Frederick Corder
Frederick Corder was an English composer and music teacher.Biography
Corder was born in Hackney, the son of Micah Corder and his wife Charlotte Hill. He was educated at Blackheath Proprietary School and started music lessons, particularly piano, early. Later he studied with Henry Gadsby. After that he studied harmony with Claude Couldery.
Frederick Corder continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with George Alexander Macfarren, William Cusins and William Watson. In 1875, he earned a Mendelssohn Scholarship, which enabled him to study for four years abroad. He spent the first three in the Cologne Conservatory in Cologne, where he studied composition with Ferdinand Hiller and piano with Isidor Seiss. He spent his last year in Milan, without formal instruction. He did however meet Arrigo Boito and Giuseppe Verdi. Upon his return to England, in 1879, he became conductor at the Brighton Aquarium. In August 1884, for a single month, he filled in for William Robinson as a musical director for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, touring Patience and Iolanthe.
Corder became professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London, becoming the Academy's curator in 1889. His students included notable British composers like Granville Bantock, Arnold Bax, York Bowen, Alan Bush, Eric Coates, Benjamin Dale, Harry Farjeon, Joseph Holbrooke and Montague Phillips, as well as his own son, Paul Corder. With others, Frederick Corder co-founded the Society of British Composers in 1905 and served as its first chairman. While at the Academy, Corder was living at 13, Albion Road in Hampstead, where he often held gatherings of fellow musicians and students, including Bax.
He developed an early fascination with Richard Wagner and produced with his wife the first accepted English translations of The Ring and other works by Wagner. Liszt was also an important influence, and Corder produced one of the first English language studies of Liszt. His own compositions included songs, operas and cantatas. Corder's Prospero overture is available in full score and can be heard on CD. Corder married Henrietta Walford, the daughter of Henry Walford on 25 September 1876. They had a daughter, Dorothea Charlotte, born on 30 June 1878, and a son, Paul Walford, born on 14 December 1879. Corder's sister, Rosa Corder, was a friend of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and painted his portrait.Compositions (selective list)
Principal source : "Frederick Corder"Orchestral
- 1876 – Evening on the Sea-Shore, idyll, Op.1
- 1876–79 – In the Black Forest, suite, Op.2
- 1882 – Ossian, concert overture, Op.8
- 1882 – Nocturne, Op.9
- 1885 – Prospero, concert overture, Op.14
- 1886 – The Tempest, orchestral scenes, Op.15
- 1887 – Roumanian Suite, Op.18
- 1892 – Nordisa, overture
- 1897 – Pippa Passes, orchestral scena drammatica, Op.24
- 1908 – Elegy for Twenty-four Violins and Organ In memoriam Victor Harris, Op.28
- Tragic Overture
- Scene d'Amour
Choral and vocal
- 1879 – The Triumph of Spring, masque
- 1881 – The Cyclops, cantata, Op.6
- 1883 – Dreamland, symphonic ode for chorus and orchestra, Op.10
- 1886 – The Bridal of Triermain, cantata, Op.16
- 1888 – The Minstrel's Curse, ballad for reciter and orchestra, Op.19
- 1889 – The Sword of Argantyr, cantata, Op.20
- 1893 – Margaret: The Blind Girl of Castel-Cuillé, cantata for female voices with piano accompaniment, Op.21
- 1895 – True Thomas, musical recitation, Op.23
- 1902 – The Witch's Song, musical recitation, Op.27
- 1912 – Sing unto God, motet in fifty parts for female voices, organ, harps, trumpets and drums, Op.29
- 1922 – A Wreath of a Hundred Roses , Section 4: Quodlibet
Operatic
- 1877–78 – Mort d'Arthur, grand opera, Op.3
- 1880 – Philomel, operatic satire, Op.4
- 1880 – A Storm in a Teacup, operetta, Op.5
- 1883 – The Nabob's Pickle, operetta, Op.12
- 1885 – The Noble Savage, operetta, Op.13
- 1887 – Nordisa, romantic opera, Op.17
Incidental music
- 1898 – The Termagant, overture and incidental music, Op.25
- 1899 – The Black Tulip, overture and incidental music, Op.26
