Norman O'Neill

Painting by Horace van Ruith, 1898-1899

Norman Houston O'Neill (14 March 1875 – 3 March 1934)[1] was an English composer and conductor of Irish background who specialized largely in works for the theatre. He studied in London with Arthur Somervell and with Iwan Knorr at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt from 1893 to 1897. His studies there were facilitated by Eric Stenbock.[2] He belonged to the Frankfurt Group, a circle of composers who studied at Hoch's Conservatory in the late 1890s.

He was born in Kensington, London, the youngest son of the Irish painter George Bernard O'Neill and Emma Stuart Callcott. He married Adine Berthe Maria Ruckert (29 July 1875 – 17 February 1947) on 2 July 1899 in Paris, France. Adine was a celebrated pianist and music teacher in her own right.

O'Neill was associated with the Haymarket Theatre. His works include over fifty sets of incidental music for plays, including many by Shakespeare (Hamlet, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, Henry V and Measure for Measure), J. M. Barrie (A Kiss for Cinderella and Mary Rose), and Maurice Maeterlinck (The Blue Bird). In 1910, he became the first British composer to conduct his own orchestral music on record, directing the Columbia Graphophone Company's house ensemble, the "Court Symphony Orchestra", in a suite taken from his Blue Bird music on two double-sided gramophone discs. He received personal congratulations from Sir Edward Elgar[3] on his music for the innovative central ballet sequence of the 1924 revue "The Punch Bowl", which ran for over a year with O'Neill's contribution being widely singled out for praise in press coverage.[4]

O'Neill's works also include a number of symphonic suites and chamber music. He was treasurer of the Royal Philharmonic Society from 1918 until his death and taught harmony and composition at the Royal Academy of Music.[5]

When he died in 1934 he was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, London, as was his wife in 1947. There is a plaque there in memory to both of them.

References

  1. ↑ Find-a-Grave
  2. ↑ Timothy D'Arch Smith, Love in Earnest pp.35
  3. ↑ "'King's Musick' and Ballet Music". Daily Mirror. London. 29 May 1924. p. 7.
  4. ↑ e.g. first night reviews (22 May 1924) in Daily Telegraph p. 13; The Times, p. 14; Daily Mail, p. 10; The Star, p. 3; Daily Sketch, p. 3.
  5. ↑ "Some British Composer-Conductors" by Philip L. Scowcroft (accessed June 13, 2007).
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