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drplaceboIt's Forgotten Masterpiece Friday!
Last week featured a violin concerto allegedly rediscovered through an Ouija board by violinist Jelly d'Arányi. This week's feature is a violin sonata dedicated to d’Arányi.
Frederick Kelly (1881-1916) may have been more notable as an athlete than as a musician. Born in Sydney, Australia, he was sent to England to study at Eton College and went on to complete undergraduate and graduate degrees in history at Oxford. While at Oxford, he became known as one of the leading rowers of the day: he was a member of the Oxford crew, won two of England's three premier single sculling events as an individual rower, and won an Olympic gold medal in 1908 as part of Great Britain's eights crew. He was also an outstanding amateur pianist and composer; he briefly studied piano at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt between his undergraduate and graduate degrees, played chamber music with luminaries including cellist Pablo Casals, and acted as an advisor to the Classical Concert Society for several years. It was in that last role that Kelly first met Jelly d'Arányi in 1909. By 1914, after d'Arányi had moved to London, the two were performing regularly as violin/piano duo partners. It is unclear how far their relationship went beyond that; d'Arányi was said to be smitten with Kelly, but Kelly, at least initially, seemed to view their relationship as platonic. Kelly's diaries, though extensive, provide no clues. (Notably, d'Arányi displayed Kelly's photograph prominently in her home for the rest of her life, and despite numerous proposals, never married.)
In any event, their musical partnership was interrupted by the outbreak of war. Kelly was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and was eventually sent to the front as an infantry officer. At war, according to his fellow officer Arther Asquith, Kelly was "brave as a lion" but also eccentric, brushing his teeth as many as 12 times a day, wearing white gloves, and carrying around stray cats. During lulls in combat, he occasionally attempted to persuade German soldiers to surrender by playing Wagner. Through it all, he somehow managed to continue composing, working by candlelight late at night in his dugout. He was sent to Gallopoli, where he was inspired to compose a sonata for Jelly d'Arányi; as he worked he kept d'Arányi informed on his progress in regular letters to her. Though he composed the sonata while at war, Kelly evidently did not regard the sonata as a war composition. At one point, he wrote to d'Arányi: "The sonata is all there in my head but not yet on paper. You must not expect shell and rifle fire in it! It is rather a contrast to all that, being somewhat idyllic." Kelly was wounded twice during the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign, but survived and completed the sonata days before the Allied evacuation in 1916. On leave in London, he played the sonata with d'Arányi. Later that year, Kelly went back to the front and was killed in the Battle of the Somme in November 1916. When he died, an unfinished piano sonata was found in his dugout.
D'Arányi played the Gallipoli sonata at Kelly's memorial service, the first public performance of the piece and the only one for over 90 years. It fell into obscurity until an Australian violinist and musicologist named Chris Latham, doing research at the National Library of Australia, noticed repeated references to a violin sonata in Kelly's diaries and could not find a manuscript anywhere in Kelly's papers. He eventually located some of Jelly d'Arányi's surviving relatives through Facebook, and learned that a great-niece in Italy still had the immaculately preserved manuscript. Latham flew to Florence, Italy to bring a copy back to Australia in 2010, and went on to give the second-ever performance in Canberra in 2011.
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Adagio con moto
III. Ground: Allegro non troppo
Last week featured a violin concerto allegedly rediscovered through an Ouija board by violinist Jelly d'Arányi. This week's feature is a violin sonata dedicated to d’Arányi.
Frederick Kelly (1881-1916) may have been more notable as an athlete than as a musician. Born in Sydney, Australia, he was sent to England to study at Eton College and went on to complete undergraduate and graduate degrees in history at Oxford. While at Oxford, he became known as one of the leading rowers of the day: he was a member of the Oxford crew, won two of England's three premier single sculling events as an individual rower, and won an Olympic gold medal in 1908 as part of Great Britain's eights crew. He was also an outstanding amateur pianist and composer; he briefly studied piano at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt between his undergraduate and graduate degrees, played chamber music with luminaries including cellist Pablo Casals, and acted as an advisor to the Classical Concert Society for several years. It was in that last role that Kelly first met Jelly d'Arányi in 1909. By 1914, after d'Arányi had moved to London, the two were performing regularly as violin/piano duo partners. It is unclear how far their relationship went beyond that; d'Arányi was said to be smitten with Kelly, but Kelly, at least initially, seemed to view their relationship as platonic. Kelly's diaries, though extensive, provide no clues. (Notably, d'Arányi displayed Kelly's photograph prominently in her home for the rest of her life, and despite numerous proposals, never married.)
In any event, their musical partnership was interrupted by the outbreak of war. Kelly was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and was eventually sent to the front as an infantry officer. At war, according to his fellow officer Arther Asquith, Kelly was "brave as a lion" but also eccentric, brushing his teeth as many as 12 times a day, wearing white gloves, and carrying around stray cats. During lulls in combat, he occasionally attempted to persuade German soldiers to surrender by playing Wagner. Through it all, he somehow managed to continue composing, working by candlelight late at night in his dugout. He was sent to Gallopoli, where he was inspired to compose a sonata for Jelly d'Arányi; as he worked he kept d'Arányi informed on his progress in regular letters to her. Though he composed the sonata while at war, Kelly evidently did not regard the sonata as a war composition. At one point, he wrote to d'Arányi: "The sonata is all there in my head but not yet on paper. You must not expect shell and rifle fire in it! It is rather a contrast to all that, being somewhat idyllic." Kelly was wounded twice during the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign, but survived and completed the sonata days before the Allied evacuation in 1916. On leave in London, he played the sonata with d'Arányi. Later that year, Kelly went back to the front and was killed in the Battle of the Somme in November 1916. When he died, an unfinished piano sonata was found in his dugout.
D'Arányi played the Gallipoli sonata at Kelly's memorial service, the first public performance of the piece and the only one for over 90 years. It fell into obscurity until an Australian violinist and musicologist named Chris Latham, doing research at the National Library of Australia, noticed repeated references to a violin sonata in Kelly's diaries and could not find a manuscript anywhere in Kelly's papers. He eventually located some of Jelly d'Arányi's surviving relatives through Facebook, and learned that a great-niece in Italy still had the immaculately preserved manuscript. Latham flew to Florence, Italy to bring a copy back to Australia in 2010, and went on to give the second-ever performance in Canberra in 2011.
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Adagio con moto
III. Ground: Allegro non troppo