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Also, have you accidentally listed the 'Sonata in E flat' in the piano section. Is that not just a violin sonata?

There's a copy of Farjeon's Piano Sonata in E in the music library at the University of Sheffield which has a hand written note at the front from Farjeon to Benjamin Dale. Unfortunately I can't quite work out what it says as the writing is quite unclear, but it's something like

'with N__  ____ _____ to Ben Dale from Harry Farjeon'

Also found this in an article entitled 'The Outlook for British Music'.

In chamber music and in symphony, I think we shall follow Algernon Ashton rather than Stanford or Parry: for in his quartets, trios, sonatas, &c., while we realise the presence of musical scholarship in a high degree, there is never the faintest suggestion of the schoolmaster; and in his symphonies I find a more truly Britannic archetype than in any of the imitations of modern continental extravagances that some of our younger men indulge in. It is the inherent simplicity, dignity and purity of Ashton's methods that make him "so English, you know." For him, the potentialities of pure harmony are by no means exhausted; he finds it still possible to charm with a common chord, and to surprise with a dominant seventh. And his ideas are not of such a tottering feebleness that they must needs be shored up with overgrown orchestration on forty or fifty stave paper.

The writer of this article, who obviously admires Ashton, goes on to say:

I cannot help reaffirming my conviction that Algernon Ashton will be looked on by posterity as one of the greatest pioneers of the new era. He is the man who could tell us more perhaps than any as to the present state and the probable future of music in this country. !

Henry Saint-George, 'The Outlook of British Music', Musical Opinion and Music Trade Review, 28 (Aug. 1905), pp. 809 - 810.



Peter.

I've had a search for reviews of any of his orchestral music but can't seem to find much. There's a review, in The Times, of his Three English Dances which were performed at the Proms in 1912. However, these are just arrangements of piano pieces. Here's the review anyway:

There was one novelty last night... It consisted of a set of three English dances by Mr. Algernon Ashton, written apparently as long ago as 1883 in the shape of pianoforte duets, though they have only been recently scored. The scoring itself is not of much account, at any rate in the first and third of the dances, where the composer seems to have thought only of his tunes. These it must be admitted are neither very original nor very enlivening; the third dance, in fact, hardly suggests a dance at all. The first has something of a rustic dance-spirit in it, but the total effect, partly from want of contrast in the material, partly from the heavy touch in utilizing it, is monotonous. The second dance, in 6-8 time, is more interesting and much more effective. The composer has got hold of a graceful little tune which clarinet and oboe divide between them, and if only he had ruled his double bars about halfway through the recapitulation and refrained from using the trumpet at a moment when the tune cannot well bear any extra weight, he might have made his dance into a tiny chef d'oeuvre exactly suited to be an entr'acte in a popular play. As itis, it just misses being playfully epigrammatic, though it was good enough to win an encore last night.  The Times, October 25, 1912, p. 12.

There is also a brief mention of a Toy Symphony in the Musical Times:

A 'Toy Symphony' by Mr. Algernon Ashton caused a good deal of amusement, and no little pleasure, at Steinway Hall on March 27. Musical Times, May 1, 1919, p. 238.

If I find anything more interesting I'll post it on here.

Peter.

Hi,

Apologies if this post is inappropriate for this forum.

I'm looking to buy a USB turntable that will convert vinyl records to a digital format. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a device? I don't really want to spend too much on it though. Maplin do one for £50 but I saw some reviews which said that it had damaged their LPs!

Thanks,

Peter.

Hi,

I've been lurking around this forum for a little while now so thought I should introduce myself!

My name's Peter and I'm 21 years old. I've just finished an undergraduate degree in music and will be starting a postgraduate degree in September. My main interest is in 19th and 20th century British music so I've found the British Music Broadcasts downloads on here incredibly helpful and interesting. I hope I'll be able to contribute some useful comments myself occasionally, as well as reading other people's! I'm particularly interested in the composer Cyril Scott as my undergraduate dissertation was about his music.

Peter.

The liner notes for a CD of Sherwood's music can be downloaded here http://www.toccataclassics.com/cddetail.php?CN=TOCC0145

They contain quite a substantial amount of information about him.

Peter.

Sorry to post on an old thread! Most of the information on the Cyril Scott website is based on Laurie Sampsel's bio-biblography -

Sampsel, L. J. (2000). Cyril Scott: A Bio-Bibliography. London: Greenwood Press.

This book contains a complete list of Scott's works. According to the book, the double violin concerto was composed in 1931 and published by Elkin in 1935. It says the score and parts are on hire from Novello... Perhaps it has later been discovered that the score has gone missing.

I think some of the discrepancies regarding the dates on the website might be because some are dates of composition and others are dates of publication.

Hope this helps!

Peter.