William Hurlstone

William Yeates Hurlstone Martin ( born January 7, 1876 in London, † May 30 1906 in London) was an English composer.

Life

Hurlstone was born in Kensington, London. His grandfather Frederick Yeates Hurlstone was the first president of the Royal Society of British Artists. His father, a physician and music lover, gradually became blind as a result of smallpox during his student days, forcing him to abandon his profession in later. The family moved to the vicinity of Salisbury, where the young Hurlstone sang in a church choir. The invited by the priest musician Hubert Parry and George Grove, head of the newly opened Royal College of Music were impressed by the skills of only eight years old. The Five Easy Waltzes for piano of the nine- year-old left his father print as Op 1. Due to increasing asthma, which should also contribute to the early death of the composer, Hurlstone had the choir soon leave.

Hurlstone, whose family moved back to the vicinity of London, took piano lessons and began the age of 16, to give themselves hours. During these years he continued to compose a self-taught, and received a scholarship for 1894-1898 studied composition at the Royal College of Music, whose director had become Parry. His teachers were, inter alia, the pianist Edward George Dannreuther and Charles Villiers Stanford. Stanford looked at Hurlstone as his most gifted students ( at the same time studying with him, including Gustav Holst, John Ireland, Frank Bridge and Ralph Vaughan Williams). Hurlstone concluded special friendship with the also died young Samuel Coleridge -Taylor. During his studies, several works Hurlstones came public performance, as in 1896, the Piano Concerto in D ( with Hurlstone as a soloist, Holst was played by trombone, Vaughan -Williams Triangle ).

After completing his studies, Hurlstone struck by a teacher, accompanist and conductor, in which he had to support his widowed mother now. His poor health prevented a career as a pianist. During this period he taught himself the violin and clarinet in order to be able to write better for these instruments. However, Hurlstone found the interest of music lovers that enabled him private performances of his works and supported him financially. 1904 was his Variations on a Swedish Air, with financial grant from a foundation to promote young British composers ( Patron's Fund) are listed.

1905 Hurlstone was appointed as a teacher at the Royal College of Music. However, his health condition deteriorated, and one day he fainted found on the steps of the college. There was a feverish cold and during convalescence, in which he was working on a symphonic poem, Hurlstone died at the age of only 30 years. The inscription on his grave in Croydon New Cemetery is borrowed from the epitaph of Franz Schubert and reads: "Music hath here entombed rich treasure but still fairer hopes" ( " The art of music here entombed a rich possession, but even fairer hopes ").

Work

Hurlstones musical roots are unmistakable in the late Romantic period (especially the one Brahms, but also his teacher Stanford influenced him ). Hurlstone left - except for the choral work Alfred the Great, some songs and melodramas - mostly instrumental works. In its differentiated and transparent instrumented orchestral music shows a preference for the variations and suite form (including Variations on an Original Theme, Variations on a Hungarian Air, The Magic Mirror Suite).

Hurlstones chamber music includes, inter alia, a trio for clarinet, bassoon and piano in G minor, a Piano Trio in G, a piano quartet in E minor, a quintet for piano and winds in G minor, a string quartet ( Fantasy Quartet) as well as one sonata for violin, cello, clarinet and bassoon (the latter in F major of 1906).

Weblink

• Source analysis of the Piano Trio in G minor, including biography, bibliography and discography Hurlstones (English)

• Composer
• Composer ( romance )
• Born 1876
• Died in 1906
• Man