Sir Arthur Somervell (5 June 1863 – 2 May 1937) was an English composer and educationalist. After Hubert Parry, he was one of the most successful and influential writers of art song in the English music renaissance of the 1890s–1900s. According to Michael Hurd, his most important work is found in the five song cycles, particularly his settings of Tennyson in Maud (1898) and Housman in A Shropshire Lad (1904).[1]
He was born in Windermere, Westmorland, the son of Robert Miller Somervell and his wife. His father was a shoe manufacturer who served as JP of "Hazelthwaite" at Winderemere (1821-1899).[2] The Somervell (originally Somerville) family came from Scotland, settling in London in the 1700s.[3]
Somervell's brother, Colin Somervell, became a shoe-manufacturer like their father and later served as High Sheriff of Westmorland in 1916. Colin's son, Maj. Arnold Colin Somervell, O.B.E., served in this office in 1936; later, other members of the Somervell family also served.[4]
Somervell was initially educated at Uppingham School and King's College, Cambridge,[5] where he studied composition under Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. From 1883 to 1885 he studied at the High School for Music, Berlin, and from 1885 to 1887 at the Royal College of Music in London, under Parry. He studied composition with Friedrich Kiel. He became a professor at the Royal College of Music in 1894, and conducted his own works at the Leeds and Birmingham Festivals, 1895-97.[1]
Somervell's style was conservative, and shows the influence of Mendelssohn and Brahms. He achieved success in his own day as a composer of choral works such as The Forsaken Merman (1895), Intimations of Immortality (which he conducted at Leeds Festival in 1907), and a short oratorio The Passion of Christ (1914). For a time this rivalled Stainer’s ubiquitous Crucifixion in popularity.[6] His Violin Concerto of 1930 was dedicated to the violinist Adila Fachiri.
Today he is chiefly remembered for his song cycles, such as Maud (after Tennyson, 1898) and the first known musical setting (1904) of A. E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad.[7] His popular Handel adaptation "Silent Worship" was featured in the 1996 film Emma.[8]
Somervell was also influential in the field of music education. He worked for twenty-eight years as one of His Majesty's Inspectors of Schools (HMI), with special responsibility for the teaching of music.[9] He was appointed Inspector of Music at the Board of Education and Scottish Education Department in 1901 (succeeding John Stainer).[10][11] In June the following year he received the degree Doctor of Music from the University of Cambridge.[12]
In 1890 Somervell married Edith Lance Collet (1861-1944). Through their daughter Katherine ('Kit'), who became a dancer with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, they were grandparents of writer Elizabeth Jane Howard.[13]
Somervell was knighted in 1929. After retirement he continued as Chairman of the School Orchestra Festivals, Queen's Hall, from 1932 until his death. He died at his home, 105 Clifton Hill, St John's Wood, aged 73. After he was cremated, his ashes were buried in the place of his birth, the Lake District, specifically within Grasmere Cemetery.[9]
