West and East Midlands

The keyboard player and composer John Bull (1562-1628) was organist here from 1582 until 1591. S.S. Wesley was organist from 1832 to 1835, George Robertson Sinclair from 1889 to 1917. His friend Edward Elgar appeared regularly at the Three Choirs Festival, of which Hereford Cathedral is one of the venues.

House of the organist G.R. Sinclair. During a walk by Elgar, Sinclair and his dog Don, the latter drowned in the river Wye and was buried in the organist’s garden; his burial stone probably is still there. Don’s lethal adventure is immortalised in nr 11 of the Enigma Variations.

Edward Elgar lived here from 1904 until 1911 and worked as organist of various churches. In the garden he practised his hobby of chemistry, indoors he composed his two completed symphonies (the third was only sketched).

Grave of Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ousely (1825-1889), an Anglican priest, Oxford professor and composer who in 1856 established this church and the annex college of church music which operated until 1985.

Much of the furniture of this fine baroque church originates from Cannons (Edgware, London), the estate of Lord Chandos, Handel’s patron. Including the organ which Handel played; its case and a part of the pipes are original.

Grave of the composer Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656).

Birthplace of the composer Edward Elgar (1857-1934). Today a museum with a rich display of objects, collected by Elgar’s daughter Carice, relatives and friends. Adjoining is the Elgar Centre, opened in 2000, with more attention to Elgar’s music. In the Garden an Elgar monument and the cabin from the garden of his last home, Marl Bank.

The entity is a must see for music lovers and a good starting point for an ‘Elgar pilgrimage’ through the surrounding area. Closed on Wednesday.

Thomas Tomkins was organist here from 1596 until 1646. His house is at 9 College Green.
Antonín Dvořák conducted his Stabat Mater in 1884; Elgar played in the orchestra.
The church is one of the venues of the Three Choirs Festival (with Gloucester and Herford).
A stained window depicts Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. 

Plaque on the site of the Music Shop of the Elgar family. It was demolished in the 1960s, just like Marl Bank, the house at Rainbow Hill where the composer died in 1934; a shame. Elgar monument on High Street, facing the cathedral.

Elgar’s house from 1879 to 1883.

Elgar’s house from 1883 to 1889.

Elgar was the organist in this church during the 1880s. He was a Roman Catholic.

Elgar’s house from 1923 to 1927.

Elgar rented this summer house between 1898 and 1903 and completed The Dream of Gerontius.

Elgar’s house from 1891 to 1899.

Elgar’s house from 1899 to 1904.

Grave of Edward Elgar († 1934) and his wife Alice († 1920).

Last house of the soprano singer Jenny Lind, the ‘Swedish Nightingale’ (1820-1887). The A-shaped entrance is a wink at Swedish traditional architecture.

Grave of Jenny Lind.

An Abbey School was established in 1874 (since 1979 a College). The great composer gave a recital here on 4.V.1923.

Site of Elm Lodge, where the composer and piano trader Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) died. After 1832, Elm Lodge was bought by a certain Robert Knight; he had the house demolished, cleaned the bricks and used them for Vine Cottage, 8 Chapel Street in nearby Badsey. At the site of Elm Lodge, the present Prospect House was built.

There is a view on Bredon Hill, the title of a song cycle by George Butterworth on a poem of A.B. Housman.

The plays and poems of William Shakespeare were a huge source of inspiration for composers, especially after 1800. A very selective list: incidental music by Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Chausson, Honegger; four film scores by Walton; a ballet by Prokofiev; symphonic music by Berlioz, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Raff, Dvorák and Elgar; operas by Rossini, Berlioz, Nicolai, Verdi, Gounod and Britten; song cycles by Shostakovich and Korngold. Bernstein’s West Side Story is based on Romeo and Juliet.

Supposedly, no other writer had a comparable impact on the musical repertoire.

Paganini (1833) and Strauß senior (1838) appeared in the Royal Assembly Rooms, the later Parthenon. Its interior was destroyed by fire in 1968. Liszt (1840) and Sibelius (1921) also visited Leamington.

Coventry cathedral was destroyed during the Second World War and rebuilt (1955-62). On 30 May 1962, the FP of Britten’s War Requiem took place here, intended as an act of reconciliation between former enemies. As vocal soloists were engaged the Englishman Peter Pears, the German Dietrich Fischer Dieskau and the Russian Galina Vishnevskaya, but the latter was forbidden by the Soviet rulers to appear at the side of a German... She was replaced by Heather Harper.

The composer Brian Ferneyhough was born in Coventry in 1943.

Museum of popular music from Warwickshire in ‘2-Tone Village’. www.covmm.co.uk

The organ was designed by Handel and built by Thomas Parker in 1749 for Gopsall Hall in Twycross, Leicestershire; the building was demolished and the organ moved to this church from 1787. Gopsall Hall was the estate of the family of Charles Jennens, the librettist of Handel’s Messiah and Saul.

The Town Hall, built in 1834 with a capacity of 2323 seats, became the leading music centre of the expanding city. A festival was organised between 1768 and 1912, at first in the St Philip´s Cathedral and the King Street Theatre (demolished). Important premières in the Town Hall include Elijah by Mendelssohn (1846), Dvořák’s Requiem (1891), The Dream of Gerontius by Elgar (1900) and other oratorios by Hiller, Gade, Gounod and Saint Saëns. Grieg conducted own works in 1888.

The new Symphony Hall with 2262 seats was opened in 1991 and is the home of the City of Birmingham SO, founded in 1920 and one of the leading orchestras of Britain. It also is used for other musical genres and is part of the International Convention Centre.

The Hippodrome theatre goes back to 1899 but underwent numerous alterations. It is the home of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, but also offers operas by the Welsh National Opera, musicals and other theatrical performances.

The Birmingham and Midland Institute included a music school since 1859; the composer Granville Bantock was its director from 1900 to 1934. (The present Conservatoire is at Jennens Road.) At the building is a plaque of Albert W. Ketèlbey (1875-1959), the composer of popular orchestral works, depicting exotic subjects. He was born nearby at 41 Alma Street.

Granville Bantock (1868-1946) has lived in Birmingham from 1900 at seven addresses, six of them were demolished; probably this one (1926-1934) has survived.

Grieg, Dvořák and Elgar were guests of the businessman and music patron George Hope Johnstone, chairman of the Birmingham Music Festival. He commissioned The Dream of Gerontius.

Estate of Lady Alice Wimborne, a close friend of William Walton, who visited her frequently from the 1930s until his marriage in 1948. The manor house is of medieval origin; the ‘Gunpowder Plot’ was hatched here in 1605. There are elaborate ornate interiors by Edwin Lutyens, the father of the composer Elisabeth Lutyens.

William Walton was a frequent guest at the house of the writer Sacheverell Sitwell, the brother of the poet Edith Sitwell who wrote Façade (1922), to recite it ‘with musical decorations’ by Walton – he did splendid work.

The house is from the 17^th century and was refurbished into neo-Tudor style.

Edith was buried at Weedon Lois, 1 mile SE.

Birthplace of the composer Edmund Rubbra (1901-1986). A later address is 4 Balfour Road.

Birthplace of the composer Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006).

Birthplace of the composer William Alwyn (1905-1985); probably demolished.

Palace of 16^th century origin, altered in the 1870s, with a collection of rare musical instruments; historical pianos are displayed in a former billiard room. Concerts are given in the house and in the local church.

George Jeffreys (c1610-1685) was steward on this castle from 1646 until his death. He also was a composer of interesting sacred music.  Jeffreys lived in nearby Weldon.  Grave?

Grave of the hosiery manufacturer and amateur musician William Gardiner (1770-1853). He provided a performance of Beethoven’s String Trio op. 3 in 1793: the very first appearance of the composer’s name in Britain. He also was involved in the unveiling of the Beethoven monument in Bonn in 1848. Gardiner himself composed some sacred works.

Annual opera festival in June and July since 2000 on a medieval estate. The performers are young artists at the start of their career. A new theatre with 400 seats was built in 2018.

Felix Mendelssohn and his friend Carl Klingemann stayed here in 1829 on their way to Scotland. Franz Liszt gave a recital in September 1840.

The composer and violinist Thomas Linley junior (1756-1778) was a guest of the Duke of Ancester in August 1778. Making a boat trip on the lake, he tragically drowned; a great loss for the British musical life. Mozart had met him in Florence and called a genius.

Thomas Linley jr. was buried in the churchyard; inside is a plaque.

Under the high bell tower (the ‘Boston Stump’) is the grave of the composer John Taverner (c1490-1545), one of the leading renaissance composers of England.

Taverner probably was born in South Lincolnshire. It is said that he was a chorister in the Collegiate Church of Tattersall but there is no evidence. He certainly worked at the Chapel Royal in London and returned to Lincolnshire at the end of his life.

The great composer William Byrd (1543-1623) worked in Lincoln Cathedral from 1563 to 1572. Being a Roman Catholic, his job in an Anglican church was not without frictions. Byrd may be born in Lincoln, but nothing is known about his parents and birthplace.

The conductors Reginald Goodall and Neville Marriner were born in Lincoln in resp. 1905 and 1924.

In 1905, Percy Grainger stayed at this manor house – now a convent school – and found the song Brigg Fair which Delius would use in his English Rhapsody of that name in 1907.

The childhood home from 1709 of John and Charles Wesley retained its original furnishing and is accessible to the public.

Originally built in 1873 as a Methodist Mission Hall, it was damaged by fire and rebuilt in 1909. Yehudy Menuhin, Sergey Rakhmaninov, George Enescu, Benjamin Britten and Kathleen Ferrier appeared here. Since 1989 it is linked with the adjacent theatre and conference rooms. The organ from 1909 has four manuals and 63 stops.

Birthplace of the composer, conductor and violist Eric Coates (1886-1957), born as Frank Harrison Coates. He lived here until 1906. He preferably composed light music

Some lost palaces in Staffordshire with a musical connexion:

George Frederick visited the county several times. In Colwich Abbey in Ellastone, he was the guest of the Granville family; in Teddesley Hall in Penkridge, he stayed with Fisher Littleton. Both houses are largely demolished

The French philosopher, writer and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau had visited Wootton Hall near Ellastone in 1776. This house was demolished in the 1930s.

Two composers worked as organist and choir leader of Lichfield Cathedral: Michael East (1580-1648) from 1618 until 1638 and John Alcock (1715-1806) from 1750, living within the Close; he was a gifted painter too.

The Italian composer and piano trader Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) lived in 1730/31 in Lyncroft House. The house partly survived in the present restaurant.

The composer Henry Lawes (1596-1662), a brother of William Lawes, worked here during the 1630s as music teacher in the service of the Earl of Bridgewater. In 1834 he arranged the performance of the mask Comus by his friend John Milton, for which he wrote the music.

The composer Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994) lived here during the 2^nd World War.

Birthplace of Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869-1941), composer of sacred music and of The Royal Air Force March. In 1934 he succeeded Elgar as ‘Master of the King’s Music’.

Plaque of Sir Edward German (1862-1936), composer of light operas and a Welsh Rhapsody. He was buried at the cemetery on Mile Bank Road.