  1902
'Love Among the Ruins' symphonic poem 1908
'The Shepherd'  symphonic poem  1910
'Le fees Sources'  symphonic poem  1908
'The Portal'  symphonic poem  1921
'Veld Loneliness'  symphonic poem  1921
'Song in the Morning'  symphonic prelude  1901   pub. by Novello & Co
'Agamemnon'  symphonic prelude  1908
Prelude based on English folk songs  1912
'Hamlet'  five preludes  1942
'Arcadian Suite' for small orchestra 1911
'Epithalamium'  serenade  1904
Dans du Troubadour  1909
Staines Morrice Dance  1912
In modo academico  suite in c minor  1924
English Suite  1929
Viola Concerto 'Rosa Mystica'  1917
A Song of Greeting  symphonic poem  1920

Chamber

Piano Quartet  1894
String Quartet in D minor  pre 1914
String Quartet in G minor  pre 1914
String Quartet in G minor  1926
String Quartet in F  1927
Violin Sonata in F minor 1897
Violin Sonata in D  1918
Violin Sonata in F major  1925
Cradle Song for violin and piano  1901   pub. by Novello & Co.
Arabesque for violin and piano  1904  pub. by Breitkopf & Hartel
Sonata for viola or cello and piano  1926
Cello Sonata  1927

Piano

'The Witch's Daughter'  1904
Four Preludes  - pre 1920
Chorale and variations  1940
Four elegiac pieces  1940

Song

Five medeival songs for female voice and strings
'Rose and Lily'  1892
'Songs of Youth and Springtime'  1892-6
Serenade from 'A June Romance'
'Crabbed Age and Youth'  1898
Five settings of verses by E Nesbitt
'I Loved a Lass'  words by George Wither   1903  pub. by Novello & Co
'The Four Winds' - for baritone and orchestra  words by C A Luderitz
Six love lyrics  words by W E Henley   pub. by Novello & Co
Love and Beauty  words by Robert Greene   pub. by Novello & Co.
'Sing Heigh Ho!'  1903
'Bhanavar the Beautiful' - song cycle  words by G Meredith
'The Ballad of the Bird Bride'  for baritone and orchestra  1905
'The Blind Raven'  four part song   pub. by Novello & Co
'The little Corporal'  1912
'Clair du Lune'  words by Paul Verlaine
'D'une Prison'  words by Paul Verlaine
Fifteen songs from Bliss Carman's Sappho  for soprano and orchestra  1920
'Que faudre - t'il a ce coeur'
Four medieval songs  1927
Four medieval songs  1930

Stage

'The Wandering Scholar'  musical comedy  1935
'Romeo and Juliet'  incidental music  1939
'Life's Measure'  incidental music
'Vision of Delight'  - for a Ben Jonson masque  1906

Music for Japanese noh  plays

Komachi  1924
Tsuneyo of the Three Trees  1926
Hatsuyaki  1934
Tha Pillow of Kantan  1935
Kageyiko  1936

Vocal


Miserere Maidens for soloist, chorus, orchestra and organ  1895
'Hawke' for chorus and orchestra 1895
'The Four Winds' for baritone and orchestra  1903
I will magnify Thee, O lord   in D major  for choir and organ  1903   (Easter Anthem)   pub. by Novello & Co.
Three Old English songs for soloists and orchestra:  Lulley, Lullay,  Twelve Oxen,  Flower of Jesus.
'Love's Farewell'  1902
'The Call of the Sea'  Cantata for soprano, chorus and orchestra  1904
'St.Alban's Pageant music' for chorus and orchestra  1907
'The Ballad of the Bird Bride'  for baritone and orchestra  1909
'The Baron of Brackly'  Scottish border ballad  for chorus and orchestra  1911  pub. by J Williams & Co.
Maria Assumpta  for soprano, chorus and orchestra  1922
Prometheus Unbound  for chorus and orchestra  1924
Dicitus Philosophi for chorus and orchestra 
The Tumbler of Our Lady  for soloist, chorus and orchestra
The Song of the Sinless Soul for mezzo-soprano, female chorus and orchestra  1944
Adonis for soprano, mezzo-soprano, female chorus and orchestra  1945

Opera

'Hippolytus' music drama 1911
'Isabeau'  1 act opera  1922
'The Mouse Trap' after R L Stevenson 1928
'Doctor Love'  after Moliere  1930
'The Duenna' musical comedy  after Sheridan  1939
 
Organ

Chants sans paroles  1901
Minuet and trio in C major  1901  pub. by Vincent Music Co.
Postlude  1902

[petershott@btinternet.com]

On my shelves I've got two recordings of W H Bell:

A Marco Polo recording of the 1927 South African Symphony (but I never realised it was No. 4 among five symphonies), and

The 1916 Rosa Mystica Viola Concerto (a lovely work!) performed by Roger Chase, BBC Concert Orchestra / Stephen Bell, which came out on Dutton c/w the Stanley Bate Va Concerto.

In the Dutton disc there's a "personal memoir" of Bell by his fellow South African John Joubert - and it is an especially interesting piece. Bell obviously gained liking and affection from his students who called him Daddy Bell.

Thanks for providing this list of works. I'd certainly like to hear more of his compositions - especially the chamber music. 'Daddy Bell' seemed quite prolific. I also see from the Joubert memoir that Bell's wife was the sister of John McEwen. Is that John Blackwood McEwen, the composer, or am I confusing names?

[giles.enders]

I assume it was the Composer McEwan that he refers to.  Bell's wife returned to England immediately after his death.  He returned to England for two years in the 1930's but missed South Africa and so returned.  His wife settled in Lincolnshire.

[giles.enders]

I've checked the McEwan link, it seems that McEwan and Bell were at The Royal Academy at the same time and would have certainly known each other.  They also both composed viola concertos.  I am wondering if this was a coincidence or if they were commissioned by the same person.

I am intrigued by the Japanese 'no plays' music, especially as they were composed while Bell was in South Africa. 

[Sydney Grew]

I first became aware of Bell when reading about the first performance of Holbrooke's Illuminated Symphony "Apollo and the Seaman" at a concert given before Royalty at the Queen's Hall on the twentieth of January 1908. The first item in that concert was Bell's Symphonic Poem "The Shepherd" - like the Symphony, inspired by a work of the Irish poet Herbert Trench.

Wikipedia and Grove each list among Bell's compositions six and a half operas, all of which deserve revival I should think. A certain confusion seems to have arisen about whether some of them are simply incidental music or full-blown operatic works. A good subject for some student's research:

Hippolytus (music drama, 3 acts, after Euripides), c 1914, unperf.
Isabeau (fantasia, 1 act), 1922–4, unperf.
The Mouse Trap (opera, 1 act, after R.L. Stevenson: The Sire de Maletroit's Door), 1928, unperf.
Doctor Love (opera, 1 act, after Molière), 1930
The Wandering Scholar (musical comedy, 1 act, C. Bax), 1933, Cape Town, Little, 28 Oct 1933
The Duenna (musical comedy, 3 acts, after R.B. Sheridan), 1939, unperf.
Romeo and Juliet (op), 1939, incomplete.

[semloh]

...... The 1916 Rosa Mystica Viola Concerto (a lovely work!) performed by Roger Chase, BBC Concert Orchestra / Stephen Bell, which came out on Dutton c/w the Stanley Bate Va Concerto.

Totally agree, Peter - what a marvellous disc this is, and the Rosa Mystica was a revelation for me. It left me saying "Who was this man? Why don't we know his music?"  The list with which Giles initiated he thread is quite amazing... yet another possible treasure trove by an Unsung Composer!