Marion Scott (musicologist)
Encyclopedia
Marion Margaret Scott was an English
violin
ist, musicologist, writer, music critic, editor, composer, and poet.
to Sydney Charles Scott (1849–1936), a solicitor and gifted pianist, and Annie Prince Scott (1853–1942), an American who was born and reared in St. Petersburg, Russia, where her father George Prince managed William Ropes and Company, a Boston, Massachusetts-based family mercantile business. Born at Lewisham, Marion Scott was privately educated. She spent her childhood in Norwood
where The Crystal Palace
became central to her early life. Her liberal parents, who were social activists, valued the arts and enrolled Scott in the Crystal Palace School of Art when she was about four years old. Scott began piano lessons at an early age but found her teacher uninspiring. Eventually she abandoned the piano for the violin, an instrument she believed possessed a soul. By the age of 15, Scott was performing regularly around London with her father as accompanist, winning acclaim from audiences and critics. Her parents purchased a Guadagnini
violin for her.
in 1896 to study violin with Fernandez Arbos (1863–1939), piano with Marmaduke Barton (1865–1938), and composition with Charles Villiers Stanford
(1852–1924) and Walford Davies (1869–1941). She, not Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979), was among Stanford’s first female pupils, who also included Mary Wurm (1860–1938) and Katharine Ramsay (later the Duchess of Athol). Scott gained her ARCM in 1900 but continued her student affiliation with the RCM until 1903. She returned to the college in 1906 when she along with Dr. Emily Daymond
(1866–1949) and Aubrey Aiken Crawshaw founded the Royal College of Music Student Union. Scott became the Union secretary, a position equivalent to that of executive director. She developed the popular “At Homes” that offered students an opportunity to come together to perform their music and to socialize. These events were often held at the Scott family’s elegant home on Westbourne Terrace. Later Scott served as editor of the Royal College of Music Magazine (1939–1944), carrying it through the difficult war years from her temporary residence in Bridgwater
, where she and her sister Stella had gone with their elderly mother.
In 1908, Scott founded her own string quartet, The Marion Scott Quartet, mainly to introduce contemporary British music to London audiences. Their programs at Aeolian Hall
featured new works by Stanford, Frank Bridge
, James Friskin, Hubert Parry
, William Hurlstone
and others as well as occasional early music by Purcell and Arne and their contemporaries. In her innovative programming Scott featured trios, quintets, songs, and vocal ensembles to provide musical diversity. Although she was a gifted violinist, frequent ill health prevented Scott from pursuing a career as a solo concert artist, but she continued to work as a musician giving recitals and playing in orchestras, often serving as leader under conductors including Charles Stanford, Gustav Holst
, Walter Parratt
and Samuel Coleridge Taylor. Scott’s compositions, mainly her songs and chamber works, received occasional performances although none were published. She was among the earliest modern English composers to write for voice and string quartet.
.
1910 was a busy and productive year for Scott. She had developed a series of lectures on music history and performance as well as separate teaching lectures on composition, harmony, orchestration and other technical aspects of music that she offered to organizations and clubs throughout London. Her lectures on topics such as “The Evolution of English Music”, “Folk Songs of the Four Races — England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland” and “English Music: The Inheritance of the Past”, featured pianists and singers who illustrated Scott’s talk with musical examples. She became a regular contributor to “The Chamber Music” supplement of The Music Student, often collaborating on articles with her with her friend the composer and pianist Katharine Eggar (1874–1961).
Always an adventurous pioneer, Scott opened the field of music criticism to women when, in 1919, she became the London correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor
. Scott used this powerful position to introduce and promote the music of her friends and colleagues regularly in America. From 1919 on, her writing appeared in Music and Letters, The Music Student, Music and Youth, The Musical Quarterly, The Listener, The Music Review, Monthly Musical Record, Music Magazine, The Musical Times, Music Bulletin, Royal College of Music Magazine, Radio Times, Daily Telegraph, Observer, Christian Science Monitor. She ended her association with the Christian Science Monitor in 1933.
In addition to her essays, articles and criticism, Marion Scott wrote programme notes for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Haydn Orchestra and for the Royal Philharmonic Society, delivered papers to the Musical Association (now the Royal Music Association), produced broadcasts for Music Magazine, and wrote entries for Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, Cobbett’s Chamber Music Supplement, and Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians
. In 1938, her brief study of Mendelssohn was added to the Novello series of Biographies of Great Musicians.
Marion Scott was a champion of contemporary music and an advocate for women in music. She was the moving force behind the founding of the Society of Women Musicians
(1911–1972) with her friends Katherine Eggar
and Gertrude Eaton (1861–1940), a singer, editor and prison reformer. As the women envisioned the society, it would promote a sense of cooperation among women in different fields of music, provide performance opportunities and advice and would even help women with the practical business aspects of their work. The founding women and their Provisional Council made it clear that the society would have no political agenda and that it would be open to men who could join as associate members. Singer and composer Liza Lehmann
(1862–1918) served as the first SWM president. By 1918, the SWM had earned such an enviable reputation that music critic, editor and teacher Percy A. Scholes
(1877–1958) regarded the organization as ‘a model for men’.
Scott established herself as an international authority on Haydn
, publishing dozens of articles and studies about him between 1930 and 1952. She published her own editions of Haydn’s music with Oxford University Press however her book about Haydn’s chamber music was left incomplete at the time of her death. Her massive Haydn Catalogue appeared in the Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians in 1954. Marion Scott published her only full-length book, Beethoven in 1934 under the J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd. imprint as part of the Music Masters Series. This 343-page illustrated biography remains a classic study of the man and his music. The book met with both critical and public acclaim, the degree of its popularity underscored by the fact that it was reprinted numerous times. Her book is still in demand today and is often quoted by contemporary writers discussing the metaphysical perspectives of Beethoven’s life and work. Her brief study of Mendelssohn later appeared in the Novello series of Biographies of Great Musicians.
(1890–1937), who arrived at the Royal College of Music from Gloucester as a scholarship student. Despite the difference in the age and social position, they formed an enduring friendship. When Gurney began writing poetry during World War I, Scott encouraged him and acted as both his business manager and editor as he sent an increasing number of poems home from the Front. With the help of composer Thomas Dunhill (1877–1946) Scott found a publisher for Gurney’s first volume of poetry, Severn and Somme (1917). After the war she continued to champion both his music and his poetry. When Gurney was committed to the City of London Mental Hospital in 1922 suffering from severe bipolar illness, Scott remained close to him, dealing with his doctors, making decisions about his care, taking him on day trips and providing financial support. She persuaded Gurney’s family, particularly his younger brother Ronald to send her what they had of Ivor’s music, poems and letters for safekeeping. After Gurney’s death in 1937, she gained full control of Gurney estate through Letters of Administration. She continued championing his music and poetry until her death from colon cancer
in 1953.
Marion Scott was a significant force in reshaping women’s roles in classical music, in promoting and championing the work of several generations of British composers and musicians. Her pioneering work as a music critic and musicologist encouraged other women to work in fields previously closed to them.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist, musicologist, writer, music critic, editor, composer, and poet.
Biography
Marion M. Scott was the eldest of three daughters born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Sydney Charles Scott (1849–1936), a solicitor and gifted pianist, and Annie Prince Scott (1853–1942), an American who was born and reared in St. Petersburg, Russia, where her father George Prince managed William Ropes and Company, a Boston, Massachusetts-based family mercantile business. Born at Lewisham, Marion Scott was privately educated. She spent her childhood in Norwood
Upper Norwood
Upper Norwood is an elevated area in south London, England within the postcode SE19. It is a residential district largely in the London Borough of Croydon although some parts extend into the London Borough of Lambeth, London Borough of Southwark and the London Borough of Bromley. Upper Norwood...
where The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
became central to her early life. Her liberal parents, who were social activists, valued the arts and enrolled Scott in the Crystal Palace School of Art when she was about four years old. Scott began piano lessons at an early age but found her teacher uninspiring. Eventually she abandoned the piano for the violin, an instrument she believed possessed a soul. By the age of 15, Scott was performing regularly around London with her father as accompanist, winning acclaim from audiences and critics. Her parents purchased a Guadagnini
Giovanni Battista Guadagnini
Giovanni Battista Guadagnini ; was an emiliano luthier, regarded as one of the finest craftsmen of string instruments in history.-Biography:...
violin for her.
Early music career
Marion Scott entered the Royal College of MusicRoyal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
in 1896 to study violin with Fernandez Arbos (1863–1939), piano with Marmaduke Barton (1865–1938), and composition with Charles Villiers Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
(1852–1924) and Walford Davies (1869–1941). She, not Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979), was among Stanford’s first female pupils, who also included Mary Wurm (1860–1938) and Katharine Ramsay (later the Duchess of Athol). Scott gained her ARCM in 1900 but continued her student affiliation with the RCM until 1903. She returned to the college in 1906 when she along with Dr. Emily Daymond
Emily Daymond
Emily Rosa Daymond was the daughter of the Reverend Albert Cooke Daymond, headmaster of a boys’ school – Timsbury....
(1866–1949) and Aubrey Aiken Crawshaw founded the Royal College of Music Student Union. Scott became the Union secretary, a position equivalent to that of executive director. She developed the popular “At Homes” that offered students an opportunity to come together to perform their music and to socialize. These events were often held at the Scott family’s elegant home on Westbourne Terrace. Later Scott served as editor of the Royal College of Music Magazine (1939–1944), carrying it through the difficult war years from her temporary residence in Bridgwater
Bridgwater
Bridgwater is a market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is the administrative centre of the Sedgemoor district, and a major industrial centre. Bridgwater is located on the major communication routes through South West England...
, where she and her sister Stella had gone with their elderly mother.
In 1908, Scott founded her own string quartet, The Marion Scott Quartet, mainly to introduce contemporary British music to London audiences. Their programs at Aeolian Hall
Aeolian Hall (London)
Aeolian Hall located at 135-137 New Bond Street, began life as the Grosvenor Gallery, being built by Sir Coutts Lindsay in 1876, an accomplished amateur artist, with a predeliction for the aesthetic movement, for which he was held up to some ridicule. In 1883, he decided to light his gallery with...
featured new works by Stanford, Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge was an English composer and violist.-Life:Bridge was born in Brighton and studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford and others...
, James Friskin, Hubert Parry
Hubert Parry
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet was an English composer, teacher and historian of music.Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", the coronation anthem "I was glad" and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words...
, William Hurlstone
William Hurlstone
William Yeates Hurlstone was an English composer who studied piano and composition at the Royal College of Music, after gaining a scholarship. His piano professors were Algernon Ashton and Edward Dannreuther...
and others as well as occasional early music by Purcell and Arne and their contemporaries. In her innovative programming Scott featured trios, quintets, songs, and vocal ensembles to provide musical diversity. Although she was a gifted violinist, frequent ill health prevented Scott from pursuing a career as a solo concert artist, but she continued to work as a musician giving recitals and playing in orchestras, often serving as leader under conductors including Charles Stanford, Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
, Walter Parratt
Walter Parratt
Sir Walter Parratt KCVO was an English organist and composer.-Biography:Born in Huddersfield, son of a parish organist, Parratt began to play the pipe organ from an early age, and held posts as an organist while still a child...
and Samuel Coleridge Taylor. Scott’s compositions, mainly her songs and chamber works, received occasional performances although none were published. She was among the earliest modern English composers to write for voice and string quartet.
Career
It was not as musician that Marion Scott was to achieve success but as a writer and musicologist. Writing came easily to Marion Scott as it did to all members of her family. As a child she produced a magazine for circulation among her young friends. She wrote verse and in 1905 published her only collection of poetry, Violin Verses (The Walter Scott Publishing Company, London). Some critics called the slim volume “charming”, the poems “exceedingly gracious, clever and withal philosophical” while others found it uneven in quality and weighed down by “too many adjectives”. In 1909, Scott began publishing occasional articles about music in London newspapers, including the Daily ExpressDaily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
.
1910 was a busy and productive year for Scott. She had developed a series of lectures on music history and performance as well as separate teaching lectures on composition, harmony, orchestration and other technical aspects of music that she offered to organizations and clubs throughout London. Her lectures on topics such as “The Evolution of English Music”, “Folk Songs of the Four Races — England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland” and “English Music: The Inheritance of the Past”, featured pianists and singers who illustrated Scott’s talk with musical examples. She became a regular contributor to “The Chamber Music” supplement of The Music Student, often collaborating on articles with her with her friend the composer and pianist Katharine Eggar (1874–1961).
Always an adventurous pioneer, Scott opened the field of music criticism to women when, in 1919, she became the London correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
. Scott used this powerful position to introduce and promote the music of her friends and colleagues regularly in America. From 1919 on, her writing appeared in Music and Letters, The Music Student, Music and Youth, The Musical Quarterly, The Listener, The Music Review, Monthly Musical Record, Music Magazine, The Musical Times, Music Bulletin, Royal College of Music Magazine, Radio Times, Daily Telegraph, Observer, Christian Science Monitor. She ended her association with the Christian Science Monitor in 1933.
In addition to her essays, articles and criticism, Marion Scott wrote programme notes for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Haydn Orchestra and for the Royal Philharmonic Society, delivered papers to the Musical Association (now the Royal Music Association), produced broadcasts for Music Magazine, and wrote entries for Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, Cobbett’s Chamber Music Supplement, and Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, it is the largest single reference work on Western music. The dictionary has gone through several editions since the 19th century...
. In 1938, her brief study of Mendelssohn was added to the Novello series of Biographies of Great Musicians.
Marion Scott was a champion of contemporary music and an advocate for women in music. She was the moving force behind the founding of the Society of Women Musicians
Society of Women Musicians
The Society of Women Musicians was a British group founded in 1911 for mutual cooperation between women composers and performers, in response to the limited professional opportunities for women musicians at the time. The founders included Katharine Eggar, a composer, Marion Scott, a musicologist,...
(1911–1972) with her friends Katherine Eggar
Katharine Emily Eggar
Katharine Emily Eggar was an English pianist and composer. Eggar was born and died in London, England, the daughter of Thomas Eggar and Katherine MacDonald. With singer Gertrude Eaton and musicologist Marion M. Scott, she founded the Society of Women Musicians in London in 1911...
and Gertrude Eaton (1861–1940), a singer, editor and prison reformer. As the women envisioned the society, it would promote a sense of cooperation among women in different fields of music, provide performance opportunities and advice and would even help women with the practical business aspects of their work. The founding women and their Provisional Council made it clear that the society would have no political agenda and that it would be open to men who could join as associate members. Singer and composer Liza Lehmann
Liza Lehmann
Liza Lehmann was an English operatic soprano and composer, known for her vocal compositions.-Biography:She was born Elisabetha Nina Mary Frederica Lehmann in London. Her father was the German painter Rudolf Lehmann and her mother was Amelia Chambers, a music teacher, composer and arranger...
(1862–1918) served as the first SWM president. By 1918, the SWM had earned such an enviable reputation that music critic, editor and teacher Percy A. Scholes
Percy Scholes
Percy Alfred Scholes was an English musician, journalist and prolific writer, whose best-known achievement was his compilation of the first edition of The Oxford Companion to Music...
(1877–1958) regarded the organization as ‘a model for men’.
Scott established herself as an international authority on Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
, publishing dozens of articles and studies about him between 1930 and 1952. She published her own editions of Haydn’s music with Oxford University Press however her book about Haydn’s chamber music was left incomplete at the time of her death. Her massive Haydn Catalogue appeared in the Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians in 1954. Marion Scott published her only full-length book, Beethoven in 1934 under the J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd. imprint as part of the Music Masters Series. This 343-page illustrated biography remains a classic study of the man and his music. The book met with both critical and public acclaim, the degree of its popularity underscored by the fact that it was reprinted numerous times. Her book is still in demand today and is often quoted by contemporary writers discussing the metaphysical perspectives of Beethoven’s life and work. Her brief study of Mendelssohn later appeared in the Novello series of Biographies of Great Musicians.
Ivor Gurney
In 1911, Marion Scott met composer-poet Ivor GurneyIvor Gurney
Ivor Bertie Gurney was an English composer and poet.-Life:Born at 3 Queen Street, Gloucester in 1890, the second of four children of David Gurney, a tailor, and his wife Florence, a seamstress, Gurney showed musical ability early...
(1890–1937), who arrived at the Royal College of Music from Gloucester as a scholarship student. Despite the difference in the age and social position, they formed an enduring friendship. When Gurney began writing poetry during World War I, Scott encouraged him and acted as both his business manager and editor as he sent an increasing number of poems home from the Front. With the help of composer Thomas Dunhill (1877–1946) Scott found a publisher for Gurney’s first volume of poetry, Severn and Somme (1917). After the war she continued to champion both his music and his poetry. When Gurney was committed to the City of London Mental Hospital in 1922 suffering from severe bipolar illness, Scott remained close to him, dealing with his doctors, making decisions about his care, taking him on day trips and providing financial support. She persuaded Gurney’s family, particularly his younger brother Ronald to send her what they had of Ivor’s music, poems and letters for safekeeping. After Gurney’s death in 1937, she gained full control of Gurney estate through Letters of Administration. She continued championing his music and poetry until her death from colon cancer
Colorectal cancer
Colorectal cancer, commonly known as bowel cancer, is a cancer caused by uncontrolled cell growth , in the colon, rectum, or vermiform appendix. Colorectal cancer is clinically distinct from anal cancer, which affects the anus....
in 1953.
Marion Scott was a significant force in reshaping women’s roles in classical music, in promoting and championing the work of several generations of British composers and musicians. Her pioneering work as a music critic and musicologist encouraged other women to work in fields previously closed to them.