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1905 in British music

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This is a summary of 1905 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

  • 2 January – Hans Richter conducts the Hallé Orchestra in Sibelius’ Second Symphony, the first performance in Britain of any Sibelius symphony.
  • 15 February – The first two Dante Rhapsodies, Op. 92 by Charles Villiers Stanford ('Beatrice' and 'Capaneo'), are performed for the first time in the Bechstein Hall by Percy Grainger. The third, 'Francesca', is performed at the next concert on 25 March.
  • 27 February – The Knights of the Road, an operetta by Sir Alexander Mackenzie, is produced in London at the Palace Theatre.{{cite book|last=Slonimsky|first=Nicolas|title=Music Since 1900, 5th ed.|publisher=Schirmer|year=1994}}
  • 1 March – Incidental music to The Clouds (Aristophanes) by Hubert Parry is performed for the first time at the University of Oxford.
  • 2 March – The first performance of York Bowen‘s Concertstück for Clarinet, Horn, String Quartet and Piano takes place at the Aeolian Hall in London with the composer at the piano.
  • 8 March – Sir Edward Elgar conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in the first performance of his Introduction and Allegro for string quartet and string orchestra, and of his third Pomp and Circumstance March. Arnold Bax is in the audience.{{cite book|last=Slonimsky|first=Nicolas|title=Music Since 1900, 5th ed.|publisher=Schirmer|year=1994}}
  • 10 March – Thomas Dunhill‘s Piano Quintet in C minor, op 20, is first performed at the Bechstein Hall.
  • 16 March – In the first of a series of Birmingham lectures entitled A Future for English Music, Edward Elgar attacks some current English composers, without actually naming them, and points to the poor reputation that English music has abroad. Formerly friends, Elgar and Stanford cease communication.[https://books.google.com/books?id=5Kc-vwEACAAJ Edward Elgar. A Future for English Music, and Other Lectures, Dobson, 1968]
  • March – Percy Grainger attends a lecture by Lucy Broadwood and becomes interested in collecting folk songs.{{cite book|author=Tim Rayborn|title=A New English Music: Composers and Folk Traditions in England's Musical Renaissance from the Late 19th to the Mid–20th Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cEH8CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA199|date=15 April 2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-2494-5|pages=199–}}
  • 4 April – The first performance of an orchestral work by Arnold Bax, Connemara Revel, is performed at the Queen’s Hall, as part of a student concert put on by the Royal Academy of Music.
  • 11 April – Percy Grainger visits Brigg in Lincolnshire and notes down his first folks songs.
  • 24 April – The incidental music Pan’s Anniversary (Jonson) by Ralph Vaughan Williams is performed for the first time at Bancroft Gardens, Stratford-upon-Avon conducted by the composer. Gustav Holst contributes orchestrations of keyboard music and traditional melodies.
  • 20 May – The Capriccio No 1 for piano by Frank Bridge is performed for the first time in the Bechstein Hall. soloist Mark Hambourg.
  • 9 June – Edward Elgar and his wife board The Deutschland at Dover for a voyage to America. They arrive in New York six days later.
  • 15 June – A Sea Idyll for piano by Frank Bridge is performed for the first time, in the Bechstein Hall.
  • 28 June – Edward Elgar receives an honorary doctorate at Yale University. Yale music professor, Horatio Parker plays Pomp and Circumstance March No 1 on the organ.
  • 29 June – The Mystic Trumpeter, Op. 18 for soprano and orchestra by Gustav Holst, setting Walt Whitman, is performed for the first time in Queen’s Hall, conducted by the composer.
  • 11 July – Edward Elgar and his wife board ship in New York bound for Liverpool.
  • 24 July – At the Grand Hotel, Eastbourne, Claude Debussy begins a five-week stay (until 30 August), escaping the scandal at home surrounding his broken marriage. His pregnant mistress, Emma Bardac, accompanies him. While there (in Suite 200, now known as the Debussy Suite), he completed the orchestration of La Mer and made corrections to the score. The first performance takes place in Paris on 15 October, the UK premiere has to wait until 1 February 1908. Debussy also completes another “water” piece while in Eastbourne, Reflets dans l’eau.
  • 28 August – The first performance of Scottish composer Hamish MacCunn‘s dramatic cantata The Wreck of the Hesperus, setting words by Longfellow, tales place at the London Coliseum. There are multiple further performances between August and October.
  • 19 September – The fifth symphonic poem of Scottish composer William Wallace is given at the Queen’s Hall, London.
  • 21 October – The Fantasia on British Sea Songs, arranged by Sir Henry Wood to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar, is performed for the first time, by the Queen's Hall Orchestra at a Promenade Concert.{{cite book|last1=Kennedy|first1=Michael & Joyce|last2=Rutherford-Johnson|first2=Tim|title=Oxford Dictionary of Music|date=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-957854-2|pages=279–280}}{{cite web|title=Proms 1905, Prom 55|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e4f8q9|publisher=BBC|accessdate=4 July 2015}}
  • 25 October – The first performance of Bohemian Songs for baritone and orchestra by Joseph Holbrooke is conducted by the composer at the Norwich Festival.
  • 26 October – The Pied Piper of Hamelin, a cantata by Hubert Parry, setting the poem by Robert Browning, is performed for the first time in Norwich.
  • 29 October – The first concert given by London's New Symphony Orchestra, a player-run orchestra formed mainly from graduates of the Royal College of Music from the 1890s, takes place at the Coronet Theatre in Notting Hill.{{cite book|author=Oscar Thompson|title=The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians|publisher=Dodd, Mead|year=1975|page=1502}} The NSO, associated with the early career of Thomas Beecham, becomes a specialist recording orchestra, and the "house" orchestra of the Gramophone Company between 1909 and 1930.
  • 2 December – At the invitation of Granville Bantock, Jean Sibelius makes his first visit to England, conducting his Symphony No 1 and Finlandia in Liverpool.{{cite book|author1=Jean Sibelius|author2=Rosa Newmarch|title=The Correspondence of Jean Sibelius and Rosa Newmarch, 1906-1939|publisher=Boydell Press|year=2011|isbn=9781843836834|page=3}}
  • 14 December – The first performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Piano Quintet in C minor takes place at the Aeolian Hall.
  • date unknown – German-born George Henschel becomes organist of the German Embassy Church in London.{{cite book|author1=Maggie Humphreys|author2=Robert Evans|title=Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSLUAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA173|date=1 January 1997|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-7201-2330-2|pages=159}}

Popular music

  • 26 June – Music hall stars Frank Leo and Sable Fern are married in Southwark, and form a double act, three years after the suicide of her estranged husband Walter "Watty" Allan created a scandal.{{cite book | last = Baker | first = Richard | title = British music hall : an illustrated history | publisher = Pen and Sword History | location = South Yorkshire, England | year = 2014 | isbn = 9781783831180 | page=129}}
  • "I Love a Lassie", by Harry Lauder{{cite book|author=Don Tyler|title=Hit Songs, 1900-1955: American Popular Music of the Pre-Rock Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hSCfBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA36|date=2 April 2007|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-2946-2|pages=36–}}
  • "Welcome Home, Sailor Boy!", by C. W. Murphy

Classical music: new works

  • Benjamin Dale – Piano Sonata{{cite book|author1=Maggie Humphreys|author2=Robert Evans|title=Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSLUAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA173|date=1 January 1997|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-7201-2330-2|pages=85}}
  • Frederick Delius
  • A Mass of Life (part 1)
  • Violin Sonata no 1{{cite book|author=Mary Christison Huismann|title=Frederick Delius: A Research and Information Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mZ5J-YD9-WEC&pg=PA7|year=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-99364-7|pages=7–}}
  • Edward Elgar – Introduction and Allegro for Strings
  • Charles Villiers Stanford – Serenade in F major
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams – Songs of Travel{{cite book|author1=Alain Frogley|author2=Aidan J. Thomson|title=The Cambridge Companion to Vaughan Williams|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ROAAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA106|date=14 November 2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-19768-7|pages=106–}}
  • Haydn Wood – Phantasy String Quartet

Opera

  • Amherst Webber – Fiorella{{cite book|author=Paul Rodmell|title=Opera in the British Isles, 1875–1918|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8woDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT426|date=13 May 2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-08544-7|pages=426–}}

Musical theatre

Births

  • 2 January – Michael Tippett, composer (died 1998){{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-sir-michael-tippett-1137828.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-sir-michael-tippett-1137828.html |archive-date=2022-05-01 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Obituary: Sir Michael Tippett|date= 10 January 1998|author=Paul Driver|website=The Independent|access-date=5 March 2019}}{{cbignore}}
  • 5 February – Clifton Parker, theatre and film composer (died 1989){{cite book|title=Winchester's Screen Encyclopedia|publisher=Winchester Publications|year=1948|page=151}}
  • 11 March – Michael Carr, composer and songwriter (died 1968){{cite book|author=Evelyn Mack Truitt|title=Who was who on screen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=irZmAAAAMAAJ|date=1 July 1977|publisher=Bowker|isbn=978-0-8352-0914-4|page=71}}
  • 2 May – Alan Rawsthorne, composer (died 1971){{cite book|author=David Mason Greene|title=Greene's Biographical Encyclopedia of Composers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3S7PIxe0mwC&pg=PA1344|year=1985|publisher=Reproducing Piano Roll Fnd.|isbn=978-0-385-14278-6|pages=1344}}
  • 2 May – Mátyás Seiber (died 1960)
  • 23 August – Constant Lambert, composer (died 1951){{cite book|author=Bruce R. Schueneman|title=Minor Ballet Composers: Biographical Sketches of Sixty-six Underappreciated Yet Significant Contributors to the Body of Western Ballet Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oq5uQJS7-8cC&pg=PA54|year=1997|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-7890-0323-2|pages=54}}
  • 7 November – William Alwyn, composer (died 1985){{cite book|author=John C. Dressler|title=William Alwyn: A Research and Information Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D8-oAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1|date=March 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-66003-0|pages=1}}
  • 30 October – Christian Darnton, composer (died 1981)
  • 21 November – Ted Ray, comedian and violinist (died 1977){{cite book|title=British Film and Television Yearbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y7cQAAAAIAAJ|year=1956|publisher=British and American Film Press|page=45}}
  • 31 December – Jule Styne, London-born songwriter (died 1994){{cite book | last = Tyler | first = Don | title = Music of the postwar era | publisher = Greenwood Press | location = Westport, Conn | year = 2008 | isbn = 9780313341915 | page=199}}
  • date unknown – Fred Hartley, pianist, conductor and composer of light music (died 1980)[http://www.allcelticmusic.com/artists/Fred%20Hartley.html Fred Hartley piano solos], Celtic Music. Retrieved 17 September 2010

Deaths

  • 12 February – Edward Dannreuther, Strasbourg-born pianist, founder of the English Wagner Society (b. 1844){{cite book|author=Randel Don|title=The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jEGpMqRcQjIC&pg=PA196|year=1996|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-37299-3|pages=196}}
  • 11 April – David Braham, musical theatre composer (born 1834){{cite book | title = Complete Book of the American Musical Theater | author = David Ewen | pages = 44–46 | publisher = Holt | year = 1958 | id = 82625-0918}}
  • 29 June – Herbert Stephen Irons, organist and composer, 71{{cite book|author1=Maggie Humphreys|author2=Robert Evans|title=Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSLUAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA173|date=1 January 1997|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-7201-2330-2|pages=180}}
  • 20 September – Walter Cecil Macfarren, pianist, composer and conductor, 79{{cite book|author1=Maggie Humphreys|author2=Robert Evans|title=Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSLUAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA173|date=1 January 1997|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-7201-2330-2|pages=219}}
  • 18 October – Emmie Owen, operatic soprano and actress, 33 (hepatic cirrhosis gastric ulcer){{cite book|author=Tony Joseph|title=Emmie Owen and Florence Perry: "maidenly perfection"|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DAgJAQAAMAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Bunthorne Books|isbn=978-0-9507992-7-8}}
  • 9 December – Henry Holmes, composer and violinist (b. 1839){{cite book|author1=Maggie Humphreys|author2=Robert Evans|title=Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSLUAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA166|date=1 January 1997|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-7201-2330-2|pages=166}}

See also

References

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{{Music of the United Kingdom}}

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British Music, 1905 in

Music

Category:British music by year

Category:1900s in British music