User:Sfjohna

I was born in the UK and live there now, though for seven years I lived and worked in San Francisco. In real life I'm a technology analyst, previously a technology journalist and newsletter/magazine editor. But here my main interest is the arts, particularly music and literature. I studied music many years ago at the University of Keele and have a BA in Music and English. Later, while working, I completed an MA in Modern English Literature from the University of London, Birkbeck College with a thesis on melopoetics. My speciality is British music of the 20th Century.

Most of the entries below fill in some gaps in the story of 20th Century British music through marginal and neglected figures. My starting point has been the circle of composers and others who knew Constant Lambert. One entry typically leads to others that are closely (or not so closely) connected.

"Creations" doesn't imply ownership. Most of my subjects are so obscure that I'm likely to remain the prime contributor. But if others care enough to add to the entries then that's fine with me. It's sometimes hard to accept that others may know more or have a different perspective, but that's really the essence of Wikipedia, and it should be encouraged. Likewise, if others can correct errors and make style and format improvements it means they have noticed the material. The first original entry I contributed (under a different login name in those days) was Adrian Bell, on 6 September 2005. It still includes text recognisable from my original.

I only list "contributions" when the text added is roughly equal to or exceeding the length of other contributions - but many of these are still works in progress. I love Wikipedia, but many entries are still very inadequate, incomplete or inconsistent. I try to apply deep research to those that spark an interest (or more likely connect to something else I've been looking into) and turn them, if I can, into a well documented, unique resource that might end up as the most detailed available outside of specialized libraries. Of course I don't always succeed.

Creations
• Abbotsholme Arts Society (9/23)

• Yvonne Adair (5/23)

• Robert Brydges Addison (6/23)

• Emanuel Abraham Aguilar (6/23)

• Carlo Albanesi (7/21)

• Arthur Alexander (7/22)

• Basil Allchin (12/23)

• Herbert Antcliffe (4/24)

• Ralph Arnold (11/23)

• Alfred Louis Bacharach (4/23)

• Andrew Ball (7/22)

• Ballet Guild (9/22)

• Henry Charles Banister (6/23)

• Laura Wilson Barker (2/23)

• BBC Theatre Organ (9/23)

• Herbert Bedford (5/20)

• Adrian Bell (9/05)

• Ernest Berk (7/24)

• Ferruccio Bonavia (4/23)

• Walter Bergmann (9/22)

• Oscar Beringer (8/22)

• Ethel Edith Bilsland (5/22)

• Maurice Blower (11/23)

• Marcus Blunt (8/22)

• Timothy Bowers (10/22)

• Ethel Mary Boyce (10/23)

• Sam Hartley Braithwaite (5/20)

• List of British clarinet sonatas (11/22)

• Christopher Brown (2/24)

• Maurice J. E. Brown (9/23)

• Carnegie Collection of British Music (4/20)

• Isaiah Burnell (3/24)

• Howard Ellis Carr (6/22)

• Cello Sonata (Ireland) (11/22)

• Chief music critics (8/21)

• Chinoiserie (music)

• Clements Memorial Prize (12/22)

• Hugo Cole (5/24)

• Mary Coleridge (musical settings) (2/21)

• John Collett (6/23)

• Composers in literature (1/22)

• Computergram International (2/24)

• Martin Cooper (5/21)

• Launcelot Cranmer-Byng (3/24)

• Edric Cundell (1/21)

• Eiluned Davies (9/22)

• John David Davis (11/21)

• Ivey Dickson (4/24)

• A Dictionary of Musical Themes (5/20)

• Deirdre of the Sorrows (musical settings) (2/20)

• Francis Durbridge (novels and list of novels - 2/20)

• Domino Island (Bagley) (5/22)

• Frederick T Durrant (10/23)

• Christopher Edmunds (5/23)

• Lilian Elkington (3/23)

• David Ellis (6/23)

• Emigré musicians in Britain (2/20)

• English Ladies' Orchestral Society

• English String Quartet (12/21)

• Fantasia on Auld Lang Syne (Tomlinson) (9/23)

• Merrick Farran (6/24)

• Roger Fiske (10/22)

• Lewis Foreman (6/24)

• Alan Frank (1/20)

• Norman Fraser (9/23)

• Norman Fulton (9/22)

• Bernard Geary (5/23)

• James Gibb (7/23)

• William Gillock (6/23)

• Adolphe Goossens (7/23)

• Marie Goossens (10/22)

• John Goss (1/23)

• David Gow (12/22)

• Michael Graubart (7/24)

• Hyam Greenbaum (10/19)

• George Eugene Griffin (7/23)

• Grimson (musical family) (10/22)

• William Lewarne Harris (9/22)

• Sidney Harrison (3/20)

• Cécile Hartog (8/22)

• Stanley Hawley (4/24)

• Walter Battison Haynes (8/19)

• John Rippiner Heath (5/22)

• Robert Herrick (in music) (7/21)

• Ralph Hill (8/21)

• Arthur Hinton (10/21)

• Trevor Hold (2/21)

• Florence Hooton (12/21)

• Robin Hull (11/23)

• Jan Ingenhoven (5/24)

• Archibald Jacob (1/23)

• Peter Jacobs (7/21)

• Karel Janovický (2/20)

• Ian Kellam (2/24)

• Renna Kellaway (4/24)

• Adrian Kerridge (6/24)

• Gwynne Kimpton (11/23)

• Frida Kindler (3/24)

• Reginald King (8/23)

• Duncan Lamont (10/22)

• Mabel Lander (1/21)

• Robin Legge (3/22)

• Maria Levinskaya (1/24)

• London Repertoire Orchestra (10/19)

• Fiona Macleod (musical settings) (11/20)

• William Gray McNaught (7/22)

• Basil Maine (11/19)

• Jeffrey Mark (6/21)

• Roger Marsh (2/24)

• Gwendolen Mason (3/24)

• John Henry Mee (7/23)

• Kathleen Merritt (11/23)

• Merry England (music) (12/20)

• Edward Mitchell (3/20)

• Angus Morrison (5/20)

• David Moule-Evans (11/19)

• George Newson (10/22)

• Seumas O'Sullivan (musical settings) (10/21)

• Palm Court music (6/21)

• King Palmer (10/18)

• Eric Parkin (12/22)

• Mary and Geraldine Peppin (1/21)

• Helen Perkin (7/22)

• Montague Phillips (2/22)

• Patrick Piggott (6/23)

• Adam Pounds (2/24)

• Humphrey Procter-Gregg (11/21)

• Stephen Pruslin (10/22)

• John Purkis (2/24)

• Helen Pyke (9/22)

• Basil Ramsey (7/22)

• Douglas Relf (9/22)

• Kathleen Riddick (3/21)

• Mervyn Roberts (9/22)

• Francis Routh (4/21)

• Royal College of Music war memorial (4/24)

• Eleanor Rudall (10/23)

• Daniel Ruyneman (6/22)

• Harold Rutland (6/22)

• Lionel Salter (8/22)

• Godfrey Sampson (1/22)

• Philip Sawyers (3/20)

• William Shelbye (7/23)

• Bernard Shore (11/19)

• David Snell (10/22)

• Fritz Spielmann (11/23)

• Surrey College of Music (2/20)

• Felix Swinstead (9/23)

• John Sykes (5/21)

• Test card music (6/21)

• Toy Symphony (Malcolm Arnold) (1/21)

• Pasquale Troise (1/24)

• Percy Turnbull (1/21)

• John Turner (7/23)

• Freya Waley-Cohen (1/20)

• Alfred M Wall (5/21)

• Harry Waldo Warner (1/20)

• Constance Warren (7/23)

• Francis Purcell Warren (4/24)

• Rosabel Watson (4/24)

• Cedric West (3/24)

• Christopher Whelen (4/20)

• Felix Harold White (4/20)

• Gerrard Williams (5/23)

• Geoffrey Winters (9/23)

• Christopher Wilson (6/21)

• Stanley Herbert Wilson (5/21)

• Leon Young (6/24)

Substantial contributions
• Gerald Abraham

• Eleanor Alberga

• Denis ApIvor

• Stanley Bate

• Archie Camden

• Bernard van Dieren

• Thomas Dunhill

• Harry Farjeon

• Anthony Gilbert (composer)

• Alan Gray

• Cecil Gray

• Kyla Greenbaum

• Pamela Harrison

• Spike Hughes

• Michael Hurd

• Hugh Kingsmill

• Constant Lambert

• Wilfrid Mellers

• R O Morris

• Herbert Murrill

• The Musical Times

• Boyd Neel

• Elizabeth Poston

• Ebenezer Prout

• John Pudney

• Peter Quennell

• Bob Sharples

• Freda Swain

• Randall Swingler

Additions
• Oskar Adler

• Denes Agay

• Anthology

• Apollonicon

• Neil Ardley

• Algernon Ashton

• Ivor Atkins

• Enid Bagnold

• William Baines

• Tadeusz Baird

• Ballade of London Nights

• John Banting

• BBC Orchestras and Singers

• Jack Beaver

• Ronald Binge

• Blooms of Dublin

• Bothampstead

• Rutland Boughton

• James Bowman

• Ina Boyle

• Herbert Brewer

• Dora Bright

• Tony Britten

• Nicholas Brodszky

• Antonio Brosa

• Percy Buck

• Anthony Burgess (music) (11/23)

• William Caine

• Calling Paul Temple

• Basil Cameron

• Adam Carse

• Rex Carver

• John Carmichael

• William Carragan

• Doreen Carwithen

• John Casken

• Herbert Chappell

• Francis Chagrin

• James Kenelm Clarke

• Frederic Cliffe

• Hubert Clifford

• Norman Cocker

• Walter Willson Cobbett

• Walter Willson Cobbett Medal

• Avril Coleridge-Taylor

• Anthony Collins

• Collins GEM books (list)

• Composer of the Week

• The Constant Nymph

• Jean Coulthard

• David Cox

• Guirne Creith

• Edmund Crispin

• Ronald Crichton

• William Crotch

• Eric Crozier

• Frederic Curzon

• Caroline Dale

• Syd Dale

• Marie Dare

• Harold Darke

• Christian Darnton

• Carl Davis

• Evan Thomas Davies

• Dead Cert (1974 film)

• Norman Demuth

• Edward J. Dent

• Diegetic music

• Gerald Dodson

• Carl Dolmetsch

• Bruno Ducol

• Francis Durbridge (novels)

• Brian Easdale

• Joan Adeney Easdale

• Michael Easton

• Rosalind Ellicott

• David Evans

• Brian Fahey

• Ernest Farrar

• Arthur Farwell

• Finnegans Wake (music)

• Percy Fletcher

• Richard Flury

• Eric Fogg

• Cecil Forsyth

• Erika Fox

• Cheryl Frances-Hoad

• Benjamin Frankel

• Shena Fraser

• James Friskin

• Peter Gellhorn

• Anthony Gilbert (author)

• Eric Gilder

• Ruth Gipps

• Stanley Glasser

• Helen Glatz

• Goblin Market (adaptations)

• John Golland

• Grafton Galleries (history)

• Allan Gray

• Steve Gray

• Philip Green

• Arthur Greenslade

• John Greenwood

• Herbert Griffiths

• Wilhelm Grosz

• Ivor Gurney

• Patrick Hadley

• William Henry Hadow

• Helen Eugenia Hagan

• Mark Hambourg

• Handel Commemoration

• William Henry Harris

• Trevor Harvey

• Haydn Piano Trios No 38, 39, 40

• Haydn Piano Trios No 41, 42

• Haydn Piano Trios No 43, 44, 45

• Charles Swinnerton Heap

• Victor Hely-Hutchinson

• Leslie Heward

• Theodore Holland

• Laurie Holloway

• Edmund Hooper

• Peter Hope

• Joseph Horovitz

• The Hound of Heaven (musical settings)

• Hovingham Festival

• Dorothy Howell

• Arthur Eaglefield Hull

• Arthur Hutchings

• Ernest Irving

• Harry Isaacs

• Andrew Pryce Jackman

• Maurice Jacobson

• Reginald Jacques

• Laurie Johnson

• Kenneth V. Jones

• Archibald Joyce

• Robert Kahn

• Ottó Károlyi

• Walter Kaufmann

• Bryan Kelly

• Daisy Kennedy

• Antoinette Kirkwood

• Margaret Kitchin

• Judith Krantz

• Constant Lambert

• Left Bank Two

• Ethel Leginska

• Louis Levy

• Michael J Lewis

• Roger Lewis

• Vic Lewis

• Malcolm Lipkin

• David Lloyd Jones

• Emma Lomax

• Mark Lubbock

• Charles Lucas Medal

• Mary Lucas

• Vernon Lushington (musical family)

• Malcolm MacDonald

• Cecilia McDowall

• Clara Angela Macirone

• Elizabeth Maconchy

• John Malcolm

• John Manduell

• Philip Martell

• Carlo Martelli

• Mass in G minor (Vaughan Williams)

• Tobias Matthay

• Denis Matthews

• Hans May

• John Mayer

• Jack McLean

• John McLeod

• Frank Merrick

• Esther Meynell

• Hubert Stanley Middleton

• Benno Moiseiwitsch

• Bruce Montgomery

• Moonlight Feels Right (marimba solo)

• Norman O'Neill

• Bayan Northcott

• Vincent Novello

• George Oldroyd

• Oratorios (list)

• Buxton Orr

• Robin Orr

• Hugh Ottaway

• Oxford History of Music

• Clifton Parker

• part song

• Norman Peterkin

• Percy Pitt

• Poetry anthologies

• Alfred W Pollard

• Catharina Pratten

• Prescot Street

• Roger Quilter

• Steve Race

• Philip Radcliffe

• Paul Reade

• Hans Redlich

• Roger Redgate

• Reginald Redman

• Franz Reizenstein

• Kathleen Richards

• Alan Ridout

• The Rio Grande

• Hugh S. Roberton

• Roger Roger

• Edwin Roxburgh

• Alec Rowley

• Lionel Sainsbury

• Philip Sainton

• Leonard Salzedo

• Saturday Night Theatre

• Percy Scholes

• William Selby

• Percy Sherwood

• Vladislav Shoot

• Edouard Silas

• Simon Park Orchestra

• Caleb Simper

• Shostakovich, op. 87

• Sacheverell Sitwell

• Ivor Slaney

• William Smethergell

• Ethel Smyth

• Debroy Somers

• Arthur Somervell

• William Soutar (musical settings)

• Susan Spain-Dunk

• Eva Ruth Spalding

• Leopold Spinner

• Spiritualism in fiction

• SPNM

• Mischa Spoliansky

• Philip Spratley

• Peter Stadlen

• Erwin Stein

• Bernard Stevens

• Len Stevens

• Ernstalbrecht Stiebler

• Robert Still

• Norman Suckling

• Tannoy

• Vilém Tauský

• Teach Yourself

• Television operas (list)

• The King of Love My Shepherd Is

• Eric Thiman

• Terence Tiller

• Ernest Tomlinson

• Fred Tomlinson

• Donald Tovey

• Toy Symphony

• Tufton Street

• David Tunley

• John Veale

• Klaus Wachsmann

• Walenn (musical family)

• William Wallace

• Richard Henry Walthew

• Colin Wark

• Guy Warrack

• Raymond Warren

• Roger Webb

• George Weldon

• Egon Wellesz

• John White

• Percy Whitlock (music)

• Edward Williams

• Lambert Williamson

• Mortimer Wilson

• Peter Wishart

• William Wolstenholme

• Charles Wood

• Haydn Wood

• Margaret Louisa Woods

• Guy Woolfenden

• William Wordsworth

• Otto Zykan

Future plans

 * Eric Wetherell (BMS and others)
 * Cedric Thorpe Davie - selected list of concert works
 * List of British string quartets - in the sandbox
 * Inglis Gundry - selected list of works - ie all the operas
 * Edith Swepstone, needs a look, particularly the work list
 * Stanford 24 Preludes (two sets) - use template from Shostakovich 24
 * Entries on two Lambert ballets - Romeo and Juliet and Pomona
 * Joseph Jongen - improve the article! Perhaps add annotated list of works
 * Musical Exoticism - vast subject, touched on it in Chinoiserie (music) - would tie some currently isolated pages together, ie Turkish music (style)
 * Pierre Arvay (1924-80), film and library music, Vision On "Merry Ocarina"
 * Robert Saxton, needs a good revision
 * Leslie Head - at least a redirect
 * Imogen Holst list of works - add recording refs, esp. 'Discovering Imogen' (Sept 24)
 * Charles Woodhouse - https://www.musicweb-international.com/amateurs/Woodhouse.html

Precious
You are recipient no. 2478 of Precious, a prize of QAI. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:22, 14 November 2020 (UTC)

Contribution timeline and rationale
(this is an ongoing experiment, for my own benefit)

Adrian Bell My first contribution, started on Tuesday, 6 September 2005 (under the IP address 217.207.153.51, and significantly a work day morning - as ever I was finding an excuse not to do my real work). It would have been written in my then office in Newbury, Berkshire, where I rented one small room at the top of a house on the London Road, near the Robin Hood Roundabout. I'd read his book Corduroy and was intrigued to find out his son was the war correspondent Martin Bell - and then that his daughter was Anthea Bell, translator of Kafka. That set me off tweaking their entries too, and I was off. I also began looking into the history of the crossword puzzle, to which Adrian Bell was an early contributor. And I dug out details of all of his less famous books. Around 32% of the article is still attributable to me (in September 2023), including that worklist. However, as far as I remember, I didn't write any further significant contributions until I set up this account on 6 June 2017, to record the death of composer Malcolm Lipkin.

Bernard van Dieren and Cecil Gray These were both existing entries, but in a bit of a mess (van Dieren, though it was substantial and included direct contributions from Barry Smith) and too short (Cecil Gray, it was just a few lines). I started editing and adding to both early in September 2018. For van Dieren it was mostly the Musical Style section and worklist (which someone else, a German speaker, helped to tidy up later). My contribution is now 47%. For Gray I added biographical details, survey of the music and "personal", including a lot of stuff I'd never seen before (for instance, his affair with H.D. and their daughter Perdita). My contribution to Gray is now 83% (Sept 23). Both are absolutely fascinating characters, though Gray especially remains rather obscure.

Harry Farjeon A representative of that less popular thread of composers trained at the Royal Academy of Music during this period (his contemoraries included York Bowen, Adam Carse, Benjamin Dale and Percy Hilder Miles, with a few relative stars like Arnold Bax and Eric Coates. He's also a member of the fascinating Farjeon family. A name that comes up often in the literature, and a significant teacher himself, but someone whose music I knew nothing about, because it just isn't heard anywhere these days or recorded. It was an existing entry when started on it in September 2018. I added quite a bit more on the music itself and spent a long time sorting out the list of works.

King Palmer Created on a Sunday (28 October, 2018), this one set a pattern for the future: neglected but intriguing British composers. Since reading Teach Yourself to Compose Music years ago - it's a simple but very clear introduction to the basics of music theory - I'd always wondered who the author King Palmer was, who set himself up as a well-known composer and even included a few extracts of his own music in the book - but whom I'd never heard of. It turned out he was a significant composer - of library music, often unattributed but used in many films, radio shows and documentaries. Over some time the entry has become the most detailed source generally available, and certainly the most accessible. I suppose I'm disappointed though that nobody else has made a significant contribution to it (90% still attributable to me in September 2023). If page views are accurate, the average views have been 71 a month - which actually isn't bad if it's true and if the count doesn't include me. (For contrast, the page Carl Davis, a composer in similar fields but much more recent and famous), gets around 320 page views per day). There was a spin-off in my expansion of the Teach Yourself entry, starting in January 2019 with a proper history and examples of the early publications and some background on the authors, often very interesting characters.

Hyam Greenbaum (started October 2019). There was almost nothing on the web about Hyam Greenbaum - a key friend of Constant Lambert, Walton, Warlock and others - and hardly any other sources either - probably because he didn't achieve his full potential. I did manage to draft in some material from the TV pages (opening of BBC television), and from the Sidonie Goossens connection. I think it's still the most detailed single piece about him. I also expanded the existing entry of his much younger sister, Kyla Greenbaum. Greenbaum helped Constant Lambert complete what I think of as Lambert's masterpiece, Summer's Last Will and Testament. Lambert inscribed the vocal score he gave to Greenbaum: "To Hyam Greenbaum (who as far as I remember wrote most of this work) from Constant Lambert".

Angus Morrison (started May 2020) and Ruth Gipps (contributions 2018-22). Angus Morrison was someone I'd actually met (at the Royal College of Music in 1982 for his 80th birthday celebration concert). Couldn't believe he didn't have an entry, but pianists who didn't leave any recordings are quickly forgotten. But he was a key member of the Constant Lambert/William Walton circle, and had a big influence on them. I also met Ruth Gipps, so I filled out her entry and added a new one on the London Repertoire Orchestra. And that got me looking into pioneering British women conductors, including (in chronological order) Florence Ashton Marshall, Cécile Hartog, Ethel Leginska, Grace Burrows, Gwynne Kimpton, Iris Lemare, Avril Coleridge-Taylor, Kathleen Merritt, Imogen Holst and Kathleen Riddick.

John Pudney and Hugh Kingsmill (2020-2022). I really enjoyed the childrens books of John Pudney when I was growing up, and they became rare and hard to find later on, when I wanted to re-read them as an adult. So I always looked out for his name. In 2020 I massively expanded his entry. Pudney was a jobbing writer who wrote whatever came his way to pay the bills - but he was also a war poet and at the end of his life an unflinching autobiographer. It took quite a lot of work to retrieve the information as Pudney was largely ignored by critics. So was Hugh Kingsmill, who apart from an enthusiastic group of friends, never gained widespread recognition and struggled to make the writing profession pay. His biography of Frank Harris, his conversational travelogues with Hesketh Pearson, and his creative literary criticism in the short novella The Return of William Shakespeare are well worth exploring.

Mary and Geraldine Peppin (started January 2021). I first noticed this twin sister piano duo because they premiered Lambert's Trois Pièces Nègres pour les Touches Blanches in 1949. The were clearly very high profile at the time, and were linked to the circle of artists and musicians associated with the left wing Unity Theatre in King's Cross. Both also married left wing activists, and there's a suggestion of communist spying links during the war. Their later careers were much harder to document. I still can't believe that there isn't more written about these two. The entry led to other work, such as the pianist James Gibb, royal piano teacher Mabel Lander and a composer whom I'd long admired, Bernard Stevens.

Addressing the balance. It really irritates me that musical aspects (particularly classical music) of many subjects are downgraded or not included at all in many entries, such as settings of poetry or other texts, and musical festivals or people related to a particular place. Sometimes (as in Diegetic music and Merry England) there are some musical references related to film or popular music, but nothing on classical or music theatre. Tufton Street - which previously mentioned only Brexit politics - is a non-musical example. Entries where I've tried to redress the balance include Abbotsholme Arts Society (to Abbotsholm School), Tony Britten (where the only thing previously deemed inportant was his arrangement of a football theme tune), Anthony Burgess (music), Chinoiserie (music), Clements Memorial Prize (to Alfred J. Clements), Mary Coleridge musical settings, Deirdre of the Sorrows (musical settings), Diegetic music (musical theatre), Finnegans Wake (dramatic and musical adaptions), Goblin Market (adaptions), Robert Herrick in music, The Hound of Heaven (musical settings), The Hovingham Festival (to Hovingham), Lushington (musical family) (to Vernon Lushington), Fiona Macleod (musical settings), Merry England (music), Moonlight Feels Right (marimba solo), Palm court music (to Palm court), William Soutar (musical settings), Seumas O'Sullivan (musical settings), Test card music (to Test card) and Walenn (musical family) (to William Henry Walenn).

(to be continued.....)