Advertisement from The Musical Times, multiple 1895 issues

The Grimson family was a family of classical musicians active in London from the early 1870s.[1]

Samuel Dean Grimson (1841 – 7 April 1922) was a violinist and viola player active in London orchestral and chamber music. He played with the Holmes Quartet and was the author of A First Book for the Violin, published in 1881 and (with Cecil Forsyth) Modern Violin Playing (1920). He married Maria Mary Anne Bonarius (1848 – 1896) and they lived in Ealing. A portrait of Grimson with his violin, painted in 1914 by Frank Brooks, is owned by the Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain.[2]

All seven of his surviving children (an eighth, Dean, died as an infant) were musicians who were trained by their father and then went on to study at the Royal College of Music.[3] On January 21, 1896 at the Queen's (small) Hall, Grimson and his seven children performed Mendelssohn's Octet as a family.[4] The concert became an annual event for several years, with the family performing Gade's Octet in 1897[5] and Svendsen's Octet in 1898.[6]

Other 19th century musical families

References

  1. ^ 'Samuel Dean Grimson', Geni.com
  2. ^ Art.uk
  3. ^ Jessica Claire Beck. The Women Musicians of South Place Ethical Society, 1887 – 1927, Manchester Metropolitan University thesis (2018)
  4. ^ 'The Grimson Concert', in The Times, 23 January 1896, p.15
  5. ^ The Musical Times, Vol. 38, No. 649 (March 1897), p. 193
  6. ^ 'The Grimsons' Concert', in The Times, 17 February 1898, p.2
  7. ^ The women musicians of Conway Hall's past, Conwayhall.org
  8. ^ a b James Duff Brown and Stephen Stratton. British Musical Biography (1897), pp. 174-5
  9. ^ Recorded (in a version for cello and piano) by Alexandra Mackenzie and Ingrid Sawers on Beyond Twilight: Music For Cello & Piano By Female Composers, Delphian DCD34306 (2023)
  10. ^ Percy Scholes. The Mirror of Music, Vol. 2, p. 732
  11. ^ 'Women Violinists of the Victorian Era', The Lady's Realm, February/March 1899
  12. ^ The Times, 7 March 1907, p. 7
  13. ^ 'Second Lieutenant Edward Mason', Imperial War Museum
  14. ^ a b c The Grimson family and the First World War, The Western Front Association
  15. ^ Radio Times, Issue 483, 1 January 1933, p. 18
  16. ^ Hughes, Rosemary. 'South Place: A Home of Chamber Music', in the Musical Times Vol. 94, No. 1320, February 1953, pp. 61–64
  17. ^ Nona Liddell, brilliant violinist – obituary The Daily Telegraph, 22 April 2017.
  18. ^ 'Violinist Nona Liddell on studying with female orchestral pioneer Jessie Grimson', in The Strad, July 2007
  19. ^ Sir John George Woodroffe biography, Titi Tudorancea Bulletin
  20. ^ Taylor, Kathleen. Sir John Woodroffe, Tantra and Bengal: An Indian Soul in a European Body? (2001)
  21. ^ Ron Chernow. The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family (2016), p. 605
  22. ^ Johnson, Jo. "The LSO in World War I: The Sad Tale of Adolph Borsdorf". London Symphony Orchestra. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  23. ^ W. B. Henshaw. Biographical Dictionary of Organists, Composers for Organ and Organ Builders, online (2003-2021)
  24. ^ Rosen, Carole. The Goossens: A Musical Century (1993)
  25. ^ 'Musical Notes', The Welsh Coast Pioneer and Review, 29 September, 1910, p. 6
  26. ^ Palmer, Russell. British Music (1947), p. 117
  27. ^ Fountain, Katrina. 'In a Surrey Garden: The Story of the Harrison Sisters', Delius Society Journal No. 87 (1985): 3-12.
  28. ^ Paula Gillett. Musical Women in England, 1870-1914 (2000), p. 101-2
  29. ^ The Home Quartet: Mrs Vernon Lushington and her Children (1883), Meisterdrucke
  30. ^ Neill, Roger. The Simonsens of St. Kilda – A Family of Singers (2003)
  31. ^ By 1903 The Walenn Quartet included Gerald and Herbert alongside Herbert Kinze (violin) and James Lockyer (viola). Lionel Tertis later took over as violist.