Colin McAlpin

Colin McAlpin (9 April 1870 – 13 May 1942) was an English composer, organist and writer of critical essays on music.

Life

The cast of Colin McAlpin's opera Robin Hood, at Wellingborough School, ca.1885

McAlpin was born in 1870, in Leicester, England, son of John William McAlpin and Marie Louise McAlpin.^[1] He was a composer of songs, operas and ballet music, and an organist. He published his first composition when he was only 15 and at Wellingborough School: an opera Robin Hood, the year before he was admitted to the Royal College of Music. One of his operas, The Cross and the Crescent, first produced at Covent Garden in 1903, won him the Manners Prize of £250.^[2]

McAlpin married a portrait painter, Susette Peach. They had one son, Roderic McAlpin (1906-1965). He died at Dorking, Surrey, in 1942.

Compositions

Operas

• Robin Hood, an opera, written at school, about 1885
• King Arthur: Opera in Three Acts, words by Colin McAlpin. Leipzig and London: Bosworth and Co., 1897. Premiere: London: Leicester Theatre, 1896.^[3] Performed by Leicester Philharmonic Choir in 1897
• Fingal, an opera in four acts, with a cast of 9
• The Cross and the Crescent, his prize-winning opera, first performed in 1903. Words from John Davidson's translation of Pour la Couronne, a tragedy by François Coppée.
• Ingomar, an opera, performed at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1910.^[4]

Cantatas

• The Prince of Peace, a cantata for choir and organ.^[5]
• Excalibur, in 2 Acts, for chorus SATB and orchestra

Songs

The cover of McAlpin's Ten Songs.^[6]

• Ten Songs, London: Cary, 1903 ^[7]OCLC 498420435
  • 1. The light of love (Hartley Coleridge)
  • 2. She walks in beauty (Byron)
  • 3. Elegy: Oh! snatched away in beauty's bloom (Byron)
  • 4. A faded violet (Shelley)
  • 5. Slumber song (Colin McAlpin) - "sung by Miss Ada Crossley"
  • 6. Music, when soft voices die (Shelley)
  • 7. A widow-bird (Shelley)
  • 8. Thou wouldst be loved (Edgar Allan Poe)
  • 9. A lament (Shelley) - two stanzas
  • 10. There be none of Beauty's daughters (Byron)
• Three Songs, London: Cary, 1904 OCLC 278282741
  • As of yore
  • Spring
  • A love song
• The lad with the bonnet of blue (Alice C. MacDonell), London: Cary, 1899 OCLC 278282743
• Love's Vigil (W.W. Robinson), London: Boosey & Hawkes
• Mary's Song (Colin McAlpin), London: Cary, 1903
• The Penitent (John Murray), London: Weekes & Co., 1902
• The Vow, song for baritone

Choral Songs

• The Cuckoo, choral song

Piano

• Fantastic Dance, London: Cary, 1903

Organ

• Grand March, pub. in The Organist September 1902, The Lorenz Publishing Co., Dayton, Ohio
• 11 Pieces, The Organist Library Book 6, London: Cary, 1903
• 11 Pieces, The Organist Library Book 8, London: Cary, 1903

Writings

Books

• "Hermaia:^[8] a Study in Comparative Esthetics", London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1915. Reprinted 2012, General Books (USA) ISBN 9780217220460

Articles

• "Germany: Her Music" The Musical Times, Vol. 57, No. 882. (1 August 1916), pp. 363–364
• "Britain: Her Music" The Musical Times, Vol. 57, No. 884. (1 October 1916), pp. 445–447
• "Carlyle and the Opera" The Musical Times, Vol. 58, No. 888. (1 February 1917), pp. 58–60
• "The Reality of the Opera", Part I The Musical Times, Vol. 58, No. 891. (1 May 1917), pp. 201–203
• "The Reality of the Opera", Part II The Musical Times, Vol. 58, No. 892. (1 June 1917), pp. 247–249
• "Musical Criticism" The Musical Times, Vol. 58, No. 895, (1 September 1917), pp. 397–399
• "Musical Appreciation: A Plea for Catholicity" The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 3. (July 1920), pp. 403–416, OUP.
• "On Hearing Music" The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 3. (July 1922), pp. 419–434, OUP.
• "Is Music the Language of the Emotions?" The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 3. (July 1925), pp. 427–443, OUP.
• "Concerning Form in Music" The Musical Quarterly, Vol 15, No. 1 (1929), pp. 55–71, OUP.
• "Musical Modernism: Some Random Reflections" The Musical Quarterly, Vol 16, No. 1 (January 1930), pp. 1–20, New York: G. Schirmer Inc.

Bibliography

• Fisher, David J., Colin McAlpin: his music to 1903. Thesis (M.Mus), University of Sheffield, Dept. of Music, 1989 OCLC 271082986

Notes

References

• Elson, Arthur. Modern Composers of Europe L.C. Page & Co., Boston, USA (1904)
• Howey, Ann F. and Reimer, Stephen R. A Bibliography of Modern Arthuriana (1500-2000) D. S. Brewer, Cambridge (2006) ISBN 1 84384 068 5
• Hubbard, W.L. and H.E. Krehbiel. The American History and Encyclopedia of Music: Operas Part II, Squire-Cooley Co., Toledo, Ohio, USA (1924)

External links

• Free scores by Colin McAlpin at the International Music Score Library Project
• The Lied and Art Song Texts Page created and maintained by Emily Ezust Original texts of the songs of McAlpin translated in various languages
• BBC - Your Paintings - Colin McAlpin(1870-1942) by Richard Jack in the collection of the Leicester Arts and Museums Service
• Colin McAlpin's Ten Songs in the Edgar Allan Poe Digital Collection, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
• British Music Society Records - Catalogue
  • BMS recording ENV001 Choral Music by Leicester Composers: The Cuckoo by Colin McAlpin
  • BMS Newsletter Vol. 2 No.35 September 1987, Stephen Draper, "Colin McAlpin and The Prince of Peace"