Alfred Wall (composer)

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This article is about the British composer and violinist. For the British trade unionist and political activist, see Alfred M. Wall.

Alfred Michael Wall (1875 - 8 October 1936) was a British violinist and composer who was for a long time associated with the Newcastle Conservatoire.

Career[]

Wall was born at 1 St Paul's Crescent, Camden in London, where his father William Wall was "a professor of music". In 1886, aged 11, he won a scholarship to study violin at the Royal College of Music.[1] By the mid-1890s he had established himself as orchestral and chamber player in London and had begun composing. His String Quartet in G and the Violin Sonata in E were first performed in 1897 and 1898 at the Queen's Hall.[2][3]

From the 1900s to the 1920s he was professor of violin at the Newcastle Conservatoire where he worked closely with Edgar Bainton and became friendly with William Gillies Whittaker.[4][5] While there he was mostly associated with chamber music, becoming Director of the Municipal Chamber Concerts.[6] He formed the Alfred Wall Quartet and played in the Bainton-Fuchs-Wall Trio with Bainton (piano) and cellist Carl Fuchs.[7] He performed as a soloist and led (sometimes conducting) the Newcastle-on-Tyne Philharmonic Orchestra.[8] As a soloist Wall played in the first broadcast performance of the Legende for violin and orchestra by Delius, on 5 November 1924.[9] He was also one of the founders of the North of England Musical Tournament in 1919.[10]

Towards the end of his life Wall made his home at Tirril Moor, Penrith. There he founded and led the Tirril Moor Quartette, which included his daughters Rosina (viola) and Dulcie (cello).[11] He died at a nursing home in Carlisle following a relapse after an operation in October 1936.[10][12]

His two daughters Rosina Wall and Dulcie Salder (who married the Truro-based musical director Jean Salder) both remained musically active, mostly in Cornwall. They founded the Linden Players, which later became the Newton Abbot Orchestra.[13]

Composer[]

Alfred Wall's compositions included the Quartet for Piano & Strings in C minor, composed in 1920 and first performed on 17 October 1922 at the Hall of the Art Workers' Guild, 6 Queen's Square, Bloomsbury in London[14] by the McCullagh Quartet with Joseph Holbrooke.[15] It was published as part of the Carnegie Collection of British Music. The London premiere of his Thanet Overture took place at the BBC Proms, Queen's Hall, on 26 September, 1922.[16] It had been previously heard at the Bournemouth Easter Festival. His Idyll was performed by the Catterall Quartet in 1925 at concerts in Dublin and Manchester.[17] There is also a Trio in Bb (1921),[18] a Violin Sonata in A (1922),[19] and four songs to texts by Israel Zangwill (1922).[20]

Later works include Recreations, a five movement suite for strings "in the old style". It was published in 1925[21] and received its first broadcast the same year with several repeat performances over the next seven years.[22] Pastorale and Bourree for string orchestra was published by Oxford University Press in 1927. The Three Intermezzi for string quartet (aka Three Sketches) were broadcast in 1932, performed by the Unity Quartet and published by OUP.[23] The orchestral Cavatina and Caprice was broadcast by the BBC Dance Orchestra on 26 April, 1935.[6] A Ballade for viola and string orchestra was performed in Manchester on 10 December 1935 by the Birmingham Philharmonic String Orchestra, to whom the piece is dedicated,[24] and again (posthumously) in Banbury in 1937.[25]

In style, Alfred Wall's music (as described in the Radio Times) was "modern in outlook", but showing "no traces of extreme modern influences".[6]

References[]

  1. ^ Morning Post, 7 May 1886, p.3
  2. ^ British Chamber Music Concerts (1896-97)
  3. ^ The Times, 3 December 1898, p. 5
  4. ^ Pegg, Joseph W. Newcastle's Musical Heritage, an Introduction (2003)
  5. ^ Borthwick, Mary. The Life and Musical Achievements of William Gillies Whittaker, Durham University Thesis (2007)
  6. ^ a b c Radio Times, Issue 603, 19 April 1935, p. 55
  7. ^ Radio Times, Issue 83, 24 April, 1925, p. 9
  8. ^ Radio Times, Issue 320, 15 November, 1929, p. 37
  9. ^ Thompson, Kenneth. A Dictionary of 20th Century Composers (1973), p. 118
  10. ^ a b Obituary, Newcastle Journal, 10 October 1936, p. 12
  11. ^ Penrith Observer, 13 October 1936, p. 9
  12. ^ Central Newcastle High School for Girls Magazine, December 1936
  13. ^ Newton Abbot Orchestra, history
  14. ^ Art Workers' Guild
  15. ^ Music News and Herald, October 21, 1922
  16. ^ BBC Proms Performance Archive
  17. ^ Scott, Stuart. 'Arthur Catterall - The Manchester Years' at MusicWeb International
  18. ^ Hayward, John D. Chamber Music for Amateurs (1923), p. 36
  19. ^ Manchester Guardian, 25 May 1922, p. 11
  20. ^ Manchester Guardian, 10 October 1922, p. 16
  21. ^ Musical Times, Vol. 66, No. 993 (Nov. 1, 1925), p. 996
  22. ^ Radio Times, Issue 115, 4 December 1925, p. 26
  23. ^ Radio Times, Issue 441, 11 March, 1932, p. 36
  24. ^ Manchester Guardian, 11 December 1935, p. 8
  25. ^ Musical Times, Vol. 78, No. 1127 (Jan., 1937), p. 71
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