Harold Fraser-Simson

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Harold Fraser-Simson (born 15 August 1872 in London; died 19 January 1944 in Inverness, Scotland), was a British composer of light music, including songs, incidental music, and stage works.

[edit] Life and career

Fraser-Simson was educated at Dulwich College[1], Charterhouse School and in France. As a young man he was connected with a ship-owning firm in London before turning to music as a full-time occupation in his early forties.

His continuing reputation essentially derives from the operetta or musical comedy The Maid of the Mountains which opened in London in 1917 and finally closed after 1,352 performances - at the time a phenomenal run, second only to Chu Chin Chow. Several songs from this work (not all of them by Fraser-Simson) have remained "standards" ever since, and the operetta itself (one of the best known of all English language operettas, and strongly evocative of the "Great War" period) is frequently revived by both professional and amateur groups.

Fraser-Simpson is also known for his settings of children's verse by A.A. Milne and Kenneth Grahame, including the music for a play based on the latter's The Wind in the Willows entitled Toad of Toad Hall, a children's song cycle The Hums of Pooh, based on verses from Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, and the setting of several verses from When We Were Very Young.

Other operettas and musicals (now mostly forgotten, but enjoying some success in their time) include Bonita (1911); A Southern Maid (1920); Head over Heels (1923); The Street Singer (1924); and Betty in Mayfair (1925).

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Darby, W., (1967), Dulwich: A Place in History, p.41, (William Darby: Dulwich)
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