Sir Henry Coward (26 November 184910 June 1944) was a

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conductor and composer. Born in

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to parents in the entertainment industry, Coward took an

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to a cutler in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

. Educating himself, he became a

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and soon a headteacher."Coward, Henry", ''

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'' Coward's interest in music developed from a tonic sol-fa class, and in 1876 he founded the Sheffield Tonic Sol-fa Association. This was renamed the Sheffield Musical Union, and Coward was its director until 1933. His choral legacy is still visible in Sheffield, following Sheffield Music Union's 1937 merger with the

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus (also known as Sheffield Phil) is a large choir based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The chorus consists of about 190 members from Sheffield and the surrounding area and performs between five and ten concer ...

, a choir which still performs to this day. In 1889, Coward obtained a

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degree at the

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, and in 1894, became a

Doctor of Music The Doctor of Music degree (D.Mus., D.M., Mus.D. or occasionally Mus.Doc.) is a higher doctorate awarded on the basis of a substantial portfolio of compositions and/or scholarly publications on music. Like other higher doctorates, it is granted b ...

. He returned to Sheffield, where he became the

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master of the Sheffield Music Festival. He conducted societies in

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and

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, and toured worldwide with the Sheffield Choir. He also taught music at Sheffield Training College and lectured at the

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. In 1897, having established a reputation for conducting large numbers of singers in Sheffield parks, he was invited to oversee a gathering of 60,000 school-children in Norfolk Park in Sheffield, to entertain

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Dan Godfrey 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 (1831–1903). His son, also Dan Godfrey, was also a musician, station man ...

wrote that "it is doubtful whether England has ever produced a better or more gifted choir trainer than Coward... He has evolved, formulated and put into practice a method of choral technique which has had the result of bringing about a revival of singing in chorus which has spread through the whole Empire." After

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, Henry Coward faced criticism for being unable to conduct an

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

, but was knighted in 1926 and, from 1929 to 1944, served as President of the Tonic Sol-fa College in London. A

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at 6 Kenwood Road , Nether Edge In Sheffield where he lived between 1931 to 1944. Coward was a white supremacist who campaigned against

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, describing it as "atavistic, lowering, degrading and a racial question ... composed of ... unquestionably grotesque forms." Coward was an active Freemason being initiated in Furnival Lodge No.2558 Sheffield in 1896 and becoming a founding member of University Lodge No.3911 Sheffield in 1919. Sir Henry Coward died in 1944, aged 94.

Works

*''Choral Technique and Interpretation'' (1914)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coward, Henry 1849 births 1944 deaths Academics of the University of Sheffield Alumni of the University of Oxford English conductors (music) British male conductors (music) Musicians from Liverpool Knights Bachelor Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods Schoolteachers from Yorkshire