Sir Daniel Eyers "Dan" Godfrey (20 June 1868 – 20 July 1939) was a British music conductor and member of a musical dynasty that included his father

Daniel Godfrey Daniel Godfrey may refer to: * Daniel Godfrey (bandmaster) (1831–1903), bandmaster, composer and arranger of compositions for military bands * Dan Godfrey (1868–1939), his son, British music conductor * Daniel Strong Godfrey Daniel Strong ...

(1831–1903). His son, also Dan Godfrey, was also a musician, station manager at BBC Manchester in the 1920s, and the first full-time conductor of the BBC Wireless Orchestra (1924–1926). He was born in

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 ...

, a member of a distinguished family of English bandmasters, and son of the bandmaster of the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

- (to whom the waltz ''Les Grenadiers'', Op. 207, by

Émile Waldteufel Charles Émile Waldteufel (9 December 1837 – 12 February 1915) was a French pianist, conductor and composer known for his numerous popular salon pieces. Life Émile Waldteufel (German for ''forest devil'') was born at 84 Grand'Rue in the c ...

was dedicated.) He founded the

Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an English orchestra, founded in 1893 and originally based in Bournemouth. With a remit to serve the South and South West of England, the BSO is administratively based in the adjacent town of Poole, ...

in 1893 and remained its leading conductor for 41 years, until 1934. Although he was contracted by the Bournemouth Corporation to conduct a seasonal band of 30 musicians, his ambition was to build a permanent symphony orchestra in the town. Godfrey gave the first performance of the reconstruction of Vaughan Williams's '' A London Symphony'' on 11 February 1915, and made acoustic recordings of excerpts of the work in 1923 and an abridged version in 1925. He also made electric recordings of Mozart's ''

Jupiter Symphony Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed his Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551, on 10 August 1788. The longest and last symphony that he composed, it is regarded by many critics as among the greatest symphonies in classical music. The work is nicknam ...

'', Dvořák's ''

Slavonic Dances The ''Slavonic Dances'' ( cs, Slovanské tance) are a series of 16 orchestral pieces composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1878 and 1886 and published in two sets as Op. 46 and Op. 72 respectively. Originally written for piano four hands, t ...

'', Debussy's '' Petite Suite'' and Grieg's '' Sigurd Jorsalfar March'' with the London Symphony Orchestra. Godfrey and the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra made several gramophone records for HMV from 1914 to 1930. He was knighted in 1922 'for valuable services to British music' largely as a result of a vigorous campaign on his behalf from

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 ...

.Street S, Carpenter R. ''The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra - A Centenary Celebration.'' Wimborne, The Dovecote Press, 1993. He died in Bournemouth in 1939 and is buried at St Peter's Church.

References

External links

*
Sir Dan Godfrey and the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra in Two Dances from Henry VIII
- 1931

Pathé newsreel Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipment ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Godfrey, Dan 1868 births 1939 deaths English conductors (music) British male conductors (music) Knights Bachelor Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods