|
1945 In British Music
This is a summary of 1945 in music in the United Kingdom. Events *7 June – First performance of ''Peter Grimes'' in Sadler's Wells, London. *29 June – William Walton opposes a proposal that the British Council should support a complete recording of ''Peter Grimes'', suggesting that this should be discussed "at a calmer moment when the wildly hysterical & uncritical eulogies & general 'ballyhoo' have somewhat abated, & the true merits of the work can be properly assessed." * July – Benjamin Britten and Yehudi Menuhin tour Germany to perform concerts in liberated concentration camps, including Belsen. *26 July – Composer Ernest John Moeran marries cellist Peers Coetmore. *''Unknown date'' – Walter Legge founds the Philharmonia Orchestra. Popular music *Noël Coward – "Matelot", "Nina (from Argentina)", from Coward's musical '' Sigh No More'' *Dorothy Squires – " The Gypsy" ( Billy Reid) Classical music: new works *Benjamin Britten – ''The Young Person's Guide to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 170 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sigh No More (musical)
''Sigh No More'' is a musical revue consisting of twenty-two scenes and numbers composed, written and produced by Noël Coward, with additional items by Joyce Grenfell, Richard Addinsell and Norman Hackforth."A Noel Coward Revue", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 12 July 1945; p. 3 The show was Coward's first post-World War II musical and starred Cyril Ritchard, his wife Madge Elliott and Joyce Grenfell. It also featured Graham Payn, Coward's longtime partner, who sang the best-known song in the show, the wistful "Matelot". It opened at the Manchester Opera House on 11 July 1945, before transferring to London's West End, where it opened at the Piccadilly Theatre on 22 August 1945, running for 213 performances and closing on 23 February 1946.Ivor Brown, ''The Observer'', 26 August 1945, p. 2 Despite its indifferent success, it contained songs that endured in Coward's later cabaret act and elsewhere. Musical numbers ;Part 1 *Sigh No More – Harlequin and Singing Silphides (Payn and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
21 April
Events Pre-1600 *753 BC – Romulus founds Rome ( traditional date). *43 BC – Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony is again defeated in battle by Aulus Hirtius, who is killed. Antony fails to capture Mutina and Decimus Brutus is murdered shortly after. * 900 – The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (the earliest known written document found in what is now the Philippines): the Commander-in-Chief of the Kingdom of Tondo, as represented by the Honourable Jayadewa, Lord Minister of Pailah, pardons from all debt the Honourable Namwaran and his relations. *1092 – The Diocese of Pisa is elevated to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese by Pope Urban II *1506 – The three-day Lisbon Massacre comes to an end with the slaughter of over 1,900 suspected Jews by Portuguese Catholics. *1509 – Henry VIII ascends the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII. *1526 – The last ruler of the Lodi dynasty, Ibrahim Lodi is defeated and killed by Babur in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Story Of A Flemish Farm
''The Story of a Flemish Farm'' is an orchestral suite by British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, based on the score for the 1943 film ''The Flemish Farm'' - a wartime drama set in occupied Europe, and written when Vaughan Williams was 70. The score comprises seven movements, which follow the flow of the story: #The Flag Flutters In The Wind. #Night By The Sea, Farewell To The Flag. #Dawn In The Old Barn, The Parting Of The Lovers. #In The Café. #The Major Goes To Face His Fate. #The Dead Man's Kit. #The Wanderings Of The Flag. The music takes themes from a number of folk tunes, along with references to A Sea Symphony of 1909 and his 6th Symphony, which followed in 1947. Vaughan Williams conducted the suite himself at a Promenade concert in July 1945, though he remarked that to call anything a suite was 'to damn it to extinction'. Christopher Thomas, writing in a record review, commented: ''"The bold strength of the melodic writing is highly idiomatic and reflects VW at the heig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century. Vaughan Williams was born to a well-to-do family with strong moral views and a progressive social life. Throughout his life he sought to be of service to his fellow citizens, and believed in making music as available as possible to everybody. He wrote many works for amateur and student performance. He was musically a late developer, not finding his true voice until his late thirties; his studies in 1907–1908 with the French composer Maurice Ravel helped him clarify the textures of his music and free it from Music of Germany, Teutonic influences. Vaughan Williams i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blithe Spirit (1945 Film)
''Blithe Spirit'' is a 1945 British fantasy-comedy film directed by David Lean. The screenplay by Lean, cinematographer Ronald Neame and associate producer Anthony Havelock-Allan, is based on actor/director/producer and playwright Noël Coward's 1941 play of the same name, the title of which is derived from the line "Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird thou never wert" in the poem "To a Skylark" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The song, "Always", written by Irving Berlin, is an important plot element in "Blithe Spirit". The film features Kay Hammond and Margaret Rutherford, in the roles they created in the original production, along with Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings in the lead parts of Charles and Ruth Condomine. While unsuccessful at the box office and a disappointing adaptation for the screen, according to Coward, who wrote the screenplay himself, it has since come to be considered notable for its Technicolor photography and Oscar-winning visual effects in particular and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Addinsell
Richard Stewart Addinsell (13 January 190414 November 1977) was an English composer, best known for film music, primarily his ''Warsaw Concerto'', composed for the 1941 film ''Dangerous Moonlight'' (also known under the later title ''Suicide Squadron''). Biography Early life Richard Addinsell was born in Woburn Square, London, to William Arthur Addinsell, who was a chartered accountant, and his wife, Annie Beatrice Richards.Lamb, Andrew (2004)'Addinsell, Richard Stewart (1904–1977)' ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press. Retrieved 13 September 2011. The younger of two brothers, Addinsell was educated at home before attending Hertford College, Oxford, to study Law but went down after just 18 months. He then became interested in music. Early career In 1925, he enrolled at the Royal College of Music but lasted only two terms before leaving, again without obtaining any formal qualification. By this time Addinsell was already collaborating with Noel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Wood
Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundreds of new works to British audiences. After his death, the concerts were officially renamed in his honour as the "Henry Wood Promenade Concerts", although they continued to be generally referred to as "the Proms". Born in modest circumstances to parents who encouraged his musical talent, Wood started his career as an organist. During his studies at the Royal Academy of Music, he came under the influence of the voice teacher Manuel Garcia and became his accompanist. After similar work for Richard D'Oyly Carte's opera companies on the works of Arthur Sullivan and others, Wood became the conductor of a small operatic touring company. He was soon engaged by the larger Carl Rosa Opera Company. One notable event in his operatic career was c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symphony No
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section (violin, viola, cello, and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). Etymology and origins The word ''symphony'' is derived from the Greek word (), meaning "agreement or concord of sound", "concert of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten as one of the leading British composers of the 20th century. Among his best-known works are the oratorio ''A Child of Our Time'', the orchestral '' Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli'', and the opera ''The Midsummer Marriage''. Tippett's talent developed slowly. He withdrew or destroyed his earliest compositions, and was 30 before any of his works were published. Until the mid-to-late 1950s his music was broadly lyrical in character, before changing to a more astringent and experimental style. New influences, including those of jazz and blues after his first visit to America in 1965, became increasingly evident in his compositions. While Tippett's stature with the public continued to grow, not all critics approved of these changes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pamela Harrison (composer)
Pamela Harrison (28 November 1915 – 28 August 1990) was an English composer, pianist and music teacher. Biography Pamela Harrison was born in Orpington, England, and educated at the Brampton Down School for Girls in Folkestone. She studied with Gordon Jacob and Arthur Benjamin at the Royal College of Music in London. She first made her mark as a composer with the Quintet for flute, oboe and strings, written in 1938 and first performed that year at a concert of the Society for the Promotion of New Music. The Quintet was heard again in 1944 at Fyvie Hall, Regent Street, played by an ensemble led by Leonard Hirsch. During World War II, she worked as a school teacher. She was music mistress at The Hall School, Wincanton, Somerset in 1942, and at St Monica's School, Clacton-on-Sea from 1943 until 1945.''Who's Who in Music'', Fifth Edition (1969), p. 134 She also continued to compose and perform. Her String Quartet was played more than once at the wartime Myra Hess National Gal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra
''The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra'', Op. 34, is a 1945 musical composition by Benjamin Britten with a subtitle ''Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell''. It was based on the second movement, "Rondeau", of the ''Abdelazer'' suite. It was originally commissioned for the British educational documentary film called ''Instruments of the Orchestra'' released on 29 November 1946, directed by Muir Mathieson and featuring the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent; Sargent also conducted the concert première on 15 October 1946 with the Liverpool Philharmonic in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, England. The work is one of the best-known pieces by the composer, and is often associated with two other works in music history: Saint-Saëns' ''The Carnival of the Animals'' and Prokofiev's ''Peter and the Wolf''. This piece is also commonly played as the intro for british band Yes' live tours, starting in the 2000s. Instrumentation ''The Young Person's Guide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.svg "Click for more on -> United Kingdom")
