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Haydn Wood (25 March 1882 – 11 March 1959) was a 20th-century
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 ...
composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...
and concert
violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
ist, best known for his 200 or so ballad style songs, including the popular ''
Roses of Picardy "Roses of Picardy" is a popular British song with lyrics by Frederick Weatherly and music by Haydn Wood. Published in London in 1916 by Chappell & Co, it was one of the most famous songs of the First World War and has been recorded frequently u ...
''.


Life

Haydn Wood was born in the
West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...
town of
Slaithwaite Slaithwaite , locally ''Slawit'' (Old Norse: Timber-fell clearing), is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it lies in the Colne Valley, lying acr ...
. When he was three years old his family moved to the
Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...
, an island which was often a source of inspiration for the composer. His two older brothers were also musicians: Harry (1868-1939) was a violinist, composer and conductor known as "Manxland's King of Music", while Daniel S Wood (1872-1927) was principal flautist with 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 ...
from 1910, taught flute 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 ...
and composed practice pieces that are still in use today. In 1897, 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 ...
, Haydn Wood studied violin with
Enrique Fernández Arbós Enrique Fernández Arbós (24 December 1863 – 2 June 1939) was a Spanish violinist, composer and conductor who divided much of his career between Madrid and London. He originally made his name as a virtuoso violinist and later as one of Spain's ...
and composition with
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 music, Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was ed ...
. In 1901, he was soloist at a special concert commemorating the opening of the Royal College of Music's Concert Hall. The concert was attended by
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 ...
(who had heard him play before) and
Pablo de Sarasate Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués (; 10 March 1844 – 20 September 1908), commonly known as Pablo de Sarasate, was a Spanish (Navarrese) violin virtuoso, composer and conductor of the Romantic period. His best known works include ...
. They were so impressed that they sent him to
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
for study with the renowned teacher
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 ...
. He then embarked on a world tour, accompanying the Canadian soprano Dame
Emma Albani Dame Emma Albani, DBE (born Marie-Louise-Emma-Cécile Lajeunesse; 1 November 18473 April 1930) was a Canadian-British operatic soprano of the 19th century and early 20th century, and the first Canadian singer to become an international star. He ...
and they continued their association for a further eight years. From 1913 he toured extensively with the soprano Dorothy Court whom he married in 1909. During this period he wrote popular
ballads A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
for her to sing, and also contributed to musical comedy productions: for example, he contributed seven numbers to the musical play ''Tina'', which opened at the Royal
Adelphi Theatre The Adelphi Theatre is a West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, central London. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiv ...
in London on 2 November 1915, and wrote all the music for ''Cash on Delivery'' at the Palace Theatre in 1917. In 1916, Haydn Wood composed his most popular song, ''Roses of Picardy'' for Dorothy, reportedly selling 50,000 sheet music copies per month and earning a six figure royalty sum The song ''Love's Garden of Roses'' was written in 1915, but didn't become well known until popularised by John McCormack's recording, one of the biggest hits of 1918. Another big success came in 1923 with ''A Brown Bird Singing''. By 1926 he was able to support himself as a full time composer for the first time. From 1939, he served as a director of the
Performing Right Society PRS for Music Limited (formerly The MCPS-PRS Alliance Limited) is a British music copyright collective, made up of two collection societies: the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and the Performing Right Society (PRS). It undertake ...
. On the occasion of his 70th birthday in 1952 he was given a full concert dedicated to his music by 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. ...
...
. His last song appears to have been ''Give Me Your Hand'' in 1957. He died in a London nursing home on 11 March 1959, two weeks before his 77th birthday.


Works

Alongside his 200 or so individual songs and seven song cycles, Haydn Wood was a prolific composer of orchestral music, including 15 suites, nine rhapsodies, eight overtures, three concertante pieces and nearly 50 other works scored for a variety of forces. His orchestral pieces were primarily of the " light music" style; a well known piece of his is the three-movement ''Fantasy-Concerto''. Another is his ''London Landmarks Suite'', particularly "Horse Guards, Whitehall", which was used for many years as the signature tune for the BBC Radio Series
Down Your Way ''Down Your Way'' was a BBC radio series which ran from 29 December 1946 to 1992, originally on the Home Service, later on BBC Radio 4, usually being broadcast on Sunday afternoons. It visited towns and villages around the United Kingdom, spoke to ...
. In 2018 the
BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale symp ...
issued a new recording of the ''Snapshots of London Suite'' (1948) and premiere recordings of five other suites: ''Egypta'' (1929), ''Three Famous Cinema Stars'' (1929), ''Cities of Romance'' (1937), ''Manx Countryside Sketches'' (1943), and ''Royal Castles'' (1952). The short orchestral work ''Soliloquy'' of 1946 is a miniature of more serious intent. The first of Haydn Wood's more extended concert pieces to gain attention was the ''Phantasie Quartet'' which won second prize in the first W W Cobbett chamber music competition of 1905 The Piano Concerto was performed at a Patron’s Fund Concert at
Queen’s Hall The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect Thomas Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it ...
on 14 July 1909, with soloist Ellen Edwards and Stanford conducting. It received its Proms premiere in 1915, also at Queen's Hall. His Violin Concerto of 1928 was first performed in March 1933, with soloist
Antonio Brosa Antonio Brosa (27 June 1894 – 23 March 1979) was a Spanish violinist. Born in La Canonja in Catalonia, Brosa began studying the violin at the age of four with his father, making his public debut at the age of 10 in Barcelona. He studied wit ...
. Wood also wrote a Symphony (1908 - score now lost), and the ''Philharmonic Variations'' for cello and orchestra (1939).
Song of the Birds: English Cello Music
', BBC Concert Orchestra, Raphael Wallfisch, ASV 2003 The Isle of Man and folk tunes from the island inspired Wood's music, resulting in the compositions ''Manx Rhapsody (Mylecharaine), Manx Countryside Sketches, Manx Overture,'' and the tone poem ''Mannin Veen''. The
tone poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...
(pub. 1933, Manx for "Dear
Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...
") was based on four Manx folk tunes, and is one of two works written originally for
wind band A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion famil ...
by Wood. The work is also occasionally performed in its orchestral version. Choral pieces include the short cantatas for chorus and orchestra ''Lochinvar'' (1912) and ''Ode to Genius'' (1940).


References


External links

* British Pathe News, 1946: Haydn Woo
filmed


* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Haydn 1882 births 1959 deaths 20th-century classical composers English classical composers Light music composers English Romantic composers English violinists British male violinists Alumni of the Royal College of Music Musicians from Huddersfield People from Slaithwaite Manx culture English male classical composers 20th-century English composers 20th-century violinists 20th-century British male musicians 19th-century British male musicians