Haydn Wood

Haydn Wood ( born March 25, 1882 in Slaithwaite (Yorkshire ), † March 11, 1959 in London) was an English composer and violinist.

Life and work

Haydn Wood grew up on the Isle of Man. In 1897 he came to the Royal College of Music in London. There he studied composition with Charles Villiers Stanford and violin with Enrique Fernández Arbós. This was followed by studies with César Thomson in Brussels.

As a violin soloist, he undertook extensive tours and concerts for 8 years along with the Canadian soprano Emma Albani. With the " imagination " for string quartet Wood won a 1905 Cobbett Prize. In 1909 he married the soprano Dorothy Court, with whom he often appeared together 1913-1925, which in many cases were heard songs from his own pen. As a composer of numerous orchestral works he was successful, which originated partly on behalf of the BBC. From 1939 he was director of the Performing Rights Society.

Wood each wrote 1 Concerto for Violin and Piano, Variations for Cello and Orchestra, an (unpublished heart) Symphony, stage works and about 200 songs and ballads ( best known " Roses of Picardy ", "A Brown Bird Singing" and "Love's Garden of Roses "). He became famous especially with over 80 of the " British Light Music" attributable orchestral works (variations, overtures, suites, rhapsodies and marches ), popular among other things, " London Landmarks Suite" with the phrase " Horse Guards, Whitehall ."