Amy Woodforde-Find
Amy Woodforde-Find (* 1860 in Valparaíso , Chile , † March 13, 1919 in London ) was an English composer, best known for her musical adaptations of the Four Indian Love Lyrics by Laurence Hope .
Life
Amy Woodforde-Find was born Amy Ward in Valparaíso, Chile, in 1860, to an American officer who was serving there as a British consul , and to a British mother. She was one of nine children that her mother moved the family to London after her husband was murdered . At this time Amy developed a skill for composition and studied with Carl Schloesser and Amy Horrocks . Her early works, which she published under her maiden name as Amy Ward, were very promising.
At the age of 34 she married Lieutenant-Colonel Woodforde Woodforde-Find, who would later become a brigadier and medical officer of the British Indian Army . Both lived in India for a few years. During this time she wrote and published her most famous pieces: The Lover in Damascus and Kashmiri Song . The latter, although self-published in 1902, was reissued by Boosey & Co. due to its popularity and the influence of Hamilton Earle . They kept fond memories of the popularity of both pieces both with their publisher and in the hearts of the audience. Her songs were known for their sentimentality, their romantic flow and how they managed to capture the British middle class's sensitivity to Asian issues. In the later years she composed On Jhelum River , The Pagoda of Flowers and Stars of the Desert .
In April 1916 she lost her husband. In the same year she saw the first use of one of her pieces as background music for a silent film : Less Than the Dust with Mary Pickford . Kashmiri Song was not to be used in the sound film Hers To Hold until 1943 .
After the death of her husband, Amy Woodforde-Find moved back to London, where she died three years later. Allegedly she died while composing on the piano . Her funeral memorial was in the Hampsthwaite cemetery in North Yorkshire .
The merits of Amy Woodforde-Findens lay in her musical bridging function between the cultures of India and the United Kingdom, whose broad population thus got to know motifs of South Asian music.
Web links
- Performance of the Kashmiri Song by Julian Lloyd Webber
- Biography of Amelia Woodforde-Find - A History of the Woodforde Family from 1300
- Four Indian Love Lyrics performed by Sarah Green
- Sheet music and audio files by Amy Woodforde-Find in the International Music Score Library Project
- Sheet music for "You Are All That is Lovely" , by Amy Woodforde-Find, Boosey & Co., 1911.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Less Than the Dust (1916) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ Hers To Hold (1943) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Woodforde Find, Amy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ward, Amy |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1860 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Valparaíso , Chile |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 13, 1919 |
| Place of death | London , UK |