Christopher Wilson (composer)
Christopher Wilson (7 October 1874 - 17 February 1919) was a British composer and conductor best known for his theatre music.
Wilson was born in Melbourne, Derbyshire, into a musical family. His mother and grandmother were both accomplished pianists, and his uncle, Francis William Davenport, was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music.[1] He showed early musical promise as a composer and performer (piano, organ, violin, viola). In 1889 he won the first choral scholarship at Derby School. In 1892 he became a student at the Royal Academy of Music under Alexander Mackenzie, where he was awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1895.[2]
There followed a period of study abroad, with Franz Wüllner in Cologne, Heinrich von Herzogenberg in Berlin and Charles-Marie Widor in Paris.[3] His Suite for String Orchestra was first performed while he was in Cologne (the first such performance of English music at a principal concert there since Arthur Sullivan)[3] and published by the German publishers Schott in 1899.[4] It shows the influence of the Grieg and Tchaikovsky suites for string orchestra, and perhaps of Parry in "mock baroque" mode.[5] A modern recording of the work was issued in 2021.[6]
His working life was mostly as a composer and musical director for the theatre. His scores included incidental music to F. R. Benson's production of the Orestean Trilogy (1904),[7] Rudolf Besier's The Virgin Goddess (1906),[8] Oscar Asche and Edward Knoblock's Kismet (1911),[9] Josephine Preston Peabody's The Piper (1911),[10] and music for many Shakespeare plays as produced by Asche, Benson, Otho Stuart and Ellen Terry. One of the most notable of these was The Taming of the Shrew, co-produced by Asche and Stuart at the Adelphi Theatre in 1904.[11] During this period Wilson was living at 30, Bedford Street in London, off the Strand.[12]
Other works outside the theatre include a second suite for strings, two string quartets, a piano quartet, two violin sonatas, a setting of Robert Browning's Prospice, and a choral mass.[13] He also composed the music for the Winchester National Pageant, held at Wolvesey Castle in 1908.[14][15]
Wilson died of heart failure at the age of 44 in 1919.[3] His book Shakespeare and Music, compiled from a series of articles he had written for The Stage in the year before his death, was published posthumously in 1922.[16]
References[edit]
- ^ Unsung Composers
- ^ The Musical Times, May 1895, p. 311
- ^ a b c The Musical Times, Vol. 60, No. 914 (April 1, 1919), pp. 169-170
- ^ Score at IMSLP
- ^ British Music Society
- ^ 'British Music for Strings II', CPO 555 395-2 (2021), reviewed at MusicWeb International
- ^ The Times, 23 April 1904, p.8
- ^ Wearing, J.P. The London Stage, 1900-1909 (2013), p.316
- ^ Singleton, Brian. Oscar Asche, Orientalism, and British Musical Comedy (2004), p. 64-65
- ^ 'Christopher Wilson', Worldcat entry
- ^ 'Mr Christopher Wilson' in The Times, 25 Feb 1919, p. 12
- ^ The Daily Telegraph, 8 February 1909, p. 4
- ^ 'Shakespeare and Music (1922), LibraVox recording
- ^ Historical Pageants in Britain
- ^ Winchester National Pageant (1908), Google Books
- ^ Shakespeare and Music (1922), Project Gutenberg
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