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It seems
astonishing that a composer whose output boasted a substantial
body of orchestral works including 15 suites, 9 rhapsodies,
8 overtures, 3 big concertante pieces and nearly 50 other
assorted items; six choral compositions, some chamber music
- notably a string quartet and over a dozen instrumental solos
- 7 song cycles and something in excess of 200 individual
songs, should today be remembered more or less by just three
of those vocal items (Roses of Picardy, A Brown Bird Singing
and Love's Garden of Roses) and a single movement of his London
Landmarks Suite - Horse Guards, Whitehall. It's not as if
his musical credentials were in any serious doubt. Quite simply,
Haydn Wood, along with others of similar stylistic ilk, fell
victim to changes in fashion and especially the sharp reaction
against music which preferred to concentrate on appeals to
the heart rather than the head, as it were.
Haydn Wood
was born into a musical family in the Yorkshire town of Slaithwaite
on March 25, 1882. Although his first name was pronounced
Hayden rather than in the manner of the great Franz Joseph,
it was, nonetheless, Austria's famous musical son who dictated
the nomenclature. Just days before his wife was due to produce
her off-spring, the future composer's father took himself
off to hear a performance of - appropriately enough - The
Creation and duly vowed that if the new arrival were to be
a boy, he would christen it Haydn. The gender requirement
being fulfilled, the promised name was accordingly bestowed!
The young
Wood was only two when the family moved to the Isle of Man
and it was here that he spent his childhood years. His innate
musical talents were encouraged by other members of the household
and it was from an elder brother that he began taking lessons
on the violin. It was soon obvious that his skills as a performer
lay far beyond the ordinary and within a remarkably short
space of time, he had earned a local reputation as a child
prodigy. Before his teens he was giving recitals and, in his
later years, he used to enjoy telling how he received what
he then regarded as the ultimate accolade - being invited
by the Douglas municipal authorities to play for holiday-makers
for two weeks in succession. At that time apparently, no one
was ever engaged for more than one week. Mind you, not all
members of the audience were overjoyed at this exception to
the rule and the young violinist's mother was mortified to
overhear the comment "Heavens! This terrible kid again!"
Wood's
exceptional abilities were eventually given wider recognition
with the awarding to him at the age of fifteen of an open
scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he was able
to benefit from the tuition of Enrique Fernandez Arbos for
violin, and Sir Charles Villiers Stanford for composition.
Through the latter's good offices, he was introduced to no
less a person than Joseph Joachim, who was visiting London.
The great Hungarian-born virtuoso was highly impressed with
the young man's playing and, on his return to the capital
three years later, went to the College with the express intention
of hearing Wood once again. Another distinguished violinist/composer
who granted him a private audience was Pablo Sarasate who
also expressed admiration and delight at what he heard. Both
men were present at the special concert commemorating the
opening of the Royal College of Music's Concert Hall on June
13, 1901 when Wood was the solo violinist and they lent their
wholehearted support to the decision to send him to Brussels
for special training under the world-renowned teacher, Cesar
Thomson.
On completion
of his studies with the Belgian maestro, Haydn Wood embarked
on a world tour as solo violinist with the soprano, Mme. Emma
Albani, the most popular oratorio singer of her day. His association
with the celebrated Canadian artiste was to last for some
eight years, but during this time, composition began to play
an increasingly important role and. Amongst a number of major
works that appeared in these early years were a substantial
Piano Concerto and a Phantasy String Quartet, the latter coming
second in the first Cobbett Prize competition in 1905. He
might well have continued writing in such 'serious' vein were
it not for his meeting with and, in 1909, duly marrying the
soprano Dorothy Court. It was for her that he started writing
lyrical, sentimental ballads that were eventually to overshadow
every other area of his creative output. He often appeared
on the musical stage with her and shared in the enthusiastic
applause which invariably greeted his songs. Although requiring
little compositional effort - the refrain of Love's Garden
of Roses, for example, came to Wood one evening in 1914 while
he was travelling on top of a London bus in the Finchley Road;
he quickly alighted and, by the murky light of a street gas-lamp,
quickly scribbled the tune down on the back of an envelope
- these vocal miniatures brought him considerable wealth:
Roses of Picardy alone earning him an estimated £100,000.
He didn't
give up writing on a larger scale altogether, however. The
encouragement of the BBC elicited works such as the Violin
Concerto and the Philharmonic Variations for cello and orchestra,
whilst miscellaneous Suites appeared from time to time. In
1917, he tried his hand at a musical with Cash on Delivery
and then, twelve years later, contributed to the show Dear
Love, which was staged at London's Palace Theatre with Claude
Hulbert, Sydney Howard, Dino Galvani, Robert Nainby and Vera
Pearce in the leading roles.
Occasionally,
Wood would take to the conductor's rostrum, usually to direct
his own pieces - he was, in fact, given his own programme
by the BBC on the occasion of his 70th birthday - and, from
1939, he served as a Director of the Performing Rights Society.
His final years were spent relatively quietly and he eventually
died in a London nursing-home on March 11, 1959, two weeks
before his 77th birthday.
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