Hamilton Harty: Musical Polymath

Jeremy Dibble

Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2013 - Biography & Autobiography - 365 pages

An in-depth study of the life of Sir Hamilton Harty (1879-1941), pianist, composer and conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, who arguably made Manchester the most important focus for music in Britain in his day.

Sir Hamilton Harty (1879-1941) is best known as the conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, who arguably made Manchester the most important focus for music in Britain in his day. This book chronicles and analyses Harty's illustrious career, from his establishment as London's premiere accompanist in 1901 to his years as a conductor between 1910 and 1933, first with the LSO and then with the Hallé, to his American tours of the 1930s. Tragically, Harty died from cancer in 1941 at the age of only 61.
This book also looks at Harty's life as a composer of orchestral and chamber works and songs, notably before the First World War. Although Harty's music cleaved strongly to a late nineteenth-century musical language, he was profoundly influenced during his days in Ulster and Dublin by the Irish literary revival. A great exponent of Mozart and especially Berlioz, Harty was also a keen exponent of British music and an active supporter of American composers such as Gershwin.
Harty's role in the exposition of standard and new repertoire and his relationship with contemporary composers and performers are also examined, against the perspective of other important major British conductors such as Sir Thomas Beecham, Malcolm Sargent and Sir Henry Wood. Additionally, the book analyses the debates Harty provoked on the subjects of women orchestral players, jazz, modernism, and the music of Berlioz.

JEREMY DIBBLE is Professor of Music at Durham University and author of John Stainer: A Life in Music(The Boydell Press, 2007) and monographs on C. Hubert H. Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford and Michele Esposito.

Contents

• A Musical Apprenticeship: 1
• A Preeminent Collaborator and Aspiring Composer: 23
• Composer and Conductor: 72
• 4 191420 The War Years and After: 117
• 5 192027 The Hallé Years: 143
• From Hallé to the LSO: 188
• An Unforeseen Romance: 223
• The Children of Lir A Creative Codicil: 260
• Appendix 1 List of Works: 299
• Appendix 2 List of Recordings: 308
• Bibliography: 330
• Index of Hartys Works: 335
• General Index: 337
• Backcover: 369

About the author

JEREMY DIBBLE is an Emeritus Professor of Music at Durham University where he taught for 30 years. He is the author of C. Hubert H. Parry: His Life and Music (1998), Charles Villers Stanford: Man and Musician (original edition, 2002), Michele Esposito (2010). With the Boydell Press, Dibble has published John Stainer: A Life in Music (2007), Hamilton Harty: Musical Polymath (2013), British Musical Criticism and Intellectual Thought, 1850-1950 (2018) (with Julian Horton) and The Music of Frederick Delius (2021).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Hamilton Harty: Musical Polymath; Volume 9 of Music in Britain, 1600-2000
• Author: Jeremy Dibble
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2013
• ISBN: 1843838583, 9781843838586
• Length: 365 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Music; Music / Ethnic; Music / Genres & Styles / Classical; Music / History & Criticism; Music / Individual Composer & Musician; Music / Instruction & Study / Conducting