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Madeleine Dring was born into a musical family. She spent her first four years at Raleigh Road, Harringay and moved to Streatham. She showed talent at an early age and took lessons in the junior department of the Royal College of Music beginning on her tenth birthday. She attended on scholarship for violin and piano. As part of their training, all of the students performed in the children's theatre. She began composition studies at the RCMJD with Stanley Drummond Wolff, Leslie Fly, and Percy Buck. She continued at the Royal College for senior-level study in music, where her composition teacher was Herbert Howells. She also studied mime and drama. Dring's love of theatre and music would coexist happily; many of her compositions were for the stage, radio, and television.
In 1947 she married Roger Lord, an oboist, for whom she composed several works, including the highly regarded Dances for solo oboe. They had a son in 1950.
A book, Madeleine Dring: Her Music, Her Life, by Ro Hancock-Child, was published in 2000 (2nd edition 2009), with cartoon illustrations from Dring's own notebooks. The effort was funded by a grant from Dring's husband, Roger Lord, in an effort to disseminate information about his former wife. Several articles, compact disc recordings and inclusions of Dring's biographical information in books about composers in the last decade have secured her compositions a place in the modern concert repertoire. Dring died in 1977 of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Music
A student of Herbert Howells, and inoccasionally Ralph Vaughan Williams, Madeleine Dring's style is unpretentious. She admired the idiomatic and rhythmically vibrant writing of Francis Poulenc, which is echoed in her works. Her harmonizations are often innovative and colorful. Her songs are highly lyrical and the words are set expertly. Her cabaret songs and West End Revue material sometimes featured her own lyrics and are full of clever writing, both musically and textually.
Dring never delved into large-scale works. Most of Dring's output was in shorter forms; she wrote a good deal of solo piano, songs with piano, and some chamber music, as well as many pedagogical works, mostly for piano. She completed a one-act opera, Cupboard Love, and a dance dramaThe Fair Queen of Wu, which was broadcast on BBC Television in 1951. She also wrote music for "The Real Princess," a ballet and for several stage plays in London given from 1946-1971.
Simon William Lord, Dring's grandson, used some of her compositions for tracks on his solo 'Lord Skywave' album.
Works
(Dring often provided no dates for her compositions; many dates come from Alistair Fisher's treatise on her songs.) Where there are no dates of composition, publication dates have been provided, most of which are posthumously published by her husband, Roger Lord. Some dates have been re-established of late using dates of first performances and other information as confirmed in collect of Dring's personal papers. Nearly 100 songs have recently been typeset and are awaiting publication.
Instrumental and vocal
Italian Dance (1960) Oboe and Piano
Fantasy Sonata (1938), piano and clarinet
Three Fantastic Variations on Lilliburlero (1948), two pianos
Jig (1948), piano
Prelude and Toccata (1948), piano
Tarantelle (1948), piano duet
Festival Scherzo (1951), piano and string orchestra;
Sonata for two pianos (1951)
March: for the New Year (1954), piano
Caribbean Dance (Tempo Tobago) (1959), piano duet or solo
Dance Suite (1961), piano
Polka (1962), oboe and piano
Colour Suite (1963), piano
Danza gaya (1965), two pianos or oboe and piano (original score housed at Royal College of Music, London)
Three Dances (1968), piano
Trio for Flute, Oboe, and Piano (1968)
Valse française (1980), solo or duo piano * (original scores housed at Royal College of Music, London)
Three Pieces: WIB Waltz, Sarabande, Tango (1983), flute and piano*
Waltz (1983), oboe and piano*
Suite (1984), harmonica and piano (later arranged by Peter Lord for oboe)*
Trio for oboe, bassoon, and harpsichord (1986)* (original score housed at Royal College of Music, London)
Idyll for oboe (viola) and piano (The composer's husband Roger Lord, disappointed that the piece remained unplayed and unpublished for many years, perhaps because of its chromaticism, decided to transcribe the solo part for oboe, his own instrument, to which it is well suited. Idyll was first recorded in 2007 by Thierry Cammaert, oboist of the Quartz Ensemble, a Belgian winds ensemble. The ensemble has also performed the work as a trio for flute, oboe and piano.)
Three Shakespeare Songs (original score housed at Royal College of Music, London), (1949) (Published by Legnick 1949, republished with 4 additional Shakespeare songs, Thames 1992, published as Dring Volume 1)* First performance 10 May 1944 with Ifor Evans, Baritone, Madeleine Dring, Accompanist, performed at the RCM
Thank you, Lord (1953), vocal, text L. Kyme (not published as composed)
An additional four songs with texts by L. Kyme were written in 1953. To date they have not been published.
The Pigtail (1963) vocal duet, text A. von Chamisso
Dedications: Five poems by R. Herrick (1967), vocal suite (published 1992 by Thames as Dring Volume 2)* (original score housed at Royal College of Music, London)
Love and time: Four Songs (1970s) (published in 1994 by Thames as Dring Volume 5)*
Four Night Songs: texts of Michael Armstrong (1976), (published 1985 Cambria (US) 1992 Thames as Dring Volume 3)*
Five Betjeman Songs (1976) (published in 1980 by Weinberger)* (original score housed at Royal College of Music, London)
Seven Songs for Medium Voice (various compositional dates, compiled and published by Thames in 1993 as Dring Volume 4)*
Six Songs for High Voice (various compositional dates, compiled and published by Thames in 1999 as Dring Volume 6)*
Include: My true-love hath my heart, Echoes, The Cherry Blooming, The Parting, The Enchantment, Love is a Sickness
Incidental music
The Emperor and the Nightingale (1941) Performed at the RCM 20 December 1941. No score is available at this time.
Tobias and the Angel (1946) Incidental music and two songs
Somebody’s Murdered Uncle (1947) for BBC radio; Duets: "I should have trusted you darling" and "There's nothing to stop us now" There are also two quartets: "There's no such thing as a perfect crime" and "Bloggins, Birch, and Frome," as well as a solo entitled, "J. Allington Slade."
The Buskers (1959), for which she provided Wedding Music
Little Laura Cartoons (1960–61), Dring provided and played music for six episodes
The Jackpot Question (1961), for Associated TV, repeated in 1962 with another cast
The Whisperers (1961), for Associated TV
The Provok’d Wife (1963), texts by Vanbrugh: Four pieces typeset by Alistair Fisher
The Lady and the Clerk (1964), for Associated TV
I Can Walk Where I Like, Can’t I? (1964), for Associated TV
When the Wind Blows (1965), for Associated TV
Helen and Edward and Henry (1966), for Associated TV
Variation on a Theme (1966), for Associated TV
Musical revues
Airs on a Shoestring (1953) Songs: "Model Models," Films on the Cheap Side at Cheapside" "Strained Relations," and "Snowman" (all lyrics by Charlotte Mitchell), "Sing High, Sing Low" (Lyrics by Madeleine Dring).
Pay the Piper (1954) "Pay the Piper" (Location of score unknown at this time).
From Here and There (1955) "Resolutions" and "Life Sentence" (Lyrics Charlotte Mitchell) (Location of scores unknown at this time)
Fresh Airs (1955) "Mother knows," Sketch "Witchery," and "Miss Spenser," (Lyricist Madeleine Dring) (Location of score for Miss Spenser unknown at this time)
Child’s Play (1958) Overture, "High in the Pines" and "Love song," "Hearts and Arrows," "Eye Opener," (Location of scores for three other songs unknown at this time)) (Lyricist Sean Rafferty)
Four to the Bar (1961) "Diedre" was included in this, also known as "Mother knows" from "Fresh Airs"
Ballet
Waiting for ITMA (1947), for BBC TV
The Real Princess (1971), later scored for 2 pianos
Opera
Cupboard Love (performed posthumously)
Other compositions
The Wild Swans (1950), children's play, Cygnet Company
The Fair Queen of Wu (1951), dance-drama for BBC TV
The Marsh Kings’s Daughter (1951), children’s play, Cygnet Company
