Michael Head, FRAM (28 January 190024 August 1976) was a British composer, pianist, organist and singer who left some enduring works still popular today. He was noted for his association with the Royal Academy of Music. His compositional oeuvre mainly consists of songs, as well as choral works and few larger-scale pieces such as a piano concerto.

Life

Michael Dewar Head was born in

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

, England, on 28 January 1900. His father was a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and journalist and his mother an accomplished amateur singer and pianist. His mother's influence evidently dominated, and at age 10 he commenced his musical training, taking lessons in piano with Jean Adair and in singing with Fritz Marston at the Adair-Marston School of Music. He was educated at

Monkton Combe School (Thy Word is Truth) , established = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , founder = The Revd Francis Pocock , head_label = Head Master , head ...

in Somerset. He began to study 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 ...

but was soon called up for service in the

War War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

. While working at an ammunition factory, he composed the song cycle ''Over the rim of the moon'' (Head et al., 1920). This was to become his first published work.Bush, N., 1982, Michael Head: Composer, singer and pianist, Kahn & Averill, London. . After the war, Head resumed his studies at the Academy. He studied composition with Frederick Corder, piano with T B Knott and organ with Reginald Steggall. He won a scholarship for composition. He also won other awards for composition, sight singing and

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

. In 1924, Head was made an Associate of the Academy. Two years later, he took up a post at

Bedales School Bedales School is a co-educational, boarding and day independent school in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley in reaction to the limitations of conven ...

Petersfield Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth a ...

, where he taught for three years. Head gave his first public recital as a self accompanied singer at

Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadin ...

in 1929. After this debut performance, his fame grew rapidly. He gave several more recitals in the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

and in many parts of the world. Additionally he gave several radio recitals, both in Britain and Canada. He took up the post of Pianoforte Professor at the Royal Academy in 1927 after an invitation by

Sir John McEwen Sir John McEwen, (29 March 1900 – 20 November 1980) was an Australian politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Australia, holding office from 1967 to 1968 in a caretaker capacity after the disappearance of Harold Holt. He was the ...

. This post he was to hold until his retirement in 1975. Head was appointed an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and as such toured many countries, including

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

, South Africa and

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

(now

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

). At the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he returned to London and continued teaching throughout the blitz. During this time, he gave hundreds of concerts in factories and in small towns. Head died in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

on 24 August 1976, from a sudden and unexpected illness, while examining for the Associated Board in Rhodesia and South Africa.Armstrong, Sir T., 1976, "Obituary of Michael Head", Magazine of the Royal Academy of Music.

Works

Most of Head's works are songs.Bush, A. , 1982, "The vocal compositions of Michael Head", in Bush, N., 1982, Michael Head: Composer, singer and pianist, Kahn & Averill, London. . However, his early works include a

piano concerto A piano concerto is a type of concerto, a solo composition in the classical music genre which is composed for a piano player, which is typically accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuoso showpiec ...

, a

tone poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...

, and

scherzo A scherzo (, , ; plural scherzos or scherzi), in western classical music, is a short composition – sometimes a movement from a larger work such as a symphony or a sonata. The precise definition has varied over the years, but scherzo often ref ...

for orchestra. His best known song cycles are ''Over the Rim of the Moon'' (1918–19) and ''Songs of the Countryside'' (1921–23). The first of these contains probably his most famous song, "The Ships of Arcady". All the texts in this song cycle were by the Irish war poet Francis Ledwidge, who was killed in action during World War I on 31 July 1917.The complete poems of Francis Ledwidge with introductions by Lord Dunsany.Published 1919 by Brentano's in New York ''Songs of the Countryside'' uses poems by various poets. The first song, "Sweet Chance, That Led My Steps Abroad" was a setting of

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 inc ...

's 1914 poem "A Great Time". "The Piper" is a setting of Seumas O'Sullivan's famous poem of the same name. One of his popular songs is the

Christmas carol A Christmas carol is a carol (a song or hymn) on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French ori ...

''The Little Road to Bethlehem'', the words of which are by Margaret Rose. Other famous songs include "Money, O!" and "Why have you stolen my delight?" (see Bush, 1982).

References

External links

Listing of songs and choral settings by Michael Head
on

LiederNet The LiederNet Archive (formerly The Lied, Art Song, and Choral Texts Archive) is a donation-supported web archive of art song and choral texts founded in 1995 by Emily Ezust, an American/Canadian computer programmer and amateur violinist. The webs ...

Hyperion-records.co.ukThe Little Road to Bethlehem
{{DEFAULTSORT:Head, Michael 1900 births 1976 deaths People from Eastbourne British classical pianists British male pianists British male organists People educated at Monkton Combe School Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music 20th-century English singers 20th-century British pianists 20th-century classical musicians 20th-century British composers 20th-century organists 20th-century British male singers