Iris Lilian Mary Elkington (15 September 1900 – 13 August 1969) was an English pianist and composer.
[
Lilian Elkington was born in ]Aston
Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, England. Located immediately to the north-east of Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a ward within the metropolitan authority. It is approximately 1.5 miles from Birmingham City Centre.
History
Aston wa ...
, Birmingham, the daughter of W. H. Elkington.[ She showed early promise as a pianist, making her first public performance at the age of six.][Composer Profile: Lilian Elkington. British Music Collection]
/ref> She studied piano, organ and composition (with Sir Granville Bantock
Sir Granville Ransome Bantock (7 August 186816 October 1946) was a British composer of classical music.
Biography
Granville Ransome Bantock was born in London. His father was an eminent Scottish surgeon.Hadden, J. Cuthbert, 1913, ''Modern Musi ...
) at the Birmingham and Midland School of Music and began her musical career as a pianist, performing piano concertos and solo pieces at Birmingham Town Hall
Birmingham Town Hall is a concert hall and venue for popular assemblies opened in 1834 and situated in Victoria Square, Birmingham, England. It is a Grade I listed building.
The hall underwent a major renovation between 2002 and 2007. It no ...
and in Bournemouth
Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...
and Harrogate
Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...
.[
Her compositions were all written in the early and mid-1920s. The short orchestral tone poem ''Out of the Mist'', commemorating the last journey of the coffin bearing the body of ]The Unknown Warrior
The British grave of the Unknown Warrior (often known as 'The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior') holds an unidentified member of the British armed forces killed on a European battlefield during the First World War.Hanson, Chapters 23 & 24 He was gi ...
across the English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
in November 1920, was first performed in June 1921 by the Birmingham and Midland Orchestra, conducted by Granville Bantock. Howard Carr conducted a second performance 15 months later, on 21 December 1922 in Harrogate.[Notes to ''British Orchestral Premieres'', Lyrita CD REAM 2139 (2018)]
/ref> During the 1920s it was played fairly often around the Midlands area.
By 1924 she had formed a duo with the violist and violinist Arthur Kennedy, whom she met while studying in Birmingham. A pupil of Rowsby Woof
Edward Rowsby Woof (18 January 1883 – 31 December 1943) was an English violinist and music educator. He was born in Coalbrookdale, son of Edward Woof and his wife Sarah (née Rowsby). He became professor of violin at the Royal Academy of Music (F ...
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 ...
, Kennedy later played with various BBC orchestras. After her marriage to Kennedy in August 1926[''Nottingham and Midland Catholic News'', 28 August 1926, p. 5] she gradually withdrew from both composing and performing, except as a local church musician. She made occasional appearances in BBC radio broadcasts of recitals from Birmingham between 1925 and 1929, including a performance of works by Liszt, Chabrier, Chopin and Dohnanyi in April 1926. She was organist at the Sacred Heart Church in Aston
Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, England. Located immediately to the north-east of Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a ward within the metropolitan authority. It is approximately 1.5 miles from Birmingham City Centre.
History
Aston wa ...
(where she was also married), at Abbey Church in Erdington
Erdington is a suburb and ward of Birmingham in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Warwickshire and located northeast of central Birmingham, bordering Sutton Coldfield. It was also a council constituency, managed by its o ...
, and was organist and choir director in Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, known locally as Sutton ( ), is a town and civil parish in the City of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles south ...
.[
In 1948 the couple moved from 32 Frederick Road, Gravelly Hill in Birmingham to Ridge House, Groveside ]Great Bookham
Great Bookham is a village in Surrey, England, one of six semi-urban spring line settlements between the towns of Leatherhead and Guildford. With the narrow strip parish of Little Bookham, it forms part of the Saxon settlement of ''Bocham'' ("the ...
in Surrey, and then in 1954 they moved again to East Horsley
East Horsley is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England, 21 miles southwest of London, on the A246 between Leatherhead and Guildford. Horsley and Effingham Junction railway stations are on the New Guildford line to London Waterloo. ...
. There was a son and a daughter, Mary Williams.[
Lilian Elkington's work as a composer was soon forgotten and (aside from the basic ''Who's Who in Music'' entries up until 1950) she doesn't appear in any contemporary reference books or music publications. Following her death in 1969, while on holiday in Austria, her husband is said to have disposed of her scores. The only surviving manuscripts are those that were rediscovered in the 1970s by the musicologist David J Brown at a bookshop in ]Worthing
Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...
.[David J Brown]
'Lilian Elkington, Out of the Mist'
in ''Maude Powell Signature'', Volume 2 No 3, Autumn 2008 The manuscripts he found included the full score and orchestral parts of ''Out of the Mist'', two pieces for violin and piano (''Rhapsody'', op.1 and ''Romance'', op. 3), and a song ''Little Hands'' (words S J J Wise).
The first modern performance of ''Out of the Mist'' was given at Eton School Hall by the Windsor Sinfonia, conducted by Robert Tucker, on 24 September 1988. It was first recorded in 2006 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Lloyd Jones.''The Spirit of England'', Dutton CDLX7172 (2006)
/ref>
References
External links
''Out of the Mist'', BBC Symphony Orchestra recording
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elkington, Lilian
1900 births
1969 deaths
English classical pianists
British classical pianists
British women classical pianists
English classical composers
British women classical composers
British women composers
Musicians from Birmingham, West Midlands