Aylmer Buesst (28 January 1883
[The Escutcheon, Journal of the Cambridge University Heraldic and Genealogical Society, Vol. 7, No. 3, Easter Term 2002]
/ref>3 January 1970) was an Australian conductor, teacher and scholar, who spent his career in the United Kingdom. He was mainly associated with opera and vocal music. He also wrote a work on the leitmotifs in Richard Wagner's operas, and he was an authority on heraldry.
Biography
Aylmer Wilhelmy Buesst[ was born in 1883 in ]Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, the son of William Augustus Buesst (1846–1935)[The LaTrobe Journal, No. 80, Spring 2007]
/ref> and Helen Violette Buesst (née Pett). His brothers were Victor Augustine (1885-1960; a composer), and Tristan Noël Marchand (1894-1982; a soldier, barrister and collector of Australiana).[ The Buesst family had migrated in the 1870s from Staffordshire in England, "buesst" being an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "stout". Nevertheless, his mother later pretended the name was German, and sometimes added an umlaut (Büesst) to make it appear so.][
He studied the violin in Melbourne, where he was celebrated as a prodigy. During the 1890s the visiting virtuoso ]Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim (28 June 1831 – 15 August 1907) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of t ...
noticed him, and took him to Breslau to study with him. He had further studies at the Breslau Conservatory, then with César Thomson
César Thomson (18 March 1857 – 21 August 1931) was a Belgian violinist, teacher, and composer.
Biography
He was born in Liège in 1857. At age seven, he entered the Royal Conservatory of Liège, and studied under Désiré Heynberg, Rodo ...
in Brussels and August Wilhelmj
__NOTOC__
August Emil Daniel Ferdinand Wilhelmj ( ; 21 September 184522 January 1908) was a German violinist and teacher.
Wilhelmj was born in Usingen and was considered a child prodigy; when Henriette Sontag heard him in 1852 at seven years o ...
in London.[ His music studies continued at the ]Leipzig Conservatory
The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig (german: Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig) is a public university in Leipzig (Saxony, Germany). Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn ...
, including conducting studies with Arthur Nikisch
Arthur Nikisch (12 October 185523 January 1922) was a Hungarian conductor who performed internationally, holding posts in Boston, London, Leipzig and—most importantly—Berlin. He was considered an outstanding interpreter of the music of B ...
.
In 1911 he was invited to conduct the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he was imprisoned in Strangeways Prison
HM Prison Manchester is a Category A and B men's prison in Manchester, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It is still commonly referred to as Strangeways, which was its former official name derived from the area in which it is l ...
as an enemy alien in the belief that he was a German, since he spoke German fluently, had developed a German-sounding English accent from his years of study on the European continent, and had also adopted the umlaut when writing his surname. He enlisted the aid of a friend on the outside, Sir Gerald Woods Wollaston (a future Garter Principal King of Arms 1930-1944) in researching his ancestry, to prove that he was of purely English stock. Wollaston was able to secure his release after ten months. In the process, Wollaston had a grant of arms
A grant of arms or a governmental issuance of arms are actions, by a lawful authority such as an officer of arms or State Herald, conferring on a person and his or her descendants the right to bear a particular coat of arms or armorial bearings. ...
organised for Buesst. Ironically, due to his excellent German, Buesst (who had quickly dropped the umlaut) was then used in interrogating captured German officers and generally helping with translations throughout the remainder of the war.[ Despite being cleared of any German sympathies or family connections, he was not required anymore at the Hallé due to the prevailing anti-German sentiment. He returned to Breslau, becoming Kapellmeister there.][ It was in Breslau that he became interested in heraldry himself, and started what would later become a vast collection of books and other material on European heraldry, including all the coats of arms of the ]Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...
.[ His library was later donated to help found the collection of the ]Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies
The United Kingdom's Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies (IHGS) was founded in 1961 at Canterbury, Kent (its current location) by Cecil Humphery-Smith. Its library was created by donations from Humphery-Smith, Aylmer Buesst and others. ...
.
Aylmer Buesst conducted the Moody-Manners Opera Company, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company is a professional British light opera company that, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. The ...
,[ then the Beecham Opera Company 1916-17 and 1919-20. He was a co-founder of the ]British National Opera Company
The British National Opera Company presented opera in English in London and on tour in the British provinces between 1922 and 1929. It was founded in December 1921 by singers and instrumentalists from Sir Thomas Beecham's Beecham Opera Company (19 ...
(BNOC), which he conducted 1922-28. He married the soprano May Blyth in 1924.
His book '' Richard Wagner's The Nibelung's Ring: An Act By Act Guide to the Plot and Music'' was published in 1932, and had a second edition in 1952.[Answers.com]
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In 1933 he was appointed Assistant Music Director for the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
until 1936. He led the premiere performance of
'', in a radio broadcast from London on 25 May 1934. He led the
. His students included the composers
.
He was President of the St Albans Orchestral Society, and his daughter Jill was a pianist.
He died in January 1970, aged 86.
.