Rosamond Harding

Rosamond Evelyn Mary Harding (* 1898 in Doddington , † 1982 in Southwold , Suffolk ) was a British private scholar and collector of musical instruments, especially pianos. Without having a degree, she presented a study on the history of early pianos from around 1700 to 1851, with which she earned her PhD . Her name has since been well known to all who study the history of the piano.

In 1933 she published the text “The Pianoforte - its history traced to the Great Industrial Exhibition, 1851” (The Pianoforte - its history up to the Great Industrial Exhibition 1851). This study was so far ahead of other musical research that this book set the standard in piano research for more than 50 years.

Life

Little is known about their life. When Michael Cole began researching her, no one seemed to have known her, no one had ever met her or had a memory of a meeting with her. The Galpin Society, a society for researching musical instruments, published a basic compilation of their life data in the 2007 Galpin Society Journal.

Rosamond Evelyn Mary Harding was born in Doddington near March in Cambridgeshire in 1898 as the first child of Ambrose and Adela Harding. Rosamond was one year old when her family moved to Histon Manor in Cambridge . She lived here for 28 years until 1927. Her father gave her private lessons; she didn't go to school.

Her only brother Thomas was born in 1906. Thomas was disabled and was therefore not intended to be an inheritance. So Rosamond lived her childhood in relative isolation. In 1922 she enrolled at Newnham College to study music. In 1925 she finished her studies ("undergraduate course") without a formal degree. The reasons for not completing the degree are unknown.

In 1927, after the death of the grandfather Colonel T. Walter Harding, former mayor ("Lord Mayor") of Leeds , the family inherited the Madingley Hall estate , which had been built around 1543, and moved there. In the same year Rosamond Harding began her studies on the history of piano making. Their work was supervised by Professor Dent.

Her father raised a living for Rosamond Harding.

In 1931 Rosamond Harding completed her thesis: “The Pianoforte - its history traced to the Great Industrial Exhibition, 1851”. For this she received the degree of Ph.D. awarded.

Her father, Ambrose Harding, set up a foundation in 1933 to put her work into print, which was then carried out at Cambridge University Press with tiny changes and with the omission of some of her drawings. Rosamond Harding subsequently published a new edition of a very early piano work: Lodovico Giustini had already written twelve sonatas for piano in 1732 . At a concert at Newnham College , these sonatas and some eighteenth-century pieces were re-performed on a Longman & Broderip square piano from the Rosamond Harding collection . This was possibly the very first concert on a square piano in the 20th century.

Square pianos had disappeared from production in Europe around 1850 due to their sound and maintenance disadvantages. They were still en vogue in private households in the USA until around 1890, when the high piano (pianino, "upright") had completely supplanted them.

Rosamond Harding obtained her pilot's license in 1936. She had recorded 136 hours of flight time on light aircraft.

By 1937, only 93 copies of her work on piano history had sold. She cut the price of her book from £ 2.10 to £ 1.10, but the book continued to sell very slowly. In 1939 Rosamond Harding applied for military service as a pilot, but was turned down, as happened to other pilots and qualified academics. She then became an air traffic controller in Cambridge in 1940 .

In 1940 she published another book: "An Anatomy of Inspiration". This book was far more successful; the first edition was sold out within a year.

Both of her parents died in 1942. Rosamond Harding sold the last four copies of her book on piano history for 14 shillings each. It is believed that she sold fewer than 220 copies of this book. She published her first poem in 1945 in the magazine "Poetry of Today".

Rosamond Harding lived with her disabled brother Tom until 1948 in Madingley Hall on their father's fortune. However, the executors sold the house to Cambridge University. Madingley Hall is now in use for the university, for the Department of Continuing Education. Part of the property was used for the American cemetery.

In 1949 Rosamond Harding rented Icomb Place, an ancient house at Stow-on-the-Wold , where she moved and also spent her large collection of musical instruments. In 1954 her lease for Icomb Place ended and she sold some of her instruments at Sotheby’s in December . Among these instruments was a square piano by Zumpe & Buntebart from 1769, an Italian harpsichord , built around 1700, and an exceptionally good bass viola by Henry Jaye.

In 1967 the fourth edition of the "Anatomy of Inspiration" came out, but was received critically.

Forty years after the first edition, an unlicensed reprint of her piano history was published in 1973 by Da Capo Press in New York City . Rosamond Harding had not been involved, was not paid for her work, and she was far from pleased with these activities. But because American copyright law provided no compensation for cheated authors and thus no income could be obtained, she did not bring a chargeable lawsuit in New York and left it with a note in the Times in which she announced her displeasure.

The long-awaited second edition of her piano book finally came out, but it turned out to be a photo reprint with very few things changed. Several serious errors remained uncorrected in this edition. At 80 years of age and decoupled from research on the subject of pianos for years, Rosamond Harding was no longer up to these tasks.

Rosamond Harding died in 1982 at her home in Southwold , Suffolk . The house in which she last lived is now a holiday home.

In her will, she bequeathed her collection of instruments to the Royal Albert Museum , but the offer was turned down.

The second print of their second edition of the Pianoforte book appeared posthumously.

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• Rosamond Harding's résumé at Square Pianos