Amy Woodforde-Finden
Encyclopedia
Amy Woodforde-Finden was a composer
who is best known for writing the music
to "Kashmiri Song
" from Four Indian Love Lyrics by Laurence Hope.
Amy Woodforde-Finden was born Amy Ward in 1860 at Valparaíso
, Chile
, to an American officer serving as British Consul, and a British mother. She was one of nine children, and when her father was killed, her mother relocated the family to London. Around that time Amy displayed a skill for composition and became a student of Carl Schloesser and Amy Horrocks. Her early work, published as Amy Ward, though promising, was received only tepidly.
At the age of 34, she married Lieutenant-Colonel Woodforde Woodforde-Finden, a brigadier and surgeon in the Indian Army; they lived in India for several years, and during her time there she wrote and published what would become her most famous pieces: The Lover in Damascus and Kashmiri Song. The latter was originally self-published in 1902 but because of its popularity and the influence of Hamilton Earle, it was eventually published by Boosey & Co. The popularity of Kashmiri Song and The Lover in Damascus kept her in the good graces of her publishing house and in the hearts of her audience. Her songs are noted for their sentimentality, their romantic fluidity and how they blend a particularly British, middle-class sensibility with an Asian pastiche. In the years that followed the success of Kashmiri Song, Amy composed On Jhelum River, The Pagoda of Flowers and Stars of the Desert.
The year 1916 was a bitter-sweet one for Amy: she lost her husband in April and her work was featured in the film Less Than the Dust. This was just the first of her work to be showcased in film. In 1943 Kashmiri Song would be used in the film Hers To Hold. Amy moved back to London after she lost her husband, and survived him by only three years, passing on 13 March 1919. It is said that she died composing at the piano. Amy is buried in Hampsthwaite
churchyard in North Yorkshire
, and her memorial is a recumbent figure in white marble.
The legacy Amy Woodforde-Finden leaves is one of bridging cultures with music and words. She interpreted the sounds and motives of Asian-South Asian music to an American-European audience and transported the listener to a world of romance and the exotic.
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...
who is best known for writing the music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
to "Kashmiri Song
Kashmiri Song
"Kashmiri Song" is a song by Amy Woodforde-Finden based on a poem by Laurence Hope, pseudonym of Adela Florence Nicolson.The poem first appeared in Hope's first collection of poems, The Garden of Kama , also known as India's Love Lyrics....
" from Four Indian Love Lyrics by Laurence Hope.
Amy Woodforde-Finden was born Amy Ward in 1860 at Valparaíso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, to an American officer serving as British Consul, and a British mother. She was one of nine children, and when her father was killed, her mother relocated the family to London. Around that time Amy displayed a skill for composition and became a student of Carl Schloesser and Amy Horrocks. Her early work, published as Amy Ward, though promising, was received only tepidly.
At the age of 34, she married Lieutenant-Colonel Woodforde Woodforde-Finden, a brigadier and surgeon in the Indian Army; they lived in India for several years, and during her time there she wrote and published what would become her most famous pieces: The Lover in Damascus and Kashmiri Song. The latter was originally self-published in 1902 but because of its popularity and the influence of Hamilton Earle, it was eventually published by Boosey & Co. The popularity of Kashmiri Song and The Lover in Damascus kept her in the good graces of her publishing house and in the hearts of her audience. Her songs are noted for their sentimentality, their romantic fluidity and how they blend a particularly British, middle-class sensibility with an Asian pastiche. In the years that followed the success of Kashmiri Song, Amy composed On Jhelum River, The Pagoda of Flowers and Stars of the Desert.
The year 1916 was a bitter-sweet one for Amy: she lost her husband in April and her work was featured in the film Less Than the Dust. This was just the first of her work to be showcased in film. In 1943 Kashmiri Song would be used in the film Hers To Hold. Amy moved back to London after she lost her husband, and survived him by only three years, passing on 13 March 1919. It is said that she died composing at the piano. Amy is buried in Hampsthwaite
Hampsthwaite
Hampsthwaite is a small commuter village on the south bank of the River Nidd on the western edge of the Victorian spa town of Harrogate.Administratively Hampsthwaite is a civil parish in the borough of Harrogate and the county of North Yorkshire, England....
churchyard in North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
, and her memorial is a recumbent figure in white marble.
The legacy Amy Woodforde-Finden leaves is one of bridging cultures with music and words. She interpreted the sounds and motives of Asian-South Asian music to an American-European audience and transported the listener to a world of romance and the exotic.
External links
- Performance of Kashmiri SongKashmiri Song"Kashmiri Song" is a song by Amy Woodforde-Finden based on a poem by Laurence Hope, pseudonym of Adela Florence Nicolson.The poem first appeared in Hope's first collection of poems, The Garden of Kama , also known as India's Love Lyrics....
by Julian Lloyd WebberJulian Lloyd WebberJulian Lloyd Webber is a British solo cellist who has been described as the "doyen of British cellists".-Early life:Julian Lloyd Webber is the second son of the composer William Lloyd Webber and his wife Jean Johnstone . He is the younger brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YGJ_eaHZTk - Lamb, A, grovemusic.com, accessed April 2007
- Biography of Amelia Woodforde-Finden
- NLA News, November 2001: Love Among the Lotuses at www.nla.gov.au
- Four Indian Love Lyrics Performance by Sarah Green
- Sheet music for "You Are All That is Lovely", by Amy Woodforde-Finden, Boosey & Co., 1911.