Thomas Dunhill: Donald Brook’s Pen-Portrait from 'Composer's Gallery' Part I

Donald Brook wrote a series of books presenting attractive short studies or pen-portraits of a wide variety of musicians and authors. Clearly, he had met these people and had a chance to speak to them about their achievements and interests. Sir Granville Bantock endorsed Composer’ Gallery by insisting that it ‘will be welcomed by music lovers and the larger public throughout the civilised world.’

Thomas Dunhill died on 13 March 1946, around the time Brook’s book was published. I include a few footnotes to Brook’s pen-portrait of Thomas Dunhill.

ANOTHER Londoner was Thomas F. Dunhill, born in 1877. He was a versatile composer who wrote excellent chamber music, works for orchestra, piano, solo instruments, solo voices, and chorus. His earliest musical recollections were connected with the visits of a piano tuner who always completed his task by playing the march from Handel's Scipio with a grand air of accomplishment. As a child of three or four, Dunhill thought this was the most wonderful piece of music in the world and could not have been more than five when he secured an easy arrangement of it and triumphantly played it to his parents. Even in later life this march thrilled him: he believed that the opening progression of three chords was one of the grandest, purest and most dignified musical progressions in existence.

It was at about this time that he was taken for a holiday to Llandudno and heard in the Pier Pavilion [1] an orchestra for the first time. It was conducted by the musically notorious old Jules Riviere, [2] who would sit at a heavily gilded desk facing the audience nonchalantly waving an elaborate, tasselled baton of which his players took not the slightest notice.

Dunhill’s life-long interest in the theatre began when he was quite a boy: he had a toy theatre of his own and would spend hours composing music for it. During his school days at Hampstead most of his leisure was spent in writing short operas - he was stimulated by the productions of Gilbert and Sullivan and his friends were continually being called in to take part in these amateur efforts. Consequently, by the time he reached the age of sixteen, he had written about a dozen little operettas. His theatrical interests in those days were exclusively in comic opera.

Most of his pocket money went in visits to the Saturday "Pops" at the St. James's Hall, [3] or to performances of Gilbert and Sullivan. He entered the Royal College of Music in 1893 and studied there for seven years, first as a student and then as the holder of an open scholarship. Under Sir Charles Stanford for composition, and Franklin Taylor [4] for the pianoforte, Dunhill speedily came to the front and took a leading part in the various musical activities of the College.

At the beginning of the present century, he secured an appointment as assistant music master at Eton College, and five years later returned to the Royal College of Music as a professor. In 1907 he founded the “Dunhill Chamber Concerts” [5] with the object of producing new works by British composers and giving second performances of meritorious compositions already heard elsewhere but neglected as so many were and still are after one performance. Despite financial difficulties, the concerts ran for several years and were a great artistic success.

In those days Dunhill was frequently abroad as an examiner for the Associated Board. He went round the world for them in 1906 and again in 1908, which meant resigning his post at Eton, and in 1912 he toured Canada. In 1914 he married Miss Mary Arnold, a great-granddaughter of the eminent Dr Arnold of Rugby, and grand-niece of Matthew Arnold, the poet.

When the Great War was declared, Dunhill joined the army, and eventually found his way into the Irish Guards. He had the good fortune to be kept in England throughout the war, and to secure an early release after the armistice.

Donald Brook, Composer's Gallery: Biographical Sketches of Contemporary Composers, (London, Rockliff, 1946, p.57-60)

To be continued…

Notes

[1] Llandudno Pier Pavilion was opened in 1886. Originally used for orchestral concerts it featured guest conductors such as Malcolm Sargent and Adrian Boult and the regular local musician John Morava. Moving towards variety entertainment in the 1930s, it presented many famous names including George Formby, Cliff Richard and Arthur Askey. It was also used for political rallies, with appearances by Ramsey MacDonald, Oswald Mosley, Clement Atlee and Winston Churchill. The building was demolished after a fire in 1994. The Pavillion remains derelict, however in 2021, the owners of Llandudno Pier bought the site, with the prospect of redeveloping it.          

[2] Jules Riviere (1819-1900) was a well-known, if somewhat eccentric, musical conductor and composer. Over a long career, he enjoyed success at Covent Garden, the Cremorne Gardens, Chelsea, the Adelphi and the Alhambra theatres, London, then afterwards at Manchester, Blackpool, Llandudno, and Colwyn Bay.

[3] The St James’s Hall, in Regent Street, was an important venue in London, between 1858 and 1905. Popular concerts were the Monday ‘Pops’ (1859-98)  and the Saturday ‘Pops’ (1865-98), both for chamber music. It was later used for Philharmonic Society Concerts. Other entertainments featured at the Hall included readings by Charles Dickens and also the Christy’s Minstrels. St James’s Hall continued in use until February 1905, after which it was demolished. It was succeeded by the Queen’s Hall and the Wigmore Hall as major concert venues.  

[4] Franklin Taylor was a popular pianist and teacher in London, who had studied at the Leipzig Conservatoire with Louis Plaidy and Ignaz Moscheles between 1859 and 1861. In 1863, he travelled to Paris where he took lessons with Clara Schumann for a short while. He was an enthusiastic supporter of her playing and later on probably also met up with her in London during her numerous stays. Taylor was head teacher of piano at the Royal College of Music in London, newly founded in 1882. He also worked as a publicist and wrote many articles for Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, including an article on Clara Schumann's piano playing and her compositions . (With thanks to the Schumann Portal)

[5] In 1907, Dunhill founded the ‘Concerts of British Chamber Music’ which were to hold an important place in London musical life. They continued until 1919.