Sir Arthur Somervell was an English

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...

 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...

, and after Hubert Parry

Hubert Parry

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet was an English composer, teacher and historian of music.Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", the coronation anthem "I was glad" and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words...

 one of the most successful and influential writers of art song

Art song

An art song is a vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano or orchestral accompaniment. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the genre of such songs....

 in the English music renaissance of the 1890s-1900s.

He was born in Windermere

Windermere (town)

Windermere is a town and civil parish in the South Lakeland District of Cumbria, England. It has a population of 8,245. It lies about half a mile away from the lake, Windermere...

, Westmorland

Westmorland

Westmorland is an area of North West England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974, after which the entirety of the county was absorbed into the new county of Cumbria.-Early history:...

, the son of the founder of K Shoes, and was initially educated at Uppingham School

Uppingham School

Uppingham School is a co-educational independent school of the English public school tradition, situated in the small town of Uppingham in Rutland, England...

 and King's College

King's College, Cambridge

King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....

, Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

, where he studied composition under Sir Charles Villiers Stanford

Charles Villiers Stanford

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...

. From 1883 to 1885 he studied at the High School for Music, Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, and from 1885 to 1887 at the Royal College of Music

Royal College of Music

The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...

 in London, under Parry. He studied composition with Friedrich Kiel

Friedrich Kiel

Friedrich Kiel was a German composer and music teacher.Writing of the chamber music of Friedrich Kiel, the famous scholar and critic Wilhelm Altmann notes that it was Kiel’s extreme modesty which kept him and his exceptional works from receiving the consideration they deserved...

. He became a professor at the Royal College of Music in 1894, and conducted his own works at the Leeds and Birmingham Festivals, 1895-97. He was appointed Inspector of Music at the Board of Education and Scottish Education Department in 1901.

He achieved success in his own day as a composer of choral works such as The Forsaken Merman (1895), Intimations of Immortality (which he conducted at Leeds Festival in 1907), and The Passion of Christ (1914) but is now chiefly remembered for his song cycle

Song cycle

A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist. Unification can be achieved by a narrative or a persona common to the songs, or even, as in Schumann's...

s such as Maud (after Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....

, 1898) and A Shropshire Lad (the first known setting of A. E. Housman, 1904). His popular Handel adaptation "Silent Worship

Silent Worship

The song "Silent Worship" is a 1928 adaptation by Arthur Somervell of the aria "Non lo dirò col labbro" from Handel's 1728 opera Tolomeo . Somervell's English-language adaptation is for voice and piano, and it has remained a popular classic in song recitals and home music-making...

" was featured in the 1996 film Emma

Emma (1996 film)

Emma is a 1996 period film based on the novel of the same name by Jane Austen. Directed by Douglas McGrath, it stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeremy Northam, Toni Collette, and Ewan McGregor.- Synopsis :...

.

His style was conservative, and shows the influence of Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...

 and Brahms

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...

. He was also active in music education, and became Principal Inspector of Music for the Board of Education in 1920. He was knighted

British honours system

The British honours system is a means of rewarding individuals' personal bravery, achievement, or service to the United Kingdom and the British Overseas Territories...

 in 1929. His Violin Concerto of 1930 was dedicated to the violinist Adila Fachiri

Adila Fachiri

Adila Fachiri was a Hungarian violinist who had an international career but made her home in England. She was the sister of the violinist Jelly d'Arányi....

.

Compositions

• Operettas: The Enchanted Prince; Princess Zara; Knave of Hearts (Novello); Golden Straw (Curwen); Thomas the Rhymer.
• Orchestral works: Thalassa Symphony in D minor (Boosey); Helen of Kirconnel (Novello); In Arcady (Suite for small orchestra)(Donajowski)
• Choral: Mass; Power of Sound; The Charge of the Light Brigade; Elegy (Chorus and orch.)(Novello); Song of Praise (chorus and orch.)(Metzler); To the Vanguard; Passion of Christ (chorus and orch.)(Boosey); Mass in D minor (Ricordi).
• Concertstuck for violin and orchestra (Augener, 1913). Normandy, symphonic variations for piano and orchestra (1911, Augener). Highland concerto, pianoforte and orchestra (1920). Violin Concerto (1930).
• Chamber music: Quintet for clarinet and strings; Suites, studies and pieces for violin and piano (Augener, Weekes, Williams and Ashdown); Variations for 2 pianos (Augener); pianoforte pieces (Augener; Williams; Leonard; Lucas; Hatzfield; Ashdown; Boosey; Bosworth; Weekes).
• Song-cycles: Maud (1898); A Shropshire Lad (1904); James Lee's Wife (1908); A Broken Arc (1923); Love in Springtime (1901). (Boosey). Windflowers, Cycle for vocal quartet (Boosey).

• Songs: Six songs by Robert Burns (1885-86); Four songs of Innocence (1899); Singing Time, songs for small children (1899): (Boosey; Moore; Lucas; Leonard; Dunn; Gill; Asherberg; Ashdown; Enoch; Forsyth). Part-songs: (Boosey; Ashdown; Novello).
• Musicological and Musical Education works: Rhythmic Gradus for pianoforte (Bosworth); Exercises in sight-reading, etc. (Curwen); Sight-reading, 6 vols (Swan); Sight-reading exercises (Augener); Charts of the rules of Harmony and Counterpoint (Clarendon press).

The "Thalassa" Symphony in D minor (The Sea Symphony), received its world premiere recording in 2011 for CD label Cameo Classics, nearly 100 years after its composition. The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra was conducted by its Musical Director, Michael Laus. The symphony (of nearly 37 minutes duration) is to be coupled with other premiere recordings of British orchestral works on CC9034CD.

Sources

• A. Eaglefield-Hull (Ed.), A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London 1924).
• T. Holt, Parry to Finzi: Twenty English Song-Composers (Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2002), 87-101.
• K. Shenton, 'Sir Arthur Somervell', in British Music Society Journal 9 (1987), 45-54.

External links