Paul Walford Corder 1879-1942

[giles.enders]

Paul Walford Corder  Born 14.12.1879  London   Died  21.8.1942  West Horsley, Surrey

He was the son of the composer Frederick Corder from whom he had his first music lessons.  He later attended The Royal Academy of Music where he studied under his father.  From 1907 he was a professor of harmony and composition there. He was also a Professor of Composition at The Tobias Matthay school.  Some of his compositions were heavily influenced by The Pre-Raphaelite movement.

His grandfather was Mica Corder an amateur musician and grandmother Charlotte was an amateur pianist.
Paul had one sister, Dorothea Charlotte  30.6.1878- 1968.  She died in Como, Italy and it was to her that he left his estate valued at £10,923.

Orchestral

'Peleas and Melisande'  tone poem
'Cyrano de Bergerac'  orchestral overture  1903
'Sunset and Sunrise'  two orchestral sketches
'Morar'  Gaelic Fantasia  1906 (also version for two pianos 1908)
'Along the Foreshore' five tone pictures:
1. The ebbing tide
2. The sea cavern
3. Seagull's rock
4. The still hour of dusk
5. The call of the sea
Two preludes to 'Rapunzel'
Violin concerto

Chamber

String quartet
Fantasia for viola and piano
Melody for violin

Piano

Nine preludes   1904  Pub. by Anglo-French Music Co.
Transmutations of an original theme in the form of five characteristic pieces: Prelude, rhapsody, mazurka, elegy, polonaise.  Pub. by Ricordi.
Four preludes
Three studies  Pub. by Anglo-French Music Co.
Three preludes
Passacaglia  Pub by Anglo-French Music Co.
Three little nocturne
Toccata and fugue
Romantic study   Pub. by Anglo-French Music Co
Heroic elegy   Pub. by Anglo-French Music Co.
An Autumn Memory  1919   Pub. by Anglo-French Music Co.

Song

Four sea songs for baritone and orchestra: all with words by J Masefield   Pub by Enoch
1. Hell's pavement
2. The turn of the tide
3. The Emigrant
4. Captain Stratton's fancy

Vocal

'The Moon Slave'  a terpsichorean fantasy  1902
'A Song of Battle' for chorus and orchestra   Pub by Anglo-French Music Co.
'Song of the Ford'  male voice cantata
'Spanish Eaters' for voice and orchestra

Ballet

'The Dryad'  1908
'Dross'  music drama without words invented by N C Hill  1903  Pub by Anglo-French Music Co.

Opera

'Grettir the Strong'  1901
'Rapunzel'  1915

[Alan Howe]

'Dross'  music drama without words invented by N C Hill

[Alan Howe]

Our apologies: this topic mysteriously got locked. No idea how. Anyway, it's now unlocked, so please post away...

[semloh]

Paul Corder F.R.A.M., was the son of leading music teacher Frederick Corder. In the early years of the century was regarded as one of his father's leading students in the same company as York Bowen, Benjamin Dale, Joseph Holbrooke and Arnold Bax, all at London's Royal Academy of Music. The son studied with the father and later (from 1907) joined the staff of the Academy as Professor of Composition and Harmony. He was much influenced by the artistic movement associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. His many orchestral works remain unpublished and unknown. He wrote a number of keyboard pieces that achieved both publication and some modest public attention. He was a close friend of Arnold Bax who dedicated the song Aspiration (1909) and his Fourth Symphony (1931) to him. They spent holidays in each other's company in Cornwall. It is interesting to note that, in the early 1900s, Corder had written a piece for orchestra entitled Morar. Morar was the area which Bax resorted to in the winter months in the 1930s for composition and orchestration of his symphonies. Professor of Composition at the Tobias Matthay School. Recreations: cabinet making. He lived for many years at White Cottage, Netley Heath, West Horsley, Surrey. (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Apr01/hounds.htm )

Dross music play without words - hmm, it would be interesting to know why it has this name. There seems to be no meaning or association beyond the familiar - dross is "the scum that forms on the surface of molten metal" from which alchemists sought to produce gold.

Paul Walford Corder's name appears on the Royal Academy of Music Prizes boards (post here by albion, 15 July 2012). He is noted as the photographer responsible for two familiar portraits of Bax (http://www.davidparlett.co.uk/bax/) who studied with him under his father Frederick Corder.

As to recordings, a quick search came up with just one: his Nine Preludes (1904) are included in a CD by Alan Cuckston (issued by Swinsty ). The review says:
The Nine Preludes run the range from assertively Rachmaninovian romance with every grand gesture in place (Nos. 1, 7 and 9) through Griegian regret (No. 2), Macdowell sentimentality (No. 3), Tchaikovskian charm - more Glazunov in fact (Nos. 4 and , noble sorrow (No. 5) and haunted grandeur (No. 6). (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Apr01/hounds.htm)

Some of his preludes  can be heard via YT at http://wn.com/frederick_corder  I can't find any details regarding performances of his music, and I haven't done a thorough LP/78s search.

[eschiss1]

"The Moon Slave" was performed in 1902 and it is not clear to me if it was published.
The Library of Congress has a copy of Dross (I presume not the libretto given absence of words- it might be the stage directions rather than the music, but I'm guessing not) - © 1910.
Several piano works - Three Studies, An Autumn Memory, Heroic Elegy, and Romantic Study (are these different works?) and 9 Preludes were published 1919 (the preludes first published 1906 by Avison/Cary) by Anglo-French Music.
"Transmutations" seems to have been published ©1909.
4 Sea Songs - ©1919.
No idea re: composition as against publication dates, though some of these works are mentioned in the 1913 Groves that hadn't yet been published, I think. Except Passacaglia in G for piano, whose publication date I don't know (yet; I may be able to suss it out from advertisements in Mus Times &c) but whose title contains "1911" suggesting this was either date of composition beg. or ending.
Spanish Waters for piano - ©1926.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Do we know if his orchestral works have survived? The MS Full Score for Dross is in the RAM.