Osian Ellis
Encyclopedia
Osian Gwynn Ellis CBE (born 8 February 1928) is a Welsh
harp
ist and composer.
in 1928
. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music
with Gwendolen Mason, whom he later succeeded as Professor of Harp from 1959 to 1989. He joined the London Symphony Orchestra
in 1961 and was Principal Harpist. He was a member of the Melos Ensemble and also formed the Osian Ellis Harp Ensemble.
His 1959 recording of Handel's
harp concertos (with Thurston Dart
) won the Grand Prix du Disque
. In 1962, the Melos Ensemble with Osian Ellis released what is considered by musicologist Paul Loeber the finest rendition ever of Ravel's Introduction and Allegro
, playing with Richard Adeney
(flute), Gervase de Peyer
(clarinet), Emanuel Hurwitz
and Ivor McMahon
(violin
), Cecil Aronowitz
(viola
) and Terence Weil
(cello
). The record, released on the L'oiseau-Lyre label, OL 50217, also included works by three other French composers — Debussy
: Sonata for Flute, Viola & Harp; Albert Roussel
: Serenade for Flute, Violin, Viola, Cello and Harp; and Guy Ropartz: Prelude, Marine and Chansons for Flute, Violin, Viola, Cello and Harp. He also took part in the ensemble's recording of Peter Maxwell Davies
's cantata
Leopardi Fragments.
Ellis was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1971. He is the Honorary President of the Wales International Harp Festival.
(for the Cheltenham
Festival in 1957), William Mathias
(for the Llandaff
Festival of 1970), Jorgen Jersild (1972), William Alwyn
(1979) and Robin Holloway
(1985).
Ellis is particularly known for his musical association with Benjamin Britten
, with whom he collaborated extensively. Britten wrote the harp part in several of his major pieces with Ellis in mind, particularly A Midsummer Night's Dream
, the War Requiem
and the Church Parables. Britten also wrote his Harp Suite (Op. 83) for Ellis (1969). In the last few years of Britten's life, when he could no longer accompany Peter Pears
on the piano, Britten wrote pieces for Pears and Ellis, including The Death of St Narcissus and A Birthday Hansel. Ellis appears in many first recordings of Britten's pieces, often with Britten himself conducting.
setting of a Dylan Thomas
poem.
His writings include The Story of the Harp in Wales (1991) ISBN 0-7083-1104-0 (a revision of an earlier publication in Welsh), which traces the harp's development and discusses some famous harpists.
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
ist and composer.
Career
Osian Ellis was born in Ffynnongroyw, FlintshireFlintshire
Flintshire is a county in north-east Wales. It borders Denbighshire, Wrexham and the English county of Cheshire. It is named after the historic county of Flintshire, which had notably different borders...
in 1928
1928 in Wales
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1928 to Wales and its people.-Incumbents:*Prince of Wales - Edward, Prince of Wales, son of King George V of the United Kingdom*Princess of Wales - vacant...
. He studied 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...
with Gwendolen Mason, whom he later succeeded as Professor of Harp from 1959 to 1989. He joined 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:...
in 1961 and was Principal Harpist. He was a member of the Melos Ensemble and also formed the Osian Ellis Harp Ensemble.
His 1959 recording of Handel's
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
harp concertos (with Thurston Dart
Thurston Dart
Robert Thurston Dart , was a British musicologist, conductor and keyboard player. From 1964 he was Professor of Music at King's College London....
) won the Grand Prix du Disque
Grand Prix du Disque
The Grand Prix du Disque is the premier French award for musical recordings. The award was inaugurated by l'Académie Charles Cros in 1948 and offers prizes in various categories. The categories vary from year to year, and multiple awards are often made in any one category in the same year...
. In 1962, the Melos Ensemble with Osian Ellis released what is considered by musicologist Paul Loeber the finest rendition ever of Ravel's Introduction and Allegro
Introduction and Allegro (Ravel)
Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and String Quartet was written by Maurice Ravel in 1905...
, playing with Richard Adeney
Richard Adeney
Richard Gilford Adeney was a British flautist who played principal flute with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra, was a soloist and a founding member of the Melos Ensemble.-Biography:...
(flute), Gervase de Peyer
Gervase de Peyer
Gervase Alan de Peyer is an English clarinetist and conductor.-Professional career:Gervase de Peyer was born in London and attended Bedales School. He was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he studied clarinet with Frederick Thurston and piano with Arthur Alexander...
(clarinet), Emanuel Hurwitz
Emanuel Hurwitz
Emanuel Hurwitz CBE was a British violinist. He was born in London with parents of Russian-Jewish ancestry....
and Ivor McMahon
Ivor McMahon
Ivor McMahon was an English violinist. He played with notable orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra and is best known for playing second violin in the Melos Ensemble.-Professional career:...
(violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
), Cecil Aronowitz
Cecil Aronowitz
Cecil Aronowitz was a British viola player, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading chamber musician and an influential teacher at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music.-Biography:...
(viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
) and Terence Weil
Terence Weil
Terence Weil was a British cellist, principal cellist of the English Chamber Orchestra, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading chamber musician and an influential teacher at the Royal Northern College of Music.-Biography:Terence Weil was trained as a cellist under Herbert Walenn at the...
(cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
). The record, released on the L'oiseau-Lyre label, OL 50217, also included works by three other French composers — Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
: Sonata for Flute, Viola & Harp; Albert Roussel
Albert Roussel
Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period...
: Serenade for Flute, Violin, Viola, Cello and Harp; and Guy Ropartz: Prelude, Marine and Chansons for Flute, Violin, Viola, Cello and Harp. He also took part in the ensemble's recording of Peter Maxwell Davies
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.-Biography:...
's cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
Leopardi Fragments.
Ellis was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1971. He is the Honorary President of the Wales International Harp Festival.
Influence on other musicians
Concertos have been written specially for him by Alun HoddinottAlun Hoddinott
Alun Hoddinott CBE , was a Welsh composer of classical music, one of the first to receive international recognition.-Life and works:...
(for the Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
Festival in 1957), William Mathias
William Mathias
William Mathias CBE was a Welsh composer.-Brief biography:Mathias was born in Whitland, Carmarthenshire. A child prodigy, he started playing the piano at the age of three and composing at the age of five. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Lennox Berkeley, where he was elected a fellow...
(for the Llandaff
Llandaff
Llandaff is a district in the north of Cardiff, capital of Wales, having been incorporated into the city in 1922. It is the seat of the Church in Wales Bishop of Llandaff, whose diocese covers the most populous area of South Wales. Much of the district is covered by parkland known as Llandaff...
Festival of 1970), Jorgen Jersild (1972), William Alwyn
William Alwyn
William Alwyn, CBE, born William Alwyn Smith was an English composer, conductor, and music teacher.-Life and music:...
(1979) and Robin Holloway
Robin Holloway
Robin Greville Holloway is an English composer.-Early life:From 1952 to 1957, he was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral...
(1985).
Ellis is particularly known for his musical association with Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
, with whom he collaborated extensively. Britten wrote the harp part in several of his major pieces with Ellis in mind, particularly A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera)
A Midsummer Night's Dream is an opera with music by Benjamin Britten and set to a libretto adapted by the composer and Peter Pears from William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream...
, the War Requiem
War Requiem
The War Requiem, Op. 66 is a large-scale, non-liturgical setting of the Requiem Mass composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed January 1962. Interspersed with the traditional Latin texts, in telling juxtaposition, are settings of Wilfred Owen poems...
and the Church Parables. Britten also wrote his Harp Suite (Op. 83) for Ellis (1969). In the last few years of Britten's life, when he could no longer accompany Peter Pears
Peter Pears
Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears CBE was an English tenor who was knighted in 1978. His career was closely associated with the composer Edward Benjamin Britten....
on the piano, Britten wrote pieces for Pears and Ellis, including The Death of St Narcissus and A Birthday Hansel. Ellis appears in many first recordings of Britten's pieces, often with Britten himself conducting.
Compositions and writings
His own compositions have drawn on his Welsh heritage, including settings of Welsh folksongs for tenor and harp and settings of medieval Welsh strict metre poems. Diversions for two harps includes a cerdd dantCerdd dant
Cerdd Dant or Canu Penillion is the art of vocal improvisation over a given melody in Welsh musical tradition. It is an important competition in eisteddfodau. The singer or choir sings a counter melody over a harp melody.Cerdd Dant is a unique tradition of singing lyrics over a harp accompaniment...
setting of a Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
poem.
His writings include The Story of the Harp in Wales (1991) ISBN 0-7083-1104-0 (a revision of an earlier publication in Welsh), which traces the harp's development and discusses some famous harpists.