Albert William Ketèlbey (9 August 1875 – 26 November 1959), born Ketelbey, was an English composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, conductor and pianist.

Biography

Ketèlbey was born in Alma Street in the Lozells

Lozells

Lozells is a loosely-defined inner-city area in the West of Birmingham, England. It is centred on Lozells Road, and is known for its multi-racial population. It is part of the ward of Lozells and East Handsworth and lies between the districts of Handsworth and Aston.Lozells has a high population...

 area of Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, the son of an engraver, George Henry Ketelbey (written with no accent), and Sarah Ann Aston. At the age of eleven he wrote a piano sonata that won praise from Edward Elgar

Edward Elgar

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...

. Ketèlbey gained a scholarship to the Trinity College of Music

Trinity College of Music

Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, where he showed his talent for playing various orchestral instruments reflected in the masterfully colourful orchestration, especially of oriental inspiration, that became his trademark. At Trinity he beat Gustav Holst

Gustav Holst

Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....

 in competition for a musical scholarship. He used the pseudonyms Raoul Clifford and Anton Vodorinski for some of his works (some reference books mistakenly give Vodorinski as his true name and Ketèlbey as the pseudonym). His name is frequently misspelt Ketelby.

Ketèlbey held a number of positions, including organist at St John's, Wimbledon, before being appointed musical director of London's Vaudeville Theatre

Vaudeville Theatre

The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on The Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each new building retained elements of the previous...

, where he met his future wife Charlotte (Lottie) Siegenberg. Whilst at the Vaudeville he continued writing diverse vocal and instrumental music. Later, he became famous for composing lightweight, popular music, much of which was used as accompaniments to silent films, and as mood music at tea dances. Success enabled him to relinquish his London appointments.

Once, whilst conducting a programme of his own music at a Royal Command Performance

Royal Command Performance

For the annual Royal Variety Performance performed in Britain for the benefit of the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund, see Royal Variety Performance...

, Ketèlbey gave a second rendering of the State Procession movement of his Cockney Suite during the interval, at the request of King George V

George V of the United Kingdom

George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

, who had arrived too late to hear it performed at the beginning of the programme.

He was active in several other fields including being music editor to some well-known publishing houses and for more than twenty years from 1906, served Musical Director of the Columbia Graphophone Company

Columbia Graphophone Company

The Columbia Graphophone Company was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. Under EMI, as Columbia Records, it became a very successful label in the 1950s and 1960s...

, where over 600 recordings were issued with him conducting the Court Symphony Orchestra, the Silver Stars Band, and other ensembles.

Although not proven, he is frequently quoted as becoming Britain's first millionaire composer. In 1929, he was proclaimed in the "Performing Right Gazette" as "Britain’s greatest living composer", on the basis of the number of performances of his works.

Ketèlbey had a long and happy marriage to an actress and singer, Charlotte Siegenberg (1871–1947). After her death he married Mabel Maud Pritchett. There were no children by either marriage. He died at his home, Rookstone, Egypt Hill in Cowes

Cowes

Cowes is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east Bank...

, where he had moved in order to concentrate on writing and his hobby of playing billiards

Billiards

Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...

. His work fell out of favour after the Second World War and at the time of his death he had slipped into obscurity, with only a handful of mourners at his funeral, held at Golders Green crematorium.

Ketèlbey's music is frequently heard on radio. In a 2003 poll by the BBC radio programme Your Hundred Best Tunes

Your Hundred Best Tunes

Your Hundred Best Tunes was a long-running BBC radio music programme, always broadcast on Sunday evenings, which presented popular works which were mostly classical excerpts, choral works, opera and ballads. The hundred tunes which made up the playlist were initially selected by the creator and...

, "Bells across the Meadows" was voted thirty-sixth most popular tune of all time.

Works

His most famous compositions include:

• The Heart's Awakening (1908)
• In a Monastery Garden
  In a Monastery Garden
  In a Monastery Garden is a British drama film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring John Stuart, Hugh Williams, Alan Napier, and Frank Pettingell. An Italian musician begins to steal his brother's compositions after he is jailed for shooting a prince.-External links:**...
  
  (1915) — at age 40, the hit that made his name.
• Phantasy for String Quartet — listed but never found (1915)
• In the Moonlight (1919)
• In a Persian Market (1920)
• Romantic Suite (1922)
• Bank Holiday (Appy 'Ampstead) (1924) — from Cockney Suite
• In a Chinese Temple Garden (1923)
• By the Blue Hawaiian Waters
  By the Blue Hawaiian Waters
  By the Blue Hawaiian Waters is a famous piece of light classical music by Albert Ketèlbey who composed it in 1927.- External links:*http://www.albertketelbey.org.uk/catalogue*http://www.albertketelbey.org.uk/discs/data/by%20the%20blue.htm...
  
  (1927)
• In the Mystic Land of Egypt (1931)
• From a Japanese Screen (1934)
• Italian Twilight (1951)
• Cockney Suite
• Jungle Drums (1926)
• Tangled Tunes
  Tangled Tunes
  Tangled Tunes is a famous piece of light classical music by Albert Ketèlbey comprising 106 melodies.# Rule, Britannia!# Three Blind Mice# Mistletoe Bough# Ah Che la Morte # Flower Song # Three Fishers Went a Sailing# Drinking...
  
  
• Bells across the Meadows
  Bells Across the Meadows
  Bells Across the Meadows is a famous 1921 piece of light classical music by Albert Ketèlbey.- External links :*http://www.albertketelbey.org.uk/catalogue*http://www.albertketelbey.org.uk/discs/data/bells.htm...
  
  (1921)
• Dance of the Merry Mascots
• The Clock and the Dresden Figures (1930)
• With Honour Crowned
• Wedgwood Blue (Graceful Dance)
• Sanctuary of the Heart (1924)

Connected individuals

Ketèlbey's nephew, the pianist Sir Clifford Curzon

Clifford Curzon

Sir Clifford Michael Curzon, CBE was an English pianist.-Early life:Clifford Michael Siegenberg was born in London to Michael and Constance Mary Siegenberg...

, recalled in his BBC Desert Island Discs

Desert Island Discs

Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...

broadcast, 'Little Clifford was supposed to be in bed but he never was, he was out sitting on the landing, listening to my uncle playing through the well of the stairway of my father's old house, and so the first [pieces of] music I really heard were these immortal melodies of Ketèlbey.'

Ketèlbey's sister was the historian and author C.D.M Ketelbey. Works included "A History of Modern Times", 1929, "History Stories to Tell", 1931, "Scottish History" 1938, and "The Growth of the British Empire", 1941.

Graham Ovenden

Graham Ovenden

Graham Ovenden is an English painter, fine art photographer, writer and architect. His estranged wife is the artist Annie Ovenden. Their daughter, Emily, is a writer and is a singer with the Mediaeval Baebes...

, an English painter, fine art photographer, writer and architect, was taught music privately by Albert Ketèlbey.

Ketèlbey was related to Mrs. Maria Eliza Ketelbey Rundell, author of "A New System of Domestic Cookery

A New System of Domestic Cookery

A New System of Domestic Cookery, by Mrs. Maria Eliza Ketelby Rundell , was the most popular English cookbook of the first half of the nineteenth century; it is often referred to simply as "Mrs...

", the most popular English cookbook of the first half of the nineteenth century.

Legacy

Ronnie Ronalde

Ronnie Ronalde

Ronnie Ronalde is a British music hall singer and siffleur. Ronalde is famous for his voice, whistling, yodelling, imitations of bird song and stage personality...

 made In a Monastery Garden famous again in 1958.
In his early television appearances, the comedian Ben Blue

Ben Blue

Ben Blue , born Benjamin Bernstein, was a Canadian-American actor and comedian.Born to a Jewish family in Montreal, Quebec, at the age of nine, Blue emigrated to Baltimore in the United States where he won a contest for the best impersonation of Charlie Chaplin...

 used In a Persian Market as his entrance music when in his guise as a swami.
In 2006, a syncopated

Syncopation

In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...

 arrangement of In a Persian Market was used in a TV commercial for TomTom automotive navigation system

Automotive navigation system

An automotive navigation system is a satellite navigation system designed for use in automobiles. It typically uses a GPS navigation device to acquire position data to locate the user on a road in the unit's map database. Using the road database, the unit can give directions to other locations...

s — this tune was also adapted for one of the songs (Persian Cat) by Taiwanese girl band S.H.E

S.H.E

S.H.E is a Taiwanese girl group whose members are Selina Jen, Hebe Tien, and Ella Chen. The name of the group is an alphabetism derived from the first letter of each member's name. Since releasing their first album Girls Dorm , S.H.E has recorded 12 albums with sales totalling over 15 million, and...

. Under the title Persian Cat, this tune was given a new lease of life in the '60s by Jamaican producer Duke Reid

Duke Reid

Treasure Isle re-directs here. For the game, see Treasure Isle .Arthur "Duke" Reid, CD was a Jamaican record producer, DJ and label owner....

 and saxophonist Tommy McCook

Tommy McCook

Tommy McCook was a Jamaican saxophonist. A founding member of The Skatalites, he also directed The Supersonics for Duke Reid, and backed many sessions for Bunny Lee or with The Revolutionaries at Channel One Studios in the 1970s.-Biography:McCook was born in Havana, Cuba, and moved to Jamaica in...

. They recorded two versions, one credited to The Skatalites

The Skatalites

The Skatalites are a ska band from Jamaica. They played initially between 1963 and 1965, and recorded many of their best known songs in the period, including "Guns of Navarone". They also played on records by Prince Buster and backed many other Jamaican artists who recorded during that period...

, the other to Tommy McCook and the Supersonics. Serge Gainsbourg

Serge Gainsbourg

Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...

 used the theme for his song "My Lady Héroïne". American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 fingerstyle guitar

Fingerstyle guitar

Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking ....

ist John Fahey

John Fahey (musician)

John Fahey was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who pioneered the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been greatly influential and has been described as the foundation of American Primitivism, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the...

 recorded it on his 1975 album, Old Fashioned Love

Old Fashioned Love

Old Fashioned Love is an album by American fingerstyle guitarist and composer John Fahey, released in 1975. It is credited on the cover to John Fahey & His Orchestra.-History:...

. Della Reese

Della Reese

Delloreese Patricia Early, known professionally as Della Reese , is an American actress, singer, game show panelist of the 1970s, one-time talk-show hostess and ordained minister. She started her career in the 1950s as a gospel, pop and jazz singer, scoring a hit with her 1959 single "Don't You...

 recorded a vocal version called "Take my Heart" on her album The Classic Della

The Classic Della

The Classic Della is an album by actress and singer Della Reese. The songs are based on classical music pieces by Tchaikovsky , Debussy , Schubert , Chopin , and Puccini...

. James Last

James Last

James Last is a German composer and big band leader. His "happy music" made his numerous albums best-sellers in Germany and the United Kingdom. His composition, "Happy Heart", became an international success in interpretations by Andy Williams and Petula Clark...

 made a recording arranged in his typical style.

Sources and references

• Albert Ketelbey — From the Sanctuary of his Heart, John Sant 2001, ISBN 0-9538058-0-8
• The Recordings of the Music of Albert W. Ketèlbey, a critical and historical discography complied by Tom McCanna
• The Music of Albert W. Ketèlbey a Catalogue, complied by Tom McCanna
• A Forum for all admirers of the Music of Albert W. Ketèlbey, on blogspot.com (2009)
• Brian Jones in the booklet with the Philips Digital Classics CD 400011-2 (1981 recording)
• The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, Phil Hardy 2001, ISBN 978-0-571-19608-1
• Chambers Biographical Dictionary, Edinburgh 1990, ISBN 978-0-550-16040-9
• The Times
  The Times
  The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
  
  , London 1908, 1915, 1922
• The works of Duke Reid and Tommy McCook can be found via Trojan Records

External links

• Website dedicated to Albert W.Ketèlbey
• Discography compiled by Tom McCanna
• Music Catalogue compiled by Tom McCanna
• Albert W. Ketèlbey on facebook
• Forum for all admirers of the Music of Albert W. Ketèlbey
• BBC news clip
• Birmingham City Council page about Ketèlbey
• Downloadable and streaming recordings of In a Monastery Garden performed by the Peerless Orchestra and male chorus. From an Edison Phonograph recorded in 1921.