Arthur Somervell
Sir Arthur Somervell (born June 5, 1863 in Windermere , † May 2, 1937 in London ) was an English composer and teacher .
life and work
Somervell studied music at King's College in Cambridge with Charles Villiers Stanford , then from 1883 to 1885 at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin with Friedrich Kiel and Woldemar Bargiel , then for two years at the Royal College of Music in London as a private student of Hubert Parry . From 1894 he was a faculty member at the Royal College, later he became inspector of music for the Board of Education. In 1928 he retired, the following year he was knighted as a Knight Bachelor .
As a composer, Somervell contributed to numerous musical genres, such as choral music with the cantata The Forsaken Merman (1895) and the short oratorio The Passion of Christ (1914). However, his most important contributions to English music are five song cycles based on texts by Tennyson , Housman and Browning, among others . His instrumental music remained less successful. For a time, the 2nd movement of his Symphony in D minor Thalassa (1912), an elegy dedicated to the memory of the polar explorer Scott , which Somervell also arranged separately for piano and organ, gained wider fame . In 1930 a violin concerto dedicated to Adila Fachiri was written .
As a teacher, Somervell did pioneering work in establishing music as a recognized school subject and also composed corresponding works with educational intentions, such as several operettas for children. Somervell's music is based on German Romanticism and shows references to Mendelssohn and Brahms .
literature
- Michael Hurd: Somervell, Sir Arthur. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
- Jürgen Schaarwächter: Two Centuries of British Symphonism , Vol. I. Hildesheim a. a., Georg Olms Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-487-15227-1 , pp. 281-284.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Knights and Dames at Leigh Rayment's Peerage
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Somervell, Arthur |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English composer and music teacher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 5, 1863 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Windermere (city in Cumbria) |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 2, 1937 |
| Place of death | London |