Leo Smith

This article is about the Canadian musician Leo Smith. For the jazz trumpeter, see Wadada Leo Smith .

Leo Smith ( Joseph Leopold Smith ; born November 26, 1881 in Birmingham , † April 18, 1952 in Toronto ) was a Canadian composer, cellist and music teacher.

Life

As a child, Smith took cello lessons from WH Priestley in Birmingham and Carl Fuchs in Manchester. At the age of eight he played a solo concert at Birmingham Town Hall . He studied at Manchester College of Music and with Henry Hiles at Manchester University .

He also played in various chamber music ensembles, was a cellist in the Hallé Orchestra (under Hans Richter ) and for five years in the orchestra of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden , where he a. a. Frederick Delius , Edward Elgar , Claude Debussy and Béla Bartók as conductors. A Symphonic Movement in E Minor from this period has been lost, and songs a.o. a. based on texts by his brother Arnold Smith .

In 1910 Smith emigrated to Canada. He became a member and from 1932 first cellist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra ; from 1938 he was also the first cellist of the Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra . From 1911 he taught music theory, composition, music history and cello at the Toronto Conservatory of Music . He played in the Conservatory Trio and from 1929 to 1942 in the Conservatory String Quartet and was the cellist of the Toronto String Quartet and the Academy String Quartet . From 1918 to 1935 he was editor of the Conservatory Quarterly Review , for which he wrote numerous articles himself.

In 1927 Smith was a lecturer, in 1937 a professor at the Music Faculty of the University of Toronto . His students included u. a. Marcus Adeney , Louis Applebaum , John Beckwith , Keith Bissell , Howard Brown , Kenneth Peacock , Margaret Sargent and Bertha Tamblyn . After his retirement he wrote music reviews for Globe and Mail magazine until his death . Smith's manuscripts and writings are owned by the National Library of Canada , which held an exhibition and concert in 1981 in memory of the composer.

Works

Orchestral works

• An ancient song
• Divertissement in Waltz Time
• Elegy for Small Orchestra
• Little Pretty Nightingale
• Occasion for strings
• A Summer Idyll for clarinet and string orchestra

Chamber music

• Celtic Trio for piano trio
• Four Pieces from The Book of Irish Country Songs for cello and piano
• Four Pieces in an Old English Style for Cello and Piano
• A Horse Race Ballad for Violin, Cello and Harp
• Old London Street Cries for two singers, cello and piano
• Quartet in D , string quartet
• Shakespearean Music
• Sonata in E Minor for cello and piano
• Three Ravens for piano trio
• Trio for violin, viol and harpsichord
• Tambourine , folk song for violin and piano
• Trochaios , folk song for violin and piano
• Dans Paris ya une brune , folksong arrangement for string quartet
• J'ai cueilli la belle rose , folk song arrangement for string quartet
• The Passionate Shepherd for voice, cello and piano
• Her Reply , for voice, cello and piano
• Spring's Welcome , for voice, cello and piano
• Little Peggy Ramsay , for voice, cello and piano
• Father O'Flynn for cello and piano
• Indian Romance for Cello and Piano
• Suite for piano
• Three pieces for piano
• Concertina for piano

Vocal works

• Five Songs , 1912
• Four Songs , 1914
• Beloved and Blest for male choir, 1914
• Night for male choir, 1914
• On Dante's Track for male choir, 1914
• Christmas Bells , 1916
• To One in Paradise , 1924
• Fresh from the Dewy Hill for female choir, 1929
• We Are the Music Makers for female choir, 1930
• Three Songs , 1930
• Songs of Experience , 1941

Fonts

• Musical Rudiments (Boston 1920)
• Music of the 17th and 18th Centuries (Toronto 1931)
• Elementary Part-Writing (Oakville, Ontario, 1939),

Web links

• Leo Smith ( English, French ) In: Encyclopedia of Music in Canada . published by The Canadian Encyclopedia .