Julian Herbage
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Julian Livingstone Herbage (10 September 1904– 15 January 1976) was a British
musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
, broadcaster and member of 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. ...
...
music department. He is known for his scholarly edition of the score of Handel's ''
Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...
'' (1935), for his role in planning the
Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...
from 1945 to 1961, and for editing and presenting the weekly BBC programme ''Music Magazine'' from 1944 to 1973.


Life and career

Herbage was born in
Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...
,
Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
, the son of Walter Herbage, an official of
Barclays Bank Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...
, and his wife Ruth Ann, ''née'' Livingston. He was educated at the Royal Naval Colleges at
Osborne Osborne may refer to: * Osborne (name) Places Australia * Osborne, South Australia (disambiguation), places associated with the suburb in the Adelaide metropolitan area * Osborne, New South Wales, a rural community in the Riverina region Can ...
and Dartmouth, after which he went to
St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...
as a choral student. From 1923 to 1927 he worked in the theatre. For the Everyman Theatre, Hampstead, in 1923 he arranged and conducted
Thomas Arne Thomas Augustine Arne (; 12 March 17105 March 1778) was an English composer. He is best known for his patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!" and the song "A-Hunting We Will Go", the latter composed for a 1777 production of ''The Beggar's Opera'', whic ...
's
ballad opera The ballad opera is a genre of English stage entertainment that originated in the early 18th century, and continued to develop over the following century and later. Like the earlier '' comédie en vaudeville'' and the later ''Singspiel'', its dist ...
'' Love in a Village''. The following year he became conductor and composer of incidental music at the
Savoy Theatre The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy Pala ...
, and in 1925 he was employed by the Liverpool Repertory Company. The turning point in his career came in 1927, when his father recommended him to
Sir John Reith John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith, (; 20 July 1889 – 16 June 1971), was a British broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom. In 1922, he was employed by th ...
, director general of the newly constituted
British Broadcasting Corporation #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. ...
(BBC). After a few months working as an assistant of the BBC's London station, Herbage joined the staff of the music department, under the corporation's director of music,
Percy Pitt Percy Pitt (4 January 1869 – 23 November 1932) was an English organist, conductor, composer, and Director of Music of the BBC from 1924 to 1930. Biography A native of London, Pitt studied music in Europe at the Leipzig conservatory, t ...
. At the BBC, Herbage's role steadily increased in importance; he became known as the corporation's musicologist, unearthing forgotten manuscripts, correcting corrupt editions of scores and arranging period music for broadcast. For a broadcast of ''
As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has b ...
'' in 1932 his arrangement of 17th-century music for
viol The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...
s,
recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...
and
lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
was praised in the press for its intelligence and beauty. In 1935, for the 250th anniversary of Handel's birth, he prepared a scholarly performing edition of ''Messiah'' based on a manuscript score given by the composer to the
Foundling Hospital The Foundling Hospital in London, England, was founded in 1739 by the philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram. It was a children's home established for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children." The word "hospital" w ...
. The performance, conducted by
Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London ...
, Pitt's successor as director of music and also the founding conductor of the
BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...
, was a landmark in authentic performance style in Handel's music. Herbage was a member of the
Royal Philharmonic Society The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) is a British music society, formed in 1813. Its original purpose was to promote performances of instrumental music in London. Many composers and performers have taken part in its concerts. It is now a memb ...
's management committee, from 1940 until 1971. From 1940 to 1944 Herbage was Boult's second-in-command as assistant director of music, but he found himself better suited to building programmes than to being an administrator, and in 1944 he dropped his managerial role and returned to detailed programme planning. In 1946 he resigned from the full-time staff of the BBC, though remaining closely associated with the corporation as a freelance for the rest of his career. In that year he married a fellow-member of the music department, Anna Instone, daughter of Sir
Samuel Instone Sir Samuel Instone (16 August 1878 – 9 November 1937) was a British shipping and aviation entrepreneur and the founder of the Instone Air Line. Personal history Instone was born in Gravesend, Kent, the eldest of three brothers born to Ad ...
. They became joint editors of the long-running weekly radio programme ''Music Magazine'', which ran from 1944 to 1973. Herbage was the presenter throughout the run of 1,155 editions. As the end of the Second World War approached, and with
Sir Henry Wood Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the The Proms, Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introd ...
, the founding figure of the
Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...
dead, the BBC set up a committee to consider the future running of the concerts. Herbage was a member, and was charged with ensuring that the Proms were equally satisfactory as live concerts and as broadcasts. He discussed with the BBC programme planners what their needs were and then constructed programmes that would also appeal to audiences at the venue of the Proms, the
Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
.
William Glock Sir William Frederick Glock, CBE (3 May 190828 June 2000) was a British music critic and musical administrator who was instrumental in introducing the Continental avant-garde, notably promoting the career of Pierre Boulez. Biography Glock was bor ...
, the BBC's controller of music, took on the planning of the Proms from 1960, and the last season planned by Herbage was that of 1961. Herbage published books on Bax,
Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...
and
Baroque Music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transiti ...
; he wrote sleeve notes for a number of recordings. He appeared as a castaway on the
BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...
programme ''
Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usu ...
'' on 17 May 1965. Herbage died at the age of 71. Instone survived him by two years. His papers, including his research notes on Arne and autograph and copyist's manuscripts by
E. J. Moeran } Ernest John Smeed Moeran (31 December 1894 – 1 December 1950) was an English composer of part-Irish extraction, whose work was strongly influenced by English and Irish folk music of which he was an assiduous collector. His output includes or ...
, are in the collection of the
Britten-Pears Foundation Britten Pears Arts is a large music education organisation based in Suffolk, England. It aims to continue the legacy of composer Benjamin Britten and his partner, singer Peter Pears, and to promote the enjoyment and experience of music for all ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herbage, Julian 1904 births 1976 deaths BBC radio presenters English musicologists 20th-century British musicologists Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge People associated with the BBC Proms