Mary Lucas (born Mary Anderson Juler, 24 May 1882–14 January 1952), sometimes referred to as Mary Anderson Lucas, was an English composer and pianist.

Biography

Her father was a doctor, and she was one of five children, growing up in London and (from 1891) Chipstead in Surrey. In 1899 she studied piano at the

Dresden Conservatory Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the List ...

with Carlo Albanesi, then (1900-1903) 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 ...

, and later in life, during the 1920s, she studied composition at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

with

Herbert Howells Herbert Norman Howells (17 October 1892 – 23 February 1983) was an English composer, organist, and teacher, most famous for his large output of Anglican church music. Life Background and early education Howells was born in Lydney, Gloucest ...

and R.O. Morris. She married entrepreneur and inventor Ralph Lucas in 1903, and their son Colin became a noted architect. During the 1920s and 1930s they were living a 10, St Germans Place,

Blackheath Blackheath may refer to: Places England *Blackheath, London, England ** Blackheath railway station **Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England *Blackheath, Surrey, England ** Hundred of Blackh ...

, London SE13. They later moved to

Cookham Cookham is a historic River Thames, Thames-side village and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the north-eastern edge of Berkshire, England, north-north-east of Maidenhead and opposite the village of Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, Bourne ...

in Berkshire.

Music

Lucas gave up composition for over 25 years after she married and had a family (two sons and a daughter), but returned in the 1930s to produce a number of successful compositions, including six string quartets. The Stratton String Quartet championed her music, performing her quartets for the London Music Club's First Performance Society on 29 November 1934 at 22

Holland Park Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that contains a street and public park of the same name. It has no official boundaries but is roughly bounded by Kensington High Street to the south, Holland Road ...

, and in January 1935 at the

Blackheath Concert Halls Blackheath Halls is a 600-seat concert hall on Lee Road in Blackheath, London, United Kingdom. It claims to be London's oldest surviving purpose-built cultural venue.http://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/blackheath-halls/about-blackheath-halls About Bl ...

. There was a BBC broadcast of the third quartet by the all female Macnaghten Quartet on 4 February 1936. Her ballet ''Sawdust'' was performed in London and Wolverhampton in 1941 by the Ballet Guild, under the direction of

Leighton Lucas Leighton Lucas (5 January 1903 – 1 November 1982) was an English composer and conductor. Born into a musical family (his father, Clarence Lucas, was also a noted composer and his mother Clara Asher-Lucas a concert pianist), he began his career ...

. Lucas had a special affinity with the clarinet, and may have encouraged her niece Pauline Juler (1914-2003) to become a professional clarinetist. (Juler later became associated with the clarinet music of composers such as

York Bowen Edwin York Bowen (22 February 1884 – 23 November 1961) was an English composer and pianist. Bowen's musical career spanned more than fifty years during which time he wrote over 160 works. As well as being a pianist and composer, Bowen was a ...

Gerald Finzi Gerald Raphael Finzi (14 July 1901 – 27 September 1956) was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a choral composer, but also wrote in other genres. Large-scale compositions by Finzi include the cantata '' Dies natalis'' for solo voice and ...

and

Howard Ferguson George Howard Ferguson, PC (June 18, 1870 – February 21, 1946) was the ninth premier of Ontario, from 1923 to 1930. He was a Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1905 to 1930 who represented the eastern provincia ...

). Her Clarinet Sonata was written for Juler in 1938. Around this time she was also performing duo recitals with the clarinet Rudolph Dunbar, and a recording of them playing her ''Lament'' for clarinet and piano was issued by Octacros Records in the late-1930s. A performance of the impressionistic ''Circus Suite'' for orchestra, conducted by

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 Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hund ...

at 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 ...

on 4 July 1942, gave Lucus her

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 ...

debut at the age of sixty.BBC Proms Archive
/ref> Her papers (including some recordings) are partially housed at the British Library, while some manuscripts and other papers are held at the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama 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 ...

. A Lucas family archive is held at the Dennis Sharpe Archive, Paul Mellon Center,

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

Family and friends

Her husband Ralph Lucas was involved in the design and manufacturing of early motor cars, including the Ralph Lucas Car, developed from 1901 until around 1908. He died in 1955. Their son Colin Lucas (1906-1984) was an architect and a pioneer of reinforced concrete construction.Colin Lucas biography, Dennis Sharp Archive, Yale University
/ref> He married the chef

Dione Lucas Dione Lucas (born Dione Wilson, 10 October 1909 – 18 December 1971) (pronounced dee-OH-nee) was an English chef, and the first female graduate of Le Cordon Bleu. Her father was the architect, jeweller and designer Henry Wilson, and her sister was ...

(Wilson) in 1945. Colin Lucas built Noah's Boathouse in

for his parents.Ouspensky Today. ''Colin Lucas: a view of a creative life''
/ref> Mary Lucas established a music room there, where musical and philosophical gatherings were held. (Mary and Colin were followers of the Russian

esotericist Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...

P. D. Ouspensky). Participants in these gatherings may have included friends such as Paul Nash,

Alain Daniélou Alain Daniélou (4 October 1907 – 27 January 1994) was a French historian, Indologist, intellectual, musicologist, translator, writer, and notable Western convert to and expert on the Shaivite sect of Hinduism. In 1991 he was awarded the ...

and

Edmund Rubbra Edmund Rubbra (; 23 May 190114 February 1986) was a British composer. He composed both instrumental and vocal works for soloists, chamber groups and full choruses and orchestras. He was greatly esteemed by fellow musicians and was at the peak o ...

Works

Selected works include: Orchestral * ''Capriccio'' for saxophone and string orchestra * ''The Circus'', suite for orchestra (1939)British Music Collection
/ref> (pub. Peters) * ''Concertino'' for flute and orchestra (1940) * ''Five Tunes for Small Orchestra'' Lucas Collection: Concert Programmes
/ref> * Fugue for strings (1939) * ''Occasional Overture'' (before 1935, fp 22 November 1940, Arts Theatre Club) *''Rhapsody'' for orchestra (performed in Bournemouth, April 1928) * Suite for chamber orchestra (before 1935) *''Variations on a Theme by

Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer. Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest Eng ...

'' for string orchestra (1938) (pub. Peters) Chamber Music * Clarinet Sonata (1938) (pub. Hinrichsen) * ''Complainte et Rapsodie'' for clarinet and piano Musicalics Catalogue
/ref> * Duo for clarinet and viola (1941) * Fugue for flute, oboe and viola (before 1935) * ''Lament and Rhapsody'' for clarinet and piano (before 1935) *''Rhapsody'' for flute, cello and piano (1946) * String Quartet No 1 * String Quartet No 2 (1933) * String Quartet No 3 (1935) * Trio for clarinet, viola and piano (1939) * Violin Sonata (performance 4 November 1930, Blackheath) * Woodwind Quintet for clarinet, flute, oboe, bassoon, horn (early 1930s?) Vocal * ''Choeurs isolés'', choral * ''The Hour of Magic'' (text:

W H Davies William Henry Davies (3 July 1871 – 26 September 1940) was a Welsh poet and writer, who spent much of his life as a tramp or hobo in the United Kingdom and the United States, yet became one of the most popular poets of his time. His themes in ...

) * ''Sleeping Sea'' and ''Lullaby'', two choral part songs (1939), pub. Chester * Songs for two part choir (OUP): ''Dandelion Down, Duck's Ditty, Evening Song, Thunder at Night, The Wind'' Presto Music
/ref> Ballet and Dramatic * ''Amour et mort'', ballet (1936) * ''Preludes de Ballet'' (1945) * ''Sciure'' (piano-flute-string quintet), ballet (1941) * ''The Book of Thel'', masque for solo voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, and male and female narrators (1935) * ''Musiques de scène'', masque *''Sawdust'', ballet (fp 21 May 1941,

Wulfrun Hall The Halls Wolverhampton, formally known as Wolverhampton Civic Halls is a music venue in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. It has been one of the most notable live music venues in the county for several decades. It is part of a complex als ...

Wolverhampton)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucas, Mary 1882 births 1952 deaths 20th-century classical composers Alumni of the Royal College of Music British music educators Women classical composers English classical composers 20th-century English composers 20th-century English women musicians Women music educators 20th-century women composers