Alma Goatley Temple-Smith (1887 – 27 August 1969) was an English musician and composer. From 1935 to 1936, she was president of the

Society of Women Musicians The Society of Women Musicians was a British group founded in 1911 for mutual cooperation between women composers and performers, in response to the limited professional opportunities for women musicians at the time. The founders included Katharine ...

Early life

Alma Goatley was born in

Savoie Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population of ...

, and raised in London, the daughter of British parents Grafton Goatley and Louisa Goatley. She won the Chappell Pianoforte Prize in 1911 at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

.Kramer, A. Walter
"Alma Goatley: A New English Composer of Effective Songs"
''Musical America'' 31(28 February 1920): 39.

Career

Goatley composed music for recital songs and as settings for poems. She also taught harmony at Redhill, and performed as a ''

diseuse A monologist (), or interchangeably monologuist (), is a solo artist who recites or gives dramatic readings from a monologue, soliloquy, poetry, or work of literature, for the entertainment of an audience. The term can also refer to a person wh ...

'' at the piano. A 1919 reviewer found her "charming, both in her singing and in her fascinating humour." In 1922, she was one of the composers featured at a concert of works by women composers in London, sharing the bill with composers including

Ethel Smyth Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (; 22 April 18588 May 1944) was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas. Smyth tended t ...

and

Katharine Emily Eggar Katherine Emily Eggar (5 January 1874 – 15 August 1961) was an English pianist and composer. Eggar was born and died in London, England, the daughter of Thomas Eggar and Katherine MacDonald. Eggar was active member of the feminist movement espe ...

. She was president of the Society of Women Musicians from 1935 to 1936, during its "jubilee" year.

Compositions

* ''Four Nursery Rhymes'' (1912) * "As I hear your dainty Footstep" (1915) * "Now that April's there" (1917, lyrics by

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings ...

) * "A Garden is a lovesome thing" (1917, with

Thomas Edward Brown Thomas Edward Brown (5 May 183029 October 1897), commonly referred to as T. E. Brown, was a late- Victorian scholar, schoolmaster, poet, and theologian from the Isle of Man. Having achieved a double first at Christ Church, Oxford, and electi ...

) * "A Dream Ship" (1918, lyrics by

Crosbie Garstin Crosbie Garstin (7 May 1887 – 19 April 1930) was a poet, best-selling novelist and the eldest son of the Newlyn School painter Norman Garstin. He is said to have been "'untameable as a child", and to have "died in mysterious circumstances" aft ...

) * "Hush-a-bye-low" (1918) * "Nesting-time" (1919, with Helen Taylor) * "The Wood Anemone" (1919, lyrics by D. Bouverie) * ''Songs of Sappho: 5 Lyrics'' (1919, with

Bliss Carman William Bliss Carman (April 15, 1861 – June 8, 1929) was a Canadian poet who lived most of his life in the United States, where he achieved international fame. He was acclaimed as Canada's poet laureate during his later years. In Canada, Car ...

) * "Pipe out, ye silver flutes" (1919) * "Lovelight" (1919, lyrics by Will H. Ogilvie) * "Futility" (1920) * "Life" (1920, lyrics by S. D. Cox) * "Butterfly Boats" (1920, lyrics by H. Taylor) * "The White Birch" (1921, lyrics by Lane Northcott) * "Sea Surge" (1921) * "Love and Wine" (1922) * "Can't Remember" (1922, lyrics by Herbert J. Brandon) * "Life Anew" (1923, with Temple Keble) * "Second Thoughts" (1924) * "Sixpence to Spend" (1926, with Mab Davis) * "Come, happy heart" (1929, with Dorothy Hayes) * "Villanelle" (1929) * ''Two Songs of Child Life'' (1929) * "The Cherry Tree doth Bloom" (1933, lyrics by Margaret Owen) * "When June is Come" (1935, lyrics by

Robert Bridges Robert Seymour Bridges (23 October 1844 – 21 April 1930) was an English poet who was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor by training, he achieved literary fame only late in life. His poems reflect a deep Christian faith, and he is ...

) * "The Little Apple Tree" (1935, lyrics by Dorothy Dickinson) * "Love Errant" (1935, lyrics by H. Hart) * "A walk by the river at night" (1935, lyrics by

Clifford Bax Clifford Lea Bax (13 July 1886 – 18 November 1962)Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-Armour, A. C. Fox-Davies, T. C. & E. C. Jack, 1910, p. 106 was a versatile English writer, known particularly as a playwright, a journalist, ...

) * "Teasing Song" (1936, lyrics by

Eleanor Farjeon Eleanor Farjeon (13 February 1881 – 5 June 1965) was an English author of children's stories and plays, poetry, biography, history and satire. Several of her works had illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. Some of her correspondence has also be ...

) * "Shall I be afraid?" (1942, lyrics by Dorothy Dickinson)

Personal life

Alma Goatley married furniture designer Hamilton Temple-Smith in 1920. They had two sons; their elder son, John Grafton Temple-Smith, had a career in film. She died in 1969, in her seventies, in London.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goatley, Alma 1887 births 1969 deaths British composers British women composers British women musicians