Arthur Somervell

Titlepage of Somervell's 'Maud' cycle, Boosey & Co. 1898

Sir Arthur Somervell (5 June 1863 – 2 May 1937) was an English composer, and after Hubert Parry one of the most successful and influential writers of art song in the English music renaissance of the 1890s-1900s.

Career

He was born in Windermere, Westmorland, the son of the founder of K Shoes, and was initially educated at Uppingham School and King's College, Cambridge,[1] where he studied composition under Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. From 1883 to 1885 he studied at the High School for Music, Berlin, and from 1885 to 1887 at the Royal College of Music in London, under Parry. He studied composition with Friedrich Kiel. He became a professor at the Royal College of Music in 1894, and conducted his own works at the Leeds and Birmingham Festivals, 1895-97. He was appointed Inspector of Music at the Board of Education and Scottish Education Department in 1901, and in June the following year received the degree Doctor of Music from the University of Cambridge.[2]

He achieved success in his own day as a composer of choral works such as The Forsaken Merman (1895), Intimations of Immortality (which he conducted at Leeds Festival in 1907), and The Passion of Christ (1914) but is now chiefly remembered for his song cycles such as Maud (after Tennyson, 1898) and the first known setting (1904) of A. E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad. His popular Handel adaptation "Silent Worship" was featured in the 1996 film Emma.

His style was conservative, and shows the influence of Mendelssohn and Brahms. He was also active in music education, and became Principal Inspector of Music for the Board of Education in 1920. He was knighted in 1929. His Violin Concerto of 1930 was dedicated to the violinist Adila Fachiri.

Compositions

The "Thalassa" Symphony in D minor (The Sea Symphony), received its world premiere recording in 2011 for CD label Cameo Classics, nearly 100 years after its composition. Written in 1912, the second movement, 'Elegy', commemorates Robert Falcon Scott's death in the Antarctic that year. The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra was conducted by its Musical Director, Michael Laus. The symphony (of nearly 37 minutes duration) is coupled with two other premiere recordings of British orchestral works, Alexander MacKenzie's Tone Poem, 'La Belle Dame sans Merci', and Josef Holbrooke's Pantomime Suite op.16 on CC9034CD.

References

  1. ↑ "Somervell, Arthur (SMRL880A)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ↑ "University intelligence". The Times (36793). London. 13 June 1902. p. 5.
  3. ↑ Musical Times and Singing-class Circular at Google Books, 1 March 1913, pages 175-6. Reports a performance - perhaps the premiere - of the work on 17 February that year. (Arthur Nikisch, London Symphony Orchestra.)

Sources

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.