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Eva Ruth Spalding

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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 (a paper merchant) and his second wife Ellen. She was the youngest of eight children, with four half-siblings and three full siblings.[1] One of the full siblings was Selma Nellie Spalding (1881-1965), later Lady Lennard.

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] In the 1920s she was sharing rooms and appearing in concerts with pianist composer Beatrice Mary Hall (1890-1961).[6] From the 1940s she lived at Tyndrum, Pond Lane, Churt in Surrey, where she died in 1969.[7][8]

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][9][10][11][12]

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.[13] It was described by critic Scott Goddard as "contemporary in sentiment, and not at all modern in manner".[14] Her music was published by Maurice Senart, with many of the song texts in both French and English versions.[1]

Selected works

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Piano

  • Etude for the Left Hand (1919)[15]
  • Fantasie for piano (1958)[16]
  • Prelude (1919)[1]

Songs

  • Five Songs from Spencer's Amoretti (1950)[13]
  • 'Mort! le vent pleure autour du monde' (1925, text Paul Fort)
  • 'Passing of the Spring' (1924, text Clara Walsh)
  • 'Soupirs' (1920, text: Clara Walsh)
  • Three Melodies for voice and piano or string quartet (1929)
    • 'The Lamb' (text: William Blake)
    • 'The Litany' (text: Phineus Fletcher)
    • 'Easter Words' (text: George Herbert)
  • Three Melodies for voice and piano (1919, texts: Walt Whitman)
    • 'Youth, Day, Old Age and Night'
    • 'A Clear Midnight'
    • 'The Lost Invocation'
  • 'Vers le soleil s'en vont ensemble' (1923, text: C.von Leberghe)

Chamber

  • Poeme (violin and piano)[17]  
  • String Quartet No. 1 (1923)[18]
  • String Quartet No. 2 (1928)[18]
  • String Quartet No. 3[1]
  • String Quartet No. 4[1]
  • String Quartet No. 5 (1950)[19][13]
  • String Quartet No. 6[8]
  • Violin Sonata No. 1[1]
  • Violin Sonata No. 2 (1928)[20]
  • Violin Sonata No. 3 (1952)[20]

Orchestral

  • Music for Strings[8]

References

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  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. ^ 'British Music Society', in The Woolwich Herald, 15 October 1920, p. 4
  7. ^ The Times, 30 June 1969, p. 10
  8. ^ a b c Who's Who in Music 5th edition (1969), p. 294
  9. ^ "Eva Ruth Spalding (1882 - 1969) - Vocal Texts and Translations at the LiederNet Archive". www.lieder.net. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  10. ^ Office, Library of Congress Copyright (1958). Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series.
  11. ^ Catalog of Copyright Entries: Musical compositions. Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1925.
  12. ^ Whitman, Walt (1938). Complete Poetry & Selected Prose and Letters. Nonesuch Press.
  13. ^ a b c 'A New Quartet', in The Daily Telegraph, 26 April 1950, p. 6
  14. ^ 'A new string quartet', London Daily News, 30 April 1952, p. 5
  15. ^ Patterson, Donald L. (1999). One Handed: A Guide to Piano Music for One Hand. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-31179-6.
  16. ^ 'Gifted Pianist Lacks Warmth', in The Daily Telegraph, 30 April 1958, p. 10
  17. ^ British Music Information Centre (1972). Instrumental Solos and Duos by Living British Composers.
  18. ^ a b British Music Collection
  19. ^ Radio Times, Issue 1605, 15 August 1954, p. 31
  20. ^ a b "Margaret Kitchin: Concert pianist and champion of modern British composers". The Independent. 30 June 2008. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
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