Ernest Austin

Life and works

He was born Ernest John Austin in Poplar, London (now in the borough of Tower Hamlets), the son of Elizabeth and William Austin, a shirt tailor. Ernest Austin was the younger brother of baritone and composer Frederic Austin (1872–1951).

He first worked for the Board of Trade and then pursued a career in business. Largely self-taught, by 1902 he had composed a piano sextet (first performed in 1910) and by the age of about 30 he had turned to music as a career. He worked as a copy-editor and reviser for the London music publisher Robert Elkin (Elkin & Co.), where he edited some of Cyril Scott's piano works for publication. According to Austin, Scott's manuscripts were not always legible, and "the published result was occasionally his personal 'best guess' as to the intentions of the composer."

He gave a concert of his own works in November 1908 in Wallington, London, including two Piano Trios (No. 2, Op.15, and No. 4), his brother Frederic Austin singing some songs along with Miss Grainger-Kerr (also a proponent of Cyril Scott's vocal works); a Piano Trio was also performed in November 1909. Austin was described as being "well known as an apostle of modernism" in a review of his Songs From The Highway, also published in 1909: "In his case the tendency manifests itself in the form of indefinite tonality and rhythm. 'Love's Tragedy', for instance, [...] is practically unbarred, and the accentuation is left to the discrimination of the singer, with whom it is to be hoped the accompanist will be in sympathy."

He had a passable baritone voice, and performed Norman O'Neill's setting of Keat's La Belle Sans Merci for baritone and orchestra at the Queen's Hall on 27 January 1910.

Another concert devoted to his own piano works and songs was given at St. James's Hall, London in November 1910; the solo pianist was Ernest Lees, the singers were Cecily Gleeson-White, Miss Grainger-Kerr, William Higley (who sang the title role in The Flying Dutchman at the Proms in 1905) and Frederic Austin, accompanied by Harold Brooke (professional pianist and editor at Novello & Co. who worked with Elgar on the publication of his Piano Quintet).

A considerable proportion of his output consisted of short piano pieces and unison songs suitable for children, and in an advertisement for his music in 1916 it was thought that "more than doubtful whether he has a rival among modern British composers who specialise in educational music."

The orchestral suite Stella-Mary Dances was written in memory of his oldest daughter who died in 1917, aged 12. They were played (along with his Vicar of Bray variations) on BBC Radio on 15 November 1929; the broadcast was followed by a concert of music from The Beggar's Opera by his brother Frederic, who also conducted.

One of his best-known works is The Pilgrim's Progress, a 12-section narrative tone poem setting for a solo organ of the work by John Bunyan; it takes about 2¾ hours to perform. There is a text which explains what is happening at each stage of the music which can be read by a narrator, and in the 12th movement, there are optional parts for choir (SSATTB), bells, and a solo violin. It was revived in November 1988 at St. Michael's, Cornhill, London, by organist Kevin Bowyer, who continues to perform it on occasion.

The song Farewell by Havergal Brian from his Op. 6 (Three Songs for contralto or baritone) - his first surviving work, from 1902 - was dedicated to Austin, as was Battle Song, from 6 Characteristic Songs, Op. 22, by Joseph Holbrooke.

Thoughts on music for children

From a letter by Austin to The Musical Times in 1918 about the music for the Associated Board exams:

"I close with an appeal to teachers. The future of English music rests with your pupils. These children are being trained for the ultimate purposes of deriving personal delight from the art and giving it to others. If the music they study gives them no pleasure, if they miss intimacy with the composer's idea—then it is so much wasted time. If you demand, as you have a right to demand, the right kind of music for them, you will get it. Publishers are in business to supply what you most need, but your needs must be known to them. Children have a good deal of latent romance and poetic insight, and music can bring this out and develop it with magical swiftness. By feeding every poetic tendency, often very personal and original, you will be building up, in each of them, a love for beauty which will never leave them. That would be great work, for what else is this life-quest in which we are all engaged? Do we get a fraction of the delight in living that we feel we are justly entitled to? Those of us who live on, bearing the inevitable blows of sorrow, can turn to music and other forms of Beauty and find in them the secret compensations of the Creator. Our children have the same road to travel, and they also must be prepared."

Family

He was married twice, firstly to Stella Reeve Muskett (b. 1874—d. Wallington, April or May 1925), with whom he had two daughters, Stella Mary (died 30 May 1917, aged 12; his orchestral suite Stella-Mary Dances, Op.58, was composed in her memory): and Margaret (1912-?). He married secondly Nell (maiden name unknown), died 12 April 1934.

Orchestra

Chamber

Organ

Piano

Songs

Aspiration; Fountain Song; I Made Thee Mine; The Infinite Voice; Life; Sigh No More Ladies (also arr. violin or cello, and piano); April Wears a Smiling Face; Tony the Turtle; Cradle Song; Sea Dogs; Sleep Little Rose; Sweet Night; The Woodland Tailor; A Song of Folly; Thoughts (vocal setting of Brahms's waltz, op.39 no.15)

Choral

Books