Arthur Somervell

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

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

He was born in Windermere, the son of the founder of K Shoes, and was initially educated at Uppingham School and King's College, Cambridge, where he studied composition under Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. From 1883-1885 he studied at the High School for Music, Berlin, and from 1885-1887 at the Royal College of Music in London, under Hubert 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 t the Board of Education and Scottish education Department in 1901.

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 A Shropshire Lad (the first known setting of Housman, 1904). 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.

[edit] Compositions

  • Operettas: The Enchanted Prince; Princess Zara; Knave of Hearts (Novello); Golden Straw (Curwen); Thomas the Rhymer.
  • Orchestral works: Thalassa Symphony (Boosey); Helen of Kirconnel (Novello); In Arcady (Suite for small orchestra)(Donajowski)
  • Choral: Mass; Power of Sound; The Charge of the Light Brigade; Elegy (Chorus and orch.)(Novello); Song of Praise (chorus and orch.)(Metzler); To the Vanguard; Passion of Christ (chorus and orch.)(Boosey); Mass in D minor (Ricordi).
  • Concertstuck for violin and orchestra (Augener, 1913). Normandy, symphonic variations for piano and orchestra (1911, Augener). Highland concerto, pianoforte and orchestra (1920). Violin Concerto (1930).
  • Chamber music: Quintet for clarinet and strings; Suites, studies and pieces for violin and piano (Augener, Weekes, Williams and Ashdown); Variations for 2 pianos (Augener); pianoforte pieces (Augener; Williams; Leonard; Lucas; Hatzfield; Ashdown; Boosey; Bosworth; Weekes).
  • Song-cycles: Maud (1898); A Shropshire Lad (1904); James Lee's Wife (1908); A Broken Arc (1923); Love in Springtime (1901). (Boosey). Windflowers, Cycle for vocal quartet (Boosey).
  • Songs: Six songs by Robert Burns (1885-86); Four songs of Innocence (1899); Singing Time, songs for small children (1899): (Boosey; Moore; Lucas; Leonard; Dunn; Gill; Asherberg; Ashdown; Enoch; Forsyth). Part-songs: (Boosey; Ashdown; Novello).
  • Musicological and Musical Education works: Rhythmic Gradus for pianoforte (Bosworth); Exercises in sight-reading, etc. ((Curwen); Sight-reading, 6 vols (Swan); Sight-reading exercises (Augener); Charts of the rules of Harmony and Counterpoint (Clarendon press).

[edit] Sources

  • A. Eaglefield-Hull (Ed.), A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London 1924).
  • T. Holt, Parry to Finzi: Twenty English Song-Composers (Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2002), 87-101.
  • K. Shenton, 'Sir Arthur Somervell', in British Music Society Journal 9 (1987), 45-54.