Ignatius Antonio de Orellana (October 14, 1860 – March 19, 1931) was a British violinist and composer. He became a conductor of theatre orchestras and an arranger of music for the theatre.
Life
Orellana was born in
St Helier
St Helier (; Jèrriais: ; french: Saint-Hélier) is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. St Helier has a population of 35,822 – over one-third of the total population of Jersey – ...
in
Jersey
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...
, where his grandfather Ignacio de Orellana, originally from Spain, had settled by 1841. He studied the violin in London.
Early compositions
He composed a
string quartet
The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
and a
string trio, which were published in 1888.
[Scores, with information about the composer, from Merton Music.]
Merton Music catalogue
Accessed February 2014. In the same year his ''Six Melodic Studies for Pianoforte'' were published; a reviewer in ''The Musical World'' commented that they "are an attempt to combine tuneful interest with the pursuit of various technical objects, and in this the composer has been in great measure successful."
In 1890 his ''Twenty-four Melodic Studies for Pianoforte'' were published; a reviewer in ''The Musical World'' commented, "The term 'melodic' is justified by the tunefulness of each of the numbers.... All are pleasingly distinctive in character and well harmonised, and they should attract tolerably advanced players."
Orchestral leader and conductor
Orellana became lead violinist of London theatre orchestras, and from about 1900 was a conductor of operettas and an
orchestrator
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...
of scores for the theatre by
Paul Rubens and others.
[Ignatius de Orellana]
Edition Silvertrust. Accessed February 2014.
Music Web International. Accessed February 2014.Harold Fraser-Simson
Harold Fraser-Simson (15 August 1872 – 19 January 1944) was an English composer of light music, including songs and the scores to Edwardian musical comedies, musical comedies. His most famous musical was the World War I hit ''The Maid of the M ...
's music in ''Toad of Toad Hall
''Toad of Toad Hall'' is a play written by A. A. Milne – the first of several dramatisations of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 novel ''The Wind in the Willows'' – with incidental music by Harold Fraser-Simson. It was originally produced by Willia ...
'', produced in 1929, and he wrote the overture to Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...
's 1929 operetta '' Bitter Sweet''.[
He died in 1931 in London.][Brief biography of Ignatius de Orellana]
IMSLP. Accessed February 2014.
The composer Eric Coates
Eric Francis Harrison Coates (27 August 1886 – 21 December 1957) was an English composer of light music and, early in his career, a leading violist.
Coates was born into a musical family, but, despite his wishes and obvious talent, his pa ...
, who in his early career played in London theatres, wrote that Orellana had "a remarkable sense of the theatre, and being a sound musician his arrangements were always delicately finished and in good taste. It was fascinating to get hold of a vocal score of one of the popular musical comedies of the day and run through the music on the piano, and then listen in the evening to what Orellana could make it sound like."[
]
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Orellana, Ignatius de
1860 births
1931 deaths
Light music composers
British composers
Jersey people