Robert Orlando Morgan (1865 – 16 May 1956) was an English music teacher, composer and

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 ...

. He is best remembered as an influential teacher 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 London, where he taught for 64 years, from 1887 to 1951, as Professor of Pianoforte and Composition. His pupils included the composer

Benjamin Frankel Benjamin Frankel (31 January 190612 February 1973) was a British composer. His best known pieces include a cycle of five string quartets, eight symphonies, and concertos for violin and viola. He was also notable for writing over 100 film scores ...

and the pianist Dame Myra Hess. Morgan composed many songs and classical pieces, as well as the music for the last

Savoy opera Savoy opera was a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impr ...

, ''

Two Merry Monarchs ''Two Merry Monarchs'' is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts with a book by Arthur Anderson and George Levy, lyrics by Anderson and Hartley Carrick, and music by Orlando Morgan. It opened at the Savoy Theatre in London on 10 March 1910, und ...

'' (1910), which had poor notices and a brief run. Morgan wrote no more operas but continued to compose prolifically throughout his life.

Biography

Early years

Morgan was born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, the son of Peter and Elizabeth Morgan."Morgan, R(obert) Orlando"
''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007, accessed 4 January 2010 In 1880, at the age of 15, he entered the

.Corporation of London Records Office archive
The National Archives, Reference CLA/057, accessed 4 January 2010 As a student at the Guildhall, he won the Merchant Taylors' scholarship and the Webster prize, becoming a teacher and examiner at the school by the age of 22.''The Times'', obituary, 18 May 1956, p. 13 In February 1893, he won the Yate prize for composition. In 1894, at the Grand Concours Internationale de Composition Musicale at Brussels, Morgan received the first prize and gold medal.

Teacher and musicologist

As a teacher, Morgan's tenure at the Guildhall was exceptionally long. When he retired as Professor of Pianoforte and Composition in 1951 at the age of 85, he had completed 64 years of service. Among his pupils were the composer

and the pianist Dame Myra Hess. A diversion in his normal teaching curriculum was what

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...

called "an attempt" to teach harmony and composition to Astaire and

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...

in 1923. Morgan played over a piece that Coward had written and objected to his harmonisation. Coward later recalled, "I was told by my instructor that I could not use consecutive fifths. He went on to explain that a gentleman called

Ebenezer Prout Ebenezer Prout (1 March 1835 – 5 December 1909) was an English musical theorist, writer, music teacher and composer, whose instruction, afterwards embodied in a series of standard works still used today, underpinned the work of many British cl ...

had announced many years ago that consecutive fifths were wrong and must in no circumstances be employed.… I argued back that

Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

and

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

had used consecutive fifths like mad.… I left his presence forever with the parting shot that what was good enough for Debussy and Ravel was good enough for me." As a musicologist, Morgan was known for his practical approach. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' said of his editions of the classics, "They are meant for performance rather than for the study. The performer is not bothered by extensive footnotes and alternative readings, but has a clear and on the whole reliable text from which to work." Morgan's editions include

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

's '' Forty-Eight Preludes and Fugues'' and ''

French Suites The ''French Suites'', BWV 812–817, are six suites which Johann Sebastian Bach wrote for the clavier ( harpsichord or clavichord) between the years of 1722 and 1725.Bach. ''The French Suites: Embellished version''. Bärenreiter Urtext Altho ...

'';

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

's Sonatas; and Schumann's's '' Novelletten'', ''

Kinderszenen ' (, "Scenes from Childhood"), Opus number, Op. 15, by Robert Schumann, is a set of thirteen pieces of music for piano written in 1838. History and description Schumann wrote 30 movements for this work but chose 13 for the final version. Th ...

'' and ''

Album für die Jugend ''Album for the Young'' ('), Op. 68, was composed by Robert Schumann in 1848 for his three daughters. The album consists of a collection of 43 short works. Unlike the ', they are suitable to be played by children or beginners. The second part, s ...

''. In the 1970s, his edition of the ''Forty-Eight'' was regarded as "still the best of all student editions".

Composer

Morgan was a prolific composer. Among his works were three

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

s, ''The Crown of Thorns'', ''Zitella'' and ''The Legend of Eloisa''; two song-cycles for four voices, ''In Fairy Land'' and ''Love Rhapsodies''; more than 200 songs and pianoforte pieces; and a comic opera, ''

''.Scowcroft, Philip L
"A 123rd Garland of British Light Music Composers"
Classical MusicWeb, accessed 7 January 2009 Dedicatees of his works included a wide range of performers including

Wilhelm Backhaus Wilhelm Backhaus ('Bachaus' on some record labels) (26 March 1884 – 5 July 1969) was a German pianist and pedagogue. He was particularly well known for his interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin and Brahms. He was also much ...

Clara Butt Dame Clara Ellen Butt, (1 February 1872 – 23 January 1936) was an English contralto and one of the most popular singers from the 1890s through to the 1920s. She had an exceptionally fine contralto voice and an agile singing technique, and imp ...

, Benno Moiseiwitsch,

Landon Ronald Sir Landon Ronald (born Landon Ronald Russell) (7 June 1873 – 14 August 1938) was an English conductor, composer, pianist, teacher and administrator. In his early career he gained work as an accompanist and ''répétiteur'', but struggled ...

and Myra Hess. ''

'' wrote of him, "though he manifested sensitiveness and good workmanship, he failed to awaken any lasting impression in original composition." Many of his songs were ballads, perhaps the best-known of which is "Clorinda", with a lyric by John Bledlowe. His short dance piece ''La bal poudre'' was chosen as one of ten test pieces for the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'' national piano playing competition in 1928. Other songs included "Fair Rosalind", "At Christmastide", "Before the Dawn", "My Gentle White Dove", "Where the Lotus Blooms" and "When Snowflakes Dance". Morgan's ''Two Merry Monarchs'' was the last

, produced in 1910 by

C. H. Workman Charles Herbert Workman (5 May 1872 – 1 May 1923) was a singer and actor best known as a successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. He was variously credited as Charles H. Workman, C. Herbert Wo ...

. Morgan's contribution to the piece received generally negative reactions in the press. ''The Times'' pronounced the music "not very distinguished". ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' even hinted at plagiarism: "The music was tuneful in parts, sometimes strangely familiar." ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' was mostly critical, writing "the composer falls below the level of accomplishment one might have reasonably expected. There are numbers in the piece, however, which seem to point to his possession of a gift for facile melody. ... The scoring throughout is decidedly thin even for musical comedy." ''The Evening Standard and St. James'', however, had some praise for the music, saying: "It is not extraordinary, but neither is it commonplace except occasionally. He does not write particularly well for the voice, but he has, generally, originality and is always melodious. Some of his songs, not the purely sentimental ones, are fresh, 'catchy', well-written and full of tune." The piece had one of the shortest runs of any Savoy opera, a total of 43 performances, after which it had another week's run at the Strand Theatre, a summer tour, and then disappeared. The score is considered to be lost.Farrell, p. 74

Family and death

Morgan married the singer Annie Elizabeth Morley. The couple had two sons, Raymond and Cyril Douglas. Cyril became a City Freeman in 1920 and Principal Clerk of the Chamberlain's Office of the Corporation of London in 1946. Morley died in 1952, and Morgan died in London, aged 91. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.

Notes

References

*Astaire, Fred. ''Steps in Time'', Da Capo Press, New York, 1981. *Coward, Noël. ''The Noël Coward Song Book'', Michael Joseph, London, 1953 *Farrell, Scott. ''The

Productions: A Centenary Review of the Final

Savoy Opera Savoy opera was a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impr ...

s'', 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Orlando 1865 births 1956 deaths English composers English musicologists Academics of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama