Harry Plunket Greene
Encyclopedia
Harry Plunket Greene was an Irish baritone singer who was most famous in the formal concert and oratorio repertoire. He made a great contribution to British musical life also by writing and lecturing upon his art, and in the field of competitions and examinations. He also wrote a classic book in the fly-fishing genre.
and initially expected to follow Law at Oxford. However, after he was 'smashed up' in a football accident he had a year's convalescence. Discovering his musical calling he studied under Arthur Barraclough in Dublin before attending the Stuttgart Conservatory for two years under Hromada in the early 1880s. He also studied in Florence
with Vannuccini (a pupil of Lamperti
), and in London with Alfred Blume.
's The Messiah, and in the next year appeared in Gounod's Redemption. In 1890 he made operatic debuts as Commendatore in Don Giovanni and as the Duke of Verona in Romeo et Juliette, at Covent Garden
. Thereafter he elected to make his career in recital.
In oratorio, his first Festival appearance was at Worcester
in 1890. Plunket Greene created the title part in Parry
's Job, at the Gloucester Festival in 1892. This includes the Lamentation of Job, an extremely long (28 page) and sustained oratorio scena. David Bispham
said of his performances that he 'created the part and rendered it many times with superb dramatic feeling.' In this, as in most of Parry's songs, Plunket Greene recognised the perfect declamation of Parry's writing, the accent upon word-values falling naturally and correctly in the music. As a result he became the original exponent or dedicatee of many of the lyrical works of Parry, and also of Battison Haynes ('Off to Philadelphia'), and of Charles Villiers Stanford
. Stanford wrote 'Songs of the Sea' for him. Although his voice was not exceptionally powerful he used it with great style, musicianship and intelligence.
In 1891 George Bernard Shaw
found him 'fairly equal to the occasion in the wonderful duet' from Bach
's Whitsuntide Canatata, O, Ewiges Feuer, with the Bach Choir. In April 1892 (sharing the platform with Joseph Joachim
and Neruda
, Fanny Davies
, Alfredo Piatti
and Agnes Zimmermann (piano)) he sang admirably in his first set (Lully
, Cornelius and Schumann) in a Monday Popular Concert, but made little of his second group. In November 1893 at the first of George Henschel
's London Symphony Orchestra concerts for the season he performed Stanford's new song, Prince Madoc's Farewell, so patriotically 'that he once or twice almost burst into the next key.' Shaw's strictures on his diction were no doubt taken very seriously by the singer, who studied to make absolute clarity and naturalness of diction a central point of his teaching and example.
and Brahms
. This he did in association with the English pianist Leonard Borwick
(the brother of a schoolfriend), a Frankfort pupil of Mme Clara Schumann
's noted for his powerful rhythmic delivery, and who (like his fellow-pupil Fanny Davies) was closely involved in the London work of Joachim. Plunket Greene and Borwick formed a musical friendship which lasted until Borwick's death.
Plunket Greene was touring in America in Spring 1893 and wrote to Borwick suggesting they should deliver a song and pianoforte recital in London, unlike the more usual form of miscellaneous concert with a mixed company. The first recital was in St James's Hall
in December 1893, followed by a tour throughout the country, and this pattern was repeated for ten years. Borwick played his own programme as well as accompanying, but after a couple of seasons Samuel Liddle came in as accompanist. Pioneering this model of the recital, they gave a lead to that movement in London. Their rules were to maintain musicianship, avoid the glare of publicity, and never to take care of hands or voice.
On January 11, 1895 at St James's Hall, Borwick and Greene gave the first complete public performance of Schumann's Dichterliebe
to be heard in London. Their musical partnership was still active in 1913, but the demands of their separate tours became so great by the early 1900s that they agreed not to continue their former recital programme unless it could be done whole-heartedly. Plunket Greene toured especially in the United States, where he considered the audiences especially attentive and appreciative, and in Germany. He also liked northern English audiences better than southern ones, and liked singing to audiences of public schoolboys.
's Dream of Gerontius
, alongside Marie Brema
(angel) and Edward Lloyd
(soul), under Hans Richter
. In June 1900 Elgar had written to Jaeger, 'he sings both bass bits and won't they suit him. Gosh.' Although his recordings, and some commentators, suggest the voice was not a large one, it must have been capable of sustaining and projecting a considerable tone at this time, for both the Gerontius baritone solos require this. Moreover, for this most personal of his works, Elgar must have felt some real aptness in the choice.
Arthur Somervell
's song-cyle, on Tennyson
's 'Maud' was originally produced (with twelve songs) in 1898 and was championed by Plunket Greene. In c.1900 he married the daughter of Hubert Parry, and their first son was born a year later. He also gave the first performance of Somervell's 'A Shropshire Lad
' cycle, at the Aeolian Hall
on 3 February 1904, and so had the distinction of being the first to sing settings of A.E. Housman's lyrics, which afterwards became so fundamental an inspiration to the composers associated with the English song revival of that period.
Plunket Greene included a selection from the Songs of Travel by Ralph Vaughan Williams
in recital in February 1905. Then (or soon afterwards) the composer heard him and dedicated the songs to him, and Greene afterwards quoted from them, and from Silent Noon (from the House of Life cycle), in his work on Interpretation in Song. Greene was responsible for establishing these songs in the English concert repertoire, where he was constantly attempting to raise the standard and quality of appreciation of English song through his programming.
He supported Gervase Elwes from the start of his professional career and was his lifelong friend. At Elwes' audition for the Royal College of Music
in 1903 Greene wrote to encourage him with the favourable reactions of Parry and Stanford, and soon afterwards put him up for the Savile Club
in London. In 1906, he joined the party at Brigg
to sing in the second festival there organized by Elwes and Percy Grainger
, and declared his wish to be in many more of them. When Elwes died in 1921, Greene wrote 'I always felt he [Elwes] was the man I most looked up to.' 'In the St Matthew Passion, (he) made us feel that he of all men was best fitted to tell us the greatest story in the world.'
Plunkett Greene's recordings were made first for the Gramophone Company
, in 1904-1906. He included folk-songs in his recitals, according to them the same values of diction, phrasing, rhythm, and interpretative sincerity which he brought to art-songs. In later years, as he moved into the field of song-lecturing, he did great service to the cause of British folk-music. His last recordings were made by the electric process for Columbia Records
: his late recording of 'Poor old horse' is an affecting example.
On January 24, 1910 he appeared in the memorial concert at Queen's Hall
for August Jaeger
(Elgar's 'Nimrod'), singing a group of songs by Walford Davies, and Hans Sachs's monologue from Die Meistersinger
. He made his first appearance in Henry Wood's Promenade Concerts
at the Queen's Hall in October 1914 singing Stanford's Songs of the Sea with the Alexandra Palace
Choral Society. He had declined to fulfil an engagement to sing them there for the Stock Exchange Orchestral Society in 1907 on hearing that they still used the high English Concert pitch
.
by train to join Granville Bantock
. This was to be at the five Festivals of Ontario
, Manitoba
, Sasketchewan, Alberta
and British Columbia
. This was the first Ontario Festival (Toronto) (with Robert Watkin-Mills and Boris Hambourg
also in attendance), the 6th in Winnipeg
(with Herbert Witherspoon
and Cecil Forsyth
assisting), where the Earl Grey trophy was competed for, the 16th in Edmonton
(Alberta), with choirs from Lethbridge
and Calgary
, and in Prince Albert
they were with Herbert Howells
. The promotion and encouragement of these events provided not only a great spectacle and opportunity for music-making, but also infused a competitive spirit into the works of choirs, singers and instrumentalists in the award of prizes (in the tradition begun at Kendal
, UK in c.1889), tending to the encouragement of excellence. Plunket Greene repeated the experience in Sasketchewan in 1931, together with Harold Samuel
, Maurice Jacobson and Hugh Roberton.
Among those to profit from his teaching was Sir Keith Falkner
, whom Plunket Greene coached in his famous interpretation of the Lamentation of Job in Parry's
oratorio Job.
Recordings for the Gramophone Company (1904-9):
Among the Columbia (electric) recordings are:
In addition to recordings of songs, he also recorded a Lecture 'On The Art Of Singing' for the Columbia Records
International Educational Society series (Lecture 75), on four sides, Disc numbers D40149-40150.
Training
Plunket Greene was educated at Clifton CollegeClifton College
Clifton College is a co-educational independent school in Clifton, Bristol, England, founded in 1862. In its early years it was notable for emphasising science in the curriculum, and for being less concerned with social elitism, e.g. by admitting day-boys on equal terms and providing a dedicated...
and initially expected to follow Law at Oxford. However, after he was 'smashed up' in a football accident he had a year's convalescence. Discovering his musical calling he studied under Arthur Barraclough in Dublin before attending the Stuttgart Conservatory for two years under Hromada in the early 1880s. He also studied in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
with Vannuccini (a pupil of Lamperti
Lamperti
Lamperti is the surname of an Italian family of musicians.* Francesco Lamperti , Italian voice teacher* Giovanni Battista Lamperti , Italian voice teacher, son of Francesco...
), and in London with Alfred Blume.
Early career
He made his debut in London (at the People's Palace, Mile End) in 1888, in HandelHANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's The Messiah, and in the next year appeared in Gounod's Redemption. In 1890 he made operatic debuts as Commendatore in Don Giovanni and as the Duke of Verona in Romeo et Juliette, at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
. Thereafter he elected to make his career in recital.
In oratorio, his first Festival appearance was at Worcester
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
in 1890. Plunket Greene created the title part in Parry
Parry
- As a surname :Parry is a name originally derived from shortening 'ap Harry' .It is a surname of Welsh origin and may refer to:* Alan Parry - As a surname :Parry is a name originally derived from shortening 'ap Harry' (Welsh for "son of Harry").It is a surname of Welsh origin and may refer to:*...
's Job, at the Gloucester Festival in 1892. This includes the Lamentation of Job, an extremely long (28 page) and sustained oratorio scena. David Bispham
David Bispham
David Scull Bispham was the first American–born operatic baritone to win an international reputation.- Early life and family:...
said of his performances that he 'created the part and rendered it many times with superb dramatic feeling.' In this, as in most of Parry's songs, Plunket Greene recognised the perfect declamation of Parry's writing, the accent upon word-values falling naturally and correctly in the music. As a result he became the original exponent or dedicatee of many of the lyrical works of Parry, and also of Battison Haynes ('Off to Philadelphia'), and of 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 :...
. Stanford wrote 'Songs of the Sea' for him. Although his voice was not exceptionally powerful he used it with great style, musicianship and intelligence.
In 1891 George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
found him 'fairly equal to the occasion in the wonderful duet' from Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's Whitsuntide Canatata, O, Ewiges Feuer, with the Bach Choir. In April 1892 (sharing the platform with Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...
and Neruda
Franz Xaver Neruda
Franz Xaver Neruda was a Danish cellist and composer of Moravian origin.-Life:...
, Fanny Davies
Fanny Davies
Fanny Davies was an English pianist who was particularly admired in Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, and the early schools, but was also a very early London performer of the works of Debussy and Scriabin...
, Alfredo Piatti
Carlo Alfredo Piatti
Carlo Alfredo Piatti was an Italian cellist. He was born at via Borgo Canale, in Bergamo and died in Mozzo, 4 miles from Bergamo....
and Agnes Zimmermann (piano)) he sang admirably in his first set (Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
, Cornelius and Schumann) in a Monday Popular Concert, but made little of his second group. In November 1893 at the first of George Henschel
George Henschel
Sir George Henschel , was a British baritone, pianist, conductor, and composer of German birth....
's London Symphony Orchestra concerts for the season he performed Stanford's new song, Prince Madoc's Farewell, so patriotically 'that he once or twice almost burst into the next key.' Shaw's strictures on his diction were no doubt taken very seriously by the singer, who studied to make absolute clarity and naturalness of diction a central point of his teaching and example.
Recitals - partnership with Leonard Borwick
During the 1890s (from 1893) Plunket Greene became one of the foremost British performers and interpreters of the German lied, especially of Schubert, SchumannRobert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
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...
. This he did in association with the English pianist Leonard Borwick
Leonard Borwick
Leonard Borwick was an English concert pianist especially associated with the music of Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms.- Early training and debuts :...
(the brother of a schoolfriend), a Frankfort pupil of Mme Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...
's noted for his powerful rhythmic delivery, and who (like his fellow-pupil Fanny Davies) was closely involved in the London work of Joachim. Plunket Greene and Borwick formed a musical friendship which lasted until Borwick's death.
Plunket Greene was touring in America in Spring 1893 and wrote to Borwick suggesting they should deliver a song and pianoforte recital in London, unlike the more usual form of miscellaneous concert with a mixed company. The first recital was in St James's Hall
St James's Hall
St. James's Hall was a concert hall in London that opened on 25 March 1858, designed by architect and artist Owen Jones, who had decorated the interior of the Crystal Palace. It was situated between the Quadrant in Regent Street and Piccadilly, and Vine Street and George Court. There was a...
in December 1893, followed by a tour throughout the country, and this pattern was repeated for ten years. Borwick played his own programme as well as accompanying, but after a couple of seasons Samuel Liddle came in as accompanist. Pioneering this model of the recital, they gave a lead to that movement in London. Their rules were to maintain musicianship, avoid the glare of publicity, and never to take care of hands or voice.
On January 11, 1895 at St James's Hall, Borwick and Greene gave the first complete public performance of Schumann's Dichterliebe
Dichterliebe
Dichterliebe, 'The Poet's Love' , is the best-known song cycle of Robert Schumann . The texts for the 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo of Heinrich Heine, composed 1822–1823, published as part of the poet's Das Buch der Lieder. Following the song-cycles of Franz Schubert , those of...
to be heard in London. Their musical partnership was still active in 1913, but the demands of their separate tours became so great by the early 1900s that they agreed not to continue their former recital programme unless it could be done whole-heartedly. Plunket Greene toured especially in the United States, where he considered the audiences especially attentive and appreciative, and in Germany. He also liked northern English audiences better than southern ones, and liked singing to audiences of public schoolboys.
Gerontius and after
Plunket Greene was a friend of Elgar's, and appeared in his Malvern Concert Club events. He was the original baritone in the first (October 1900) performance (Birmingham Festival) of ElgarEdward 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...
's Dream of 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...
, alongside Marie Brema
Marie Brema
Marie Brema was an English dramatic mezzo-soprano singer in concert, operatic and oratorio work in the last decade of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th centuries...
(angel) and Edward Lloyd
Edward Lloyd (tenor)
Edward Lloyd was a British tenor singer who excelled in concert and oratorio performance, and was recognised as a legitimate successor of John Sims Reeves as the foremost tenor exponent of that genre during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.- Early training in choral tradition :Edward...
(soul), under Hans Richter
Hans Richter (conductor)
Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...
. In June 1900 Elgar had written to Jaeger, 'he sings both bass bits and won't they suit him. Gosh.' Although his recordings, and some commentators, suggest the voice was not a large one, it must have been capable of sustaining and projecting a considerable tone at this time, for both the Gerontius baritone solos require this. Moreover, for this most personal of his works, Elgar must have felt some real aptness in the choice.
Arthur Somervell
Arthur Somervell
Sir Arthur Somervell was an English composer, and after Hubert Parry one of the most successful and influential writers of art song in the English music renaissance of the 1890s-1900s....
's song-cyle, on 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....
's 'Maud' was originally produced (with twelve songs) in 1898 and was championed by Plunket Greene. In c.1900 he married the daughter of Hubert Parry, and their first son was born a year later. He also gave the first performance of Somervell's 'A Shropshire Lad
A Shropshire Lad
A Shropshire Lad is a cycle of sixty-three poems by the English poet Alfred Edward Housman . Some of the better-known poems in the book are "To an Athlete Dying Young", "Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now" and "When I Was One-and-Twenty".The collection was published in 1896...
' cycle, at the Aeolian Hall
Aeolian Hall (London)
Aeolian Hall located at 135-137 New Bond Street, began life as the Grosvenor Gallery, being built by Sir Coutts Lindsay in 1876, an accomplished amateur artist, with a predeliction for the aesthetic movement, for which he was held up to some ridicule. In 1883, he decided to light his gallery with...
on 3 February 1904, and so had the distinction of being the first to sing settings of A.E. Housman's lyrics, which afterwards became so fundamental an inspiration to the composers associated with the English song revival of that period.
Plunket Greene included a selection from the Songs of Travel by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
in recital in February 1905. Then (or soon afterwards) the composer heard him and dedicated the songs to him, and Greene afterwards quoted from them, and from Silent Noon (from the House of Life cycle), in his work on Interpretation in Song. Greene was responsible for establishing these songs in the English concert repertoire, where he was constantly attempting to raise the standard and quality of appreciation of English song through his programming.
He supported Gervase Elwes from the start of his professional career and was his lifelong friend. At Elwes' audition for 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 1903 Greene wrote to encourage him with the favourable reactions of Parry and Stanford, and soon afterwards put him up for the Savile Club
Savile Club
The Savile Club was founded in 1868 for the purpose of conversation and good company. Though located somewhat out of the way from the main centre of London's gentlemen's clubs, closer to the residences of Mayfair than the clubs of Pall Mall and St James's Street, it still contained some prominent...
in London. In 1906, he joined the party at Brigg
Brigg
Brigg is a small market town in North Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 5,076 in 2,213 households . The town lies at the junction of the River Ancholme and east-west transport routes across northern Lincolnshire...
to sing in the second festival there organized by Elwes and Percy Grainger
Percy Grainger
George Percy Aldridge Grainger , known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many...
, and declared his wish to be in many more of them. When Elwes died in 1921, Greene wrote 'I always felt he [Elwes] was the man I most looked up to.' 'In the St Matthew Passion, (he) made us feel that he of all men was best fitted to tell us the greatest story in the world.'
Plunkett Greene's recordings were made first for the Gramophone Company
Gramophone Company
The 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...
, in 1904-1906. He included folk-songs in his recitals, according to them the same values of diction, phrasing, rhythm, and interpretative sincerity which he brought to art-songs. In later years, as he moved into the field of song-lecturing, he did great service to the cause of British folk-music. His last recordings were made by the electric process for Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
: his late recording of 'Poor old horse' is an affecting example.
On January 24, 1910 he appeared in the memorial concert 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...
for August Jaeger
August Jaeger
August Jaeger was an Anglo-German music publisher, who developed a close friendship with the English composer Edward Elgar.Born in Düsseldorf, Germany, Jaeger met Elgar through his employment at the London music publisher Novello...
(Elgar's 'Nimrod'), singing a group of songs by Walford Davies, and Hans Sachs's monologue from Die 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,...
. He made his first appearance in Henry Wood's Promenade Concerts
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
at the Queen's Hall in October 1914 singing Stanford's Songs of the Sea with the Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace is a building in North London, England. It stands in Alexandra Park, in an area between Hornsey, Muswell Hill and Wood Green...
Choral Society. He had declined to fulfil an engagement to sing them there for the Stock Exchange Orchestral Society in 1907 on hearing that they still used the high English Concert pitch
Pitch (music)
Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
.
Competitions and Festivals, Teaching
In his later years Plunket Greene was busily involved in the organization of music events and in teaching and administration. In 1923 he made his fifteenth voyage across the Atlantic (the first had been in 1893), on this occasion to act as a judge in Musical Competitions throughout Canada. From New York he went to TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
by train to join Granville Bantock
Granville Bantock
Sir Granville Bantock was a British composer of classical music.-Biography:Granville Ransome Bantock was born in London. His father was a Scottish doctor. He was intended by his parents for the Indian Civil Service but was drawn into the musical world. His first teacher was Dr Gordon Saunders at...
. This was to be at the five Festivals of Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, Sasketchewan, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
and British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. This was the first Ontario Festival (Toronto) (with Robert Watkin-Mills and Boris Hambourg
Boris Hambourg
Boris Hambourg was a Russian cellist who made his career in the USA, Canada, England and Europe.Boris was the third son of Michael Hambourg , and the younger brother of the pianist Mark Hambourg and the violinist Jan Hambourg...
also in attendance), the 6th in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
(with Herbert Witherspoon
Herbert Witherspoon
Herbert Witherspoon was an American bass singer and opera manager.-Biography:A native of Buffalo, New York, Herbert Witherspoon graduated from Yale University in 1895 where he had performed as a member of the Glee Club. After leaving school he studied music with Horatio Parker, Edward MacDowell,...
and Cecil Forsyth
Cecil Forsyth
Cecil Forsyth was an English composer and musicologist. He was born in Greenwich on November 30, 1870, and he died in New York on December 7, 1941. He studied at Edinburgh University and at the Royal College of Music , and played viola in various London Orchestras...
assisting), where the Earl Grey trophy was competed for, the 16th in Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
(Alberta), with choirs from Lethbridge
Lethbridge
Lethbridge is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada, and the largest city in southern Alberta. It is Alberta's fourth-largest city by population after Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer, and the third-largest by area after Calgary and Edmonton. The nearby Canadian Rockies contribute to the city's...
and Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, and in Prince Albert
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
Prince Albert is the third-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is situated in the centre of the province on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. The city is known as the "Gateway to the North" because it is the last major centre along the route to the resources of northern Saskatchewan...
they were with Herbert Howells
Herbert Howells
Herbert Norman Howells CH was an English composer, organist, and teacher, most famous for his large output of Anglican church music.-Life:...
. The promotion and encouragement of these events provided not only a great spectacle and opportunity for music-making, but also infused a competitive spirit into the works of choirs, singers and instrumentalists in the award of prizes (in the tradition begun at Kendal
Kendal
Kendal, anciently known as Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish within the South Lakeland District of Cumbria, England...
, UK in c.1889), tending to the encouragement of excellence. Plunket Greene repeated the experience in Sasketchewan in 1931, together with Harold Samuel
Harold Samuel
Not to be confused with Harold Samuel, Baron Samuel of Wych Cross Harold Samuel was a distinguished English pianist and pedagogue. He was one of the first pianists of the 20th century to focus purely on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, and was known for his academic and cerebral approach...
, Maurice Jacobson and Hugh Roberton.
Among those to profit from his teaching was Sir Keith Falkner
Keith Falkner
Sir Keith Falkner was a distinguished English bass-baritone singer especially associated with oratorio and concert recital, who later became Director of the Royal College of Music in London.- Childhood and youth :...
, whom Plunket Greene coached in his famous interpretation of the Lamentation of Job in Parry's
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...
oratorio Job.
Writings
- Interpretation in Song (Macmillan, London 1912)
- Pilot and other stories (Macmillan, London 1916)
- Where the Bright Waters Meet (Philip Allan, London 1924)
- From Blue Danube to Shannon (Philip Allan, London 1935)
- Charles Villiers Stanford (Edward Arnold, London 1935)
Recordings
H.P.G. recorded songs both for Gramophone Company and Columbia records.Recordings for the Gramophone Company (1904-9):
- 3-2016 Off to Philadelphia (Battison Haynes). 1904
- 3-2017 Molly Brannigan (arr Stanford). 1904
- 3-2018 Father O'Flynn (arr Stanford). 1904
- 3-2059 (a) Eva Toole (b) Trottin' to the fair (Stanford). 1904
- 3-2060 The Donovans (Needham). 1904
- 3-2089 Over here (Wood). 1904
- 3-2334 The gentle maiden. 1906
- 3-2335 Little red fox (arr. Somervell). 1906
- 3-2336 Little Mary Cassidy. (1906)
- 4-2017 Molly Brannigan (arr Stanford). 1909
- 02174 Off to Philadelphia (Battison Haynes). 1909 (12")
- (?number) Abschied (Schubert).
Among the Columbia (electric) recordings are:
- Trottin' to the Fair (Stanford)
- Poor Old Horse (Trad)
- The Hurdy-Gurdy Man (Schubert) wav available [Dec 2009] from http://images.cch.kcl.ac.uk/charm/liv/redist/audio/dlw2.wav
- The Garden Where The Praties Grow (Trad)
In addition to recordings of songs, he also recorded a Lecture 'On The Art Of Singing' for the Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
International Educational Society series (Lecture 75), on four sides, Disc numbers D40149-40150.
Sources
- D. Bispham, A Quaker Singer's Recollections (Macmillan 1920)
- D. Brook, Singers of Today (Rockliff, London 1958), 'Keith Falkner', pp 75–78.
- Arthur Eaglefield HullArthur Eaglefield HullArthur Eaglefield Hull was an English music critic, writer, composer and organist.Hull was initially a music student of Tobias Matthay and graduated with a Doctorate of Music from Oxford University...
, A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London 1924) - R. Elkin, Queen's Hall 1893-1941 (Rider, London 1944)
- W. Elwes and R. Elwes, Gervase Elwes, The Story of his Life (Grayson & Grayson, London 1935)
- H. Plunket Greene, From Blue Danube to Shannon (Philip Allan, London 1934)
- M. Scott, The Record of Singing to 1914 (Duckworth, London 1977)
- G.B. Shaw, Music in London 1890-1894, 3 vols (Contable & co, London 1932)
- H. Wood, My Life of Music (Gollancz, London 1938)
- P.M. Young, Letters of Edward Elgar (Geoffrey Bles, London 1956)