Sir John Blackwood McEwen (13 April 1868 – 14 June 1948) was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 classical composer and educator.

Biography

John Blackwood McEwen was born in Hawick

Hawick

Hawick is a town in the Scottish Borders of south east Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-southeast of Selkirk. It is one of the farthest towns from the sea in Scotland, in the heart of Teviotdale, and the biggest town in the former county of Roxburghshire. Hawick's architecture is...

 in 1868. After initial training in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, he studied with Ebenezer Prout

Ebenezer Prout

Ebenezer Prout , was an English musical theorist, writer, teacher and composer, whose instruction, afterwards embodied in a series of standard works, underpinned the work of many British musicians of succeeding generations....

, Corder and Tobias Matthay

Tobias Matthay

Tobias Augustus Matthay was an English pianist, teacher, and composer.-Biography:Matthaw as born in London in 1858 to parents who had come from northern Germany and were naturalised British subjects...

 at the Royal Academy of Music

Royal Academy of Music

The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. After returning to Scotland, where he was a choirmaster and teacher at Greenock

Greenock

Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...

 and Glasgow, he was invited to become Professor of Harmony and Composition at the RAM, from 1898 until 1924, and was Principal between 1924 and 1936.

McEwen co-founded the Society of British Composers in 1905.

He was knighted in 1931 and died in 1948 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, aged 80.

Music

He is best known for orchestral works on his native Galloway

Galloway

Galloway is an area in southwestern Scotland. It usually refers to the former counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire...

, such as A Solway Symphony (1909), Hills o' Heather and Where the Wild Thyme Blows (1918). His Three Border Ballads include "Grey Galloway" (1908), "The Demon Lover" (1906–1907) and "Coronach" (1906). Other works include Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity, a setting of The Hymn from Milton

John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...

's Ode of the same title. He wrote a Viola Concerto in 1901 at the request of Lionel Tertis

Lionel Tertis

Lionel Tertis, CBE was an English violist and one of the first viola players to find international fame.Tertis was born in West Hartlepool, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, and initially studied the violin in Leipzig and at the Royal Academy of Music in London...

, and nineteen string quartets (only seventeen are numbered), written over a fifty-year period (1893–1947).

He invented the term "inflected speech" and introduced it in his 14 Poems for inflected voice and piano after Margaret Forbes in 1943. This is equivalent to the sprechgesang

Sprechgesang

Sprechgesang and Sprechstimme are musical terms used to refer to an expressionist vocal technique between singing and speaking. Though sometimes used interchangeably, sprechgesang is a term directly related to the operatic recitative manner of singing , whereas sprechstimme is...

 of Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...

.

His main influences appear to be Scottish folk music, Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...

 and Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

, for example, in the third movement of A Solway Symphony which shows a very strong influence from Siegfried's Rhine Journey. Most of his music is not so derivative. He seems to have been a sort of predecessor of the Scottish Renaissance

Scottish Renaissance

The Scottish Renaissance was a mainly literary movement of the early to mid 20th century that can be seen as the Scottish version of modernism. It is sometimes referred to as the Scottish literary renaissance, although its influence went beyond literature into music, visual arts, and politics...

 in trying to use Scottish folk culture, but in a non-sentimental manner.

However, he wrote many pieces of music that were left unplayed and neglected and to this day lie in archives. Grove's Dictionary (1954) referred to him as "perhaps the most grievously neglected British composer of his generation". But he contributed to this state of affairs because he was never particularly concerned about bringing his work to the attention of the public.

Thanks to a couple of recordings of his works in the early 1990s, often performed by Moray Welsh, he has become known to a new generation of listeners. More recently, the Chilingirian Quartet has recorded ten of the string quartets. Several late string trios remain unrecorded.

String Quartet No. 2/Symphony in A minor

His Symphony in A minor (1892–1898) was rejected by publishers in its original form, and he was told it may receive better press as a string quartet. He did what was suggested, revised the work, and the String Quartet No. 2 in A minor became quite well known.

Until recently it was always played in this form, never in its original conception as a symphony. However, Dr Alasdair Mitchell, conductor and cellist, recently revived the piece in its symphonic form. Over a residential course he prepared it with the Edinburgh Secondary Schools' Orchestra and it premiered on 16 August 2008 at the Edinburgh Central Halls and will be performed for the first time in England on the 4 December 2010 by Durham University

Durham University

The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...

 Symphony Orchestra.

His "Threnody" quartet was arranged in 2007 for string orchestra, by the Glasgow based musician Gordon Rigby, and has been performed twice by the Scottish Philharmonic Orchestra. Score and parts are available from the Scottish Music Centre.

Selected works

Stage

• The Royal Rebel, Comic Opera in 3 acts (1909)

Orchestral

• Comala, Symphonic Poem (1889)
• Lanark, Overture (1890)
• Suite in E major (1893)
• Suite in F (1893)
• Overture to a Comedy (1895)
• Symphony in A minor (1892–1898)
• Three Border Ballads (1906–1908)

1. Coronach (1906)
2. The Demon Lover (1906–1907)
3. Grey Galloway (1908)
   • Solway, Symphony No. 5 in C minor (1911)
   • The Jocund Dance, Dance Tunes for string orchestra (1920, orchestrated 1927); original for string quartet
   • Suite of Old National Dances for string orchestra (1924); also for string quartet
   • Prelude (1925)
   • Where the Wild Thyme Blows, Prelude (1936)
   • Overture di ballo for chamber orchestra (1936)
   • Suite for string orchestra (1936)
4. Prelude
5. What the Cello Said
6. Der kleine Meister (The Little Masters)
7. Orientale
8. Scherzo
   • Suite in C major for string orchestra (1941)
   • Suite in D major for string orchestra (1941)
   • Suite "Ballet de Lilliput" for string orchestra and harp

Concertante

• Concerto for viola and orchestra (1901)
• Hills o' Heather, A Retrospect for cello and orchestra (1918)
• Prince Charlie, A Scottish Rhapsody for violin and orchestra (1924, orchestrated 1941); original for violin and piano

Chamber music

• String Quartet in F major (1893)
• String Quartet in F minor (1893)
• String Quartet No. 1 in F (1893)
• String Quartet No. 2 in A minor (1898); published in 1903
• Graih My Chree, Recitation Music for 2 violins, viola, cello, piano and percussion (1900)
• String Quartet No. 3 in E minor (1901)
• 6 Highlands Dances for violin and piano (1902)
• String Quartet No. 4 in C minor (1905)
• String Quintet "Phantasy-Quintet" in E minor (1911)
• "Nugae", 7 Bagatelles (String Quartet No. 5) for 2 violins, viola and cello (1912)

1. Lament in G minor
2. March of the Little Folk in E major
3. Peat Reek in G minor
4. Scherzino in G minor
5. Humoresque in A
6. The Dhu Loch in D
7. Red Murdoch in G minor
   • String Quartet No. 6 "Biscay" in A major (1913); published as No. 8
8. Le phare (The Lighthouse)
9. Les dunes (The Dunes)
10. La racleuse (The Oyster-Raker)
    • Sonata No. 1 in E major for violin and piano (1913)
    • Sonata No. 2 in F minor for violin and piano (1913–1914)
    • 2 Poems for violin and piano (1913)
11. Breath o' June
12. The Lone Shore
    • Sonata No. 3 in G for violin and piano (1913)
    • String Quartet No. 7 "Threnody" (1916); published as No. 9
    • "A Little Sonata" (Sonata No. 4) in A major for violin and piano (1917)
    • String Quartet No. 8 in E major (1918)
    • String Quartet No. 9 in B minor (1920)
    • The Jocund Dance, Dance Tunes (String Quartet No. 10) for 2 violins, viola and cello (1920); also for string orchestra
    • Martinmas Tide in G minor for violin and piano (1921)
    • Sonata No. 5 "Sonata-Fantasia" for violin and piano (1921)
    • String Quartet No. 11 in E minor (1921)
    • Prince Charlie, A Scottish Rhapsody for violin and piano (1924); also for violin and orchestra
    • Suite of Old National Dances, String Quartet No. 12 (1924); original version for string orchestra
    • String Quartet No. 13 in C minor (1928)
    • Sonata No. 6 for violin and piano (1929)
    • String Quartet No. 14 in D minor (1936)
    • A Little Quartet "In modo Scotico", String Quartet No. 15 (1936)
    • String Quartet No. 16 "Quartette provençale" (1936)
    • Piano Trio No. 2 in A minor (1937); after the 1936 Prelude Where the Wild Thyme Blows for orchestra
    • Improvisations provençales for violin and piano (1937)
    • 5 Preludes and a Fugue for 2 violins (1939); version for violin and viola (1942)
    • Under Northern Skies for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon (1939)
    • Sonata No. 7 in A minor for violin or viola and piano (1941)
    • Pericula, 6 trios avec piano (1943)
    • Piano Trio No. 3 "Rococo" (1943)
    • Piano Trio No. 4 "Fantasy" (1943)
    • Pericula (Experiments), 6 String Trios for violin, viola and cello (1943)
    • Pibroch for 2 violins, viola and cello (1943); arrangement of movment III of String Trio No. 2
    • String Quartet No. 17 "Fantasia" in E major (1947)
    • 2 Duos for oboe and piano
    • Romance for Violin
    • 5 Scottish Dances for violin and piano

Organ

• Festive March
• March

Piano

• Sonata in E minor (1903)
• 4 Sketches (1909)

1. Prelude
2. Quasi minuetto
3. Elegy
4. Humoreske
   • Suite de ballet for piano 4-hands (1912)
   • Vignettes from La Côte d'Argent (1918)
5. Petite Chérie (Little Darling)
6. Les Hirondelles (The Swallows)
7. Pantalon rouge (Red Trousers)
8. Crépuscule du soir mystique (Mystical Twilight)
9. La Rosière (The Motorboat)
   • Sonatina in G minor (1918)
   • 3 Preludes (1920)
10. A White Naiad in a Rippling Stream
11. A Rapt Seraph in a Moonlight Beam
12. The Dew by Fairy Feet Swept from the Green
    • On Southern Hills, 3 Sketches from Provençe (1938)
13. White Oxen
14. Drifting Clouds
15. L'improvisadou (The Improvisatore)
    • Ballet Suite (1938)
16. La Senorita
17. Intermezzo
18. Valsette
19. Alla Marcia
    • Allemande
    • Phyllis Hallain's Book
    • Sonatina in C
    • A Winter Poem

Vocal

• The River for voice and piano (1899); words by Moore Park
• The Vale of Glenariff for voice and piano (1899); words by Thomas McEwen
• Brevity for voice and piano (1905); words by Constance Travers
• Here's a Flower for Your Grave for voice and piano (1905); words by Justin Huntly McCarthy
• Love's But a Dance for voice and piano (1905); words by Henry Austin Dobson
  Henry Austin Dobson
  Henry Austin Dobson , commonly Austin Dobson, was an English poet and essayist.-Life:He was born at Plymouth, the eldest son of George Clarisse Dobson, a civil engineer, of French descent. When he was about eight, the family moved to Holyhead, and his first school was at Beaumaris in Anglesey...
  
  
• A Roundel of Rest for voice and piano (1905); words by Arthur Symons
  Arthur Symons
  Arthur William Symons , was a British poet, critic and magazine editor.-Life:Born in Milford Haven, Wales, of Cornish parents, Symons was educated privately, spending much of his time in France and Italy...
  
  
• 3 Songs for voice and piano (1906); words by Paul Verlaine
  Paul Verlaine
  Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
  
   in translation by A. Wingate

1. Song of Autumn
2. The Wood's Aglow
3. Soleils couchants
   • Sleep, Little Blossom for voice and piano (1909); words by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
   • The Gauger for voice and piano (1911); words by J. Meade Falkner
     J. Meade Falkner
     John Meade Falkner was an English novelist and poet, best known for his 1898 novel, Moonfleet. An extremely successful businessman as well, he became chairman of the arms manufacturer Armstrong Whitworth during World War I.-Life and works:Falkner was born in Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire and spent...
     
     
   • 14 Poems for inflected voice and piano (1943); words by Margaret Forbes
   • Day by Day for voice and piano
   • England, My England for voice and orchestra; words by William Ernest Henley
     William Ernest Henley
     William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus".-Life and career:...
     
     
   • Love's Remembrance for voice and piano
   • The Birds Lullaby for voice and piano; words by Pauline Johnson
     Pauline Johnson
     Emily Pauline Johnson , commonly known as E. Pauline Johnson or just Pauline Johnson, was a Canadian writer and performer popular in the late 19th century...
     
     

Choral

• The Vision of Jacob, Sacred Cantata for tenor, mixed chorus and orchestra (1892); words by Thomas McEwen
• A Scene from Hellas for female chorus and orchestra (1895, revised 1947); words by Percy Bysshe Shelley
  Percy Bysshe Shelley
  Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
  
  
• A Day in Spring, Cantata for female chorus and piano (1898); words by Thomas McEwen
• Evening, Two-Part Song for female chorus and piano (1898)
• The Last Chantey for chorus and orchestra (1898); words by Rudyard Kipling
  Rudyard Kipling
  Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
  
  
• Morning Greeting, Two-Part Song for female voices (1898)
• Slumber Song, Two-Part Song for female chorus and piano (1898)
• Weep No More, Four-Part Song for mixed chorus and piano (1902); words by John Fletcher
  John Fletcher (playwright)
  John Fletcher was a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's...
  
  
• Charm Me Asleep, Four-Part Song (1903); words by Robert Herrick
  Robert Herrick (poet)
  Robert Herrick was a 17th-century English poet.-Early life:Born in Cheapside, London, he was the seventh child and fourth son of Julia Stone and Nicholas Herrick, a prosperous goldsmith....
  
  
• Let Me the Canakin Clink, Four-Part Song (1903); words from Othello
  Othello
  The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
  
   by William Shakespeare
  William Shakespeare
  William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
  
  
• O That Men Would Praise the Lord, Anthem for Harvest (1903)
• Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity, Ode
  Ode
  Ode is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist...
  
   for soprano, chorus and orchestra (1905); words from On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
  On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
  On the Morning of Christ's Nativity is a nativity ode written by John Milton in 1629 and published in his Poems of Mr. John Milton . The poem describes Christ's Incarnation and his overthrow of earthly and pagan powers...
  
   by John Milton
  John Milton
  John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
  
  
• Troll the Bowl, Four-Part Song for mixed chorus and piano (1905); words by Thomas Dekker
• Allen-a-Dale, Four-Part Song for mixed chorus and piano (1907); words by Sir Walter Scott
  Walter Scott
  Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
  
  
• The Links o' Love, Part-Song for mixed chorus and piano (1909); words by Andrew Wanless
• Three Scenes from the Empire Pageant at the Cristal Palace, 1910 for chorus and wind orchestra (1909)
• The Wind in the Chimney, Part Song (1911); words by Bret Harte
  Bret Harte
  Francis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.- Life and career :...
  
  
• Autumn Song, Two-Part Song for female chorus and piano (1912)
• The Garland for mixed chorus and piano
• Psalm 24: Chorus and "Lift Up Your Hearts" for mixed chorus a cappella
• 6 Two-Part Songs for female voices and piano
• When through the Piazzetta for mixed chorus a cappella

Literary

• Exercises on Phrasing in Pianoforte Playing (1908)
• A Text-Book of Harmony and Counterpoint (1908)
• A Primer of Harmony for Use in Schools (1911)
• The Thought in Music: An Enquiry into the Principles of Musical Rhythm, Phrasing and Expression (1912)
• The Principles of Phrasing and Articulation in Music (1916)
• The Foundations of Musical Aesthetics, or the Elements of Music (1917)
• First Steps in Musical Composition (1922)
• Tempo Rubato, or Time-Variation in Musical Performance (1928)
• An Introduction to an Unpublished Edition of the Pianoforte Sonatas of Beethoven
  Ludwig van Beethoven
  Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
  
  (1932)

External links

• Digitised scores of his musical works can be viewed through the Five Centuries of Scottish Music collection hosted by AHDS Performing Arts