Charles James Mott
Encyclopedia
Biography
Charles James Mott was born in HornseyHornsey
Hornsey is a district in London Borough of Haringey in north London in England. Whilst Hornsey was formerly the name of a parish and later a municipal borough of Middlesex, today, the name refers only to the London district. It is an inner-suburban area located north of Charing Cross.-Locale:The ...
, North London, the son of Henry Isaac Mott, a surveyor's clerk, and Eliza Brockley, a singing teacher. He was one of a large family. His early music was as a choirboy at St. James' Church in Muswell Hill
Muswell Hill
Muswell Hill is a suburb of north London, mostly in the London Borough of Haringey. It is situated about north of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. Muswell Hill is in the N10 postal district and mostly in the Hornsey and Wood Green parliamentary constituency.- History :The...
. When he left school he took a clerical job like his brothers, and he became a bank clerk, where he was well-known for his habit of singing to himself as he worked. After work he studied singing with Josiah Booth and Henry Stanley
Henry Stanley
Henry Stanley may refer to:*Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby , Lord High Steward at the trial for treason of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel*Henry Stanley, 3rd Baron Stanley of Alderley , historian...
, before being spotted by Baron Frederic d'Erlanger who sent him to study with Paul Knupfer in 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...
. A year later, such was his progress that Knupfer arranged an audition with the Hofoper at Dessau
Dessau
Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Roßlau. Population of Dessau proper: 77,973 .-Geography:...
leading to his becoming principal baritone.
At the age of 25 Charles returned to England to continue studying with Madame Novello Davies. His chance to sing publicly in England came when he was invited to share the stage with a new tenor, John McCormack. In 1909 he was given supporting roles at the Royal Opera, before being given the part of Méru in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
, singing with Luisa Tetrazzini
Luisa Tetrazzini
Luisa Tetrazzini was an Italian coloratura soprano of great international fame.Tetrazzini's voice was remarkable for its phenomenal flexibility, thrust, steadiness and thrilling tone...
. In 1912 he sang in the Wagner Festival in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, and the next year at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
. Early in 1913 he participated in an unsuccessful production of Raymond Roze's Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
, but later that year he was fortunate in playing leading roles more to his liking in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
, Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
and Bizet's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
. Early in 1912 Mott sang the part of the Second Knight of the Grail in The Royal Opera
Royal Opera, London
The Royal Opera is an opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Covent Garden Opera Company, it was known by that title until 1968...
's Festival of German Opera production of Wagner's Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
- this was the first English production, though sung in German. Following Parsifal, Mott sang in Tristan, Meistersinger
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
and Götterdämmerung
Götterdämmerung
is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
.
In 1914 the English composer Sir Edward Elgar attended the Festival, expecting to hear Tristan, but instead of that the curtain rose on Meistersinger in which Mott by chance took August Kiess's part of Kothner. Mott would have been singing the part of the Nachtigall, but Kiess was indisposed. Elgar was impressed by Mott's voice, praised him personally and remembering him later, recommended him for the part of the Priest in his Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius, popularly called just Gerontius, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory...
.
Lena Ashwell
Lena Ashwell, OBE was a British actress and manager, known as the first to organize large-scale entertainment for troops at the front, which she did during World War I....
's production of The Starlight Express
The Starlight Express
"The Starlight Express" is a children's play by Violet Pearn, based on the imaginative novel "A Prisoner in Fairyland" by Algernon Blackwood, with songs and incidental music written by the English composer Sir Edward Elgar in 1915.- Production :...
at the Kingsway Theatre, and this was followed by successful performances in Elgar's song cycle on Kipling's poems The Fringes of the Fleet
The Fringes of the Fleet
The Fringes of the Fleet is a booklet written in 1916 by Rudyard Kipling . The booklet contains essays and poems that Kipling wrote about nautical subjects in World War I....
. In 1916 Mott played the part of the Angel of the Agony in Gerontius, alongside Clara Butt
Clara Butt
Dame Clara Ellen Butt DBE , sometimes called Clara Butt-Rumford after her marriage, was an English contralto with a remarkably imposing voice and a surprisingly agile singing technique. Her main career was as a recitalist and concert singer.-Early life and career:Clara Butt was born in Southwick,...
and Gervase Elwes, with the composer conducting. There was a run of six performances at Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
from 8 May and a gala performance on 19 May in the presence of the King and Queen. At the end of that year he sang in Coleridge-Taylor's
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was an English composer who achieved such success that he was once called the "African Mahler".-Early life and education:...
exotic Scenes of Hiawatha.
He was conscripted
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
into the British army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
and joined the Artists Rifles. On 20 May 1918, during the Third Battle of the Aisne
Third Battle of the Aisne
The Third Battle of the Aisne was a battle of the German Spring Offensive during World War I that focused on capturing the Chemin des Dames Ridge before the American Expeditionary Force could arrive completely in France. It was one of a series of desperate offensives, known as the Kaiserschlacht,...
, whilst on active service with his comrades in Aveluy
Aveluy
Aveluy is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France....
Woods, he was mortally wounded by enemy fire. He died of his wounds two days later. There were other singers in the regiment, and he was fondly remembered by one of them, Roy Henderson, for his popularity, unconventionality and light-heartedness. Lance-corporal Charles James Mott was buried in grave 2, plot 11, row C of Bagneux
Bagneux
Bagneux may refer to various communes in France:*Bagneux, Aisne*Bagneux, Allier*Bagneux, Indre*Bagneux, Marne*Bagneux, Meurthe-et-Moselle*Bagneux, Hauts-de-Seine*Bagneux-la-Fosse, Aube...
Military Cemetery, south of Gezaincourt
Gézaincourt
Gézaincourt is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:The commune is situated on the D128 road, some east-northeast of Abbeville, near the banks of the river Authie.-Population:-External links:* * *...
(Somme), France.
Sir Edward Elgar, in writing to a friend, said:
"It is difficult to believe that Charles Mott is dead; dead of wounds in France. I am overwhelmed: a simple, honest GOOD soul."
Recordings
Mott made recordings of The Starlight Express and The Fringes of the Fleet.- On 18 February 1916, a selection of the songs and music of Elgar's The Starlight Express was recorded at the HMVHMVHis Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
Studios, Hayes, by The Gramophone CompanyGramophone CompanyThe Gramophone Company, based in the United Kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organization for the famous "His Master's Voice" label...
. The singers were Charles Mott and Agnes NichollsAgnes NichollsAgnes Nicholls was one of the greatest English sopranos of the 20th century, both in the concert hall and on the operatic stage....
, with Elgar conducting the orchestra. There were eight 12-inch records: (1) To the Children ; (2) The Blue-Eyes Fairy; (3) My Old Tunes; (4) Curfew Song; (5) Come Little Winds and Wind Dance (orchestra); (6) Tears and Laughter and Sunrise Song; (7) The Laugher's Song; (8) Finale - Hearts must be soft-shiny dressed (duet).