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Ernest Walker (composer)
Ernest Walker (15 July 1870 – 21 February 1949) was an Indian-born English composer and writer on music, as well as a pianist, organist and teacher.
Ernest Walker was born in Bombay, India, in 1870, where his father was a partner in a merchant firm (his father had also had ambitions to be a writer, and even published two novels under the pseudonym "Powys Oswyn", but these plans were abandoned). Ernest came to England with his parents in 1871. From an early age he exhibited a mystic attraction to nature. He studied the piano with Ernst Pauer and harmony with Alfred Richter (a son of the cantor at St Thomas's Church, Leipzig). Through a mutual friend, he became friendly with Harold Bauer (then still only a violinist) and the two would often play duos together. He was educated at Oxford, becoming a Doctor of Music in 1898. There, his mystical bent was fostered and became more pronounced.
He was assistant organist at Balliol College from 1891 to 1901, and organist from 1901 to 1913 (resigning only because he felt his private views on religion were incompatible with the religious nature of the texts sung by the choir, even though there was no requirement that the organist profess Christian beliefs). He remained at Oxford for the rest of his life, and died there. He was director of music at Balliol from 1901 to 1925 and organised the Sunday chamber music concerts there, at which he often appeared as a pianist. He arranged appearances at these concerts by artists such as the baritone Harry Plunket Greene, the tenors Steuart Wilson and Gervase Elwes, the pianists Fanny Davies, Leonard Borwick and Donald Tovey, the violinists Adolf Busch and Jelly d'Arányi, and the violist Lionel Tertis. These concerts often featured works then hardly known in England, such as César Franck's Violin Sonata in A major, and songs by Joseph Marx and Richard Strauss. He was for many years an examiner and member of the Board of Studies for music, and he did much to improve the standard of the B.Mus and D.Mus degrees. He encouraged many promising musicians, among them the Australian Frederick Septimus Kelly, who was killed in World War I, and Donald Tovey, who became his lifelong friend. Tovey dedicated his Balliol Dances for piano duet to Ernest Walker.
He championed the music of Hugo Wolf and Claude Debussy, and introduced some of Johannes Brahms's late works to England (the piano pieces, Op. 117, and the Rhapsody from Op. 119). He also played for the first time in England some Scriabin and Debussy piano pieces, Max Reger's Aus meinem Tagebuch, and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C sharp minor.
Walker had a great reputation as an accompanist, and played for artists such as Pablo Casals, on one occasion in 1898 performing together for Queen Victoria at Osborne House. As late as 1947, Casals wrote to Walker expressing his admiration for the musicianship he had displayed almost 50 years earlier. He also accompanied Joseph Joachim in concert; Joachim later wrote to Walker to express his gratitude for the quality of his playing. Privately, he played violin sonatas with Albert Einstein.
He edited the Musical Gazette, a quarterly publication, from 1899 to 1902. He wrote the Beethoven number of the Music of the Masters series (1905). He wrote a number of articles for the 2nd edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1902). He wrote articles and critiques for The Times and Manchester Guardian, and wrote program notes for concerts. His most important literary work is History of Music in England (1907, rev. 1923; rev. 1952 by Jack Westrup). In 1996, the musicologist Paul Henry Lang wrote of it:
A particular position must be assigned to Ernest Walker, the author of A History of Music in England (1907); stand-offish, wildly unjust and unforgiving, Walker's assertions are so sweeping and extravagant that it would be a waste of space to discuss them. To put it bluntly, he was an eccentric, continually inconsistent, and often irresponsible. Sir Jack Westrup, in his new edition (1952), toned down the worst aspects of the work, but then it is no longer Walker.
Walker's essays written over a 30-year period were collected in Free Thought and the Musician (1946), in which he explains his philosophical, religious and mystical views. Although he is described [by whom?] as a man of unfailing integrity and kindliness, he was a man of strong prejudices: he condemned Victorian music, such as Arthur Sullivan ("disgraceful rubbish") and John Stainer's The Crucifixion, and he dismissed all medieval music as "pre-artistic".
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Ernest Walker (composer)
Ernest Walker (15 July 1870 – 21 February 1949) was an Indian-born English composer and writer on music, as well as a pianist, organist and teacher.
Ernest Walker was born in Bombay, India, in 1870, where his father was a partner in a merchant firm (his father had also had ambitions to be a writer, and even published two novels under the pseudonym "Powys Oswyn", but these plans were abandoned). Ernest came to England with his parents in 1871. From an early age he exhibited a mystic attraction to nature. He studied the piano with Ernst Pauer and harmony with Alfred Richter (a son of the cantor at St Thomas's Church, Leipzig). Through a mutual friend, he became friendly with Harold Bauer (then still only a violinist) and the two would often play duos together. He was educated at Oxford, becoming a Doctor of Music in 1898. There, his mystical bent was fostered and became more pronounced.
He was assistant organist at Balliol College from 1891 to 1901, and organist from 1901 to 1913 (resigning only because he felt his private views on religion were incompatible with the religious nature of the texts sung by the choir, even though there was no requirement that the organist profess Christian beliefs). He remained at Oxford for the rest of his life, and died there. He was director of music at Balliol from 1901 to 1925 and organised the Sunday chamber music concerts there, at which he often appeared as a pianist. He arranged appearances at these concerts by artists such as the baritone Harry Plunket Greene, the tenors Steuart Wilson and Gervase Elwes, the pianists Fanny Davies, Leonard Borwick and Donald Tovey, the violinists Adolf Busch and Jelly d'Arányi, and the violist Lionel Tertis. These concerts often featured works then hardly known in England, such as César Franck's Violin Sonata in A major, and songs by Joseph Marx and Richard Strauss. He was for many years an examiner and member of the Board of Studies for music, and he did much to improve the standard of the B.Mus and D.Mus degrees. He encouraged many promising musicians, among them the Australian Frederick Septimus Kelly, who was killed in World War I, and Donald Tovey, who became his lifelong friend. Tovey dedicated his Balliol Dances for piano duet to Ernest Walker.
He championed the music of Hugo Wolf and Claude Debussy, and introduced some of Johannes Brahms's late works to England (the piano pieces, Op. 117, and the Rhapsody from Op. 119). He also played for the first time in England some Scriabin and Debussy piano pieces, Max Reger's Aus meinem Tagebuch, and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C sharp minor.
Walker had a great reputation as an accompanist, and played for artists such as Pablo Casals, on one occasion in 1898 performing together for Queen Victoria at Osborne House. As late as 1947, Casals wrote to Walker expressing his admiration for the musicianship he had displayed almost 50 years earlier. He also accompanied Joseph Joachim in concert; Joachim later wrote to Walker to express his gratitude for the quality of his playing. Privately, he played violin sonatas with Albert Einstein.
He edited the Musical Gazette, a quarterly publication, from 1899 to 1902. He wrote the Beethoven number of the Music of the Masters series (1905). He wrote a number of articles for the 2nd edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1902). He wrote articles and critiques for The Times and Manchester Guardian, and wrote program notes for concerts. His most important literary work is History of Music in England (1907, rev. 1923; rev. 1952 by Jack Westrup). In 1996, the musicologist Paul Henry Lang wrote of it:
A particular position must be assigned to Ernest Walker, the author of A History of Music in England (1907); stand-offish, wildly unjust and unforgiving, Walker's assertions are so sweeping and extravagant that it would be a waste of space to discuss them. To put it bluntly, he was an eccentric, continually inconsistent, and often irresponsible. Sir Jack Westrup, in his new edition (1952), toned down the worst aspects of the work, but then it is no longer Walker.
Walker's essays written over a 30-year period were collected in Free Thought and the Musician (1946), in which he explains his philosophical, religious and mystical views. Although he is described [by whom?] as a man of unfailing integrity and kindliness, he was a man of strong prejudices: he condemned Victorian music, such as Arthur Sullivan ("disgraceful rubbish") and John Stainer's The Crucifixion, and he dismissed all medieval music as "pre-artistic".