Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Mary Augusta Wakefield
Mary Augusta Wakefield (19 August 1853 – 16 September 1910) was a British composer, contralto, festival organiser, and writer.
Wakefield was born in Kendal, where her paternal ancestors had been members of the Quaker community before converting to Anglicanism. Her parents William Henry Wakefield and Augusta Hagarty Wakefield had four sons (including the cricketer William Wakefield) and two other daughters. Her mother was from an Irish-American background. In the 1860s her father took over the family business, which included a bank and a gunpowder mill. In 1868, he built Sedgwick House a few miles outside Kendal. (The family gunpowder mill started in Sedgwick in the 18th century, but production had moved to a new site in 1850).
As a child, Wakefield learned traditional border folksongs from her nurses, which she later included in her collection Northern Songs. As a teenager she was sent to a finishing school in Brighton. She studied music in London with Alberto Randegger and George Henschel, and in Rome with Giovanni Sgambati.
Wakefield corresponded with and visited many musicians and writers, including Lucy Broadwood, J. A. Fuller Maitland, Herbert Oakeley, John Ruskin, John Stainer, and Maude Valérie White. Author Vernon Lee dedicated her short ghost story A Wicked Voice to Wakefield in 1887.
Wakefield suffered from neuritis and rheumatic problems from 1905 onwards and had poor health until she died on 16 February 1910. She is buried alongside her parents in the churchyard of St Thomas' Church, Crosscrake; her coffin was carried by the conductors of several choirs from the Festival, and members of those choirs sang in the funeral service.
Wakefield was an early member of the Folk Song Society (now the English Folk Dance and Song Society). She presented recitals throughout England, sometimes with Maude Valerie White. While in Rome in the 1880s, she socialised with composers Theo Marzials and Edvard Grieg. Grieg coached her on singing his songs and gave her an album of his compositions with this inscription: "Mary Wakefield with my best thanks for her beautiful songs. Edward Grieg. Roma. 1887."
Wakefield's musical compositions included:
Wakefield knew John Ruskin, whose many interests included music. Towards the end of his life she edited a collection of his observations on the subject, Ruskin on Music (1894). She presented lectures and wrote articles about various musical topics. Several of her articles were published in Murray's Magazine from July to December, 1889, under the title Foundation Stones of English Music . The topics of her lectures and articles included:
Hub AI
Mary Augusta Wakefield AI simulator
(@Mary Augusta Wakefield_simulator)
Mary Augusta Wakefield
Mary Augusta Wakefield (19 August 1853 – 16 September 1910) was a British composer, contralto, festival organiser, and writer.
Wakefield was born in Kendal, where her paternal ancestors had been members of the Quaker community before converting to Anglicanism. Her parents William Henry Wakefield and Augusta Hagarty Wakefield had four sons (including the cricketer William Wakefield) and two other daughters. Her mother was from an Irish-American background. In the 1860s her father took over the family business, which included a bank and a gunpowder mill. In 1868, he built Sedgwick House a few miles outside Kendal. (The family gunpowder mill started in Sedgwick in the 18th century, but production had moved to a new site in 1850).
As a child, Wakefield learned traditional border folksongs from her nurses, which she later included in her collection Northern Songs. As a teenager she was sent to a finishing school in Brighton. She studied music in London with Alberto Randegger and George Henschel, and in Rome with Giovanni Sgambati.
Wakefield corresponded with and visited many musicians and writers, including Lucy Broadwood, J. A. Fuller Maitland, Herbert Oakeley, John Ruskin, John Stainer, and Maude Valérie White. Author Vernon Lee dedicated her short ghost story A Wicked Voice to Wakefield in 1887.
Wakefield suffered from neuritis and rheumatic problems from 1905 onwards and had poor health until she died on 16 February 1910. She is buried alongside her parents in the churchyard of St Thomas' Church, Crosscrake; her coffin was carried by the conductors of several choirs from the Festival, and members of those choirs sang in the funeral service.
Wakefield was an early member of the Folk Song Society (now the English Folk Dance and Song Society). She presented recitals throughout England, sometimes with Maude Valerie White. While in Rome in the 1880s, she socialised with composers Theo Marzials and Edvard Grieg. Grieg coached her on singing his songs and gave her an album of his compositions with this inscription: "Mary Wakefield with my best thanks for her beautiful songs. Edward Grieg. Roma. 1887."
Wakefield's musical compositions included:
Wakefield knew John Ruskin, whose many interests included music. Towards the end of his life she edited a collection of his observations on the subject, Ruskin on Music (1894). She presented lectures and wrote articles about various musical topics. Several of her articles were published in Murray's Magazine from July to December, 1889, under the title Foundation Stones of English Music . The topics of her lectures and articles included: