Claude Hobday (12 May 1872,

Faversham Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient British t ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

– 10 March 1954,

Surbiton Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the historic county of Surrey and since 1965 it has ...

, England) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

double-bass player, a member of a well-known musical family, who took part in various early chamber-music recordings.

Biography

Early life

Claude Hobday was the younger brother of the

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Alfred Charles Hobday Alfred Charles Hobday (19 April 1870 in Faversham – 23 February 1942 in Tankerton) was an English viola player who made his career in England. He was the elder brother of the double-bass player Claude Hobday.Mr. Claude Hobday", ''The Times'', ...

(1870–1942) and the brother-in-law of the pianist

Ethel Hobday Ethel Hobday, ''née'' Sharpe (28 November 1872, Dublin – 10 July 1947, Tankerton) was an Irish people, Irish pianist, who became famous in chamber-music recitals especially in England, and was married to the violist Alfred Charles Hobday. Eth ...

(née Sharpe). He studied with A.C. White at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

from 1888-1892.

Career

He played in leading orchestras, including the Royal English Opera under Sir

Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...

, the Glasgow Choral Union under Augustus Manns, the Scottish Orchestra under George Henschel, in the Richter Concerts in London, in the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

as a founding member from 1904–10, in the Beecham Symphony Orchestra from 1910–16 and in the

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, that performs and produces primarily classic works. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable ...

, before becoming a founder member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1930. He retired from playing in 1940. He was professor of double-bass at the Royal College of Music from 1902–46, his pupils including

Adrian Beers Adrian Simon Beers MBE (6 January 1916 – 8 April 2004) was a British double bass player and teacher at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music. He was a principal player in the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Englis ...

, Ernest Ineson and Francis Baines. He was a notable collector of basses, owning instruments by

Testore Testore is an Italian surname. Among the most famous Testore was a family of violin makers, active from the late seventeenth to the end of the eighteenth century in Milan. Their reputation at the time was not high, as their instruments were known ...

, Montagnana,

Gasparo da Salò Gasparo da Salò (20 May 154214 April 1609) is the name given to Gasparo Bertolotti, one of the earliest violin makers and an expert double bass player. Around 80 of his instruments are known to have survived to the present day: violins (small ...

Gennaro Gagliano Gagliano is the name of a famous family of Italian luthiers from Naples, dating back to the early 18th century. The Gagliano dynasty – particularly Alessandro, Nicolò I and Gennaro – are considered the high point of Neapolitan violin making. ...

, and

Vincenzo Panormo Vincenzo Trusiano Panormo (1734–1813) was an Italian luthier of Irish and English violins. Panormo is thought to have been born in Palermo, Sicily (Panormo is the Latin version of Palermo). He studied violin making in Naples with the Gaglia ...

. Hobday was a major chamber musician, appearing in the South Place Concerts for thirty five years.

Recordings

Hobday was a prolific recording artist. He appeared with members of the International Quartet (

André Mangeot André Louis Mangeot (25 August 1883 – 11 September 1970) was a French-born violinist and impresario who later became naturalised in England. André's father was the piano-maker Edouard Mangeot. Life Born in Paris, Mangeot studied at the Conse ...

(violin), Frank Howard (viola) and Herbert Withers (cello)) and

Wilhelm Backhaus Wilhelm Backhaus ('Bachaus' on some record labels) (26 March 1884 – 5 July 1969) was a German pianist and pedagogue. He was particularly well known for his interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin and Brahms. He was also much ...

(piano) in an early

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

recording of Schubert's Trout Quintet (GC ES 395/8, reissued in 1997 as CD Biddulph ngland LHW 038) (acoustically recorded). He also appears with the

Léner Quartet The Léner String Quartet, sometimes written the Lehner String Quartet, was a string quartet of Hungary, Hungarian origin, founded in Budapest in 1918, which for most of its pre-war career operated in or from London. They appeared at the Royal Albe ...

in the

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

electric microphone recordings of the

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

Septet in E flat major and the (1928) Schubert Octet in F major, with Charles Draper (clarinet), E.W. Hinchliffe (bassoon) and

Aubrey Brain Aubrey Brain (12 July 189321 September 1955) was a British horn player and teacher. He was the father of Dennis Brain. Biography Aubrey Harold Brain was born in London in 1893. He came from a musical family. His father, Alfred Edwin Brain Sr. w ...

(French horn). For HMV, with the ''Quatuor Pro Arte'', he recorded

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and, with Artur Schnabel at the piano, a second version of the Trout Quintet. He also played on the Busch Chamber Players' recordings of the Bach

Brandenburg Concertos The ''Brandenburg Concertos'' by Johann Sebastian Bach (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, BWV 1046–1051), are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt, Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg ...

and Orchestral Suites and Mozart's Adagio and Fugue.

Sources

* Eaglefield-Hull, A. ''A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians'', (Dent, London 1924). * Forman, F. 'Acoustic Chamber Music Sets (1899–1926): A Discography,' ''Journal of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections'', 3 parts: Vol 31, No. 1 (Spring 2000); 31, No. 2; 32, No. 1. * Potter, T. Hobday's Heyday'', Double Bassist, No.18, Autumn 2001, pp. 22–24. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hobday, Claude English classical musicians British double-bassists Male double-bassists 1872 births 1954 deaths