Liza Lehmann (11 July 1862 – 19 September 1918) was an English

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

and composer, known for her vocal compositions.Banfield, Stephen.
Grove Music Online
' After vocal studies with

Alberto Randegger Alberto Randegger (13 April 1832 – 18 December 1911) was an Italian-born composer, conductor and singing teacher, best known for promoting opera and new works of British music in England during the Victorian era and for his widely used textbook o ...

and

Jenny Lind Johanna Maria "Jenny" Lind (6 October 18202 November 1887) was a Swedish opera singer, often called the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she performed in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and a ...

, and composition studies with teachers including

Hamish MacCunn Hamish MacCunn, ''né'' James MacCunn (22 March 18682 August 1916) was a Scottish composer, conductor and teacher. He was one of the first students of the newly-founded Royal College of Music in London, and quickly made a mark. As a composer he ...

, Lehmann made her singing debut in 1885 in London and pursued a concert career for nearly a decade. In 1894, she married and left the stage. She then concentrated on composing music, becoming known for her songs, including many children's songs. She also composed several pieces for the stage and wrote a textbook on singing. In 1910, she toured the United States, where she accompanied her own songs in recitals. She was the first president of the

Society of Women Musicians The Society of Women Musicians was a British group founded in 1911 for mutual cooperation between women composers and performers, in response to the limited professional opportunities for women musicians at the time. The founders included Katharine ...

and became a professor of singing at the

Guildhall School of Music The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

in 1913.

Biography

Lehmann family grave in Highgate Cemetery

She was born Elisabetha Nina Mary Frederica Lehmann in London.Baker, p. 1030 Her father was the German painter Rudolf Lehmann, and her mother was Amelia (A.L.) Chambers, a music teacher, composer and arranger. Lehmann "grew up in an intellectual and artistic atmosphere" and lived in Germany, France and Italy in her early years. She studied singing in London with both

and

, and her composition teachers included

in London, Niels Raunkilde in Rome, and Wilhelm Freudenberg in Wiesbaden. On 23 November 1885, Lehmann made her singing debut at a Monday Popular Concert at

St James's Hall St. James's Hall was a concert hall in London that opened on 25 March 1858, designed by architect and artist Owen Jones, who had decorated the interior of the Crystal Palace. It was situated between the Quadrant in Regent Street and Piccadilly, ...

, and spent the next nine years performing many important concert engagements in England. She received encouragement from important European musicians such as

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 ...

and

Clara Schumann Clara Josephine Schumann (; née Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over the course of a ...

. She retired from the stage after a final concert at St James's Hall on 14 July 1894, married the composer and illustrator

Herbert Bedford Herbert Bedford (23 January 1867 – 13 March 1945) was a composer, author, miniature painter and inventor. He was married to the soprano and composer Liza Lehmann from 1894 until her death in 1918. His grandsons were the conductor Steuart Bedfo ...

and turned to composing music. In 1910, Lehmann made a tour of the United States, where she accompanied her own songs in recitals. She became the first president of the

in 1911 and 1912. She was also a professor of singing at the

in 1913. The same year, she wrote a voice study text, ''Practical Hints for Students of Singing''. Lehmann and Bedford had two sons; the older one, Rudolf, died in training during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and the younger, Leslie Herbert Bedford (1900–1989), was an inventor who played a key role in the development of radar. Leslie was the father of the conductor

Steuart Bedford Steuart John Rudolf Bedford (31 July 1939 – 15 February 2021) was an English orchestral and opera conductor and pianist. He was the brother of composer David Bedford and of singer Peter Lehmann Bedford and a grandson of Liza Lehmann and Her ...

and the composer

David Bedford David Vickerman Bedford (4 August 1937 – 1 October 2011) was an English composer and musician. He wrote and played both popular and classical music. He was the brother of the conductor Steuart Bedford, the grandson of the composer, painter ...

.Banfield, Stephen. ''Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers'', p. 276 Lehmann completed her memoirs in 1918 and died, shortly after completing them, at

Pinner Pinner is a London suburb in the London borough of Harrow, Greater London, England, northwest of Charing Cross, close to the border with Hillingdon, historically in the county of Middlesex. The population was 31,130 in 2011. Originally a med ...

, Middlesex, at the age of 56. She is buried in a family grave on the east side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

with her husband and father.

Music

After her performing career ended in 1894, Lehmann concentrated on composing music for the rest of her life. She completed one of her best known works two years later, in 1896, the song cycle for four voices and piano titled ''In a Persian Garden'', settings of selected quatrains from Edward FitzGerald's version of the Rubāiyāt of Omar Khayyām. She composed many more song cycles including: ''The Daisy Chain'' (1893), children's songs for vocal quartet; ''In Memoriam'' (1899), based on

Alfred Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

love poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in a ...

; and ''Bird Songs'' (1907), the latter with words attributed to 'A.S.', thought to have been Alice Sayers, the family nurse. She became known for her

art song An art song is a Western vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment, and usually in the classical art music tradition. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the collective genre of such songs ...

parlour songs Parlour music is a type of popular music which, as the name suggests, is intended to be performed in the parlours of houses, usually by amateur singers and piano, pianists. Disseminated as sheet music, its heyday came in the 19th century, as a resu ...

and other works in the following years. Many of her songs are for children, ranging from the sweet and trivial "There are fairies at the bottom of our garden" to the melodically and harmonically passionate "Stars" in ''The Daisy-Chain''. Her tenor song "Ah, moon of my delight" from ''In a Persian Garden'' has been recorded through the years by tenors such as John McCormack,

Jan Peerce Jan Peerce (born Yehoshua Pinkhes Perelmuth; June 3, 1904 December 15, 1984) was an American operatic tenor. Peerce was an accomplished performer on the operatic and Broadway theatre, Broadway concert stages, in solo recitals, and as a recordi ...

Mario Lanza Mario Lanza (, ; born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza ; January 31, 1921 – October 7, 1959) was an American tenor and actor. He was a Hollywood film star popular in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Lanza began studying to be a professional singer at ...

, Robert White, and

Webster Booth Webster Booth (21 January 1902 – 21 June 1984) was an English tenor, best remembered as the duettist partner of Anne Ziegler. He was also one of the finest tenors of his generation and was a distinguished oratorio soloist. He was a chorister ...

. In 1904 she was commissioned by

Frank Curzon Frank Curzon (17 September 1868 – 2 July 1927) was an English actor who became an important theatre manager, leasing the Royal Strand Theatre, Avenue Theatre, Criterion Theatre, Comedy Theatre, Prince of Wales Theatre and Wyndham's Theatre, am ...

to compose the score for the

Edwardian musical comedy Edwardian musical comedy was a form of British musical theatre that extended beyond the reign of King Edward VII in both directions, beginning in the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the A ...

''Sergeant Brue'', with a libretto by

Owen Hall Owen Hall (10 April 1853 – 9 April 1907) was the principal pen name of the Irish-born theatre writer, racing correspondent, theatre critic and solicitor, James "Jimmy" Davis, when writing for the stage. After his successive careers in law ...

and lyrics by James Hickory Wood. The piece was a success in London and New York, but Lehmann was unhappy that Curzon added other composers' music to her score. Although she refused to write any further musicals, Lehmann composed the score for a

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

adaptation of ''

The Vicar of Wakefield ''The Vicar of Wakefield'', subtitled ''A Tale, Supposed to be written by Himself'', is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774). It was written from 1761 to 1762 and published in 1766. It was one of the most popular and wid ...

'' in 1906, with a libretto by

Laurence Housman Laurence Housman (; 18 July 1865 – 20 February 1959) was an English playwright, writer and illustrator whose career stretched from the 1890s to the 1950s. He studied art in London. He was a younger brother of the poet A. E. Housman and his s ...

. This piece was a modest success but did not lead to further comic operas. In 1916, she returned to writing for the stage, with the score for the opera ''Everyman'', which was produced by the

Beecham Beecham is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Audrey Beecham (1915–1989), poet and niece of the conductor * Betty Humby Beecham (1908–1958), British pianist and wife of the conductor * Earl Beecham (born 1965), American foo ...

Opera Company."Liza Lehmannn"
''British Musical Theatre'', 25 December 2003, accessed 14 February 2014 Lehmann,

Ethel Smyth Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (; 22 April 18588 May 1944) was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas. Smyth tended t ...

and

Maude Valérie White Maude Valérie White (1855 – 1937) was a French-born English composer who became one of the most successful songwriters (in the English serious style) of the Victorian period. Early years Although born near Dieppe in Normandy to upper middl ...

were England's foremost female composers of songs at the beginning of the 20th century. Although they all composed solo settings of serious texts, Lehmann and White excelled in setting lighter material. Some of Lehmann's compositional practices, such as her frequent writing of four-voice cycles and writing piano links between songs, were consistent with her time. Although her pieces were inventive, they are now often overlooked and disregarded.

Musical works

Stage

*''Sergeant Brue'', musical farce (London, 14 June 1904) *''The Vicar of Wakefield'', light opera (Manchester, 12 November 1906) *''Everyman'', 1-act opera (London, 28 December 1915)

Vocal with orchestra

*''Young Lochinvar'', text by

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...

, baritone, chorus, and orchestra (1898) *''Endymion'', text by

Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...

, soprano and orchestra (1899) *''Once Upon a Time'', cantata (London, 22 February 1903) *''The Golden Threshold'', text by S. Naidu, S, A, T, Bar, chorus, and orchestra (1906) *''Leaves from Ossian'', cantata (1909)

Vocal quartets with piano

*''The Daisy-Chain'' (L. Alma-Tadema, R.L. Stevenson and others) (1893) *''In a Persian Garden'' (E. FitzGerald, after O. Khayyām) (1896) *''More Daisies'' (1902) *''Nonsense Songs'' (from L. Carroll: Alice in Wonderland) (1908) *''Breton Folk-Songs'' (F.M. Gostling) (1909) *''Prairie Pictures'' (Lehmann) (1911) *''Parody Pie'' (1914)

Songs for solo voice

*''Mirage'' (H. Malesh) (1894) *''Nine English Songs'' (1895) *''Eight German Songs'' (1888) *''Twelve German Songs'' (1889) *''In memoriam'' (Tennyson) (1899) *''Cameos: Five Greek Love-Songs'' (1901) *''Five French Songs'' (G. Boutelleau, F. Plessis) (1901) *''To a Little Red Spider'' (L.A. Cunnington) (1903) *''The Life of a Rose'' (L. Lehmann) (1905) *''Bird Songs'' (A.S.) (1907) *''Mr. Coggs and Other Songs for Children'' (E.V. Lucas) (1908) *''Liza Lehmann Album'' (1909) *''Five Little Love Songs'' (C. Fabbri) (1910) *''Oh, tell me Nightingale'' (Mirza Shafi Vazeh) (1910) *''Songs of a ‘Flapper’ '' (Lehmann) (1911) *''Cowboy Ballads'' (J.A. Lomax) (1912) *''The Well of Sorrow'' (H. Vacaresco: The Bard of the Dimbovitza) (1912) *''Five Tenor Songs'' (1913) *''Hips and Haws'' (M. Radclyffe Hall) (1913) *''Songs of Good Luck'' (Superstitions) (H. Taylor) (1913) *''Magdalen at Michael’s Gate'' (H. Kingsley) (1913) *''By the Lake'' (Ethel Clifford) (1914) *''The Poet and the Nightingale'' (J.T. White) (1914) *''The Lily of a Day'' (Jonson) (1917) *''There are Fairies at the Bottom of Our Garden'' (R. Fyleman) (1917) *''When I am Dead, My Dearest'' (C. Rossetti) (1918) *''Three Songs for Low Voice'' (Meredith, Browning) (1922)

Other vocal works

*''

Music, When Soft Voices Die "Music, When Soft Voices Die" is a major poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1821 and first published in ''Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley'' in 1824 in London by John and Henry L. Hunt with a preface by Mary Shelley. The poem is o ...

'' (

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

), voice and piano *''The Secrets of the Heart'' (H. Austin Dobson), soprano, alto, and piano (1895) *''Good-Night, Babette!'' (Austin Dobson), soprano, baritone, violin, 'cello, and piano (1898) *''The Eternal Feminine'' (monologue, L. Eldée) (1902) *''Songs of Love and Spring'' (E. Geibel), alto, baritone, and piano (1903) *''The Happy Prince'', melodrama (recitation, O. Wilde) (1908)Woolf, Jonathan
Review of Retrospect Opera recording
(2019), MusicWeb International *''Four

Cautionary Tales A cautionary tale is a tale told in folklore to warn its listener of a Risk, danger. There are three essential parts to a cautionary tale, though they can be introduced in a large variety of ways. First, a taboo or prohibition is stated: some a ...

and a Moral'' (

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (, ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. H ...

), two voices and piano (1909) *''Four Shakespearean Part-Songs'' (1911) *''The Selfish Giant'' (recitation, Wilde), 1911 *''The High Tide'' (recitation, J. Ingelow) (1912) *''Behind the Nightlight'' (J. Maude, N. Price) (1913) *''Three Snow Songs'' (Lehmann), solo voice, piano, organ, female chorus (1914)

Instrumental

*''Romantic Suite'', violin and piano (1903) *''Cobweb Castle'', piano solo (1908)

Writings

*''The Life of Liza Lehmann, by Herself'' (T Fisher Unwin, London, 1919)
''Practical Hints for Students of Singing''
(Enoch & Sons, 1913)

Footnotes

References

*. * *. *.

External links

at www.naxos.com a biography of Liza Lehmann
Extensive biography and information
in German
Sheet music for "There are Fairies at the Bottom of Our Garden"
Chappell & Co., Ltd., 1917. * *
Victor recordings
of works by Liza Lehmann * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lehmann, Liza 1862 births 1918 deaths 19th-century British women singers Academics of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Burials at Highgate Cemetery English composers English people of German descent English sopranos Lehmann family Pupils of Alberto Randegger Singers from London