Henry Walford Davies | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 16thMaster of the King's Music | |
| In office 6 April 1934 – 11 March 1941 | |
| Monarchs | George V Edward VIII George VI |
| Preceded by | Edward Elgar |
| Succeeded by | Arnold Bax |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Henry Walford Davies 6 September 1869 Oswestry,Shropshire, England |
| Died | 11 March 1941(1941-03-11) (aged 71) Wrington,North Somerset, England |
| Alma mater | Royal College of Music |
Sir Henry Walford DaviesKCVO OBE (6 September 1869 – 11 March 1941) was an English composer, organist, and educator who held the titleMaster of the King's Music from 1934 until 1941. He served with theRoyal Air Force during the First World War, during which he composed theRoyal Air Force March Past, and was music adviser to theBritish Broadcasting Corporation, for whom he gave commended talks on music between 1924 and 1941.
Henry Walford Davies was born in the Shropshire town ofOswestry. He was the seventh of nine children of John Whitridge Davies and Susan,née Gregory, and the youngest of four surviving sons.[1] His father, although an accountant by profession, was an amateur musician who founded and conducted a choral society at Oswestry and was choirmaster of Christ ChurchCongregational church: at which Walford was a chorister,[2][3] and at which Walford's siblings, Charlie andHarold, later held the post of organist.[4] Harold Davies was professor of music at theUniversity of Adelaide from 1919 to 1947.[5] In 1882 Walford was accepted as achorister at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, by the organist,Sir George Elvey.[6]
When his voice broke in 1885 Davies left the choir and later that year was appointed organist of theRoyal Chapel of All Saints, Windsor Great Park and was secretary to Elvey's successor,Walter Parratt, and Dean (later Archbishop)Randall Davidson.[6] At this time British universities, includingCambridge, awarded "non-collegiate" music degrees to any applicant who could pass the necessary examinations.[n 1] Davies entered for the Cambridge bachelor of music examinations in 1889, but his exercise (a cantata,The Future, to words byMatthew Arnold) failed.[9] With the encouragement ofCharles Villiers Stanford, professor of music at Cambridge, Davies made a second attempt; it was successful, and he graduated in 1891.[1]
In 1890 Davies was awarded a scholarship in composition at theRoyal College of Music (RCM), London, where he was a student until 1894.[10] His teachers there wereHubert Parry and (for a single term) Stanford for composition,[11] andW. S. Rockstro (counterpoint),Herbert Sharpe (piano) and Haydn Inwards (violin). While still at the RCM he was organist of St George's Church,Campden Hill, for three months,[12] andSt Anne's Church, Soho for a year until 1891, when he resigned for health reasons.[6] In the following year was appointed organist ofChrist Church, Hampstead; he remained there until 1897, holding the post in tandem for the last two years with an appointment from 1895 as teacher of counterpoint at the RCM in succession to Rockstro, a post that he held until 1903.[6] He considered resigning the post in 1896, when he failed the counterpoint paper in the Cambridge examinations for the degree of doctor of music; he was successful at his second attempt, and the doctorate was conferred in March 1898.[1][13]
In May 1898 Davies was appointed organist and director of the choir at theTemple Church in theCity of London, a post he retained until 1923.[10] With this appointment, in the view of his biographer, Jeremy Dibble, Davies began to be seen as a prominent figure in British musical life.[1] As an organist he became well known both as a soloist and as a teacher – the most distinguished of his pupils beingLeopold Stokowski.[1] As a conductor he directed the London Church Choir Association (1901–13) and succeeded Stanford at theBach Choir (1902–07).[2][10]
As a composer Davies achieved his most substantial success in 1904, with his cantataEveryman, based on the 15th centurymorality play ofthe same name. His friend and biographerH. C. Colles wrote, "[T]he music itself was not like anything he had written before or would write again.Everyman was tumultuously received, and in the next few years given by every choral society in the country which aimed at a standard of firstrateness."[14] The work was also given in Australia and the US.[14][15]
During theFirst World War Davies joined the Committee for Music in War Time under Parry's chairmanship,[16] organised concerts for the troops in France and musical events for the Fight for Right movement.[1] In 1918 he was appointed director of music of theRoyal Air Force, with the rank ofmajor.[10] He established the RAF School of Music (attached to theGuildhall School of Music) and two RAF bands, and composed the "Royal Air Force March Past", to which a slow "trio" section was later added by his successor, MajorGeorge Dyson.[17] Since 1930 Walford Davies' "Solemn Melody" has been one of the permanent selection of national airs and mourning music performed onRemembrance Sunday atThe Cenotaph, Whitehall.[18]
In 1919 Davies accepted the professorship of music atUniversity College, Aberystwyth, together with the post of director of music for theUniversity of Wales and chairman of the National Council of Music.[19] Here, in the words of his biographer Henry Ley, he "laboured unceasingly for the musical enlightenment of the principality",[6] and in 1922 he was knighted inDavid Lloyd George'sresignation honours.[20]
In 1924 he gave the Cramb lectures at theUniversity of Glasgow, gave his first broadcast talk for theBBC, and was appointedGresham professor of music at theUniversity of London.[6] In the same year, at the age of fifty-four, he married (Constance) Margaret Isabel Evans (1898–1984), daughter of the Rev William Evans, Rector ofNarberth, Pembrokeshire; she was his junior by twenty-eight years.[1][21]
Davies wrote "God Be in My Head"[22][23] and several other pieces atWitham Hall, which was the home of a friend.[22] Davies was the godfather of Bridget Lyons, who was the daughter ofJames W. Webb-Jones ofSt George's School, Windsor Castle,[24][25][26] and the wife of the choristerPeter Stanley Lyons, who was subsequently the headmaster of Witham Hall School.[22]
Davies resigned his professorship at Aberystwyth in 1926, when he was appointed by the BBC as a music adviser,[1] but he remained chairman of the National Council of Music until his death.[11] He was from 1927 to 1932 organist and director of St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.[1]
Davies's BBC broadcast in April 1924 was the first of many he made between then and 1941. He became well known for his programmes "Music and the Ordinary Listener" (1926–9), his wartime broadcasts for children (1939–41), and "Everyman's Music" (1940–41).[1]The Musical Times called him "one of the world's first great broadcasters";The Times, in an obituary tribute said:
[H]is name has become known to many thousands of people who have not been interested hitherto in music or in musicians. He proved himself to be one of the very few lecturers who could immediately establish the sense of personal contact with audiences over the wireless. They have felt that they knew him and could enter into music, which was the absorbing interest of his life, through the personal relation which he always established immediately with his audiences. It was an almost unique gift.[27]
Colles wrote that Davies's regular listeners felt a proprietorial interest in him, recording one of them as remarking, "He always seemed to come right into the room with us."[14]
On the death ofSir Edward Elgar in 1934, Davies was appointed to succeed him asMaster of the King's Music.[n 2] As musical adviser to the BBC Davies moved from London toBristol when theBBC Symphony Orchestra and the corporation's music administration moved there on the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.[6]
Davies died atWrington, near Bristol, on 11 March 1941, and his ashes were interred in the graveyard ofBristol Cathedral.[6]
(Incomplete list)
| Other offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| New title RAF established | Royal Air Force Director of Music 1918 - ? | Succeeded by |
| Court offices | ||
| Preceded by | Master of the King's Musick 1934–1941 | Succeeded by |
