Dame Clara Ellen Butt, (1 February 1872 – 23 January 1936) was an English

contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typica ...

and one of the most popular singers from the 1890s through to the 1920s. She had an exceptionally fine contralto voice and an agile singing technique, and impressed contemporary composers such as Saint-Saëns and

Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

; the latter composed his ''

Sea Pictures ''Sea Pictures, Op. 37'' is a song cycle by Sir Edward Elgar consisting of five songs written by various poets. It was set for contralto and orchestra, though a distinct version for piano was often performed by Elgar. Many mezzo-sopranos have su ...

'', Op. 37 with her voice in mind. Her main career was as a recitalist and concert singer. She appeared in only two operatic productions, both of

Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...

's '' Orfeo ed Euridice''. Later in her career she frequently appeared in recitals together with her husband, the baritone

Kennerley Rumford Robert Henry Kennerley Rumford (2 September 1870 – 9 March 1957) was an English baritone singer of the 20th century. He was first known for his performances of oratorios, but following his marriage to the well-known contralto singer Clara Bu ...

. She made numerous recordings for the gramophone.

Early life and career

Clara Butt was born in Southwick, Sussex, the eldest daughter of Henry Albert Butt, a sea captain, and his wife Clara ''née'' Hook. Kennedy, Michael
"Butt, Dame Clara Ellen (1872–1936)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Online edition, January 2011. Retrieved 24 March 2013 In 1880, the family moved to the port city of

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

in England's

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Glo ...

. Clara was educated at South Bristol High School, where her singing ability was recognised and her talent as a performer encouraged. At the request of her headmistress, she was trained by the bass Daniel Rootham (father of the composer

Cyril Rootham Cyril Bradley Rootham (5 October 1875 – 18 March 1938) was an English composer, educator and organist. His work at Cambridge University made him an influential figure in English music life. A Fellow of St John's College, where he was also or ...

) and joined the Bristol Festival Chorus, of which Daniel Rootham was musical director. Butt won a scholarship to the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including performanc ...

(RCM) in January 1890. Her voice teachers were John Henry Blower Fuller Maitland J A, et al
"Butt, Dame Clara"
'' Grove Music Online'', Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 March 2013 and

Albert Visetti Albert Anthony Visetti (13 May 1846–10 July 1928) was a Dalmatian musician who moved to London where he was Professor of Singing at the Royal College of Music, becoming a Fellow in 1921. He was the stepfather of the novelist Radclyffe Hall. ...

, while her piano teacher was

Marmaduke Barton Marmaduke Barton FRCM (29 December 186524 July 1938) was an English pianist, composer and teacher at the Royal College of Music for almost 50 years. Career Marmaduke Miller Barton was born in Manchester, the son of a United Methodist Free Chur ...

. During her fourth year of vocal lessons at the college she spent three months studying in Paris sponsored by

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

. She also studied in Berlin and Italy. Clara Butt

She made her professional debut on 7 December 1892 at the Royal Albert Hall in London in Sullivan's cantata ''

The Golden Legend The ''Golden Legend'' (Latin: ''Legenda aurea'' or ''Legenda sanctorum'') is a collection of hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in late medieval Europe. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived.Hilary ...

''. Three days later she appeared as Orfeo in

's '' Orfeo ed Euridice'' at the Lyceum Theatre. This was an RCM production, conducted by

Charles Villiers Stanford Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Anglo-Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was educated at the ...

."Dame Clara Butt", ''The Times'', 24 January 1936, p. 16

Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

, who was then the music critic for ''

The World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

'', wrote that she "far surpassed the utmost expectations that could reasonably be entertained", and forecast a considerable career for her. Later she polished her skills in Berlin with the famous retired soprano Etelka Gerster. The French composer Camille Saint-Saëns heard her, and wanted her to study his opera ''

Samson et Dalila ''Samson and Delilah'' (french: Samson et Dalila, links=no), Op. 47, is a grand opera in three acts and four scenes by Camille Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire. It was first performed in Weimar at the (Grand Ducal) Theater ( ...

'', but at the time the representation of biblical subjects on the British stage was forbidden, and nothing came of it. When the law changed and the work was given at Covent Garden in 1909 the part of Delila was sung by Kirkby Lunn, to Butt's disappointment. In 1896 she took a break from singing and returned to Paris for further vocal studies, this time under

Jacques Bouhy Jacques-Joseph-André Bouhy (18 June 1848 – 29 January 1929) was a Belgian baritone, most famous for being the first to sing the " Toreador Song" in the role of Escamillo in the opera ''Carmen''. Bouhy was born in Pepinster. After studying at ...

. Butt acquired a reputation in Britain for her vocal attributes and her physical presence on the concert platform: she was 6 feet 2 inches tall. She made many

gramophone record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts ne ...

ings, often accompanied by the (uncredited) pianist Lilian Bryant. Among her recordings are several of Sullivan's song "

The Lost Chord "The Lost Chord" is a song composed by Arthur Sullivan in 1877 at the bedside of his brother Fred during Fred's last illness. The manuscript is dated 13 January 1877; Fred Sullivan died five days later. The lyric was written as a poem by Adel ...

"; her friend

Fanny Ronalds Mary Frances Ronalds RRC DStJ (née Carter; August 23, 1839 – July 28, 1916) was an American socialite and amateur singer who is best known for her long affair with the composer Arthur Sullivan in London in the last decades of the nineteenth ...

bequeathed the original manuscript of the song to her. She was primarily a concert singer; her only operatic performances were in two productions of ''Orfeo ed Euridice''. Britain's leading composer of the era, Edward Elgar, composed his song-cycle ''

'' for contralto and orchestra with her in mind as soloist; she sang at the first performance of the work at the Norwich Festival on 5 October 1899, with the composer conducting.

Later life

Dame Clara Butt and Robert Kennerley Rumford

On 26 June 1900 Butt married the baritone

and thereafter would often appear with him in concerts. They had two sons and a daughter. Besides singing in many important festivals and concerts, Butt appeared by royal command before Queen Victoria,

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...

, and

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

. She made tours of Australia, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, the United States and to many European cities. During the First World War, Butt organised and sang in many concerts for service charities, and for this was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours. That year she sang four performances of Gluck's ''Orfeo ed Euridice'' at Covent Garden, with

Miriam Licette Miriam Licette (9 September 188511 August 1969) was an English operatic soprano whose career spanned 35 years, from the mid-1910s to after World War II. She was also a singing teacher, and created the Miriam Licette Scholarship. Career She was ...

, under the baton of

Sir Thomas Beecham Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, CH (29 April 18798 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with th ...

. According to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' she was ill at ease on stage, and in the most famous number, "Che farò", her "attempt to sing it dramatically made her play fast and loose with the time and spoil the phrasing". It was her only appearance on the professional operatic stage. Clara Butt performed 110 times at the Royal Albert Hall in her career, organising many important fund-raising concerts for charities during the First World War.Royal Albert Hall Archives
/ref> Butt's three sisters were also singers. One, Ethel Hook, became a famous contralto in her own right, made some solo recordings, and in 1926 appeared in an early

sound film A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

made in the Lee de Forest

Phonofilm Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s. Introduction In 1919 and 1920, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film proce ...

sound-on-film process. She was clouded by tragedy in her later years, with both her sons predeceasing her. During the 1920s, she became seriously ill with spinal cancer. Nevertheless, she continued to give concerts and make records. A devout ''

Christian Scientist Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally known ...

'', she took part in revivalist meetings, singing, and giving sermons. She died at North Stoke on 23 January 1936.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * *

External links

trevormidgley.com

cantabile-subito.de
Family photoThe Lost Chord
wcomarchive.org.uk *
Clara Butt recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings. {{DEFAULTSORT:Butt, Clara 1872 births 1936 deaths Alumni of the Royal College of Music British women in World War I Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire English contraltos Operatic contraltos People from Southwick, West Sussex Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists Singers awarded knighthoods