Violet Gordon-Woodhouse

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Violet Gordon-Woodhouse (born April 23, 1872 in London as Violet Kate Eglinton Gwynne , † January 9, 1948 in Gloucestershire ) was a British keyboard instrumentalist. Gordon-Woodhouse specialized in the harpsichord and clavichord . Their playing led to both instruments being noticed by the public again. She was the first musician to record the harpsichord and selected works by Johann Sebastian Bach . She was also the first to broadcast harpsichord music on the radio.

family

Gordon-Woodhouse was born Violet Kate Eglinton Gwynne at 97 Harley Street in Marylebone, London to a wealthy family who owned an estate in Sussex , UK . She was the fourth child and the second daughter of the engineer and inventor James Eglinton Anderson Gwynne (1832-1915) and Mary Earle Purvis (1841-1923). Her mother was friends with the soprano Adelina Patti . The German emigrant and leading music teacher in Great Britain, Oskar Beringer , gave piano lessons to Gordon-Woodhouse, who was one of his most promising students at the age of sixteen.

Her maternal grandfather was the Scottish Royal Navy - officer and businessman William Purvis (1796-1854) from Dalgety Bay , the 1822 born in Padang renowned soprano Cornelia Louisa Intveld married (1808-1857).

Gordon Woodhouse's brothers were politically active. Rupert Gwynne was an MP for Eastbourne from 1910 to 1924 . Roland Gwynne served as mayor in the same city from 1929 to 1931. The cookbook author Elizabeth David was one of the nieces of Gordon Woodhouse.

Gordon-Woodhouse broke off engagement with Henry Gage, 5th Viscount Gage , a wealthy Sussex neighbor, after being educated about human sexuality. In 1895 she entered into a marriage of convenience in which she persuaded her husband to adopt the hyphenated Gordon-Woodhouse family name. It is unclear why he entered into this marriage. In 1899 William Barrington, who later became the 10th Viscount Barrington , moved into the marital home as a lover . In 1903 the lawyer Max Labouchere and the cavalry officer Dennis Tollemache also moved in. In British society this became known as the "Woodhouse Circus".

Career

Gordon-Woodhouse first played the piano, but became known for her performances on the harpsichord and clavichord. The French violinist and instrument maker Arnold Dolmetsch , who worked in England from 1917 and dedicated himself to the revival of early music , had a great influence. Dolmetsch made copies of old keyboard instruments, delivered them to Gordon-Woodhouse and introduced them to the game. In 1899 she performed the " Concerto for three harpsichords in C major " by Johann Sebastian Bach in public in London. She was accompanied by Arnold Dolmetsch and his second wife Elodie Desirée. Although Dolmetsch had been working abroad since the beginning of the 20th century, Gordon-Woodhouse worked with him from 1910. The first recordings of the clavichord are attributed to interpreting.

In addition to her repertoire, which included early music, Gordon-Woodhouse also used the works of 19th century and contemporary composers. The British composer Frederick Delius dedicated a work for harpsichord to her.

Later years

After the First World War , Gordon-Woodhouse, which received nothing from her father's inheritance, was almost insolvent. It is believed that this favored the decision to sign a record deal.

In the 1920s Violet and Gordon acquired the Nether Lypiatt Manor in Gloucestershire that they moved in with William Barrington. From 1926, Violet reduced her public appearances after Gordon Woodhouse had been paid an inheritance.

The Australian pianist and harpsichordist Valda Aveling took lessons from Gordon-Woodhouse from the 1930s.

Violet died in 1948 at the age of 75. The two men stayed in Nether Lypiatt until Gordon died in 1951.

Notoriety

Gordon-Woodhouse was known to many famous artists. These include the composer and women's rights activist Ethel Smyth , the poet and narrator Siegfried Sassoon , Sir Aubrey Edward Henry Dean Paul and his wife, the pianist Régine Wieniawski, and George Bernard Shaw . Welsh poet William Henry Davies was a frequent visitor to her concerts and dined with her and the sitwells on Nether Lypiatt.

The British writer Sir Osbert Sitwell mentioned them several times in his autobiography .

The homosexual writer Radclyffe Hall dedicated an erotic volume of poetry to her.

Roger Scruton wrote the libretto and music for the opera Violet, which is based on her life and premiered in 2005 at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama .

literature

  • Jessica Douglas-Home: Violet: The Life and Loves of Violet Gordon Woodhouse . The Harvill Press, London 1996, ISBN 978-1-86046-269-6 .
  • Harry Haskell: The early music revival: A history . Thames and Hudson Ltd, Londres 1988, ISBN 0-500-01449-3 , pp. 114 .

Discography

  • The Harpsichord Virtuoso

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arts: A very 20th-century period instrument. December 13, 1999, accessed May 2, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Violet Gordon Woodhouse - Bach's Instrumental Works - Discography. Retrieved May 2, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Eric Blom: Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians . 5th edition. tape 9 , p. 360-361 ( oxfordmusiconline.com ).
  4. ↑ Woodhouse, Violet Kate Eglinton Gordon (née Violet Kate Eglinton Gwynne) (1871-1948), keyboard player. Retrieved May 2, 2020 .
  5. ^ Nancy Oakley Hedemann: A Scottish-Hawaiian story: the Purvis family in the Sandwich Islands . NO Hedemann, 1994, ISBN 978-0-9644020-0-3 ( google.com [accessed May 2, 2020]).
  6. ↑ Pamela V. Cullen: A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams . Elliott & Thompson, London 2006, ISBN 1-904027-19-9 .
  7. ↑ Jessica Douglas-Home: Violet: The Life and Loves of Violet Gordon Woodhouse . The Harvill Press, 1996, ISBN 978-1-86046-269-6 (English).
  8. ↑ a b c Menage a Cinq. Retrieved May 2, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Arts: A very 20th-century period instrument. December 13, 1999, accessed May 2, 2020 .
  10. ^ Howard Schott: Thurston Dart clavichord recordings . In: Early Music . tape XXVII , no. 4 , November 1, 1999, ISSN  0306-1078 , p. 678–681 , doi : 10.1093 / earlyj / XXVII.4.678 ( oup.com [accessed May 2, 2020]).
  11. ↑ Pamela Nash: Obituary: Valda Aveling . In: The Guardian . December 18, 2007, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed May 2, 2020]).
  12. ^ WH Davies, Osbert Sitwell, Daniel George, Jonathan Cape: The Complete Poems of WH Davies . Wesleyan Univ Pr., London 1965, ISBN 978-0-8195-3055-4 , pp. 27-34 .
  13. ^ Douglas-Home, Jessica, Violet: The Life and Loves of Violet Gordon Woodhouse (1997)
personal data
SURNAME Gordon-Woodhouse, Violet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gordon Woodhouse, Violet (alternate spelling); Gwynne, Violet Kate Eglinton (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British harpsichordist and clavicordist
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1948
Place of death Gloucestershire