Charles Kennedy Scott
Encyclopedia
Charles Kennedy Scott was an English
organist
and choral conductor
who played an important part in developing the performance of choral and polyphonic music in England, especially of early and modern English music.
's), teacher of Counterpoint
and Fugue
, and under the organist-composer Edgar Tinel
(1854-1912). In 1897 he took the Premier Prix avec distinction and the Mailly Prize for organ playing. He settled in London in 1898 as a professional organist and teacher, and married a cousin who had also studied at Brussels.
, and formed the determination to lift English Elizabethan music from its position of comparative neglect. He scored many examples over the next years and held gatherings which became the core of his society. Later on the number of voices was increased to 60, and its work was extended to include modern compositions, both English and foreign, but always with emphasis on the English.
The Oriana Choir brought high standards of precision and flexibility to choral performance, which had a beneficial influence on choral music in general. Their work naturally drew Scott towards the contemporary English scene, and he came to know Balfour Gardiner and Arnold Bax
, and through them Norman O'Neill, Frederick Delius
, Gustav Holst
, Percy Grainger
, Benjamin Dale
, Roger Quilter
and others. Thus the Oriana gave madrigal concerts in the two series devoted to English contemporary music, of 1912 and 1913, promoted by Gardiner, and in the Philharmonic Society concert of 20 November 1913, under Scott and Balfour Gardiner, which also included Stanford, Gardiner and Parry
part-songs. In 1920 they gave the first hearing of Delius's unaccompanied choruses To be sung of a Summer Night on the Water. In 1922 they sang in a special concert of the works of Arnold Bax
, with the Goossens Orchestra, giving the first performance of his motet for double choir Mater ora filium, a work dedicated to Charles Kennedy Scott. In 1926 and 1927 the Oriana joined with the Bach Cantata Club for performances of the Bach Mass in B Minor: in 1931 they sang works by Bax, Warlock
and Holst
at a Festival for the International Society of Contemporary Music, and in 1936 they formed the core of a 100-voice chorus for the first London performance of Fauré
's Requiem
, and for Schütz
's History of the Resurrection under Nadia Boulanger
. All of these performances were given at the Queen's Hall
, but latterly most Oriana concerts were at the Aeolian Hall
, usually three times yearly, and often in collaboration with the English Folk Dance Society
.
. This first appeared at a Philharmonic Society concert in February 1920, to give the first performance of Delius
's A Song of the High Hills
, and also Bach's Sing Ye to the Lord and Beethoven's Choral Symphony
(directed by Scott, under Albert Coates
). Most of its concerts took place in the Queen's Hall, where the space available limited the membership to about 300. The choir contained a large professional element, especially among the tenors, in order to achieve a high standard of performance: the costs of their employment were met principally by Balfour Gardiner.
The Choir gave two or three concerts of its own each season under its own conductor, but also made very numerous appearances with the Royal Philharmonic Society, the London Symphony Orchestra
, the BBC, and the Courtauld-Sargent Concerts (established 1929). On March 25 1920 they gave the first performance of Holst's The Hymn of Jesus, the composer conducting: they went on to introduce many modern works to London, including Delius's Requiem and Songs of Farewell, César Franck
's Psyche: St Patrick's Breastplate, Walsinghame and This Worldes Joie by Bax; Requiem Mass by Sir George Henschel
; April by Balfour Gardiner; Psalmus Hungaricus of Zoltan Kodaly
; San Francesco d'Assisi of Malipiero
; The Prison by Ethel Smyth
; The Canterbury Pilgrims and In Honour of the City by George Dyson
; Ode on a Grecian Urn by Philip Napier Miles
; Magnificat and Flourish for a Coronation by Vaughan Williams; Constant Lambert
's Summer's Last Will and Testament
, Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, Rachmaninoff's The Bells and Paul Hindemith
's Mathis der Maler. The choir was suspended in 1939 at the outbreak of War: when the London Philharmonic Choir was formed in 1946 Scott was unable to resume direction, and a new conductor was appointed.
The choir played a major part with the LSO in Sir Thomas Beecham
's 'revitalization' of Handel's Messiah in December 1926, and undertook much of the choral work in the Delius Festival of 1929. They gave many performances of the great standard works such as the B Minor Mass, the St Matthew Passion and St John Passion, the Christmas Oratorio, the Requiems of Mozart and Brahms, and many of the Handel oratorios. As an offshoot of the Philharmonic Choir appeared the Junior Philharmonic Choir, consisting of two to three hundred girls and young men from the London Secondary Schools' Festival, who gave several concerts from 1932 onwards in major religious works by Bach.
Also in 1922 Scott founded the Euterpe String Players.
s of J. S. Bach and his instrumental works, performed with resources similar to those which Bach himself must have planned for when he was composing. In this project Scott was joined by Hubert J. Foss
and E. Stanley Roper (organist of the Chapel Royal), and they received assistance from the Bach musicologist Dr Charles Sandford Terry (who contributed programme notes, and gave a lecture on Bach's Chorales and Chorale Preludes in 1927) and from Dr W. G. Whittaker, director of the Newcastle Bach Choir (on which the London Club was partly modelled). The Vice-President was Dr Albert Schweitzer
, who from time to time acted as organist at the Society's concerts. The choir of the Club consisted of twenty-five singers, mostly professional, while the instrumental work was an ensemble of London players called the Bach Chamber Orchestra. The choral concerts mostly took place at St. Margaret's, Westminster, and the orchestral performances at the Royal College of Music
. A command performance of the unaccompanied motets was given before Their Majesties at Buckingham Palace in 1927, and the Motet 'Jesu Joy and Treasure' was recorded for HMV in the same year.
On 27 November 1929, at the Annual Extra Meeting, a bicentennial performance of the St Matthew Passion, in English, using Dr Troutbeck's version and rejecting the Elgar-Atkin treatment, was given at Westminster with a 90-minute interval for dinner. The following resources were employed:
For the grand event of 1930 the Christmas Oratorio
was given complete with Dorothy Silk, Margaret Balfour, Henry Wendon and Keith Falkner.
By this date the Club had held 22 meetings including three performances of the Mass in B Minor (one in St Margaret's Church and one in Queen's Hall), twenty-five Church Cantatas, four Motets, three secular Cantatas, and various composite programmes and instrumental works. The subscription rate was 24 shillings (£1.4s.0d., i.e. £1.20p sterling) for a single seat to five concerts, £2.2s.0d. (two guineas) for a double ticket and £3 for a treble. Single Guest Tickets were 5s.9d. per concert.
There was a plan to amalgamate all four of the Kennedy choirs in 1939 for a series of 9 concerts illustrating a survey of choral music, but this was abandoned owing to the war.
, Marylebone, London, from 1929 to 1965. He taught singing, conducted the College Choir, and was involved in the governance of the College. The College holds an archive relating to him, including manuscripts of some choral works, personal notebooks, concert programmes including many for the Oriana Madrigal Society, press cuttings and letters including correspondence received from well-known English composers. The collection also includes programmes from the memorial services of famous musicians which belonged to Kathleen Ewart, a singer in the Phoebus Singers, also a choir conducted by Scott.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
and choral conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
who played an important part in developing the performance of choral and polyphonic music in England, especially of early and modern English music.
Training
Educated at Southampton Grammar School, he entered the Brussels Conservatory in 1894. Beginning by studying the violin, he transferred to the organ under the outstanding virtuoso and teacher Alphonse Mailly (1833-1918), who encouraged a special interest in plainchant and in the phrasing of J. S. Bach's organ music: he also studied composition under Hubert Ferdinand Kufferath (1818-1896) (a pupil of MendelssohnMendelssohn
Mendelson is a Polish/German Jewish family name, meaning "son of Mendel", Mendel being a Yiddish diminutive of the Hebrew given name Menahem, meaning "consoling" or "one who consoles".Mendelssohn is the surname of a number of people:...
's), teacher of Counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
and Fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
, and under the organist-composer Edgar Tinel
Edgar Tinel
Edgar Tinel was a Belgian composer and pianist.He was born in Sinaai, today part of Sint-Niklaas in East Flanders, Belgium, and died in Brussels. After studies at the Brussels Conservatory with Louis Brassin and François-Auguste Gevaert , he began a career as a virtuoso, but soon abandoned this...
(1854-1912). In 1897 he took the Premier Prix avec distinction and the Mailly Prize for organ playing. He settled in London in 1898 as a professional organist and teacher, and married a cousin who had also studied at Brussels.
Oriana Choir
In 1904 Scott founded the Oriana Madrigal Society, consisting of 36 voices, which made its first public appearance at the Portman Rooms in July 1905. Its initially stated object was 'to press the claims of our Elizabethan school', and 'to devote itself solely to the singing of English madrigals.' Scott was by chance shown the publications of the Musical Antiquarian Society, including a volume of madrigals by John WilbyeJohn Wilbye
John Wilbye , was an English madrigal composer. The son of a tanner, he was born at Brome, Suffolk, near Diss, and received the patronage of the Cornwallis family. It is thought that he accompanied Elizabeth Cornwallis to Hengrave Hall near Bury St...
, and formed the determination to lift English Elizabethan music from its position of comparative neglect. He scored many examples over the next years and held gatherings which became the core of his society. Later on the number of voices was increased to 60, and its work was extended to include modern compositions, both English and foreign, but always with emphasis on the English.
The Oriana Choir brought high standards of precision and flexibility to choral performance, which had a beneficial influence on choral music in general. Their work naturally drew Scott towards the contemporary English scene, and he came to know Balfour Gardiner and Arnold Bax
Arnold Bax
Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, KCVO was an English composer and poet. His musical style blended elements of romanticism and impressionism, often with influences from Irish literature and landscape. His orchestral scores are noted for their complexity and colourful instrumentation...
, and through them Norman O'Neill, Frederick Delius
Frederick Delius
Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, CH was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family of German extraction, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce...
, Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
, Percy Grainger
Percy Grainger
George Percy Aldridge Grainger , known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many...
, Benjamin Dale
Benjamin Dale
Benjamin James Dale was an English composer and academic who had a long association with the Royal Academy of Music. Dale showed compositional talent from an early age and went on to write a small but notable corpus of works...
, Roger Quilter
Roger Quilter
Roger Quilter was an English composer, known particularly for his songs.-Biography:Born in Hove, Sussex, Quilter was a younger son of Sir William Quilter, 1st Baronet, who was a noted art collector...
and others. Thus the Oriana gave madrigal concerts in the two series devoted to English contemporary music, of 1912 and 1913, promoted by Gardiner, and in the Philharmonic Society concert of 20 November 1913, under Scott and Balfour Gardiner, which also included Stanford, Gardiner and Parry
Hubert Parry
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet was an English composer, teacher and historian of music.Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", the coronation anthem "I was glad" and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words...
part-songs. In 1920 they gave the first hearing of Delius's unaccompanied choruses To be sung of a Summer Night on the Water. In 1922 they sang in a special concert of the works of Arnold Bax
Arnold Bax
Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, KCVO was an English composer and poet. His musical style blended elements of romanticism and impressionism, often with influences from Irish literature and landscape. His orchestral scores are noted for their complexity and colourful instrumentation...
, with the Goossens Orchestra, giving the first performance of his motet for double choir Mater ora filium, a work dedicated to Charles Kennedy Scott. In 1926 and 1927 the Oriana joined with the Bach Cantata Club for performances of the Bach Mass in B Minor: in 1931 they sang works by Bax, Warlock
Peter Warlock
Peter Warlock was a pseudonym of Philip Arnold Heseltine , an Anglo-Welsh composer and music critic. He used the pseudonym when composing, and is now better known by this name....
and Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
at a Festival for the International Society of Contemporary Music, and in 1936 they formed the core of a 100-voice chorus for the first London performance of Fauré
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
's Requiem
Requiem (Fauré)
Gabriel Fauré composed his Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 between 1887 and 1890. This choral–orchestral setting of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead is the best known of his large works. The most famous movement is the soprano aria Pie Jesu...
, and for Schütz
Schütz
Schütz is a German surname, deriving from schützen , and related to Schutz...
's History of the Resurrection under Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
. All of these performances were given at the Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
, but latterly most Oriana concerts were at the Aeolian Hall
Aeolian Hall (London)
Aeolian Hall located at 135-137 New Bond Street, began life as the Grosvenor Gallery, being built by Sir Coutts Lindsay in 1876, an accomplished amateur artist, with a predeliction for the aesthetic movement, for which he was held up to some ridicule. In 1883, he decided to light his gallery with...
, usually three times yearly, and often in collaboration with the English Folk Dance Society
English Folk Dance and Song Society
The English Folk Dance and Song Society was formed in 1932 when two organisations merged: the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dance Society. The EFDSS, a member-based organisation, was incorporated as a Company limited by guarantee in 1935 and became a Registered Charity The English Folk...
.
Recordings
- Delius, arr. Percy Grainger: Brigg Fair: Norman Stone (tenor), Oriana Madrigal Society directed by Charles Kennedy Scott (Dutton CD AX 8006)
Philharmonic Choir
In October 1919 Scott founded the Philharmonic Choir, the predecessor of the present London Philharmonic ChoirLondon Philharmonic Choir
The London Philharmonic Choir is one of the leading independent British choirs in the United Kingdom based in London. The Patron is Princess Alexandra, The Hon Lady Ogilvy and Sir Roger Norrington is President. The choir, comprising over 200 members, holds charitable status and is governed by a...
. This first appeared at a Philharmonic Society concert in February 1920, to give the first performance of Delius
Frederick Delius
Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, CH was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family of German extraction, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce...
's A Song of the High Hills
A Song of the High Hills
A Song of the High Hills is a work for tenor, soprano, chorus and orchestra by Frederick Delius. Composed in 1911, it was first performed under the direction of Albert Coates, at the Queen's Hall in London on February 26, 1920...
, and also Bach's Sing Ye to the Lord and Beethoven's Choral Symphony
Choral symphony
A choral symphony is a musical composition for orchestra, choir, sometimes with solo vocalists, which in its internal workings and overall musical architecture adheres broadly to symphonic musical form. The term "choral symphony" in this context was coined by Hector Berlioz when describing his...
(directed by Scott, under Albert Coates
Albert Coates (musician)
Albert Coates was an English conductor and composer. Born in Saint Petersburg where his English father was a successful businessman, he studied in Russia, England and Germany, before beginning his career as a conductor in a series of German opera houses...
). Most of its concerts took place in the Queen's Hall, where the space available limited the membership to about 300. The choir contained a large professional element, especially among the tenors, in order to achieve a high standard of performance: the costs of their employment were met principally by Balfour Gardiner.
The Choir gave two or three concerts of its own each season under its own conductor, but also made very numerous appearances with the Royal Philharmonic Society, the London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
, the BBC, and the Courtauld-Sargent Concerts (established 1929). On March 25 1920 they gave the first performance of Holst's The Hymn of Jesus, the composer conducting: they went on to introduce many modern works to London, including Delius's Requiem and Songs of Farewell, César Franck
César Franck
César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....
's Psyche: St Patrick's Breastplate, Walsinghame and This Worldes Joie by Bax; Requiem Mass by Sir George Henschel
George Henschel
Sir George Henschel , was a British baritone, pianist, conductor, and composer of German birth....
; April by Balfour Gardiner; Psalmus Hungaricus of Zoltan Kodaly
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
; San Francesco d'Assisi of Malipiero
Gian Francesco Malipiero
Gian Francesco Malipiero was an Italian composer, musicologist, music teacher and editor.-Early years:Born in Venice into an aristocratic family, the grandson of the opera composer Francesco Malipiero, Gian Francesco Malipiero was prevented by family troubles from pursuing his musical education in...
; The Prison by Ethel Smyth
Ethel Smyth
Dame Ethel Mary Smyth, DBE was an English composer and a leader of the women's suffrage movement.- Early career :...
; The Canterbury Pilgrims and In Honour of the City by George Dyson
George Dyson (composer)
Sir George Dyson KCVO was a well-known English musician and composer. His son is the physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson and among his grandchildren are the science historian George Dyson and Esther Dyson...
; Ode on a Grecian Urn by Philip Napier Miles
Philip Napier Miles
Philip Napier Miles JP DLitt h.c. was a prominent and wealthy citizen of Bristol, UK, who left his mark on the city, especially on what are now its western suburbs, through his musical and organizational abilities and through good works of various kinds...
; Magnificat and Flourish for a Coronation by Vaughan Williams; Constant Lambert
Constant Lambert
Leonard Constant Lambert was a British composer and conductor.-Early life:Lambert, the son of Russian-born Australian painter George Lambert, was educated at Christ's Hospital and the Royal College of Music...
's Summer's Last Will and Testament
Summer's Last Will and Testament (Lambert)
Summer's Last Will and Testament is a choral masque or cantata by Constant Lambert, written between 1932 and 1935, and premiered in 1936. It is scored for chorus and orchestra, with a baritone solo also featured in the last of its seven movements. It is based on the poem of the same name by...
, Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, Rachmaninoff's The Bells and Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
's Mathis der Maler. The choir was suspended in 1939 at the outbreak of War: when the London Philharmonic Choir was formed in 1946 Scott was unable to resume direction, and a new conductor was appointed.
The choir played a major part with the LSO in Sir Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
's 'revitalization' of Handel's Messiah in December 1926, and undertook much of the choral work in the Delius Festival of 1929. They gave many performances of the great standard works such as the B Minor Mass, the St Matthew Passion and St John Passion, the Christmas Oratorio, the Requiems of Mozart and Brahms, and many of the Handel oratorios. As an offshoot of the Philharmonic Choir appeared the Junior Philharmonic Choir, consisting of two to three hundred girls and young men from the London Secondary Schools' Festival, who gave several concerts from 1932 onwards in major religious works by Bach.
Recordings
- Mozart: Requiem Mass, K 626 (abridged version): Requiem aeternam, Kyrie, Dies Irae, Domine Jesu Christe, Hostias, Agnus Dei, Lux aeterna, Cum sanctis tuis. Soloists, Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra, directed by C. Kennedy Scott, 6 July 1926, Queen's Hall (3 12" 78rpm, HMV D 1147-49: others unpublished).
- Schubert: Mass in G major: Kyrie eleison, Gloria in Excelsis, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei. Elsie Suddaby, soprano; Howard Fry, baritone; Percy Manchester, tenor; Philharmonic Choir; London Symphony Orchestra; directed by Charles Kennedy Scott, 2 & 3 July 1928 (3 12" 78rpm, HMV D 1478-80).
A Cappella Singers
Scott created the A Cappella Singers as a small group of 14 professional singers, for singing madrigals and part-songs under chamber-music conditions rather than in the concert hall. It was first assembled in 1922, and gave most of its performances in private houses or for music clubs, though occasionally singing at Queen's Hall in company with other Kennedy Scott choirs.Recordings
- Purcell: Dido and Aeneas (first complete): Nancy EvansNancy EvansNancy Evans OBE was an English mezzo-soprano who had a notable career as a concert and opera singer. She is particularly associated with Benjamin Britten who wrote his song cycle, A Charm of Lullabies, and the role of Nancy in his opera Albert Herring for her.-Biography:Evans was born in Liverpool...
(Dido), Mary Hamlin (Belinda), Roy Henderson (Aeneas), Mary JarredMary JarredMary Jarred was an English opera singer of the mid-twentieth century. She is sometimes classed as a mezzo-soprano and sometimes as a contralto.-Biography:...
(Sorceress), Olive Dyer (Spirit), Dr Sydney Northcote (Sailor), Gladys Currie (Second woman), Gwen CatleyGwen CatleyGwen Catley was an English coloratura soprano who sang in opera, concert and revues. She often sang on radio and television, and made numerous recordings of songs and arias, mostly in English...
and Gladys Currie (Witches), Charles Kennedy Scott's A Cappella Singers, Boyd NeelBoyd NeelLouis Boyd Neel was an English conductor and academic. He is perhaps best known for revitalizing the genre of the chamber orchestra.-Early years:...
String Orchestra, Boris OrdBoris OrdBoris Ord , born Bernhard Ord, was an English organist, composer and musical director best known as the choir master of King's College, Cambridge....
(continuo), Clarence RaybouldClarence RaybouldClarence Raybould was born in Birmingham on 28 June 1886, to Robert J Raybould , a printer compositor, and Elen A Raybould , and died in Bideford on 27 March 1972. He was an English conductor, pianist and composer who conducted works ranging from musical comedy and operetta, Gilbert and Sullivan...
(conductor), Hubert J. Foss (Musical director). (Decca RecordsDecca RecordsDecca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, X 101-107, 7 12" 78rpm records, by subscription only for the Purcell Society).
Also in 1922 Scott founded the Euterpe String Players.
The Bach Cantata Club
The Bach Cantata Club was formed in 1926, with the aim of making known the church and secular cantataBach cantata
Bach cantata became a term for a cantata of the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach who was a prolific writer of the genre. Although many of his works are lost, around 200 cantatas survived....
s of J. S. Bach and his instrumental works, performed with resources similar to those which Bach himself must have planned for when he was composing. In this project Scott was joined by Hubert J. Foss
Hubert J. Foss
Hubert James Foss was an English pianist, composer, and first Musical Editor for Oxford University Press at Amen House in London. His work at the Press was a major factor in promoting music and musicians in England between the world wars, most notably Ralph Vaughan Williams, through publishing...
and E. Stanley Roper (organist of the Chapel Royal), and they received assistance from the Bach musicologist Dr Charles Sandford Terry (who contributed programme notes, and gave a lecture on Bach's Chorales and Chorale Preludes in 1927) and from Dr W. G. Whittaker, director of the Newcastle Bach Choir (on which the London Club was partly modelled). The Vice-President was Dr Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer OM was a German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire...
, who from time to time acted as organist at the Society's concerts. The choir of the Club consisted of twenty-five singers, mostly professional, while the instrumental work was an ensemble of London players called the Bach Chamber Orchestra. The choral concerts mostly took place at St. Margaret's, Westminster, and the orchestral performances at the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
. A command performance of the unaccompanied motets was given before Their Majesties at Buckingham Palace in 1927, and the Motet 'Jesu Joy and Treasure' was recorded for HMV in the same year.
On 27 November 1929, at the Annual Extra Meeting, a bicentennial performance of the St Matthew Passion, in English, using Dr Troutbeck's version and rejecting the Elgar-Atkin treatment, was given at Westminster with a 90-minute interval for dinner. The following resources were employed:
- Bruce Flegg (Narrator); Keith FalknerKeith FalknerSir Keith Falkner was a distinguished English bass-baritone singer especially associated with oratorio and concert recital, who later became Director of the Royal College of Music in London.- Childhood and youth :...
(Jesus); Elsie SuddabyElsie SuddabyElsie Suddaby was a leading British lyric soprano of the years between World War I and World War II. She was born in Leeds.A pupil of Sir Edward Bairstow, she was known as ‘The Lass With The Delicate Air’ .She was principal soprano in the bicentennial St Matthew Passion Elsie Suddaby (1893 -...
, Margaret BalfourMargaret BalfourMargaret Balfour was an English classical Contralto of the 1920s and 1930s. She is best remembered as the angel in Elgar's own recorded excerpts of The Dream of Gerontius and one of the 16 soloists in the original performance of Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music .She was also recorded by HMV...
, Archibald Winter, Arthur Cranmer. - Recitatives by Elsie Warner (Pilate's wife), Helen Tresillian, Ethel Robinson (Damsels), Mary Morris, Herbert Parsons (False witnesses), Wesley Dennison (High Priest), Arthur Cranmer (Peter), Walter Millard (Pilate), Leonard Rogers (Judas).
- Obbligati by Joseph Slater (flute), Leon GoossensLéon GoossensLéon Jean Goossens CBE, FRCM was a British oboist.He was born in Liverpool and studied at the Royal College of Music...
and James McDonagh (oboes), William PrimroseWilliam PrimroseWilliam Primrose CBE was a Scottish violist and teacher.-Biography:Primrose was born in Glasgow and studied violin initially. In 1919 he moved to study at the then Guildhall School of Music in London. On the urging of the accompanist Ivor Newton, Primrose moved to Belgium to study under Eugène...
(violin), Ivor James (cello). - Bach Cantata Choir: Two choirs, each with eight sopranos, four contraltos, three tenors and four basses (the numbers made up with the assistance of members of the Oriana and Philharmonic Choirs). Also The Boys of St Margaret's.
- Bach Chamber Orchestra: Two orchestras, each with two first violins, two second violins, two violas, two cellos, one double bass, two flutes, and two oboes (alternating with oboi d'amore and cor anglais in the first orchestra). (Leader: William Primrose).
- Organ (Herbert Dawson); Harpsichord (Frederic Jackson); Conductor (Charles Kennedy Scott).
For the grand event of 1930 the Christmas Oratorio
Christmas Oratorio
The Christmas Oratorio BWV 248, is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It was written for the Christmas season of 1734 incorporating music from earlier compositions, including three secular cantatas written during 1733 and 1734 and a...
was given complete with Dorothy Silk, Margaret Balfour, Henry Wendon and Keith Falkner.
By this date the Club had held 22 meetings including three performances of the Mass in B Minor (one in St Margaret's Church and one in Queen's Hall), twenty-five Church Cantatas, four Motets, three secular Cantatas, and various composite programmes and instrumental works. The subscription rate was 24 shillings (£1.4s.0d., i.e. £1.20p sterling) for a single seat to five concerts, £2.2s.0d. (two guineas) for a double ticket and £3 for a treble. Single Guest Tickets were 5s.9d. per concert.
Recordings
- Bach: Jesus, Joy and Treasure (Jesu meine Freude) motet, Bach Cantata Club conducted by Charles Kennedy Scott, 1927 (2 78rpm HMV D 1256-57).
- Columbia History of Music, Volume II - to the death of Bach and Handel:
- (Bach Cantata Club Choir) Rejoice in the Lord alway; Handel: May no rash intruder (Solomon); Bach: Vater unser in Himmelreich and Herzlich thut mich verlangen; Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring.
- (Strings of Bach Cantata Club) Like as the love-lorn turtle (with Doris Owens); Bach: E major violin concerto (with Yovanovitch Bratza); Sinfonia to Church Cantata 156 (with Leon GoossensLéon GoossensLéon Jean Goossens CBE, FRCM was a British oboist.He was born in Liverpool and studied at the Royal College of Music...
); Rondeau and Badinerie from Suite in B minor for flute (with Robert Murchie).
There was a plan to amalgamate all four of the Kennedy choirs in 1939 for a series of 9 concerts illustrating a survey of choral music, but this was abandoned owing to the war.
Teaching and archive
Scott was a member of staff of Trinity College of MusicTrinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...
, Marylebone, London, from 1929 to 1965. He taught singing, conducted the College Choir, and was involved in the governance of the College. The College holds an archive relating to him, including manuscripts of some choral works, personal notebooks, concert programmes including many for the Oriana Madrigal Society, press cuttings and letters including correspondence received from well-known English composers. The collection also includes programmes from the memorial services of famous musicians which belonged to Kathleen Ewart, a singer in the Phoebus Singers, also a choir conducted by Scott.
Family
Charles Kennedy Scott married Mary Donaldson: they were the parents of the aviator C. W. A. Scott (1903-1946), John Kennedy Scott and of Barbara Hamilton Scott, who married Major Leslie Stewart-Brown in October 1926.Writings
- Madrigal Singing: A Few Remarks on the Study of Madrigal Music with an explanation of the Modes and a Note on their Relation to Polyphony (London 1907): 2nd, Amplified Edition (OUP, London 1931): Reprint (Greenwood Press 1970).
- Word and Tone: An English Method of Vocal Technique for Solo Singers and Choralists. In Two Books. Book I Theoretical, Book II Practical (2 vols, J.M. Dent & Sons, London 1933).
- The Fundamentals of Singing: An Inquiry into the Mechanical and Expressive Aspects of the Art. (Cassell & Co., London 1954).
Musical Publications
- The Chelsea Song Book (folio), 20 traditional songs arranged for piano by Charles Kennedy Scott, with calligraphy by Margaret Shipton and 21 full and half-page chromolithographs by Juliet Wigan (Cresset Press Ltd, London 1927).
- Giovanni Battista PergolesiGiovanni Battista PergolesiGiovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian composer, violinist and organist.-Biography:Born at Iesi, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others...
Stabat Mater edited and arranged by Charles Kennedy Scott, (OUP London c.1927).