The Spencer Dyke Quartet was a

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

active in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

through the 1920s. It was formed in 1918 and its personnel remained unchanged until August 1927 when

Bernard Shore Bernard Shore (17 March 1896 – 2 April 1985) was an English viola player and author. Early life Shore studied at the Royal College of Music from 1912, with Sir Walter Alcock (organ) and Thomas Dunhill (composition), but his time there was inte ...

became the violist and Tate Gilder the second violin. It is best remembered now for a series of pioneering chamber music recordings made for the

National Gramophonic Society The National Gramophonic Society (NGS) was founded in England in 1923 by the novelist Compton Mackenzie to produce recordings of music which was ignored by commercial record companies. The Society was proposed shortly after Mackenzie had launched hi ...

.''The Gramophone'', December 1925, p 323
/ref> At the time of the recordings, the Quartet members were Edwin Spencer Dyke (1st violin), Edwin Quaife (2nd violin), Ernest Tomlinson (viola) and Bertie Patterson Parker cello.

played viola in the last two recordings only.

Origins

Spencer Dyke was a Cornish

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist, having been born at

St Austell St Austell (; kw, Sans Austel) is a town in Cornwall, England, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon. St Austell is one of the largest towns in Cornwall; at the 2011 census it had a population of 19,958. History St Austell wa ...

on 22 July 1880. He won the Dove Scholarship 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 ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

at the age of 17, and became a professor there in 1907. He was mainly concerned with chamber music, teaching and editing. By 1924 he had written violin pieces and studies, had published editions of the classics and a book of scales. In October 1923, Compton Mackenzie founded the

for the recording and publication by subscription of classical music, principally chamber music, which was of limited circulation.Morgan The Spencer Dyke Quartet was by then already well-known: Spencer Dyke joined the advisory board for the selection of material for the Society, together with

Walter Willson Cobbett Walter Willson Cobbett (11 July 184722 January 1937) was an English businessman and amateur violinist, and editor/author of ''Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music''. He also endowed the Cobbett Medal for services to chamber music. Wal ...

, and others. Cobbett had founded the Cobbett Competition in 1905 for a short form of String Quartet composition or 'Phantasy', and for other short chamber works. The Society was intended to develop the taste for modern chamber music. The Spencer Dyke Quartet, together with various other instrumentalists in ensemble, appeared on many of the recordings, and his position on the committee therefore probably signified the original intention of the founders to employ his musicians for the project.

Recordings

(Including related ensemble recordings) * Frank Bridge 3 Noveletten, nos 1 and 3 (Vocalion D02155: 2 sides) * Dvořák String Quartet in F major op 96 (Vocalion K05132,K05133,K03154: 6 sides) * Haydn String Quartet in D major op 64 no 5 (Vocalion X9554,X9555,X9556: 6 sides) *

McEwen The Scottish surname MacEwen derives from the Old Gaelic ''Mac Eoghainn'', meaning 'the son of Eoghann'. The name is found today in both Scotland and Northern Ireland. Because it was widely used before its spelling was standardised, the modern n ...

Suite of Old National Dances (String Quartet no 12) (Vocalion R6140: 2 sides) *

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 ...

: String Quartet in E flat major op 74 'Harp' (NGS A,B,C: 6 sides) *

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 ...

: String Quartet in G minor op 10 (NGS D,E,F: 6 sides) * Schubert: Piano Trio in E flat major D 929 (Dyke and Parker with

Harold Craxton Thomas Harold Hunt Craxton (30 April 188530 March 1971) was an English pianist, teacher and composer. Born in London, and growing up in Devizes, Craxton began studying piano with Tobias Matthay and Cuthbert Whitemore in 1907, and made a name for ...

, piano) (NGS H,J,K,L,M+: 9 sides) *

Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

: Verklärte Nacht op 4 (string sextet version), with James Lockyer, viola and E.J. Robinson, cello (NGS M-,N,O,P: 7 sides) *

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

: Oboe Quartet in F major K 370, with

Leon Goossens Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again f ...

, oboe (NGS: Q,R,S+: 5 sides) * Bach: Cantata no 156, (i) Sinfonia, with Leon Goossens, oboe (NGS: S-, one side) *Beethoven: String Quartet in F major op 59 no 1 (NGS T,V,W,X,Y: 10 sides) * Brahms: String Sextet no 1 in B flat major op 18, with J. Lockyer and E.J. Robinson (NGS Z,AA,BB,CC,DD+: 9 sides) *

Tomlinson Tomlinson may refer to: *''Tomlinson v Congleton Borough Council'', an English court case in Occupiers' Liability As a surname, Tomlinson may refer to: *Alys Tomlinson (born 1975), British photographer *Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson, founder of the Chu ...

: A Lament (NGS EE+: 1 side) * Elgar: Piano Quintet in A minor op 84, with

Ethel Hobday Ethel Hobday, ''née'' Sharpe (28 November 1872, Dublin – 10 July 1947, Tankerton) was an Irish people, Irish pianist, who became famous in chamber-music recitals especially in England, and was married to the violist Alfred Charles Hobday. Eth ...

, piano (NGS NN,OO,PP,QQ,RR: 10 sides) *Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in b minor op 115, with

Frederick Thurston Frederick John Thurston (21 September 1901 – 12 December 1953) was an English clarinettist. Career From the age of 7 he was taught by his father and he won an open scholarship to the Royal College of Music, becoming a pupil of Charles Drap ...

, clarinet (NGS SS,TT,UU,VV,WW+: 9 sides) * Glière: String Quartet in A major op 2, (ii) Scherzo (NGS WW-: 1 side) *Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major K 581, with Charles Draper, clarinet (NGS XX,YY,ZZ,AAA+: 7 sides) *Mozart: Duo no 1 in G major K 423, (ii) Adagio (Dyke-Tomlinson) (NGS AAA-: 1 side) *Schubert: String Quartet no 13 in A minor D 804 (NGS HHH,JJJ,KKK,LLL,MMM+: 9 sides) *

Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositi ...

: String Quartet in e minor op 44 no 2, (ii) Scherzo (NGS MMM-: 1 side) *Beethoven: String Quartet no 16 in F major op 135 (NGS NNN,OOO,PPP: 6 sides) * Dvořák: Piano Quintet in A major op 81 with Ethel Bartlett, piano (NGS 82,83,84,85,86+: 9 sides) * Joseph Speaight: Some Shakespeare Fairy Characters (1st series), no 2, 'The Lonely Shepherd' (NGS 86-: 1 side) *Brahms: Piano Quartet in C minor op 60, with Olive Bloom (and

, viola) (NGS 88,89,90,91: 8 sides) *Brahms: String Sextet no 2 in G major op 36, with J. Lockyer and E.J. Robinson (NGS 105,106,107,108: 8 sides)

References

Sources

*A. Eaglefield-Hull, ''A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians'' (Dent, London 1924) *R.D. Darrell, ''The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music'' (New York 1936) *Frank Andrews, Keith Harrison, Tim Wood-Woolley, ''Vocalion Records'' (City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society Reference Series RS42, 2017) *N.T. Morgan, ''The National Gramophonic Society'' (Sheffield 2013 & 2016)

Origins

Recordings

References

Sources

See also