Rowsby Woof

Woof was born in Coalbrookdale, son of Edward Woof and his wife Sarah (née Rowsby).Shropshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1900

He studied violin with Hans Wessely at the Royal Academy of Music.R. A. M. Magazine No. 128, May 1944, p.33

From information in prospectuses of the Royal Academy of Music.Information supplied thanks to the librarian at the London Royal Academy of Music. No prospectus available for 1940, and his name is not listed in the 1941 prospectus.

• Violin sub-professor: 1904-1905

In 1904 Woof won the Messrs. Hill & Sons’ Prize, and the Charles Rube Prize for quartet playing with Ivy L. St. Aubyn Angove, James T. Lockyer, and B. Walton O'Donnell. Woof was a Wessely Exhibitioner at the RAM.1904 Prize List Royal Academy of Music

Woof was also awarded the Royal Academy of Music's Bronze Medal for Violin in 1904,{{cite web |url = https://www.ram.ac.uk/museum/item/22094 |title = Medal: Royal Academy of Music medal awarded to Rowsby Woof for violin, 1904. Bronze |website = Royal Academy of Music Museum |access-date = January 7, 2019}} the Silver Medal for Violin in 1905{{cite web |url = https://www.ram.ac.uk/museum/item/35362 |title = Medal: Royal Academy of Music medal awarded to Rowsby Woof for violin, 1905. Silver |website = Royal Academy of Music Museum |access-date = January 7, 2019}} as well as the Hannah Mayer Fitzroy Prize,1905 Prize List Royal Academy of Music and the James Tubbs and Son’s Prize1906 Prize List Royal Academy of Music and the Dove Prize in 1906.{{cite magazine |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=eFRCAQAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA85 |title = Royal Academy of Music |magazine = Musical News |date = July 28, 1906 |location = London, England |access-date = January 7, 2019}} In 1907, he made his debut at Bechstein Hall (now Wigmore Hall).{{cite book |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5KQIAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA318 |page = 318 |title = Who's who in Music: A Biographical Record of Contemporary Musicians |date = 1915 |edition = 2nd |editor1-first = H. Saxe |editor1-last = Wyndham |editor2-first = Geoffrey |editor2-last = L'Epine |location = London, England |access-date = January 7, 2019}}

• Violin professor: 1909-1939
• Viola professor: 1912-1939
• Ensemble playing classes: 1914-1923

In 1911, Woof married Victoria Mary Fox, a music teacher. They had no children.Who's Who 1942, 94th edition, A. & C. Black He died 31 December 1943.The Monthly Musical Record, collected volumes 74-75, Augener & Co., 1944, p. 42

The Rowsby Woof Prize for Royal Academy of Music violin students, founded by his wife in 1944, was awarded annually in the years 1945 to 1963. The Prize Board listing the awardees was added to the RAM Museum's collection in 2011. Recipients include Colin Sauer (1945), Beryl Kimber (1949), Clarence Myerscough (1952), Brendan O' Reilly (1956) and John Georgiadis (1959) of the Gabrieli String Quartet, and Roy Malan (1963), founding concertmaster of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra.{{cite web |url = https://www.ram.ac.uk/museum/item/26837 |title = Rowsby Woof Prize Board |website = Royal Academy of Music Museum |access-date = January 7, 2019}}

Rowsby Woof is listed in the Musicians' Book of Remembrance in the Musician's Chapel at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate.{{cite web |url = http://www.musicianschapel.org.uk/remembrance/rowsby-woof/ |title = Book of Remembrance: Rowsby Woof |website = Friends of the Musicians’ Chapel |access-date = January 7, 2019}}

Compositions

• Diamond Jubilee, children's song, words by S. R. W.,Probably his mother, Sarah Rowsby Woof R.Cocks & Co.: London [1897]
• Reverie, for violin & piano, C. Woodhouse: London, 1909
• Little Waltz in first position, for violin & piano, C. Woodhouse: London, 1910
• Scherzo, for violin & piano, C. Woodhouse: London, 1910
• Scherzo, for piano, Cary & Co.: London, 1912
• Swinging, for violin & piano, Cary & Co.: London, 1913
• Forsaken, for violin & piano. Cary & Co.: London, 1914
• The North Wind, for violin & piano, J. Williams: London, 1919
• A Romp, for violin & piano, J. Williams: London, 1919
• Four Fancies, for violin & piano. I Caprice II Romance III Minuet IV In church, Anglo-French Music Co.: London, 1920
• Valse Capriccio, for violin & piano, J. Williams: London, 1927

Arrangements

• Bach, J. S.: Largo and Allegro, arr. violin & piano
• Paganini, N. Caprice, arr. violin & piano [1922]
• Geminiani, F.: Sonata Op.4 No. 10, Two Minuets [1927]

Instructional works

• The First Position Six short pieces for beginners for violin. Anglo-French Music Co.: London, 1910
• Technique and Interpretation in Violin-playing [1920] {{ISBN|978-1-406-79686-5}}
• Thirty Studies of Moderate Difficulty for Violin {{ISBN|978-1-854-72080-1}}
• Fifty Elementary Studies for Violin {{ISBN|978-1-854-72401-4}}
• Official book of Scales and Arpeggios for the Violin ed. R. Woof, Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music: London, 1922

{{reflist}}

• {{IMSLP|id=Woof, Rowsby}}
• {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801034545/https://www.ram.ac.uk/museum/item/33403 |date=August 1, 2018 |title=Portrait of Rowsby Woof and Benjamin Dale}}

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Category:1883 births

Category:1943 deaths

Category:People from Coalbrookdale

Category:20th-century British classical violinists

Category:20th-century English musicians

Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music

Category:English classical violinists

Category:20th-century English male musicians

Category:English male classical violinists