Birmingham-born composers of classical music

[giles.enders]

Birmingham-born composers of classical music


Thomas Anderton   15.4.1836-18.9.1903

Francis Edward Bache   14.9.1833-6.11.1858
William Thomas Belcher    8.3.1827 - 1905
Frederick E. Bye   4.6.1901-11.2.1978

John Cheshire   28.3.1837 or 39 - 26.9.1910
James Hamilton Smee Clarke   25.1.1840-9.7.1912

John David Davis   22.10.1867-20.11.1942  Edgbaston
Charles Jean Batiste Duchemin   12.5.1827-16.3.1900   Edgbaston

Christopher Montague Edmunds   1899 - 1990
Lilian Elkington   15.9.1900-13.8.1969

William Fenney   21.5.1891-25.6.1957
Albert Ernest Floyd   5.1.1877 - 13.1.1974

Leslie Grossmith   19.5.1870-17.8 1957

Charles Swinnerton Heap   10.4.1847 - 11.6.1900
John Rippiner Heath  1887 - 23.12.1950
Dorothy Gertrude Howell   25.2.1898-12.1.1982

Albert William Ketelby   4.8.1875-26.11.1959

Herbert Horace Lumby  8.10.1906 - 1987

Horace Waddham Nicholl   17.3.1848 - 10.3.1922  Tipton nr. Birmingham
Frederick Nicholls  8.1.1871 - 1952

Samuel Royle Shore   12.4.1856 - 19.2.1946
Hugh Priestley-Smith   8.6.1888 -14.3.1969
Joseph Leopold Smith   26.11.1881-18.4.1952

Elliot Roy Thompson    14.8.1891- 29.10.1975

Joseph Milton Wellings   4.12.1850-1929  Handsworth, Birmingham

[Alan Howe]

Erm, I'm not sure about the usefulness of this thread - unless we are going to get to a discussion of the music of one or more of these composers pretty quickly. As you know, I am not a fan of lists...

And BTW, it's Edgbaston.

[eschiss1]

Well, Howell's violin fantasy is interesting, and Heath's Serbian quartet looks interesting...

[Balapoel]

Well, I, for one, find lists often stimulating and interesting, and can often lead to new questions. However, I also think there could be more offered here - say, are there links between the styles of the composers? Similar instructors in composition?

[Alan Howe]

Unless we're dealing with a 'Birmingham School', I can't see any point in this particular list - sorry. If we're to comment on these composers and their music, it's best done under separate headings.

[mikehopf]

One of my last  " holy grails" is Ketelbey's Violin Concerto. His catalogue lists a Concerto ( 1895) and a Concertstuck but are they for violin?

[giles.enders]

I am hoping the people associated with music in Birmingham will explore some of these composers.  These lists are viewed by a far greater audience that the forum members as instanced by my threads on London Composers and Litolff.  If people are not aware of unsung composers names then how should they make a start?   It is also a way of making people aware of the forum.  Let the hare run and see what follows!

There has already been mention of Lilian Elkington's only known orchestral piece: 'Out of the Mist'  which deserves to be programmed in concerts.  I would like to hear her only other known works.

[Alan Howe]

The issue, Giles, is the discussion that follows - which is far easier to follow when a thread is more composer-specific.

[eschiss1]

Fair enough. Hope this thread will at least stay up as there is some information here I will otherwise want to save promptly (and then try to improve if I can.

BTW Musicsack claims that Albert Ernest Floyd's dates are

5 January 1877 - 13 January 1974. (see http://www.musicsack.com/PersonFMTDetail.cfm?PersonPK=100052088.)

Also:
one can add

Joseph Milton Wellings, composer, born Handsworth, 4 December 1850, died 1929.

Leslie Grossmith, born 19 May 1870 Birmingham, died 27 August 1957 Canada.

John Cheshire, harpist and composer, born 28 March 1837 or 1839 Birmingham, died 26 September 1910 NY City.

[edurban]

Ah, excited to see the name of John Cheshire pop up...had not remembered that he was from Birmingham.  He died in a house about six or seven blocks from where I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan (the same can be said for Victor Herbert and Teresa Careno...Mme. C died at 96th and West End Ave and is remembered with a plaque.)
Cheshire and Herbert, again iirc, both played in Anton Seidl's orchestra, ca. 1890...Cheshire frequently being referred to as 'Harpist to the (was it Duke of Edinburgh??, anyway, some member of the nobility.)  He wrote piles of music, including several concertos for his instrument, all of which are in the collection of the NYPL, Lincoln Center.  Many ms. harp pieces, naturally, also marches and dance music, always iirc.  I used to enjoy going through his mss...there would be plenty there for the enterprising harpist...

David

[eschiss1]

I'm guessing that like much of the NYPL-at-Lincoln-Center's more interesting research collection (I'm told...) it's probably been moved offsite and now needs to be requested in advance of a visit (I used to take at least an afternoon a year to have a look at some of the music in that collection while visiting family in the NYC area...) but that said, does seem intriguing. 

Unsurprisingly, I see that the British Library catalogue also lists some items by Cheshire, including an Andante cantabile for harp and small ensemble- good combination, at least ("Andante Cantabile. For Solo Violin, string Quintett, Harp or P. F. & organ or harmonium." (published ca.1888.))

memory.loc.gov (Library of Congress) has 14 items scanned in composed by "Milton Wellings" who I am guessing is (might be?) the same as the Wellings above

[giles.enders]

Alan, if you are unhappy with the Birmingham composer list or the one I posted earlier with London composers, or any other list of works, I will remove them. This is your forum and I accept it is your 'toy' so to speak. I have to say that I am not interested in 'school of this' or 'school of that', I am interested in exploring individual composers and finding  out if there is anything worthwhile resurrecting.  I am not one of the cognoscente and have no ambition to be so.

[Alan Howe]

No, we'll keep the thread going and see what develops. I may have been over-pessimistic about its usefulness...

On the whole, though, threads are easier to follow if they have a more specific starting-point.

[Paul Barasi]

Unless we're dealing with a 'Birmingham School'

With the great exception of Vienna, I'm not aware of any town or city which has an identifiable distinct stylistic/folk music tradition actually drawn on across local composers (as opposed to simply a group of composers being around at the same time), unlike say Scottish, Czech, Russian... Arguably counties can have (e.g. Arnold's Cornish Dances) but below this level even London hasn't been established in this way. (Why not? Is this true?)

Certainly we haven't found it in the other popular postings of this ilk (Birmingham here, Northampton ...). Maybe it's about scale and boundaries of cultures (although pop in the Beatles era had a recognised Mersey sound).

Have I got this right or is there a counter case to be made?

[giles.enders]

Vienna was the capital of a large sprawling empire.  I think a lot of 'folk' music was brought to the capital from the provinces which were in reality very different countries, for example Hungary did not have  a lot in common with southern Poland culturally speaking.  Yet it was all brought to Vienna and mixed into the styles you refer to.  There was certainly a Paris/French style form Ravel and Debussy until the last war.  Despite having long visits from composers from the continent, they didn't seem to have much influence of British composers during the 19th C,  the British seemed to prefer to compose in what I think of as a 'milk and water' style until Elgar came along.  I remember hearing the first performance of Vaughan-Williams original version of his London Symphony and thinking the best parts were those which he had subsequently deleted.