Alice Verne-Bredt

{{Short description|English piano teacher, violinist and composer}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Alice Verne-Bredt

| image = Alice Verne-Bredt.png

| caption = Alice Verne-Bredt around 1920.

| birth_name = Alice Barbara Würm

| birth_date = 1864

| birth_place = Southampton

| death_date = 1958

| death_place = London

| nationality = English

| known_for = Innovator of percussion bands for children in Great Britain.

| spouse = William Bredt

| relatives = Adela Verne (sister)
Mathilde Verne (sister)
Mary Wurm (sister)
John Vallier (nephew)

| occupation = Pianist

}}

Alice Barbara Verne-Bredt (née Würm; 1864–1958) was an English piano teacher, violinist and composer.{{cite web|title=Alice Verne-Bredt|url=http://www.keyboardgiants.com/|website=Keyboardgiants.com|publisher=Keyboard Giants|accessdate=16 December 2014}} Three of her sisters were also noted pianists: Adela Verne, Mathilde Verne and Mary Würm (who returned to Germany and retained the original family name).

Life and career

The sixth of ten children, she was born as Alice Barbara Würm in Southampton to Bavarian professional musicians who emigrated to England in the 1850s.{{cite web|title=Alice Verne-Brendt|url=http://www.meridian-records.co.uk/acatalog/info_422.html|website=Meridian-records.co.uk|publisher=Meridian Records|accessdate=16 December 2014}} Her father, a music teacher who specialised in zither, violin, and piano, worked as an organist.{{cite web|last1=Fuller|first1=Sophie|title=Women Composers during the British Musical Renaissance, 1880-1918|url=https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/2927686/263601.pdf|website=Kclpure.kcl.ac.uk|publisher=King's College University of London|accessdate=16 December 2014}} Her mother was a violinist who taught her the violin from a very early age.{{cite web|last1=Seldon|first1=Laura|title=The instrumental music of British Women Composers in the Early Twentieth Century|url=http://core.kmi.open.ac.uk/download/pdf/5230557.pdf|website=Core.kmi.open.ac.uk|publisher=City University London|accessdate=16 December 2014}} Later in her childhood she moved to London, where she lived all her life, and there was taught piano by Robert and Clara Schumann's daughter, Marie.[https://books.google.com/books?id=iVcrAAAAIAAJ&q=Chords+of+Remembrance+Alice+Verne-Bredt Verne, Mathilde. Chords of Remembrance (1936), p 102]

Alice wanted to become a singer, but typhoid fever affected her voice. In 1893, her family anglicized their surname from Würm to Verne, and Alice married William Bredt, an amateur musician and conductor. Both greatly contributed to the success of the piano school set up in London by her sister Mathilde in 1909. During the same period she also established The Twelve O'Clock Concerts, a successful concert series for chamber music at the Aeolian Hall in London, where some of her own chamber music was performed.

Alice took over the school's junior department, where Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, had a wedding march written especially for her. There she became a pioneer of children's music education and an innovator in the use of percussion bands for that purpose. She died in London in 1958.

Selected works

Few of her works were published. Perhaps the best known is the Phantasie Trio of 1908 for piano, violin and cello, which won a supplementary prize in the annual Cobbett chamber music competition, inaugurated two years before.Musical Times 49, June 1908, p 397 It was recorded in 2005 by the Summerhayes Piano Trio.[https://www.meridian-records.co.uk/acatalog/CDE_84478.html#aCDE84478 English Romantic Trios. Meridien CDE 84478 (2005)]

=Chamber music=

Cello Sonata
Phantasie Piano Trio (1908) – performed at the Aeolian and Bechstein Halls on 25 January 1912.{{cite book|last1=Seddon|first1=Laura|title=British Women Composers and Instrumental Chamber Music in the Early Twentieth Century|date=2013|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-1472402158|page=nn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AEmiAgAAQBAJ&q=%22Verne%22&pg=PT60}}
Phantasie Piano Quartet (1908) (unpublished)
Phantasie Piano Quintet (no date, unpublished)
Piano Trio, No. 2
Piano Trio, No. 3
Wiegenlied (lullaby) for violin and piano (1911){{cite web|title=Alice Verne-Bredt (composer)|url=http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/60064/Verne-Bredt_Alice_composer|website=Discography of American Historical Recordings|publisher=DAHR|accessdate=16 December 2014}}

=Piano music=

Arrangement of Pavane: from King Henry VIII's Pavyn (1924){{cite book|title=Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 3, Issues 5-6|date=1925|publisher=Library of Congress. Copyright Office|page=528|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=grZDAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Alice+Verne-Bredt%22&pg=PA528|oclc=6481719}}
Four easy inventions for young pianists (1920){{cite book|title=4 Easy Inventions for young pianists|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/495820443|via=Worldcat|publisher=OCLC|oclc = 495820443|accessdate=16 December 2014}}
Musical box
The little drum
Concert study
The doll's promenade
Polacca (Polka) for piano and orchestra (also for string accompaniment){{cite web|title=East End Wonder-Child|url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=WC19120430.2.5.5|website=Paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|publisher=National Library of New Zealand|accessdate=16 December 2014}}
Valse (1913){{cite book|title=Valse|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/154646237|via=Worldcat|publisher=OCLC|oclc = 154646237|accessdate=16 December 2014}}
Valse Miniature for two pianos (1913){{cite book|title=Valse miniature, for two pianos|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/498596654|via=Worldcat|publisher=OCLC|oclc = 498596654|accessdate=16 December 2014}}