DiedNovember 7, 1950, Streatham, United Kingdom Similar PeopleSpencer Bent, Joseph Barnby, William Hayman Cummings, Sydney Carter
Imperial Echoes
George Arnold Haynes Safroni-Middleton, also known as Count Safroni (3 September 1873 – 7 November 1950) was a British composer, director, violinist, harpist, writer and amateur astronomer. For several works he used the pseudonym William H. Myddleton.
Safroni-Middleton was born in Kent. He studied violin with Pablo de Sarasate and afterwards started performing as violinist. He played the violin in the Orchestra of "Her Majesty's Theatre" in Sydney, the Orchestra of the Opera House in Auckland, the Providence Opera House in Providence (Rhode Island), the Tokyo Orchestra, the Government House (Sarawak) Orchestra and the Government House (Hayti) Mexico Orchestra. As solo performer he toured around Australia, South America, Italy and Spain.
Later he became bandmaster of the Orchestra of the Carl Rosa Opera Company in London.
He married on Alice Elizabetta St. John on 27 July 1910. Together they had five children: Alice Pauline, Gabrielle, Hugh, Joan and Mary M A.
As a writer he wrote many novels, travel guides and poems. He explored Borneo, Papua New Guinea en Malaysia.
As a composer he is mainly known for his marches and dance music for the harmony orchestra. His best known piece is probably Imperial Echoes (1913), which for many years was the theme of Radio Newsreel on BBC radio.
He died in Streatham and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery on 10 November 1950, age 77.
Works for orchestra
Imperial Echoes (BBC Radio Newsreel march)
The Leek
Works for harmony orchestra
American President, march
Boys of The Old Brigade
By Imperial Command, march
By Order of the King, march
Call of the Empire, march
Chanson de la Nuit, entr'acte
Down South
Firenze, waltz
House of Hanover, march
Imperial Echoes, march
Imperial March, march
King's Cavalier, march
Light of the Regiment
Men of the Mist, march
Negro dream
Salute the Standard, march
Samoan Love Waltz
Sierra Leone, march
The Dashing British, march
The Last Tryst, concert waltz
The Monk's Dream
The Night Riders, march
The Phantom Brigade, march
The Relief, march
The Shamrock
The Scottish Thistle
The Stronghold, march
Stage plays
La Foresta, musical comedy
Gabrielle, musical comedy
Publications
Bush Songs and Oversea Voices - Songs of the South Sea Islands, Australia, London, John Long, 1914, 159 p.
Sailor and beachcomber : confessions of a life at sea, in Australia and amid the islands of the Pacific, Grant Richards, London, UK, 1915, 304 p.
A Vagabond's Odyssey Being Further Reminiscences of a Wandering Sailor-Trou Badour in Many Lands, Dodd & Mead, 1916, 328 p.
Gabrielle of the Lagoon. a Romance of the South Seas, The Solomon Isles. J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia/London, 1919, 286 p.
South Sea Foam: The Romantic Adventures of a Modern Don Quixote in the Southern Seas, George H. Doran, 1920, 350 p.
Sestrina; a romance of the South Seas, George H. Doran, 1920, 256 p.
Tropic shadows, memories of the South Seas, together with reminiscences of the author's sea meetings with Joseph Conrad, London: The Richards Press, 1927, 302 p.
Tides of sunrise and sunset : the fourth dimension of romance, London : Heath Cranton, 1932. 219 p.
In the green leaf. A chapter of autobiography, London: Fortune Press, 1950, 199 p.
