Name Haydn Wood Education Royal College of Music | Role Composer | |
Died March 11, 1959, London, United Kingdom Albums The Romantic Piano Concerto, Volume 23: Holbrooke: Piano Concerto no. 1 "The Song of Gwin ap Nudd" / Wood: Piano Concerto in D minor Similar People Frederic Weatherly, Robert Farnon, Sidney Torch, Ernest Tomlinson, Charles Williams | ||
The Seafarer - Haydn Wood
Haydn Wood (25 March 1882 – 11 March 1959) was a 20th-century English composer and a respected violinist.
Contents
Life
Haydn Wood was born in the Yorkshire town of Slaithwaite on 25 March 1882. When he was three years old his family moved to the Isle of Man, an island which was often a source of inspiration for the composer.
In 1897, at the Royal College of Music, he studied violin with Enrique Fernandez Arbos and composition with Charles Villiers Stanford.
In 1901, he was soloist at a special concert commemorating the opening of the Royal College of Music's Concert Hall. The concert was attended by Joseph Joachim (who had heard him play before) and Pablo de Sarasate. They were so impressed that they sent him to Brussels for study with the renowned teacher Cesar Thomson. He then embarked on a world tour, accompanying the Canadian soprano Dame Emma Albani, and they continued their association for a further eight years.
From 1913 to 1926, he toured extensively with the soprano Dorothy Court whom he married in 1909. He also gained considerable success from his works, particularly his songs. From 1939, he served as a director of the Performing Right Society.
On the occasion of his 70th birthday he was given a full concert dedicated to his music by the BBC. He died in a London nursing home on 11 March 1959, two weeks before his 77th birthday.
Works
Haydn Wood was a prolific composer of orchestral music, including 15 suites, 9 rhapsodies, 8 overtures, 3 concertante pieces and nearly 50 other assorted works, including 180 individual songs.
His orchestral pieces were primarily of the "light music" style; a well known piece of his is the three-movement Fantasy-Concerto. Another is his London Landmarks Suite, particularly "Horse Guards, Whitehall". In 1916, he composed the popular song "Roses of Picardy" for his wife. After a time writing popular music, Wood began to write musical comedy; his best-known piece of this genre is the musical play Tina.
The tone poem Mannin Veen (pub. 1933, Manx for "Dear Isle of Man") was based on four Manx folk tunes, and is one of two works written originally for wind band by Wood. The work is also occasionally performed in its orchestral version.
Songs
Bird Of Love Divine
Montmartre March
Stanford Rhapsody
The Bandstand - Hyde Park
Love's Garden of Roses
A May-Day Overture
The Horseguards - Whitehall
Roving Fancies
It Is Only a Tiny Garden
Seafarer - The
Serenade to Youth
An Evening Song
Brown Bird Singing
Serenade in A major - Op 7
Closing Remarks
Like to the damask rose
Village Wedding
Homage March
Rondel / Mina
Piano Concerto in D minor: I —
Vienna
Interlude
Rondel - Op 16 - No 3
A State Ball at Buckingham Palace
Laughing Cavalier
Sea Shanties
Paris: III March: Montmartre
Harvesters' Dance
No 2 The Doctor
Frescoes Suite - 1:Vienna
Mina
Frescoes Suite Bandstand