Susan Spain-Dunk

Susan Spain-Dunk (22 February 1880 Folkestone, England – 1 January 1962 London) was an English composer, conductor and violinist/violist.

Life and career

Susan was the third of four children (Ethel K Dunk b. 1876; John De Lanoy Dunk b. 1878; Susan Spain Dunk b. 1880; William Major b. 1882). Their father was a house builder. Her second name, Spain, was added as the Dunk family were related to the Spain family. She studied violin and composition at The Royal Academy of Music, London with Stewart Macpherson and Richard Walthew and later taught composition and harmony there. For a time she played the viola in a private quartet of Walter Cobbett. She also played (violin or viola) in the Winifred Small Quartet and Cobbett made suggestions for "Anthology" programmes for the quartet. She conducted some of her own works at the British Women's Symphony Orchestra, at The London Promenade Concerts (1924-1927) and also at Bournemouth, Eastbourne and Torquay.

In 1908 she married Henry Gibson (7 October 1882 - 22 July 1954). He was a minor composer, violinist, organist and pianist. The marriage lasted about sixteen years and she had one son, The Reverend Alan Henry Gibson (November 1911-September 1999), and two grandchildren. In the mid-1930s she was living at 17, Elm Park Mansions in Chelsea. She died on 1 January 1962 aged 81.

Spain-Dunk appears in the book ''Some Folkestone Worthies'' by C.H. Bishop, and (anonymously) in the painting ''The Concert Party'' (1929) by Frank Owen Salisbury.

Music

Her orchestral works include the ''Suite for String Orchestra'' (1920), the ''Idyll for Strings'' (1925), the overtures ''Water Lily Pool'' (1925) and ''Kentish Downs'' (1926), two symphonic poems: ''Elaine'' (1927) and ''Stonehenge'' (1929) and the ''Cantilena'' for clarinet and orchestra (1931). The ''Suite'' was premiered at the Proms on Thursday 21 August 1924. There is a modern recording, from a new edition of the score edited by Peter Cigleris. The ''Idyll'' and ''Water Lily Pool'' (for flute, harp and strings) were both premiered at a British Women's Symphony Orchestra concert at Queen's Hall on 25 May 1925, and repeated at the Proms on 13 October 1925.

''Kentish Downs'', first performed at the Proms on 30 August 1926 was revived on BBC Radio 3 in 1997 with the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Barry Wordsworth with a further BBC Radio 3 broadcast in 2001. ''Elaine'' was conducted by the composer at the Proms on 25 August 1927, and ''Stonehenge'' was produced at the Eastbourne Festival in 1929 and played again in Bournemouth in 1931. It was revived by the BBC Concert Orchestra in a broadcast from Watford Colosseum under conductor Anne-Marie Helsing on 19 January 2019. The ''Idyll'', ''Kentish Downs'' and ''Elaine'' are mentioned in the letters of Gerald Finzi and Howard Ferguson (p. 12).

The ''Cantilena'' for clarinet and orchestra (sometimes known as ''Poem'') was revived by the Folkestone Symphony Orchestra with soloist Peter Cigleris on 16 March 2019, its first performance since 1931. It has since been recorded.

One of Susan Spain-Dunk's most popular chamber works is the ''Phantasy'' for String Quartet in G minor (1915). A recording was made by the Archaeus String Quartet on the Lorelt Label and released on 27 June 2003. There are also modern recordings of her Violin Sonata No 3 in C minor (1910),Guild GMCD7827 (2022), reviewed at ''MusicWeb International''
/ref> Piano Quartet (circa 1920) and Rhapsody Quintet for wind ensemble. The autograph manuscript of the Quartet in B flat minor was written and dated March 1914 with an address of 49 Castletown Road, West Kensington, London.

''Andred's Weald'' - for military orchestra (1925) – was conducted by Spain-Dunk on 28 February 1929 with the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra.

List of works

Orchestral

* ''Suite for string orchestra'' in B minor (1920) *
*''Andred's Weald'', for military orchestra (1925)
*''Idyll'' for strings (1925) *
*''Water Lily Pool'', Overture for flute, harp and strings (1925) (also variously known as ''Romantic Piece'' and ''Sketch'') *
*''Kentish Downs'', Overture (1926)
*''Elaine'', symphonic poem (1927)
*''Karisima'' (1928)
*''Kentonia'', concert march (1928)Recorded by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conductor Stephen Bell in July 2021, Glasgow, for BBC broadcasts
*''Serenade de Capri'' (1928)
*''Farmer's Boy'', Overture (1929)
*''Stonehenge'', symphonic poem (1929)
*''Cantilena'' for clarinet and orchestra (also known as ''Poem'') (1931) *
*''Notre Dame d'Albert'', tone poem (1931)
*''Highland Overture'' (1935)
*''The Flute Player of Brindaven'' (1939)
*''Legend'' for oboe and strings (1955)
*''Cinque Ports Suite'' - 'Dover Castle', 'Rye Harbour', Winchelsea Gate' (1958)
*''Malaya'', tone poem (1958)
*''Weald of Kent'', Fantasia for orchestra
*''Four Spanish Dances'' for piano and orchestra (orchestrated from piano works)
*''Two Scottish Pieces'' for orchestra, Op.54/1. 'By St.Mary's Loch', 54/2. 'Kerrera' (also a version for violin and piano)
*''Blessed Sonya'', prelude
* ''Lament'' for string orchestra
• Published by Novello & Co.

Chamber

*''Petite Serenade'' for flute and piano (1907)
*''Phantasy'' piano trio in A minor (1907) (Cobbett prize)
*''Halligen'', Scandinavian dance for violin and piano (1908)
*''Springdays'', Scandinavian dance for violin and piano (1908)
*Violin Sonata in B minor (1908) (Cobbett prize - only the ''Romance'' survives)
*Violin Sonata No 3 in C minor (c. 1910)
*String Quartet in B flat minor (1914)
*''Phantasy'' string quartet in D minor (1915), pub. Goodwin & Tabb, London.
* Piano Quartet (c.1920, ed. Peter Cigleris, 2021)
/ref>
* ''Les Sylphes'' (c.1926-29) for violin and piano
*''Lorelei Legend'' for violin and piano (1933)
*''Jarabe'', Spanish dance for violin and piano, Op.57 (1933)
*''Winter Song'' for cello and piano (1938)
*Sextet in F major (1941)
*''Dead Roses'' for violin and piano
*Two pieces for violin and viola: 'The lonely moor'; 'Jig'
*Trio for two violins and piano
*Violin Sonata in D minor
*Wind quintet

Piano

*Six Spanish Dances - La Madrilena, El Jaleo, Aragonaise, Pepita, Cachucha, El Ole (1936) - four were later orchestrated.
*Piano Preludes No 1 and 2 (1941)Broadcast performance by Duncan Honeybourne, 20 May, 2021
/ref>

Choral

*''The Baptism of Jesus'', cantata (1959)

Bibliography

* Bishop, C.H: Some Folkestone Worthies: Ten outstanding persons who have contributed to the life and development of old Folkestone (Published by Printed by Southern Litho Printing Co., Ltd., Folkestone circa 1970), pp. 48 with monochrome illustrations and photographs.
* Finzi, Gerald; Ferguson, Howard; Hurd, Michael: Letters of Gerald Finzi and Howard Ferguson (Boydell & Brewer, 2001 - Biography & Autobiography), pp. 310. July 2001
* Hodges, Betsi: W. W. Cobbett's Phantasy: A Legacy of Chamber Music in the British Musical Renaissance. (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of North Carolina, Greensboro. ProQuest, 2008), pp. 81 (p. 26)
* Powell, Ardal: The Flute (Yale University Press, 2002), pp. 347.
* Sadie, Julie Anne and Samuel, Rhian (eds.) The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers (London: Macmillan, 1994).
* Seddon, Laura: British Women Composers and Instrumental Chamber Music in the Earliest Twentieth Century (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), pp. 248. (hb)

References

External links

''Stonehenge'' (1929), performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Anna-Maria Helsing

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spain-Dunk, Susan
1880 births
1962 deaths
Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music
British violinists
British women classical composers
People from Folkestone
20th-century English women musicians
20th-century violinists
English classical composers
20th-century English composers
20th-century classical composers
British women violinists
Musicians from Kent
20th-century women composers