Peter Dawson
Encyclopedia
Peter Smith Dawson was an Australian bass-baritone
and songwriter. Dawson gained worldwide renown through song recitals and many best-selling recordings of opera
tic aria
s, oratorio
solos and rousing ballad
s during a career spanning almost 60 years.
Although Dawson's repertoire embraced a great deal of now dated popular songs and light music, he possessed a remarkably fluent and technically adroit vocal technique which enabled him to excel in highly demanding classical pieces. His voice combined an attractive dark timbre with an ideal balance of diction and vocal placement. He also possessed a smooth legato, a strong but integrated 'attack' that eschewed intrusive aspirates, and a near-perfect ability to manage running passages and difficult musical ornaments such as roulade
s.
These skills probably derived from his studies with Sir Charles Santley
, a virtuoso English baritone
of the Victorian era. If Dawson's interpretations were not profoundly penetrating, they were not shallow either; and in his chosen field of English concert pieces of the vigorous, manly, outdoors kind, he remains unequalled. The tremendously high technical finish of his Handelian
singing sets an unmatched standard, too.
In 1984, Dawson was chosen by the Guinness Book of Recorded Sound as one of the top 10 singers on disc of all time, listed alongside such luminaries as Elvis Presley
and the great operatic tenor Enrico Caruso.
, South Australia. The youngest of nine children he attended East Adelaide Primary School then Pulteney Street Grammar School
. At the age of 17 he joined a church choir and received singing lessons from C.J. Stevens. Then, aged 19, he won a prize for the best bass solo in a competition at Ballarat
, Victoria, and began taking up concert engagements.
He was sent to London
to be taught by Sir Charles Santley
, who first sent him to F.L. Bamford of Glasgow
for six months’ basic training and coaching in vocal exercises, arias, oratorio pieces and classical songs. He then studied from 1903-1907 with Santley, who gave him a thorough training in voice production and a meticulous understanding of the great oratorios, especially Handel
's Messiah
, Mendelssohn
's Elijah
and Haydn
's The Creation. In 1904, he joined Santley on an eight-week concert tour of the West of England with the soprano
Emma Albani
.
He attended a large number of performances at Covent Garden
during the first decade of the 20th century, and heard many of the leading lower-voiced male singers of the age, including the baritones Titta Ruffo
, Pasquale Amato
, Mattia Battistini
, Mario Sammarco
and the basses Marcel Journet
, Édouard de Reszke
and Pol Plançon
. Throughout his life he acknowledged the "bel canto" example of Battistini. In addition to Italian and French opera, he grew to admire the German music dramas of Richard Wagner
.
On 20 May 1905, he married Annie Mortimer "Nan" Noble, daughter of the box-office manager of the Alhambra Theatre
, who sang professionally in the soprano
range under the name Annette George. Around this time, a Russian medical specialist assisted him to extend his upper range, until his compass extended from E flat in the bass to a high A or A flat. In 1909, he appeared at the Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden
, as the Night Watchman in The Mastersingers of Nuremberg
(opposite tenor Walter Hyde as David), with Hans Richter
conducting. During one of these performances, after winning a large kitty playing poker in the wings, he hurried on at his call, and accidentally scattered his winnings over the stage. (Dawson, who had a lively sense of humour, was a master at recounting such anecdotes, usually about other performers.) However, he did not find the pressures of the opera stage to be a congenial fit with his easygoing personality, and he elected instead to forge an alternative career as a concert and oratorio singer.
; but first (in 1909-1910) he made a successful six-month tour of Australia with the Amy Castles company of singers. On his return, he began appearing in Promenade Concerts
. A second long tour with his own company in Australia and New Zealand ended with the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914. He returned to England via South Africa, but decided to go back to Australia to enlist in the armed forces.
After the war and with another South African tour under his belt, Dawson returned to England. His voice was now entering its peak phase. A British tour ensued with International Celebrity Concerts, involving recitals of operatic numbers. Accompanied on the piano by Gerald Moore
, he then gave lieder recitals at the Wigmore Hall
in 1924. An extensive Australian tour (his sixth) occurred in 1931, and he paid further visits to his homeland in 1933, 1935, early 1939 and 1948-49. He made an extensive singing tour of India, Burma and the Straits Settlements during the 1930s. Dawson also visited Ireland. His first BBC
radio broadcast was made in 1931 and included lieder by Franz Schubert
and Johannes Brahms
: he subsequently became a prolific broadcaster, and was still active ‘on air’ as late as the 1950s.
was a major factor in the promotion and progression of Dawson's career. He made his first 78-rpm acoustic recordings in 1904, and continued to release songs for EMI
and HMV
until 1958, by which time vinyl stereo LPs had been introduced. A recent biography calculates that he produced in excess of 1,500 published recordings. A different estimate quoted in his autobiography suggests that the real total was closer to 3,500 different record titles. His first efforts were made for Edison-Bell
on wax cylinders in 1904. After a few experimental run-throughs, record producer Fred Gaisberg
signed Dawson to an exclusive contract to cut discs for the Gramophone Company
(the predecessor of HMV/EMI
) in 1906; he continued, however, to record on cylinders for Edison until that company closed its London studios not long before World War I
erupted. Dawson's standard repertoire rapidly became a mainstay of the HMV catalogue. It is worth noting that in addition to the HMV titles appearing under his own name, he recorded Scottish songs popularized by Harry Lauder
under the pseudonym Hector Grant, for the sister Zonophone
record label.
In 1906, Dawson participated in the first series of partially complete Gilbert and Sullivan
opera recordings, together with other studio recording artists. Beginning in 1919, he took part in an extensive series of musically complete recordings of Gilbert and Sullivan operetta
s with members of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
, under the supervision of Rupert D'Oyly Carte
, and conducted by HMV staff conductor George W. Byng. By 1920 he had achieved total record sales of five million discs. After the First World War, audio technology was improving, and he recut many of his more popular titles during the early 1920s. By the middle of that decade, his sales exceeded exceeded million discs in total. With the introduction of electrical microphone recording in 1925, the core body of his work was committed once again to disc, including new Gilbert and Sullivan versions under Sir Malcolm Sargent
. Dawson's electrical recordings from the late 1920s and early 1930s had the longest shelf-life, and most households owned at least one. By the Second World War his record sales had topped the 12 million mark. He even recorded some stereo tracks in the 1950s.
s and Chappell Recitals. He was an advocate of singing in English, and he ensured that his diction was of the utmost clarity when he sang.
He owed to his vocal mentor Charles Santley a taste and technique perfectly suited to oratorio
, of which Handel
's Messiah
was his favourite work. Handel standards ("O Ruddier than the Cherry"; "Why do the Nations?"; "Honour and Arms"; "Arm, arm ye Brave" and "Droop not Young Lover") and Mendelssohn
("I am a Roamer" and "It is Enough" (from Elijah)) remained constantly in his work. He sang Elgar
roles in exemplary fashion, too, including "Oh My Warriors" and "The Sword Song" ("Leap, Leap, to the Light") from Caractacus. His concert operatic titles were principally The Prologue (from Pagliacci
), Iago's Credo (Otello
), Even Bravest Heart (Faust
) –- written originally by Gounod
for Santley -- "Largo al Factotum" (The Barber of Seville
), "Non più andrai" (The Marriage of Figaro
), "O Star of Eve" (Tannhäuser
), the "Toreador Song" (Carmen
), "Pari siamo" (Rigoletto
) and "Within This Hallowed Dwelling" (The Magic Flute
).
The art of the German Lied attracted him also, notably Schubert
's "Der Erlkönig
", "Ave Maria
", "Who is Sylvia", "Sei mir gegrüsst", "Erstarrung", "Wasserflut", "Die Krähe" and "Ungeduld"; Schumann
's "Die Beiden Grenadier", "Frühlingsnacht"; Carl Loewe's "The Clock", "Edward"; Brahms
's "Die Mainacht", "Botschaft", "Ständchen", "Der Tod das ist die Kühle Nacht", "Blinde Kuh"; Richard Strauss
's "Traum durch die Dämmerung" and Hugo Wolf
's "Nun wandre Maria", "Verschwiegene Liebe". Russian standards also appeared in his recital programs, notably Tchaikovsky
's "To the Forest", "None but the Lonely Heart", "Don Juan's Serenade", Rachmaninoff
's "Christ is Risen" and Malashkin
's "O Could I But Express in Song".
However, it was in English language and British song that Dawson was especially famous, and his career helped to preserve the concert recital, and many of the older ballad type of songs, at a time when other forms of popular music were displacing the Victorian standards. He was particularly successful with the heartier, rollicking type of song, such as Off to Philadelphia, The Old Superb and Up from Somerset. He sang a good deal of the output of Stanford
and Arthur Somervell
, a few Sullivan
vocal warhorses, and a select range of items by contemporary composers such as Percy French, Peter Warlock
, Liza Lehmann
, Granville Bantock
, Eric Coates
, Roger Quilter
, Thomas Dunhill
, Edward German
, George Butterworth
, Gustav Holst
, Landon Ronald
, Michael Head, Frank Bridge
, Arnold Bax
and W.A. Aitken.
Many songs became personally identified with him, including "The Floral Dance
" (Katie Moss), "The Kerry Dance" (Molloy), "The Bandolero" (Stuart), "The Cobbler's Song" (from Chu Chin Chow
), "In a Monastery Garden" and "In a Persian Market" (Albert Ketèlbey
), "The Lute Player" (Allitsen), "The Old Brigade
", and "On the Road to Mandalay
" (Speaks and Hedgcock versions). His performance of the "Four Indian Love Lyrics" (Amy Woodforde-Finden) and his "Roses of Picardy" (Haydn Wood) were famous. He composed a number of songs himself, under the name J.P. McCall, most famously his setting of Rudyard Kipling
's "Boots", which won the author's approval and was one of Dawson's greatest successes.
His recitals were also enlivened by the inclusion of many Australian songs, notably "Waltzing Matilda
", "Song of Australia
", "Clancy of the Overflow
" and "The Rivetter" (Albert Arlen
's settings), "Six Australian Bush Songs", and also Alfred Hill
's version of the New Zealand Māori song "Waiata Poi".
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
and songwriter. Dawson gained worldwide renown through song recitals and many best-selling recordings of opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic aria
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
s, oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
solos and rousing ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s during a career spanning almost 60 years.
Although Dawson's repertoire embraced a great deal of now dated popular songs and light music, he possessed a remarkably fluent and technically adroit vocal technique which enabled him to excel in highly demanding classical pieces. His voice combined an attractive dark timbre with an ideal balance of diction and vocal placement. He also possessed a smooth legato, a strong but integrated 'attack' that eschewed intrusive aspirates, and a near-perfect ability to manage running passages and difficult musical ornaments such as roulade
Roulade
The word roulade originates from the French word "rouler" meaning "to roll". Typically, a roulade is a European dish consisting of a slice of meat rolled around a filling, such as cheese, vegetables, or other meats. A roulade, like a braised dish, is often browned then covered with wine or stock...
s.
These skills probably derived from his studies with Sir Charles Santley
Charles Santley
Sir Charles Santley was an English-born opera and oratorio star with a bravuraFrom the Italian verb bravare, to show off. A florid, ostentatious style or a passage of music requiring technical skill technique who became the most eminent English baritone and male concert singer of the Victorian era...
, a virtuoso English baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
of the Victorian era. If Dawson's interpretations were not profoundly penetrating, they were not shallow either; and in his chosen field of English concert pieces of the vigorous, manly, outdoors kind, he remains unequalled. The tremendously high technical finish of his Handelian
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...
singing sets an unmatched standard, too.
In 1984, Dawson was chosen by the Guinness Book of Recorded Sound as one of the top 10 singers on disc of all time, listed alongside such luminaries as Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
and the great operatic tenor Enrico Caruso.
Early career
Peter Dawson was born in 1882 to immigrant Scottish parents, Thomas Dawson, an ironworker and plumber, and Alison, née Miller, in AdelaideAdelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, South Australia. The youngest of nine children he attended East Adelaide Primary School then Pulteney Street Grammar School
Pulteney Grammar School
Pulteney Grammar School is an independent, Anglican, co-educational, day school, located on South Terrace in Adelaide, South Australia.- History :...
. At the age of 17 he joined a church choir and received singing lessons from C.J. Stevens. Then, aged 19, he won a prize for the best bass solo in a competition at Ballarat
Ballarat, Victoria
Ballarat is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately west-north-west of the state capital Melbourne situated on the lower plains of the Great Dividing Range and the Yarrowee River catchment. It is the largest inland centre and third most populous city in the state and the fifth...
, Victoria, and began taking up concert engagements.
He was sent to 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...
to be taught by Sir Charles Santley
Charles Santley
Sir Charles Santley was an English-born opera and oratorio star with a bravuraFrom the Italian verb bravare, to show off. A florid, ostentatious style or a passage of music requiring technical skill technique who became the most eminent English baritone and male concert singer of the Victorian era...
, who first sent him to F.L. Bamford of 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...
for six months’ basic training and coaching in vocal exercises, arias, oratorio pieces and classical songs. He then studied from 1903-1907 with Santley, who gave him a thorough training in voice production and a meticulous understanding of the great oratorios, especially Handel
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...
's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
, Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's Elijah
Elijah (oratorio)
Elijah, in German: Elias, is an oratorio written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1846 for the Birmingham Festival. It depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament....
and Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
's The Creation. In 1904, he joined Santley on an eight-week concert tour of the West of England with the soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Emma Albani
Emma Albani
Dame Emma Albani DBE was a leading soprano of the 19th century and early 20th century, and the first Canadian singer to become an international star. Her repertoire focused on the operas of Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Wagner...
.
He attended a large number of performances at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
during the first decade of the 20th century, and heard many of the leading lower-voiced male singers of the age, including the baritones Titta Ruffo
Titta Ruffo
Titta Ruffo , born as Ruffo Titta Cafiero, was an Italian opera star who had a major international singing career. Known as the "Voce del leone" , he was greatly admired, even by rival baritones, such as Giuseppe De Luca, who said of Ruffo: "His was not a voice, it was a miracle" Titta Ruffo (9...
, Pasquale Amato
Pasquale Amato
Pasquale Amato was an outstanding Italian operatic baritone. Amato enjoyed an international reputation but attained the peak of his fame in New York City, where he sang with the Metropolitan Opera from 1908 until 1921....
, Mattia Battistini
Mattia Battistini
Mattia Battistini was an Italian operatic baritone. He became internationally famous due to the beauty of his voice and the virtuosity of his singing technique, and he earned the sobriquet "King of Baritones".-Early life:...
, Mario Sammarco
Mario Sammarco
Mario Sammarco was an Italian operatic baritone noted for his histrionic ability.-Biography:...
and the basses Marcel Journet
Marcel Journet
Marcel Journet , was a French, bass, operatic singer. He enjoyed a prominent career in England, France and Italy, and appeared at the foremost American opera houses in New York City and Chicago....
, Édouard de Reszke
Edouard de Reszke
Édouard de Reszke, originally Edward, was a Polish bass from Warsaw. Born with an impressive natural voice and equipped with compelling histrionic skills, he became one of the most illustrious opera singers active in Europe and America during the late-Victorian Era.-Career:Édouard de Reszke was...
and Pol Plançon
Pol Plançon
Pol-Henri Plançon was a distinguished French operatic bass . He was one of the most acclaimed singers active during the 1880s, 1890s and early 20th century—a period often referred to as the "Golden Age of Opera".In addition to being among the earliest international opera stars to have made...
. Throughout his life he acknowledged the "bel canto" example of Battistini. In addition to Italian and French opera, he grew to admire the German music dramas of 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...
.
On 20 May 1905, he married Annie Mortimer "Nan" Noble, daughter of the box-office manager of the Alhambra Theatre
Alhambra Theatre
The Alhambra was a popular theatre and music hall located on the east side of Leicester Square, in the West End of London. It was built originally as The Royal Panopticon of Science and Arts opening on 18 March 1854. It was closed after two years and reopened as the Alhambra. The building was...
, who sang professionally in the soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
range under the name Annette George. Around this time, a Russian medical specialist assisted him to extend his upper range, until his compass extended from E flat in the bass to a high A or A flat. In 1909, he appeared at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, as the Night Watchman in The Mastersingers of Nuremberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
(opposite tenor Walter Hyde as David), with Hans Richter
Hans Richter (conductor)
Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...
conducting. During one of these performances, after winning a large kitty playing poker in the wings, he hurried on at his call, and accidentally scattered his winnings over the stage. (Dawson, who had a lively sense of humour, was a master at recounting such anecdotes, usually about other performers.) However, he did not find the pressures of the opera stage to be a congenial fit with his easygoing personality, and he elected instead to forge an alternative career as a concert and oratorio singer.
The concert platform
Dawson was approached to appear in an important concert in London at the Queen's HallQueen'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 first (in 1909-1910) he made a successful six-month tour of Australia with the Amy Castles company of singers. On his return, he began appearing in Promenade Concerts
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
. A second long tour with his own company in Australia and New Zealand ended with the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914. He returned to England via South Africa, but decided to go back to Australia to enlist in the armed forces.
After the war and with another South African tour under his belt, Dawson returned to England. His voice was now entering its peak phase. A British tour ensued with International Celebrity Concerts, involving recitals of operatic numbers. Accompanied on the piano by Gerald Moore
Gerald Moore
Gerald Moore CBE was an English pianist best known for his career as one of the most in-demand accompanists of his day, accompanying many of the world's most famous musicians...
, he then gave lieder recitals at the Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
in 1924. An extensive Australian tour (his sixth) occurred in 1931, and he paid further visits to his homeland in 1933, 1935, early 1939 and 1948-49. He made an extensive singing tour of India, Burma and the Straits Settlements during the 1930s. Dawson also visited Ireland. His first BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio broadcast was made in 1931 and included lieder by Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
and Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
: he subsequently became a prolific broadcaster, and was still active ‘on air’ as late as the 1950s.
Dawson and the gramophone
The gramophonePhonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
was a major factor in the promotion and progression of Dawson's career. He made his first 78-rpm acoustic recordings in 1904, and continued to release songs for EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
and HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
until 1958, by which time vinyl stereo LPs had been introduced. A recent biography calculates that he produced in excess of 1,500 published recordings. A different estimate quoted in his autobiography suggests that the real total was closer to 3,500 different record titles. His first efforts were made for Edison-Bell
Edison Records
Edison Records was one of the earliest record labels which pioneered recorded sound and was an important player in the early recording industry.- Early phonographs before commercial mass produced records :...
on wax cylinders in 1904. After a few experimental run-throughs, record producer Fred Gaisberg
Fred Gaisberg
Frederick William Gaisberg was an American-born musician, recording engineer and one of the earliest classical music producers for the gramophone. He himself did not use the term 'producer' and was not an impresario like his protégé Walter Legge of EMI or an innovator like John Culshaw of Decca...
signed Dawson to an exclusive contract to cut discs for the Gramophone Company
Gramophone Company
The Gramophone Company, based in the United Kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organization for the famous "His Master's Voice" label...
(the predecessor of HMV/EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
) in 1906; he continued, however, to record on cylinders for Edison until that company closed its London studios not long before World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
erupted. Dawson's standard repertoire rapidly became a mainstay of the HMV catalogue. It is worth noting that in addition to the HMV titles appearing under his own name, he recorded Scottish songs popularized by Harry Lauder
Harry Lauder
Sir Henry Lauder , known professionally as Harry Lauder, was an international Scottish entertainer, described by Sir Winston Churchill as "Scotland's greatest ever ambassador!"-Early life:...
under the pseudonym Hector Grant, for the sister Zonophone
Zonophone
Zonophone, early on also rendered as Zon-O-Phone was a record label founded in 1899 in Camden, New Jersey by Frank Seaman. The Zonophone name was not that of the company, but was applied to the records and machines sold by Seaman from 1899-1900 to 1903...
record label.
In 1906, Dawson participated in the first series of partially complete Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
opera recordings, together with other studio recording artists. Beginning in 1919, he took part in an extensive series of musically complete recordings of Gilbert and Sullivan operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
s with members of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
, under the supervision of Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte was an English hotelier, theatre owner and impresario, best known as proprietor of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and Savoy Hotel from 1913 to 1948....
, and conducted by HMV staff conductor George W. Byng. By 1920 he had achieved total record sales of five million discs. After the First World War, audio technology was improving, and he recut many of his more popular titles during the early 1920s. By the middle of that decade, his sales exceeded exceeded million discs in total. With the introduction of electrical microphone recording in 1925, the core body of his work was committed once again to disc, including new Gilbert and Sullivan versions under Sir Malcolm Sargent
Malcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
. Dawson's electrical recordings from the late 1920s and early 1930s had the longest shelf-life, and most households owned at least one. By the Second World War his record sales had topped the 12 million mark. He even recorded some stereo tracks in the 1950s.
Repertoire
Dawson's repertoire was essentially adapted to the purposes of the recital platform, growing out of the late 19th-century tradition of the smoking concertSmoking concert
Smoking concerts were live performances, usually of music, before an audience of men only; popular during the Victorian era. These social occasions were instrumental in introducing new musical forms to the public. At these functions men would smoke and speak of politics while listening to live...
s and Chappell Recitals. He was an advocate of singing in English, and he ensured that his diction was of the utmost clarity when he sang.
He owed to his vocal mentor Charles Santley a taste and technique perfectly suited to oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
, of which Handel
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...
's Messiah
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
was his favourite work. Handel standards ("O Ruddier than the Cherry"; "Why do the Nations?"; "Honour and Arms"; "Arm, arm ye Brave" and "Droop not Young Lover") and Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
("I am a Roamer" and "It is Enough" (from Elijah)) remained constantly in his work. He sang Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
roles in exemplary fashion, too, including "Oh My Warriors" and "The Sword Song" ("Leap, Leap, to the Light") from Caractacus. His concert operatic titles were principally The Prologue (from Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
), Iago's Credo (Otello
Otello
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
), Even Bravest Heart (Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
) –- written originally by Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
for Santley -- "Largo al Factotum" (The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
), "Non più andrai" (The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
), "O Star of Eve" (Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
), the "Toreador Song" (Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
), "Pari siamo" (Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
) and "Within This Hallowed Dwelling" (The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
).
The art of the German Lied attracted him also, notably Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's "Der Erlkönig
Der Erlkönig
Der Erlkönig is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It depicts the death of a child assailed by a supernatural being, the Erlking or "Erlkönig"...
", "Ave Maria
Ellens dritter Gesang
Ellens dritter Gesang , in English: "Ellen's Third Song", was composed by Franz Schubert in 1825 as part of his Opus 52, a setting of seven songs from Walter Scott's popular epic poem The Lady of the Lake, loosely translated into German.It has become one of Schubert's most popular works under the...
", "Who is Sylvia", "Sei mir gegrüsst", "Erstarrung", "Wasserflut", "Die Krähe" and "Ungeduld"; Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
's "Die Beiden Grenadier", "Frühlingsnacht"; Carl Loewe's "The Clock", "Edward"; Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
's "Die Mainacht", "Botschaft", "Ständchen", "Der Tod das ist die Kühle Nacht", "Blinde Kuh"; Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's "Traum durch die Dämmerung" and Hugo Wolf
Hugo Wolf
Hugo Wolf was an Austrian composer of Slovene origin, particularly noted for his art songs, or lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Romantic music, somewhat related to that of the Second Viennese School in concision but utterly unrelated in...
's "Nun wandre Maria", "Verschwiegene Liebe". Russian standards also appeared in his recital programs, notably Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's "To the Forest", "None but the Lonely Heart", "Don Juan's Serenade", Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
's "Christ is Risen" and Malashkin
Leonid Malashkin
Leonid Dimitrievitch Malashkin was a Russian composer and conductor. Though he wrote a few works in larger forms, he is today chiefly remembered for his romances, particularly "Oh, Could I But Express in Song"....
's "O Could I But Express in Song".
However, it was in English language and British song that Dawson was especially famous, and his career helped to preserve the concert recital, and many of the older ballad type of songs, at a time when other forms of popular music were displacing the Victorian standards. He was particularly successful with the heartier, rollicking type of song, such as Off to Philadelphia, The Old Superb and Up from Somerset. He sang a good deal of the output of Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
and Arthur Somervell
Arthur Somervell
Sir Arthur Somervell was an English composer, and after Hubert Parry one of the most successful and influential writers of art song in the English music renaissance of the 1890s-1900s....
, a few Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
vocal warhorses, and a select range of items by contemporary composers such as Percy French, Peter 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....
, Liza Lehmann
Liza Lehmann
Liza Lehmann was an English operatic soprano and composer, known for her vocal compositions.-Biography:She was born Elisabetha Nina Mary Frederica Lehmann in London. Her father was the German painter Rudolf Lehmann and her mother was Amelia Chambers, a music teacher, composer and arranger...
, Granville Bantock
Granville Bantock
Sir Granville Bantock was a British composer of classical music.-Biography:Granville Ransome Bantock was born in London. His father was a Scottish doctor. He was intended by his parents for the Indian Civil Service but was drawn into the musical world. His first teacher was Dr Gordon Saunders at...
, Eric Coates
Eric Coates
Eric Coates was an English composer of light music and a viola player.-Life:Eric was born in Hucknall in Nottinghamshire to William Harrison Coates , a surgeon, and his wife, Mary Jane Gwynne, hailing from Usk in Monmouthshire...
, 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...
, Thomas Dunhill
Thomas Dunhill
Thomas Frederick Dunhill was an English composer and writer on musical subjects. He is best-known for his song-cycle The Wind among the Reeds.-Life and career:Thomas Dunhill was born in Hampstead, London...
, Edward German
Edward German
Sir Edward German was an English musician and composer of Welsh descent, best remembered for his extensive output of incidental music for the stage and as a successor to Arthur Sullivan in the field of English comic opera.As a youth, German played the violin and led the town orchestra, also...
, George Butterworth
George Butterworth
George Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC was an English composer best known for the orchestral idyll The Banks of Green Willow and his song settings of A. E...
, Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
, Landon Ronald
Landon Ronald
Sir Landon Ronald was an English conductor, composer, pianist, singing teacher and administrator...
, Michael Head, Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge was an English composer and violist.-Life:Bridge was born in Brighton and studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford and others...
, 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 W.A. Aitken.
Many songs became personally identified with him, including "The Floral Dance
The Floral Dance
The Floral Dance is a popular English song describing the annual Furry Dance in Helston, Cornwall.The music and lyrics were written in 1911 by Kate Emily Barkley Moss who was a professional violinist, pianist and concert singer...
" (Katie Moss), "The Kerry Dance" (Molloy), "The Bandolero" (Stuart), "The Cobbler's Song" (from Chu Chin Chow
Chu Chin Chow
Chu Chin Chow is a musical comedy written, produced and directed by Oscar Asche, with music by Frederic Norton, based on the story of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves...
), "In a Monastery Garden" and "In a Persian Market" (Albert Ketèlbey
Albert Ketèlbey
Albert William Ketèlbey , born Ketelbey, was an English composer, conductor and pianist.-Biography:...
), "The Lute Player" (Allitsen), "The Old Brigade
The Old Brigade
For the Irish Republican song see The Boys of the Old BrigadeThe Old Brigade is a slow march written in 1881 with music by an Irishman Odoardo Barri and words by Frederic Weatherly. It was popularised by a 1926 recording by Peter Dawson...
", and "On the Road to Mandalay
Mandalay (poem)
Mandalay is a famous poem by Rudyard Kipling that was first published in the collection Barrack-Room Ballads, and Other Verses, the first series, published in 1892....
" (Speaks and Hedgcock versions). His performance of the "Four Indian Love Lyrics" (Amy Woodforde-Finden) and his "Roses of Picardy" (Haydn Wood) were famous. He composed a number of songs himself, under the name J.P. McCall, most famously his setting of 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...
's "Boots", which won the author's approval and was one of Dawson's greatest successes.
His recitals were also enlivened by the inclusion of many Australian songs, notably "Waltzing Matilda
Waltzing Matilda
"Waltzing Matilda" is Australia's most widely known bush ballad. A country folk song, the song has been referred to as "the unofficial national anthem of Australia"....
", "Song of Australia
Song of Australia
"The Song of Australia" was written by English-born poet Caroline J. Carleton in 1859 for a competition sponsored by the Gawler Institute. The music for the song was composed by the German-born Carl Linger , a prominent member of the Australian Forty-Eighters.The song was popularised in Australia...
", "Clancy of the Overflow
Clancy of the Overflow
"Clancy of The Overflow" is a poem by Banjo Paterson, first published in The Bulletin, an Australian news magazine, on 21 December 1889. The poem is typical of Paterson, offering a romantic view of rural life, and is one of his best-known works.-History:...
" and "The Rivetter" (Albert Arlen
Albert Arlen
Albert Arlen AM was a Turkish Australian pianist, composer, actor and playwright. He is best known for his musical The Sentimental Bloke , the "Alamein Concerto", and his setting of Banjo Paterson’s Clancy of the Overflow.-Biography:Albert Aarons was born in Sydney in 1905 to Turkish immigrants...
's settings), "Six Australian Bush Songs", and also Alfred Hill
Alfred Hill
Alfred Francis Hill CMG OBE was an Australian/New Zealand composer, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Alfred Hill was born in Melbourne in 1869. His year of birth is shown in many sources as 1870, but this has now been disproven. He spent most of his early life in New Zealand...
's version of the New Zealand Māori song "Waiata Poi".
External links
- Listen to an excerpt of Peter Dawson singing 'Along the Road to Gundagai' in 1931 on australianscreen online
- http://colsearch.nfsa.afc.gov.au/nfsa/search/summary/summary.w3p;adv=yes;group=;groupequals=;page=0;parentid=;query=Number%3A183383%20|%20Number%3A332353%20|%20Number%3A292230%20|%20Number%3A588127%20|%20Number%3A625395%20|%20Number%3A588128%20|%20Number%3A270173%20|%20Number%3A605350%20|%20Number%3A605346%20|%20Number%3A607165%20|%20Number%3A355267%20|%20Number%3A608217%20|%20Number%3A607169%20|%20Number%3A421675%20|%20Number%3A607134%20|%20Number%3A607124%20|%20Number%3A269636%20|%20Number%3A183727%20|%20Number%3A467753%20|%20Number%3A269637%20|%20Number%3A625397%20|%20Number%3A574814%20|%20Number%3A571129%20|%20Number%3A183355%20|%20Number%3A571128%20|%20Number%3A183392%20|%20Number%3A471322%20|%20Number%3A183356;querytype=;resCount=10Peter Dawson] at the National Film and Sound ArchiveNational Film and Sound ArchiveThe National Film and Sound Archive is Australia’s audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national collection of audiovisual materials and related items...
- Peter Dawson in AusStage
- Digitally restored recordings