Horace Wadham Nicholl (H.Wadam Nicholl) Born 17.3.1848 Tipton, nr. Birmingham Died 10.3.1922 New York
He was initially taught music by his father and then had lessons with the organist Samuel Prince in Birmingham. In 1870 he emigrated to the USA where he took the post of organist at St.Pauls Cathedral in Pittsburg. In 1878 he moved to New York where he became organist at several churches. In New York he also worked as editor for two publishing firms; Schuberth and G Schirmer. Between 1901 and 1904 he was in Leipzig. He then returned to New York.
Orchestral
Symphony No.1 in G minor 'The Nation's Mourning' Op.8
Symphony No.2 in C Op.12 1888
Symphony Fantasia Op.5
Symphony Fantasia Op.7
'Tartarus' Symphonic Poem Op.11
'Hamlet' Symphonic sketch Op.14
Scherzo-fugue in G for small orchestra Op.15
Piano Concerto in D Op.10 1888
Chamber
Piano Trio in B minor Op.34 1901
String Quartet in C Op.39 1901
Violin Sonata in D Major Op.21 1891
Three pieces for viola and piano Op.44
Cello Sonata in A Op.13 pub. by Edward Schuberth & Co
Six melodic short pieces for harmonium and piano Op.40. 1.Nocturne, 3.Romance, 5 Scherzino. pub. by C F Peters
Piano
Nocturne in C major pub. by Kunkel Bros. 1870
Suite in A Op.3
Sentiments poetiques Op.21
Twelve Etude Melodiques Op.26
Twelve concert preludes and fugues Op.31 pub. by Schirmer
'Cradle Song' Berceuse in G major piano 4 hands pub. by Oliver Ditson & Co.
Seven short piano duets Op.9
Eight Character pieces for piano 4 hands Op.23
Harmonium
Six short melodic studies Op.43
Organ
Twelve Concert preludes and fugues Op.30
Six Preludes and fugues Op.33
Six Melodic pieces Op.37 pub. by C F Peters 1900
Praludium and fugue Op.35 pub. by C F Peters
Three Offertories Op.36 pub. by C F Peters
Symphonic Fantasy on Psalm 130 Op.38 pub. by C F Peters
Six Pedal studies for organ Op.47 pub. by C F Peters
'Die Plejaden' Op.40 pub. by C F Peters
'Life' (Das Leben) Symphonic poem Op.50 pub. by C F Peters
Song
Three songs Op.2
Oratorios
'Adam' Op.16
'Abraham' Op.17
'Isaac' Op.18
'Jacob' Op.19 - incomplete
Cantatas
'Elsie or The Golden Legend' for soloists, chorus and piano Op.4 Words by W H Longfwllow
'A Cloister Scene' for soloists, chorus, organ and piano. Op.6
Choral
Mass in E flat for soloists, chorus and organ Op.1
Gracious me, Giles, you keep on amazing me with these finds - yet another prolific composer, completely unknown (to me at least!). I wonder if I can find any recordings...
There are, of course, umpteen forgotten composers. We've barely scratched the surface here - especially if we transfer our attentions to the continent...
Sadly, I have only managed to trace less than half his opus numbers. Alan makes a good point, we have only really scratched the surface. I have posted on this site, information on over 170 relatively obscure composers. I'm happy to say that in some cases it has aroused sufficient curiosity to result in recordings and performances.
...which is excellent, Giles. Thank you.
I believe we had a Nicholl discussion here some years back mostly in connection with the piano concerto, which was championed for a while by William Sherwood, a Liszt pupil. I wrote the Nicholl article for American Grove's back in 1984, and truly he is a wonderful composer. A fair amount of his organ music was published, but much of his output remains in ms at nypl. My first wife, the cellist Diane Chaplin gave what we believe was the first public performance of his cello sonata at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1986, iirc. It's a marvelous piece, though somewhat awkwardly laid out for the cellist. A year before that his wedding march was the exit music at our wedding. It's very late here, though, so I'll have to continue in this vein tomorrow...thanks for mentioning one of my early unsung causes, Giles! Best, David
Thank you, I would be interested to have more details of Nicholl's Wedding March as I have no knowledge of it. If you are able to fill in any other gaps that would be helpful.
Indeed. He sounds a really interesting figure.
As far as I can see, the Nicholl archive at nypl (JOB 04-22), contains only one complete work: score and parts of a symphony. A relatively small quantity of printed music, no major orchestral works, is available in the main library collection.
Do you know which symphony, Gareth?
Symphony No. 2 in C major.
Thank you. How intriguing.
The Nicholl Collection was in the Americana Division nypl. The Division has been renamed since my days there. Several of Nicholl's major works were never orchestrated: Symphony No. 1 exists only as a 2 hand piano score, of the Cycle of Dramatic Oratorios, only the first, Adam, was orchestrated. No orchestral scores survive for Abraham or Isaac, and only the Funeral March of the Three Patriarchs was orchestrated from Jacob, Op. 17 (performed Ny, 1891). The cantata A Cloister Scene, op. 6, was performed with orchestra in Pittsburgh in 1889, but no orchestral score survives. The wedding march I mentioned was from the cantata Elsie or The Golden Legend, of which only the said march and final chorus were orchestrated (for a ny performance in 1888) Full scores survive for the Suite Op.3 (premiered by Asger Hamerik at a Peabody Orchestra concert in Baltimore in 1877, and one of Nicholl's few big public successes. Btw, this piece appears on Gile's list as a piano piece), the symphonic poems Tartarus, op 11 and Hamlet op14 (described as a Psychic Sketch. Hamlet was actually announced for performance by the ny phil, then under Anton Seidel, but the performance did not take place. This may have had something to do with Nicholl's arrogant and irascible personality, but I don't know. Also surviving is the Scherzo-Fugue Op. 15, for orchestra, which was originally the scherzo (later replaced) of the Second Symphony. Incidently, Seidel performed the first movement of the Second Symphony several times under the title Heroic Overture. Best, David
For Giles' list: Violin Sonata in D major, op.21 (1891); Trio for piano, violin, cello in b minor op. 34 (1901); 3 pieces for viola and piano, op.44 (my notes indicate that 1 and 2 are not extant, but no details); Six Short Melodic Studies for harmonium and piano op.43 (published Leipzig 1902)
Nicholl's op.2 is 3 Songs. These date from 1875-79 and were published separately.
I gave Mary Louise Boehm several Nicholl piano works but don't remember her programming any of them with the exception of the Nocturne in C, published in St Louis in 1870. She was fond of this piece and performed it several times.
I assume the piano concerto is lost.
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Sunday 20 October 2019, 22:14
I assume the piano concerto is lost.
The American Piano Concerto Compendium (by William Phemister) has an entry for Nicholl's concerto. It's listed as "MS: NYPL". Perhaps it can still be found there...?
The full score and a 2 piano reduction are most definitely at nypl, lincoln center.
From a William Sherwood letter (Sherwood played the concerto twice in Pittsburgh in 1888): "...the concerto of [Nicholl's] which I once learned is in all respects the equal of any modern concerto I have yet heard since Chopin and Schumann. It is a work of the highest rank among modern compositions of its class. My assertion that it is worthy of Bach or Brahms is founded upon a thorough study of its contents, which, both for the beauty and dignity of its themes, and their masterly development, as well as the artistic structure of the composition, fully justifies such a statement. When I first examined the concerto, I could see it was a work written by a man of wonderful technical skill, and after weighing its difficulties decided to seriously study the work. I have discovered the mine of wealth it embraces. If any fault can be found ...it is because of its too sustained elevation and its coherent qualities, for the subjects are so welded together, entwined and interwoven, and each moment is so gradually and yet interestingly developed, that the subjects (or motives) are never lost sight of, on which account there are no resting places as in works of the same character which are more rhapsodic. Therefore, after seriously studying the concerto in all its aspects, I do not hesitate to boldly and openly affirm that it is a truly great work, worthy, I may repeat, of Bach or Brahms."
Several works (mostly organ works, but also the cello sonata Op.13) on IMSLP, as people have no doubt noticed, where he shows up as often as an editor as a composer.
QuoteThe full score and a 2 piano reduction are most definitely at nypl, lincoln center.
This is the link I have just received from a librarian at NYPL to their collection of Nicholl mss - the same as I accessed on their own site a couple of days ago! They say this is all they have.
https://www.nypl.org/research/collections/shared-collection-catalog/search?q=Nicholl%2C%20H.%20W.%20(Horace%20Wadham)%2C%201848-1922. (https://www.nypl.org/research/collections/shared-collection-catalog/search?q=Nicholl%2C%20H.%20W.%20(Horace%20Wadham)%2C%201848-1922.)
I don't think they've bothered to look at all. Can you help, edurban?
I will try to go over there next Monday. I'll also look through my notes for some call numbers. Part of the problem may be that when Mrs Nicholl gave her late husband's manuscripts, scrapbooks etc to nypl in the 20s, they were bound (yoiks!) and eventually assigned to the research division. Then most were moved to the Americana Collection. Several of the scores, the piano concerto included, are very fragile and need to be disbound, but the paper is so fragile that I always avoided the concerto as i was afraid of damaging it, with paper loss and actual loss of musical material a real possibility. I have seldom been to the music division in the last 20 years, so i imagine much is changed. In the 80s i copied many things by hand...a set of parts for the string quartet, the first movement of the piano trio, the big Prelude and Double Fugue for piano "For Love is Strong as Death" which I hoped MLB would play (she never did). Oi. David.
Thanks very much, David. Greatly appreciated.
Some time has passed, so I thought to ask... did you happen to be able to follow up on the leads re: Nicholl's Piano Concerto, David...?
I've spent the last 2 Monday afternoons at nypl, lincoln center with mixed results. The first week they couldn't find the Nicholl Collection at all...just the 2 boxes already mentioned: one contains photocopies of Nicholl's scrapbooks and the other contains a set of individual orchestra parts for the Second Symphony. Later that evening a librarian emailed me the hopeful news that they had found the collection. It had never made it into the online catalogue, but could still be found in the large black volumes (no. 27 to be precise) of what is known as the Dictionary Catalogue. The Nicholl manuscripts had not been sent to offsite storage in New Jersey (like the 2 boxes) but were actually only yards away from the Special Collections reading room where I was. I returned last Monday, now armed with call letters, and requested the 2piano score and the full score. Alas. The 2 piano score appeared, but not the full score. The 'new' page could not find it. So they started a search, and promised to get back to me. So far, no news. Sorry there is nothing more positive to report at the moment. Oddly, I thought, they had no problem with me photographing the ms with the somewhat limited capacity of my iphone... best, David
Dear David
Thank you so very much for your diligence and persistence. One wonders how many other items in other libraries may have been "lost" in this way. Let us hope the full score of the PC materialises. Once again, thanks for your help.
Gareth
Forgive this digression, but it illustrates my concern. There is a piece for violin and piano (it's supposed to exist in a version for violin and orchestra too, but I can't seem to find a copy of that) by Litolff called "Reve d'un captif". Browsing WorldCat, I noticed the University of Iowa has a microfilm copy, described in their catalogue data as having been taken from the original in the Fleisher Collection. And Ted Blair in his dissertation on Litolff (1962 I think) gives Fleisher as one of the locations. However, Fleisher don't list it at all. Needles in haystack?!!!
Needles in the library stacks...
Quite so. Ha, ha!
Any news of the full score yet, David?
No, they never got back to me and I've had no time to go down there in person...not that going down there would actually help...
Pity. I will try writing to them myself. May I mention your name and how far you got? And do you have the catalogue number of the full score, please?
Gareth, the call number for the Nicholl piano concerto full score is *MW Amer. Concerto. Piano + Orch. Op.10. Autograph full score. My note doesn't mention whether "Mus. Res." needs to be added to that. The call number for the manuscript 2 piano arrangement is : Mus. Res. *MYD Amer. Concerto. Piano and Orch, 2 pf, 4 hands.
Thank you very much. Wish me luck!!!
Best of luck!
This is my first posting since joining today (1/23/21). Thanks for referring to my 2018 AMERICAN PIANO CONCERTO COMPENDIUM book. I wish I had all this information for Nicholl back then, but I will make use of it. The notes on the Concerto were very helpful and I hope the full score can be found eventually. Let me know, please. Though my book covers 1869 to the present, and the big year was 1936, thanks to the WPA, there were many composers (and I have 1,056) who were still writing in the big Romantic style well into the 20th Century - primarily lesser-known composers, because the famous composers were busy writing in various contemporary styles.
The score certainly exists and I was on the point of trying to arrange (if not too expensive) for a digital copy to be made and sent to me (the NYPL were very co-operative), when COVID 19 struck and the whole matter has been in limbo ever since.