Eva Ruth Spalding (December 19, 1883 - March 1969) was a British composer, violin and piano teacher who wrote six string quartets, solo piano music and songs.[1][2]

Spalding was born in Blackheath, Kent, to Henry Spalding and his second wife Ellen. She was the youngest of eight children, with four half-siblings and three full siblings. Henry Spalding was a paper merchant.[1]

Spalding studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where she passed the violin teacher exam in 1904.[3] She also studied with Leopold Auer at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia.[4] After returning to England, she taught piano and violin privately and at Bradfield College.[5] From the 1940s she lived at Tyndrum, Pond Lane, Churt in Surrey, where she died in 1969.[6][7]

She set texts by the following poets to music: Léon Bazalgette, William Blake, Phineas Fletcher, Paul Fort, Fernand Gregh, George Herbert, Ioannes Papadiamantopoulos (as Jean Moréas), Edmund Spenser, Charles van Lerberghe, Clara Walsh, and Walt Whitman.[5][8][9][10][11]

Spalding composed six string quartets, the first in the early 1920s. No. 5 was performed by the Aleph String Quartet at the Wigmore Hall on Tuesday 25 April 1950, along with the Five Songs from Spencer's Amoretti, sung by tenor Frederick Fuller.[12] Her music was published by Maurice Senart, with many of the song texts in both French and English versions.[1]

Selected works

Piano

Songs

Chamber

Orchestral

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Eva Ruth Spalding 1882-1969". www.unsungcomposers.com. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  2. ^ Stewart-Green, Miriam (1980). Women composers : a checklist of works for the solo voice. Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall. ISBN 0-8161-8498-4. OCLC 6815939.
  3. ^ The Musical Times. Novello. 1904.
  4. ^ Hill, Ralph (1946). The Penguin Music Magazine. Penguin Books.
  5. ^ a b Cohen, Aaron I. (1987). International Encyclopedia of Women Composers. Books & Music (USA). ISBN 978-0-9617485-1-7.
  6. ^ The Times, 30 June 1969, p. 10
  7. ^ a b c Who's Who in Music 5th edition (1969), p. 294
  8. ^ "Eva Ruth Spalding (1882 - 1969) - Vocal Texts and Translations at the LiederNet Archive". www.lieder.net. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  9. ^ Office, Library of Congress Copyright (1958). Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series.
  10. ^ Catalog of Copyright Entries: Musical compositions. Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1925.
  11. ^ Whitman, Walt (1938). Complete Poetry & Selected Prose and Letters. Nonesuch Press.
  12. ^ a b c 'A New Quartet', in The Daily Telegraph, 26 April 1950, p. 6
  13. ^ Patterson, Donald L. (1999). One Handed: A Guide to Piano Music for One Hand. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-31179-6.
  14. ^ 'Gifted Pianist Lacks Warmth', in The Daily Telegraph, 30 April 1958, p. 10
  15. ^ British Music Information Centre (1972). Instrumental Solos and Duos by Living British Composers.
  16. ^ a b British Music Collection
  17. ^ Radio Times, Issue 1605, 15 August 1954, p. 31
  18. ^ a b "Margaret Kitchin: Concert pianist and champion of modern British composers". The Independent. 30 June 2008. Retrieved 19 January 2022.

External links

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