For several decades, the harpsichordist George Malcolm was famous for playing the “jangle box”, as he called it. He was important in introducing many people to the sound of the harpsichord, even though his interpretations may now seem outdated. He played for many years with Yehudi Menuhin, and made recordings with Julian Bream and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. This post is to announce the launch of a comprehensive commemorative website. […]
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In an earlier post I introduced Boris Ord, the conductor of King’s College Choir for nearly 30 years. But what else do we know about him? […] The first of a two blog posts about Boris Ord, the organist and choirmaster who took over the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge in 1929 and made it world-famous. […] “A Beautiful Life”: A tribute to Gustav Leonhardt by Ton Koopman […]
I mentioned in my post on Thurston Dart that I couldn’t find out much about Arnold Goldsbrough, who had been his teacher at the Royal College of Music 1938–9. Since then I’ve tracked down Arnold’s son, now in his eighties, who has put me onto his dad’s surviving cronies and told me some […] Surprisingly, it was Gustav Holst, the composer of The Planets, who conducted the first modern performance of Purcell’s Fairy Queen in 1911. His longstanding friend and fellow composer Ralph Vaughan Williams introduced every number, and this lecture-concert was given by amateurs from London’s Morley College [for Working Men and Women], rather than some […]
For me, two stories from Fellowes’ 1946 autobiography, Memoirs of an Amateur Musician, stand out: Byrd’s Great Service According to Fellowes, “the greatest thrill in the course of the whole of [his] researches” was finding Byrd’s Great Service, which he stumbled upon while visiting Durham to complete some Gibbons anthems. As soon as […] Edmund aged 7 Fellowes’ life and legacy Aided in the churchy sphere by Professor Sir Percy Buck, who was one of his oldest friends (and a teacher of Mary Potts at the RCM), Edmund Fellowes brought about a revolution, albeit a gentle one: he both changed the way in which choral and other […] Fellowes’ interpretation of Tudor music As a church musician himself, Fellowes recognized that what little Cathedral repertoire there was in his day was usually poorly performed. “The interpretation of Tudor music began to force itself on my attention,” he wrote. “It became increasingly clear that rhythmic irregularity, as an essential feature of this music, […] Reproduced by kind permission of the Dean and Canons of Windsor Edmund (E.H.) Fellowes (1870–1951) – pictured here with his wife – was made a Companion of Honour in 1944. Always a meticulous man, he compiled an annotated alphabetical list of all the 220 letters of congratulations he received. It includes almost every well-known […] |
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