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William Stockley's Orchestra
William Stockley's Orchestra was a symphony orchestra based in Birmingham, England from 1856 to 1899. It was the first permanent orchestra formed of local musicians to be established in the town, in contrast to the earlier Birmingham Festival Orchestra, which consisted largely of outside musicians and only performed during the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival. By 1885 the orchestra was being described in the London press as "a really first-rate band of 80 skilled players" and notable conductors included Frederic Cowen, Charles Villiers Stanford and Antonín Dvořák. The composer Edward Elgar was employed as a violinist in the orchestra between 1882 and 1889. In 1883 the orchestra performed his ''Intermezzo moresque'' at Birmingham Town Hall, the first public performance by a professional orchestra of any Elgar composition. History Foundation The orchestra was founded by William Stockley in 1856 to support the Birmingham Festival Choral Society, to which Stockley had been appo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Stockley By Henry Turner Munns
William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of England in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is sometimes abbreviated "Wm." Shortened familiar versions in English include Will, Wills, Willy, Willie, Liam, Bill, and Billy. A common Irish form is Liam. Scottish diminutives include Wull, Willie or Wullie (as in Oor Wullie or the play ''Douglas''). Female forms are Willa, Willemina, Wilma and Wilhelmina. Etymology William is related to the German given name ''Wilhelm''. Both ultimately descend from Proto-Germanic ''*Wiljahelmaz'', with a direct cognate also in the Old Norse name ''Vilhjalmr'' and a West Germanic borrowing into Medieval Latin ''Willelmus''. The Proto-Germanic name is a ... [...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] |
George Halford's Orchestra
George Halford's Orchestra was a professional symphony orchestra based in Birmingham, England from 1897 to 1907 and an important precursor of the later City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Halford's orchestra was founded in 1897 by the conductor and composer George Halford, supported by a syndicate of 54 influential Birmingham citizens under the presidency of the city's Lord Mayor. Since 1856 Birmingham's leading permanently-established orchestra had been William Stockley's Orchestra, which had performed regular annual seasons of concerts since 1873. By the end of the century the ageing William Stockley had come to be seen as increasingly outdated and his orchestra was considered to lack players of reputation. Halford sought to establish a permanent orchestra to rival any in the country, to be staffed increasingly with locally based musicians. Its launch was heralded in the local press as "a local musical enterprise exceeding in scope and intention anything within living memory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enigma Variations
Edward Elgar composed his ''Variations on an Original Theme'', Op. 36, popularly known as the ''Enigma Variations'', between October 1898 and February 1899. It is an orchestral work comprising fourteen variations on an original theme. Elgar dedicated the work "to my friends pictured within", each variation being a musical sketch of one of his circle of close acquaintances (see musical cryptogram). Those portrayed include Elgar's wife Alice, his friend and publisher Augustus J. Jaeger and Elgar himself. In a programme note for a performance in 1911 Elgar wrote: In naming his theme "Enigma", Elgar posed a challenge which has generated much speculation but has never been conclusively answered. The Enigma is widely believed to involve a hidden melody. After its 1899 London premiere the ''Variations'' achieved immediate popularity and established Elgar's international reputation. History Elgar described how on the evening of 21 October 1898, after a tiring day's teaching, h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Froissart Overture (Elgar)
''Froissart'', Op. 19, is a concert overture by Edward Elgar, inspired by the 14th-century ''Chronicles'' of Jean Froissart. Elgar was first attracted to the ''Chronicles'' after finding mention of them in Walter Scott's ''Old Mortality''.Kennedy CD note History ''Froissart'' was composed in 1890 to the commission of the Worcester Festival, for a secular concert during that year's Three Choirs Festival, and was Elgar's first large-scale work for full orchestra. Ironically, ambitious Elgar, who moved to London for his career, got this major contract from his hometown. The work was finished by July, and it was first performed in Worcester, conducted by the composer, on 9 September 1890. It was performed three days later in Birmingham by William Stockley's Orchestra, for whom the composer had played violin since 1882, but it would be ten years before the work was performed in London. Structure Allegro moderato, 4/4, B-flat major The work consists of a single movement, lasting a li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
August Manns
Sir August Friedrich Manns (12 March 1825 – 1 March 1907) was a German-born British conductor who made his career in England. After serving as a military bandmaster in Germany, he moved to England and soon became director of music at London's The Crystal Palace, Crystal Palace. He increased the resident band to full symphonic strength and for more than forty years conducted concerts at popular prices. He introduced a wide range of music to London, including many works by young British composers, as well as works by German masters hitherto neglected in England. Among his British protégés were Arthur Sullivan, Charles Villiers Stanford, Hubert Parry, Hamish MacCunn, Edward Elgar and Edward German. Manns performed the works of more than 300 composers, and was reckoned to have given more than 12,000 concerts during his tenure at the Crystal Palace, between 1855 and 1901. He became a British citizen in 1894 and was knight bachelor, knighted in 1903. Life and career Early years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sevillana (Elgar)
''Sevillana'', or, as the composer titled it ''Sevillaña (Scène Espagnole)'', is a short piece for orchestra by the English composer Edward Elgar written in 1884 and published as his Op. 7. It was first published by Tuckwood, with the composer's revision of 1889 published by Ascherberg in 1895. It was dedicated to W. C. Stockley, conductor of the Birmingham Festival. Elgar's violin teacher, Adolf Pollitzer showed the score to the conductor August Manns who included it in a Crystal Palace concert on 12 May 1884. This was shortly after its first performance, on 1 May, at a Worcester Philharmonic Society concert conducted by the organist of Worcester Cathedral, William Done. The piece was composed when he was a young man of 26, shortly after the break-up of his engagement to Miss Helen Weaver. Instrumentation 2 flutes (second also piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 cornets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, percussions (snare drum, tambourine, bass drum, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romantic Music
Romantic music is a stylistic movement in Western Classical music associated with the period of the 19th century commonly referred to as the Romantic era (or Romantic period). It is closely related to the broader concept of Romanticism—the intellectual, artistic and literary movement that became prominent in Western culture from approximately 1798 until 1837. Romantic composers sought to create music that was individualistic, emotional, dramatic and often programmatic; reflecting broader trends within the movements of Romantic literature, poetry, art, and philosophy. Romantic music was often ostensibly inspired by (or else sought to evoke) non-musical stimuli, such as nature, literature, poetry, super-natural elements or the fine arts. It included features such as increased chromaticism and moved away from traditional forms. Background The Romantic movement was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Period (music)
The Classical period was an era of classical music between roughly 1750 and 1820. The Classical period falls between the Baroque and the Romantic periods. Classical music has a lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music, but a more sophisticated use of form. It is mainly homophonic, using a clear melody line over a subordinate chordal accompaniment, Blume, Friedrich. ''Classic and Romantic Music: A Comprehensive Survey''. New York: W. W. Norton, 1970 but counterpoint was by no means forgotten, especially in liturgical vocal music and, later in the period, secular instrumental music. It also makes use of ''style galant'' which emphasized light elegance in place of the Baroque's dignified seriousness and impressive grandeur. Variety and contrast within a piece became more pronounced than before and the orchestra increased in size, range, and power. The harpsichord was replaced as the main keyboard instrument by the piano (or fortepiano). Unlike the harpsichord, which plucks str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sylvia (ballet)
''Sylvia'', originally ''Sylvia, ou La nymphe de Diane'', is a full-length ballet in two or three act (theatre), acts, first choreography, choreographed by Louis Mérante to music by Léo Delibes in 1876. ''Sylvia'' is a typical classical ballet in many respects, yet it has many interesting features that make it unique. The work is notable for its mythological Arcadia (paradise), Arcadian setting, creative choreographies, expansive sets and, above all, its remarkable Sheet music, score. When ''Sylvia, ou La nymphe de Diane'' premiered on 14 June 1876 at the Palais Garnier, it went largely unnoticed by the critics. The first seven productions of ''Sylvia'' were not commercially successful. The 1952 revival, choreographed by Frederick Ashton, Sir Frederick Ashton, popularized the ballet. The 1997, 2004, 2005 and 2009 productions were all based on Ashton's original choreography. History Preparations The origins of the ballet ''Sylvia'' are in the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, Ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Léo Delibes
Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (; 21 February 1836 – 16 January 1891) was a French Romantic composer, best known for his ballets and operas. His works include the ballets ''Coppélia'' (1870) and '' Sylvia'' (1876) and the opera ''Lakmé'' (1883), which includes the well-known "Flower Duet". Born into a musical family, Delibes enrolled at France's foremost music academy, the Conservatoire de Paris, when he was twelve, studying under several professors including Adolphe Adam. After composing light comic opérettes in the 1850s and 1860s, while also serving as a church organist, Delibes achieved public recognition for his music for the ballet '' La Source'' in 1866. His later ballets ''Coppélia'' and ''Sylvia'' were key works in the development of modern ballet, giving the music much greater importance than previously. He composed a small number of mélodies, some of which are still performed frequently. Delibes had several attempts at writing more serious operas, and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Worcester, England
Worcester ( ) is a cathedral city in Worcestershire, England, of which it is the county town. It is south-west of Birmingham, north-west of London, north of Gloucester and north-east of Hereford. The population was 103,872 in the 2021 Census. The River Severn flanks the western side of the city centre. It is overlooked by Worcester Cathedral. Worcester is the home of Royal Worcester, Royal Worcester Porcelain, composer Edward Elgar, Lea & Perrins, makers of traditional Worcestershire sauce, the University of Worcester, and ''Berrow's Worcester Journal'', claimed as the world's oldest newspaper. The Battle of Worcester in 1651 was the final battle of the English Civil War, during which Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army defeated Charles II of England, King Charles II's Cavalier, Royalists. History Early history The trade route past Worcester, later part of the Roman roads in Britain, Roman Ryknild Street, dates from Neolithic times. It commanded a ford crossing over the Rive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
