Henry Geehl
Encyclopedia
Henry Ernest Geehl was an English pianist, conductor and composer.
Born in London
in 1881, Geehl studied piano with Benno Schönberger and R. O. Morgan in London, and with Anton Schlieber in Vienna
. He toured as a pianist and theatre conductor, and in 1919 joined the Trinity College of Music
as a teacher, where he remained on staff as a teacher until a year before his death. His students included William Lovelock
. He also became music editor for the Edwin Ashdown and Enoch publishing firm.
Henry Geehl had an affinity with music written for brass band
s. He arranged Gustav Holst
's A Moorside Suite for brass band, made many other arrangements and transcriptions, and was the first composer to write serious symphonic music directly for brass band. His Scena Sinfonica, in the style of an operatic selection, has been used as a test piece for brass bands. He claimed to have scored Edward Elgar
's The Severn Suite
for brass band from the composer's rough sketches, but the extent of his contribution is now disputed as a complete brass band score in Elgar's hand exists.
His other works include a symphony, concertos for piano and violin, Suite espagnole, Comedy Overture, In Fairyland, Cornish Rhapsody, Prince Charlie – 1745, piano pieces and songs.
His song For You Alone (Für dich allein; words by P. J. O'Reilly) achieved great popularity, being recorded by Enrico Caruso, Lauritz Melchior
, Jussi Björling
and Mario Lanza
, among others. Eleanor Steber
's rendition of For You Alone can be seen on this YouTube video. (It has been claimed that For You Alone was the only song ever sung in English by Caruso but that is contradicted by other evidence, such as his recording of George M. Cohan
's Over There
).
Henry Geehl also wrote some film scores, including the original music for The Magic Bow
(1946) and for Jassy
(1947).
An arrangement by Geehl of Johann Strauss II
's The Blue Danube
was recorded by Richard Tauber
and Florence Foster Jenkins
. He also arranged Edward Elgar's Idylle
, Op. 4, Adieu and Serenade for orchestra; Charles Williams
's The Dream of Olwen for three voices; George Clutsam
's Ma Curly Headed Babby; My Heart and I and other songs from Richard Tauber's Old Chelsea; May Brahe
's To a Miniature and I Passed by your Window; Richard Addinsell
's Warsaw Concerto
, selections from Delibes
' Sylvia
, and César Franck
's Symphonic Variations
.
He conducted Oscar Natzka
's recording of O Isis and Osiris from Mozart
's The Magic Flute
, and Handel
's The song of Hybrias the Cretan and Honour and Arms (from Samson).
Henry Geehl was reputed to a "prickly individual". He died in 1961, in Beaconsfield
, Buckinghamshire
.
Born 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...
in 1881, Geehl studied piano with Benno Schönberger and R. O. Morgan in London, and with Anton Schlieber in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. He toured as a pianist and theatre conductor, and in 1919 joined 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...
as a teacher, where he remained on staff as a teacher until a year before his death. His students included William Lovelock
William Lovelock
William Lovelock was an English classical composer and pedagogue who spent many years in Australia. He was the first Director of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane, and later became the chief music critic for The Courier-Mail newspaper.He is not to be confused with the...
. He also became music editor for the Edwin Ashdown and Enoch publishing firm.
Henry Geehl had an affinity with music written for brass band
Brass band
A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
s. He arranged Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
's A Moorside Suite for brass band, made many other arrangements and transcriptions, and was the first composer to write serious symphonic music directly for brass band. His Scena Sinfonica, in the style of an operatic selection, has been used as a test piece for brass bands. He claimed to have scored 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...
's The Severn Suite
The Severn Suite
The Severn Suite, Opus 87, is a musical work written by Sir Edward Elgar. It is a late composition, written in 1930, the result of an invitation to write a test piece for the National Brass Band Championship...
for brass band from the composer's rough sketches, but the extent of his contribution is now disputed as a complete brass band score in Elgar's hand exists.
His other works include a symphony, concertos for piano and violin, Suite espagnole, Comedy Overture, In Fairyland, Cornish Rhapsody, Prince Charlie – 1745, piano pieces and songs.
His song For You Alone (Für dich allein; words by P. J. O'Reilly) achieved great popularity, being recorded by Enrico Caruso, Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...
, Jussi Björling
Jussi Björling
Johan Jonatan "Jussi" Björling was a Swedish tenor. One of the leading operatic singers of the 20th Century, Björling appeared frequently at the Royal Opera House in London, La Scala in Milan, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as well as at other major European opera...
and Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza
right|thumb|[[MGM]] still, circa 1949Mario Lanza was an American tenor and Hollywood movie star of the late 1940s and the 1950s. The son of Italian emigrants, he began studying to be a professional singer at the age of 16....
, among others. Eleanor Steber
Eleanor Steber
Eleanor Steber was an American operatic soprano. Steber is noted as one of the first major opera stars to have achieved the highest success with training and a career based in the United States.-Biography:...
's rendition of For You Alone can be seen on this YouTube video. (It has been claimed that For You Alone was the only song ever sung in English by Caruso but that is contradicted by other evidence, such as his recording of George M. Cohan
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan , known professionally as George M. Cohan, was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer....
's Over There
Over There
"Over There" is a 1917 song popular with United States soldiers in both world wars.It was written by George M. Cohan during World War I. Notable early recordings include versions by Nora Bayes, Enrico Caruso, Billy Murray, and Charles King....
).
Henry Geehl also wrote some film scores, including the original music for The Magic Bow
The Magic Bow
The Magic Bow is a 1946 British musical film based on the life of the Italian violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini. It was directed by Bernard Knowles...
(1946) and for Jassy
Jassy (film)
Jassy was a 1947 British film melodrama, based on a novel by Norah Lofts. It was a Gainsborough melodrama, the only one to be made in technicolour.-Plot:...
(1947).
An arrangement by Geehl of Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
's The Blue Danube
The Blue Danube
The Blue Danube is the common English title of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 , a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866...
was recorded by Richard Tauber
Richard Tauber
Richard Tauber was an Austrian tenor acclaimed as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century. Some critics commented that "his heart felt every word he sang".-Early life:...
and Florence Foster Jenkins
Florence Foster Jenkins
Florence Foster Jenkins was an American amateur operatic soprano who was known, and ridiculed, for her lack of rhythm, pitch, tone, and overall singing ability.-Early years:...
. He also arranged Edward Elgar's Idylle
Idylle (Elgar)
Idylle is a piece for violin and piano composed by Edward Elgar in 1884, as his Opus 4, No. 1. It has appended to the title the further description . It was Elgar's first published work....
, Op. 4, Adieu and Serenade for orchestra; Charles Williams
Charles Williams (composer)
Charles Williams was a British composer and conductor, contributing music to over 50 films...
's The Dream of Olwen for three voices; George Clutsam
George Clutsam
George Howard Clutsam was an Australian pianist, composer and writer, best remembered as the arranger of Lilac Time. Clutsam published over 150 songs.-Life:...
's Ma Curly Headed Babby; My Heart and I and other songs from Richard Tauber's Old Chelsea; May Brahe
May Brahe
May Brahe was an Australian composer, best known for her songs and ballads. Her most famous song by far is "Bless This House", recorded by John McCormack, Beniamino Gigli, Lesley Garrett and Bryn Terfel. She was the only Australian woman composer to win local and international recognition before...
's To a Miniature and I Passed by your Window; Richard Addinsell
Richard Addinsell
Richard Stewart Addinsell was a British composer, best known for film music, primarily his Warsaw Concerto, composed for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight .-Life:...
's Warsaw Concerto
Warsaw Concerto
The Warsaw Concerto is a single-movement piano concerto written for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight . It was written by British composer Richard Addinsell...
, selections from Delibes
Léo Delibes
Clément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage...
' Sylvia
Sylvia (ballet)
Sylvia, originally Sylvia, ou La nymphe de Diane, is a full-length ballet in two or three acts, first choreographed by Louis Mérante to music by Léo Delibes in 1876. Sylvia is a typical classical ballet in many respects, yet it has many interesting features which make it unique...
, and César Franck
César Franck
César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....
's Symphonic Variations
Symphonic Variations (Franck)
The Symphonic Variations , M. 46, is a work for piano and orchestra, written in 1885 by César Franck. It has been described as "one of Franck's tightest and most finished works", "a superb blending of piano and orchestra", and "a flawless work and as near perfection as a human composer can hope to...
.
He conducted Oscar Natzka
Oscar Natzka
-Early life:Born as Franz Oscar Natzke at Wharepuhunga, North Island, New Zealand, he was the son of August Natzke , who had emigrated to New Zealand and settled in Otorohanga, and Emma Carter Natzke, of Christchurch, New Zealand, who was a singer.As a boy, the young Natzke worked...
's recording of O Isis and Osiris from Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
, and Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
's The song of Hybrias the Cretan and Honour and Arms (from Samson).
Henry Geehl was reputed to a "prickly individual". He died in 1961, in Beaconsfield
Beaconsfield
Beaconsfield is a market town and civil parish operating as a town council within the South Bucks district in Buckinghamshire, England. It lies northwest of Charing Cross in Central London, and south-east of the county town of Aylesbury...
, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
.
Source
- H. C. Colles, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed, 1954, Eric BlomEric BlomEric Walter Blom CBE was a Swiss-born British-naturalised music lexicographer, musicologist, music critic, music biographer and translator. He is best known as the editor of the 5th edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians .-Biography:Blom was born in Berne, Switzerland...
, ed.