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Frank Titterton
Frank Titterton (31 December 1893, in Handsworth – 24 November 1956, in London) was a well-known British lyric tenor of the mid-twentieth century. He was noted for his musicianship. Titterton trained originally as an actor and was a member of The Pilgrim Players (which became the Birmingham Repertory Theatre) run by Sir Barry Jackson. He began to sing as an amateur, appearing in operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan and others in Birmingham before studying singing with Ernesto Beraldi and Charles Victor in London. He then left his stage career to work as a song recitalist and in Oratorio in Britain and Holland. He later became a sought-after singing teacher in London. Titterton's career was mainly in the concert hall, though he was also a prolific broadcaster and recording artist for Vocalion, Broadcast, Columbia and Decca. Most titles were recorded under his own name, but he also used the pseudonyms 'Francesco Vada' and 'Norton Collyer'. Like many British singers of his era he spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is widely defined to be B2, though some roles include an A2 (two As below middle C). At the highest extreme, some tenors can sing up to the second F above middle C (F5). The tenor voice type is generally divided into the ''leggero'' tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor, and tenor buffo or . History The name "tenor" derives from the Latin word ''wikt:teneo#Latin, tenere'', which means "to hold". As Fallows, Jander, Forbes, Steane, Harris and Waldman note in the "Tenor" article at ''Grove Music Online'': In polyphony between about 1250 and 1500, the [tenor was the] structurally fundamental (or 'holding') voice, vocal or instrumental; by the 15th century it came to signify the male voice that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Widdop
Walter Widdop (19 April 1892 – 6 September 1949) was a British operatic tenor who is best remembered for his Wagnerian performances. His repertoire also encompassed works by Verdi, Leoncavallo, Handel and Bach. Career Widdop was born at Norland, near Halifax, Yorkshire, England."Mr. Walter Widdop – A Fine English Tenor", ''The Times'', 7 September 1949, p. 7 As a teenager, he worked in a woollen mill and sang in a church choir. He also won a number of singing prizes in his native county, earning praise for his "God-given" voice, which was honed by a local teacher, Arthur Hinchcliffe. He served with the British Army during World War One and married in 1917. In 1923, Widdop made the first of many broadcasts for the BBC. In the same year, he made his professional operatic debut as Radames in Verdi's ''Aida'' with the British National Opera Company, in Leeds. He made his London debut the following year, in the title role in Wagner's ''Siegfried'' at the Royal Opera House, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Record Collector
''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine. It was founded in 1980 and distributes worldwide. History The early years The first standalone issue of ''Record Collector'' was published in March 1980, though its history stretches back further. In 1963, publisher Sean O'Mahony (alias Johnny Dean) had launched an official Beatles magazine, ''The Beatles Book''. Although it shut down in 1969, ''The Beatles Book'' reappeared in 1976 due to popular demand. Through the late-1970s, the small ads section of ''The Beatles Book'' became an increasingly popular avenue through which collectors could make contact and buy, sell, or trade Beatles records. Reflecting a burgeoning collecting scene in the 1970s, as time went by, the adverts were becoming dominated by traders who were interested in rare vinyl unassociated with the Beatles. In September 1979, ''The Beatles Book'' came with a record collecting supplement, and the response was positive enough for O'Mahony to launch ''Reco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decca Studios
Decca Studios was a recording facility at 165 Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead, North London, England, controlled by Decca Records from 1937 to 1980. The building was once West Hampstead Town Hall, and had been converted to a recording studio by Crystalate Gramophone Record Manufacturing in 1928. History The building that housed Decca Studios at 165 Broadhurst Gardens in London was built in the 1880s as the Falcon Works, a place for tradespeople to work from. A few years later it was turned into a venue, including two halls, for concerts, meetings and other gatherings. Although named West Hampstead Town Hall, it was a venue for hire, rather than a local government facility. In 1928, Crystalate Gramophone Record Manufacturing took it over and moved its recording studio there. In 1937, Decca took over Crystalate's record division. Decca closed its existing studio in Upper Thames Street and moved to the Broadhurst Gardens studio. From British Decca's beginnings in 1929, its earli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alma Rattenbury
Alma Victoria Rattenbury ( Wolfe, also Clarke, Dolling and Pakenham; 1897/8–1935) was an English-Canadian songwriter and accused murderer. Born and educated in Canada, she was a talented musician and played with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. She married for the first time to C. R. J. R. Dolling in 1914, a relative of the Earl of Caledon. With the outbreak of the First World War, her husband joined up. He was initially stationed in Prince Rupert, where she involved herself in entertaining the troops. In August 1915, they moved to England and her husband was posted to France in October 1915. She worked at the War Office. Her husband was awarded the Military Cross for bravery before being killed in action during the First Battle of the Somme. Following her husband's death, she volunteered with the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service, and served with distinction in France. Having been wounded twice, she was awarded the French ''Croix de Guerre'' for her war service. In 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malcolm McEachern
Walter Malcolm Neil McEachern (1 April 1883 – 17 January 1945) was a noted Australian Bass (voice type), bass singing, singer who enjoyed a successful career in the United Kingdom, both as a concert soloist and as one half of the comic musical duo Mr. Flotsam and Mr. Jetsam, Flotsam and Jetsam. Personal life McEachern was born in Albury, New South Wales, the sixth of 13 children of Archibald Hector McEachern and his wife, Rebecca Mary. On 2 February 1916, McEachern married pianist Hazel Hogarth Doyle, who later became his accompanist and provided the musical direction for his career. Hazel came from a musical family: her mother Florence was a pianist and the violinist Bessie Doyle was a sister. He was a Freemason, and a member of the Savage Club Lodge in London. Career and death During World War I, McEachern went on a tour of Australia with the great Australian soprano Nellie Melba. Also in the touring company were Ella Caspers, Ada Crossley and Marie Narelle. In 1921 McE ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Excelsior (Longfellow)
"Excelsior" is a short poem written in 1841 by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Overview The poem describes a young man passing through a mountain village at dusk. He bears the banner "Excelsior" (translated from Latin as "higher", also loosely but more widely as "onward and upward"). The traveller disregards warnings from villagers of fearful dangers above, and an offer of rest from a local maiden. The youth climbs higher until a last distant cry interrupts the prayers of the monks of Saint Bernard. "Lifeless, but beautiful" he is found by the "faithful hound" half-buried in the snow, "still clasping in his hands of ice that banner with the strange device, ''Excelsior!''" Longfellow's first draft of "Excelsior", now in the archives at Harvard University, notes that he finished the poem at three o'clock in the morning on September 28, 1841. The poem came to him as he was trying to sleep. "That ''voice'' kept ringing in my ears", as he wrote to his friend Samuel Gray War ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Excelsior (song)
Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedonski), a book of poems by Alexandru Macedonski * "Excelsior" (short story), a 1948 short story by P. G. Wodehouse * "Excelsior" (Whitman), a poem by Walt Whitman Music * Excelsior Recordings, a record label from the Netherlands * Excelsior Brass Band, an 1879-1931 brass band from New Orleans * "Excelsior", a setting of Longfellow's poem to music by Michael William Balfe * "Excelsior!", a concert overture by Wilhelm Stenhammar * "Excelsior", an album by Steven Page Science fiction * Excelsior (comics), in ''Runaways'', a support group for former teenage superheroes * USS ''Excelsior'', a Federation starship first seen in the movie '' Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'' Journals and newspapers * ''Excélsior'', a newspaper publis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Balfe
Michael William Balfe (15 May 1808 – 20 October 1870) was an Irish composer, best remembered for his operas, especially ''The Bohemian Girl''. After a short career as a violinist, Balfe pursued an operatic singing career, while he began to compose. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he composed at least 29 operas, almost 250 songs, several cantatas and other works. He was also a noted conductor, directing Italian Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre for seven years, among other conducting posts. Biography Early life and career Balfe was born in Dublin, where his musical gifts became apparent at an early age. He received instruction from his father, a dancing master and violinist, and the composer William Rooke. His family moved to Wexford when he was a child. Between 1814 and 1815, Balfe played the violin for his father's dancing-classes, and at the age of seven composed a polacca. In 1817, he appeared as a violinist in public, and in this year composed a ballad, first cal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy Henderson (baritone)
Roy Galbraith Henderson CBE (4 July 1899 – 16 March 2000) was a British baritone singer, conductor and teacher. Born in Edinburgh and raised in Nottingham, Henderson began singing in public during the First World War, entertaining his army colleagues. After the war he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, where he won numerous prizes. Professionally he came to public notice in 1925 deputising at short notice in the difficult and important baritone part in Frederick Delius's ''A Mass of Life'' at a London concert. He maintained a successful concert career for the next 27 years, taking part in the premieres of many works by British composers. Henderson appeared in opera in two seasons at Covent Garden in 1928 and 1929, and was a founding member of the company of the Glyndebourne Festival, singing there in every season from 1935 to 1939. He was also well known as a recitalist, performing classic and new songs. He made many recordings, mainly for the Decca compa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baritone
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C (i.e. F2–F4) in choral music, and from the second A below middle C to the A above middle C (A2 to A4) in operatic music, but the range can extend at either end. Subtypes of baritone include the baryton-Martin baritone (light baritone), lyric baritone, ''Kavalierbariton'', Verdi baritone, dramatic baritone, ''baryton-noble'' baritone, and the bass-baritone. History The first use of the term "baritone" emerged as ''baritonans'', late in the 15th century, usually in French sacred polyphonic music. At this early stage it was frequently used as the lowest of the voices (including the bass), but in 17th-century Italy the term was all-encompassing and used to describe the averag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Fryatt
John James Fryatt (7 July 1927 – 7 January 2011) was an English actor and opera singer best known for his performance in comic character roles. Fryatt began his career with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1952 in Gilbert and Sullivan roles, then Sadler's Wells Opera in 1959, becoming popular in tenor character roles in Offenbach operettas. His international opera career continued from the 1960s to the 1990s, becoming known in the roles of Don Basilio in '' The Marriage of Figaro'' and Sellem in ''The Rake's Progress'', among many others. He also played a role in the West End as Roscoe in the 1987 production of ''Follies''. Early life and career Fryatt was born in York. From 1950, he studied privately with Frank Titterton and subsequently with Joseph Hislop. He was engaged by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in January 1952, playing Gilbert and Sullivan chorus roles. His first named role there, in 1953, was the small tenor part of the First Citizen in ''The Yeomen of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
