EDWARD GERMAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 149, 21 December 1936, Page 8

EDWARD GERMAN

DEATH IN ENGLAND

MUSIC FOR THE MILLION

Sir Edward German, composer of music that has brought delight to millions in all the English-speaking; lands, has died at the age of seventy-four, writes Richard Capell in the "Daily Telegraph." : , His name has for more than forty years been a household word. The purity and grace of his style won him the whole-hearted regard of his fellowmusicians, while thousands upon thousands for whom serious music is a closed book, can sing or whistle many ox his airs. '.. ..'.... Edward German, the man—diffident" and unassuming, and all bis life hating the limelight—was, meanwhile,' singularly little known. Few persons in the innumerable audiences who: have heard his "Henry VIII" dances and "Merrie England" would have recognised the composer himself. . . :

The "Henry VIII" incidental music was commissioned by Irving for his Lyceum production in 1892. Earlier still German had written music for a-Lon-don Shakespearean production—^"Richard III"—at the old Globe, in 1889, in Richard Mansfield's production.

Later in the' 1890's he was entrusted with a similar task for "As You Like It," "Much Ado About Nothing," and "Nell Gwyn," producing page after page of music not less tuneful than shapely and refined. " ; ;

The bourree he wrote for "Much Ado" is one of his best pieces, of the sort, and his "Nell Gwyn" dances approached in popularity the. "Henry VIII" set. ..; . . ..

" When Sullivan died, leaving unfinished a Savoy, operetta; "The Emerald Isle," Edward German was chosen as the obvious man to complete the score. He did it admirably, and seemed indicated as Sullivan's successor;

Three charming operettas came' from

his pen in the next few years—"Merrie England" (the most lastingly popular of them) in 1902, "A Princess of Kensington" in 1903, and "Tom Jones" in 1907.

German was not quite a Sullivan, for he had not all the sparkling spirit, thu gay inventiveness, and. spontaneity of his, predecessor, but his musicianly charm and refinement were not less than. Sullivan's own. "Merrie England,", at least, can only be regarded as a Jittle classic, and in the light of the debased musical-comedy style of the later London decades it seems,to belong to a golden age. WORKED WITH GILBERT. Once German collaborated with Gilbert himself, but "Fallen Fairies" (1909) was a poor example: of th!e librettist of "The Mikado," and the piece failed. Meanwhile Edward German had written a good deal in more ambitious forms, including two symphonies. The second of these, the "Norwich symphony in A minor (1893), was .underrated at the time. It has recently been revived, and "has been found to be charming. Light in texture and unpretentious in' "message," the music was untouched by the prevalent theory "of the time that anything less than Brahmsian earnestness was unworthy of.'a symphony, but.it has a character truly it's own. ■ Another composition wholly excellent of "its kind was the "Welsh Rbap*sody" (Cardiff Festival, 1904), and the "Theme and Six Diversions" (1919). although at the agitated time of its production it seamed anachronisticaily urbane and pretty, is the writing, of a musician of delicate and lively fancy, no "less, than of perfect breeding. German —whose real name was Edward German Jones—was born at Whitchurch, Salop. His family was musical, and as a boy he showed great aptitude. . At nineteen he came up to the Royal Academy of Music, entering Weist Hill's violin class. He was under Prouffor composition, which Macfarren advised him to make his principal study. .For a time, he eked out his means by playing. in theatre orchestras, including that of the Savoy, but the early success of his theatre music soon saved him from the material difficulties of most young composers. '... In 1895 he was made a Fellow of the. R.A.M., in 1901 a member of the Phiij harmonic Society. He was knighted in 1928, and in 1934 received the Phil--1 harmonic gold medal.