|
Hubert Leslie Woodgate OBE (1902-1961), was
educated at the Royal College of Music and was famously Chorus
Master to the BBC. He was also Musical Director to the London
and North Eastern Railway and to various provincial choral
societies and was in demand as a festival adjudicator. His
ability as a choral trainer was outstanding and it was a pity
that a drink problem curtailed his career. A lot of his compositions
and arrangements were, inevitably, vocal or choral. Several
were performed in my home town, Doncaster, in the inter-war
period in concerts by the Doncaster LNER Society (the only
provincial LNER society to have its own orchestra); The
Sword of Olaf, Ceremonies for Christmas and a Fantasia
on Songs of London Town. One of the most attractive of
his solo songs was Primrose and Columbine; other works
included organ solos and a string quartet subtitled Song
of the North.
Woodgate did not however ignore lighter instrumental
forms; orchestral arrangements of mainly Irish folk songs,
a Romance and the impression Caerdydd[Cardiff]
both for small orchestra, an English Dance Suite (Pastoral
Dance, Country Dance, Hornpipe), published in versions for
piano solo and string orchestra, and the violin solos Dance
of Puck and An Old Legend.
No-one could question his work ethic –
but the same might be said of hundreds indeed thousands of
light music composers.
Philip Scowcroft
This biography first appeared in ‘Journal
Into Melody’, December 2010.
|
![[Go to top of page]](clips/top_a.gif){kind=small}
![[Go to top of page]](clips/top2a.gif){kind=small}