South East England

Henry Purcell worked at Ashtead Manor from 1693 to 1695 as harpsichord teacher of Katherine Howard.

The school was established by the violinist Yehudi Menuhin in 1963 and offers musical and academic education to gifted young people (aged 8-19; piano, strings, guitar). With concert hall. Grave of Menuhin († 1999) on the grounds.

House of Queen Marie-Amélie, the widow of the French king Louis-Philippe. Jacques Offenbach visited her in 1857.

Arthur Sullivan stayed here in 1892/93 and was visited by the opera composer Pietro Mascagni. Sullivan’s Dorney House (1900-1905) in Weybridge couldn’t be traced.
Oatlands House, the magnificent residence of the Prince of York, which was visited by Haydn in 1791, was demolished.

The opera company was founded in 1998 in Hampshire and moved here; the present theatre was built in 2007. Annual festival in June and July.

Last house of the composer, writer, suffragette and sportswoman Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (1858-1944). She lived here from 1910; at that time the house was named ‘Coign’.

The pianist and composer Adelina de Lara (1872-1969), a pupil of Clara Schumann, lived here between 1886 and 1891.

Arthur Sullivan spent his youth in a house at Albany Place and returned for once in 1886 to write The Golden Legend in a neighbouring house. Both houses were demolished; plaque at the rear side of a McDonalds restaurant.

The birthplace of Ethel Smyth (°1858), Sidcup House, was demolished. After the death of her father in 1867 she lived here in Frimhurst – today a temporary home for disadvantaged families.

In 1894 he moved to ‘One Oak’ at 114 Portsmouth Road (rebuilt) and from 1910 she occupied her last address in Woking (> 5017).

Haydn visited Sir Charles Rich at Waverley Abbey House (Waverley Lane) in 1794 and probably stayed in ‘The Bush’, today a Mercury hotel.

Cobbe collection of keyboard instruments, some of them owned by composers, including J.Chr. Bach, Elgar, Mahler, and the Pleyel on which Chopin gave his last recital in London. Also nice harpsichords and virginals. All instruments are in playing order.

From 1919 the home of the Dolmetsch family, coming from France (Arnold 1858-1940, Carl 1911-1997). Pioneers in replicas of old instruments, especially recorders. Since 1925 a Haslemere Festival of ancient music with concerts and courses in various locations. www.haslemeresociety.org

Grave of the composer Peter Warlock, pseudonym for Philip Heseltine (1894-1930).

Home of the Wedgwood family from 1847; visits by brother-in-law Charles Darwin. Ralph Vaughan Williams was the son of Margaret Wedgwood and spent his childhood here. Having become the proprietor in 1944, he donated the house to the National Trust. Three glorious names in English culture united!

Monument of Vaughan Williams. His country houses in Dorking, Glorydene(1928) and The White Gates (1929-’53), have been demolished.

Memorial relief of Vaughan Williams.

House of the Hungarian born composer Matyas Seiber (1905-1960) in the 1950s. He left his country in 1948, at first settling at nr 169 of this street. Seiber died in South Africa.

Grave of the composer Frederick Delius (1862-1934), who died in his house in Grez-sur-Loing, France. He was interred here in 1935, and so was his wife, who died in 1935. Limpsfield doesn’t play a role in Delius’ biography but was the home of his friend Michael Tippett.

The composer Michael Tippett (1905-1998) lived in Limpsfield from 1929, at first in Chestnut Cottage (not extant), then from 1932 in Whitegates Cottage. This was rebuilt into the present villa in 1938, where he lived until 1951.

The Hungarian composer and inventor Emánuel Móor (1863-1931) lived here from 1887 to 1889. His Triple Concerto is sometimes performed. From 1909 he lived in Switzerland.

House of the composer Elizabeth Maconchy between 1932 and 1941.

House of the composers Peter Warlock and Ernest Moeran from 1925 to 1928. Their exuberant behaviour and wild parties became notorious. Visitors include Arthur Bax and William Walton.

One of the crewmembers of the Russian ship Almaz, moored here in winter 1863/64, was Nikolay Rimski Korsakov, then a naval officer. He made various trips to London and got acquainted with Western musical life.

Grave of the composer Rosalind Ellicott (1857-1924) who left only a small account of fine works. At the same graveyard the famous poet and pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti († 1882) was buried.

The cathedral was an important music centre during the middle ages but its music collection was destroyed after the Reformation. Thomas Tallis worked here in the 1540s, before being appointed in the Chapel Royal.The great composer Orlando Gibbons, the organist of Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal, died suddenly of apoplexy on Whitsunday 1625, aged 42, when the King and the Chapel were on visit in Canterbury; he was buried here and got a fine monument.

The entire Mozart family stayed here for four days with Sir Horace Mann in July 1765, before embarking the Dover-Calais ferry. They visited horse races on nearby Barham Downs.

On its way from America to Europe, the ship Sussex made a stop in Folkestone on 24.III.1916. After departing, it was hit by a German torpedo. The Spanish composer Enrique Granados was on board; he drowned in an attempt to rescue his wife.

The flamboyant playwright and composer Noël Coward (1899-1973) lived here between 1926 and 1956. He wrote songs and popular musicals, such as Conversation Piece (1933) and Bitter Sweet (1929).

Since 2015, the renowned Richard Burnett collection of keyboard instruments, here publicly displayed from 1970, is sadly only accessible in behalf of courses and concerts, which are given here. The related Colt collection in nearby Bethersden was auctioned in 2018. A double loss for interested visitors.

House of the composer Michael Tippett in the 1950s.

Claude Debussy stayed here in the summer of 1905 and finished his masterwork La Mer. In the hotel is a showcase with the score and his room is marked. Elgar, Paderewski and Ysaÿe also stayed in this hotel.

House of Cyril Scott (1879-1970) from 1955 until his death. He was a composer of fine impressionistic and more experimental works but as much a writer and ardent student of metaphysical subjects, such as theosophy, occultism, alternative medicine etc. He deserves more attention than he get. 
From 1951 to 1955 he had lived in Loxwood Tower, Upper Carlisle Road.

Cyril Scott’s ashes were buried in the churchyard of St Nicolas. Concerts of ancient music are given in this 13^th century church, thanks to the fine acoustics.

Plaque in honour of the composer Percy Grainger (1882-1961), given by his Swedish wife Ella Ström who lived here in the house Lilla Vran, Seaville Drive. They had met in 1926 on a boat; in 1927 Percy visited her and next year they were married. The couple frequently returned to Pevensey Bay and associated with Cyril Scott.

House from 1923 to 1941 of the composer Frank Bridge (1879-1941). From 1927 Benjamin Britten was his pupil.

Grave and memorial of Frank Bridge.

John Christie and Audrey Mildmay founded an opera festival in 1934 in a theatre with 300 seats for Mozart performances, later extended to 750 seats and to works of other composers. A new theatre from 1994 has a capacity of 1200. Yearly from May until August six different operas and 80 performances. The atmosphere is rather classy, wearing of formal dress is encouraged.

The Royal Pavlion, Brighton’s greatest attraction, was built in the 1780s in a style inspired by Mughal India. Concerts are given in the Music Room. In 1823 Rossini met King George IV.Around the pavilion are two theatres and the Brighton Museum.

The Museum houses 900 musical instruments, including the Spencer collection related to The King’s Band which appeared in the Pavilion, the Willins collection of 400 whistles and a great number of African instruments.

Birthplace of the composer Frank Bridge (1879-1941).

House of the composer Richard Addinsell (1904-1977) from 1960. The Warsaw Concerto from the war movie Dangerous Moonlight (1941) made him world famous for a while. He also composed the soundtrack of Gaslight (1940).

Birthplace of Roger Quilter, a composer of fine songs (1877-1953).

The conductor and composer Sir Herbert Hamilton Harty (1879-1941) died here.

The conductor and composer of the waltz Il bacio, Luigi Arditi (1822-1903), was born in Italy and died here.

Antonín Dvořák stayed with the publisher Henry Littleton in August 1885. He was enchanted by the view from his room on the sea, the boats, the publicly bathing women and the band playing Scottish folk music.

House of (William) Havergal Brian (1676-1972), a most peculiar composer. Among his works are 32 huge symphonies of which one – the ‘Gothic’ – with a duration of 110 minutes is the longest symphony ever written. Recordings of his music exist, but only of shorter works. Brian lived here from 1958 until his death.

House of the composer John Ireland (1879-1962), a remarkable windmill from the 1830s where he moved in 1953 after having lived in some houses in the vicinity. After his death, the inventory moved to a ‘John Ireland Memorial House’ in Steyning, which was closed in 1982.

Grave of John Ireland.

The composer Arnold Bax (1883-1953) moved to this hotel in 1940. John Ireland was a regular guest.

Bax occuied an unheated room without a piano, having given up composition after his 7^th Symphony because his music had lost favour with the public. In the present century, his works are rediscovered.

Edward Elgar, looking for a quiet country retreat, rented this cottage from 1917 until 1920. His best chamber works and a part of his Cello Concerto were written here.

Country home of the composer Hubert Parry (1848-1918) from 1880 until his death. His best known work Jerusalem was written here.

Thomas Weelkes was organist of this cathedral from 1602 until his death in 1623. The composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was buried in a side chapel. The Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein were performed here in 1965.

Plaque in honour of Eric Coates (1886-1957), violist, conductor and composer of light music. He frequently stayed in this his favourite region and died in a Chichester hospital. The plaque is at the viewpoint where he was inspired in 1930 to his popular tune By the Sleepy Lagoon.

Shulbrede Priory belonged to a medieval Augustinian monastery and was partly altered during the Tudor era. It was the home of the son-in-law of Herbert Parry and was frequently visited by the composer. Here he got his inspiration for the piano pieces Shulbrede Tunes. There are some Parry memorabilia. Worth a visit (tel. +44/0 1428 653049).

House of the composer Albert William Ketèlby (1875-1959), living here from 1949 until his death. Ketèlby is best known by his programme pieces which evoke exotic places such as a Persian Market or a Chinese temple garden.

The family of Richard Strauss stayed in this hotel in 1902 and 1903; the composer worked here at his Sinfonia Domestica. The hotel seems to have closed the doors now.

Edward and Alice Elgar stayed here during their honeymoon in May 1889.

Birthplace of the organist, teacher and composer John Goss (1800-1880). In 1838 he succeeded his teacher Thomas Attwood as organist of St Paul’s Cathedral in London; he was buried there.

House of Clara Money-Coutts, a patron of Isaac Albeniz who visited her frequently between 1890 and 1893.

Thomas Weelkes, Jeremiah Clarke and S.S. Wesley were organists of Winchester Cathedral. The composer Lionel Power died in Winchester in 1445.

House of the composer Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876) from 1849 to 1865.

The conductor Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977) died in this 18^th century house.

House of the composer Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) from 1939 until his death; he had it built to replace an old dilapidated farm. In his orchard he cultivated rare apple varieties. Ralph Vaughan Williams and the cellist Jacqueline du Pré were befriended visitors.

Gerald Finzi was buried at the graveyard of St James, nearby his home. In the church is a commemorative window for him and his wife Joy. Another window celebrates British music and is surrounded by composers’ names on the wall.

Sir Arthur Sullivan rented Booth Lodge (its former name) in 1888, composed most of The Yeomen of the Guard here and could let himself go in his passion for betting on racehorses in nearby Ascot and other places. 

The grave of the composer John Mundy (c1555-1630) is in St George’s Chapel, where he was the organist. (The chapel has been severely damaged by fire in 1992; restored.)

The composer Pelham Humfrey (1647-1674), who worked at the court, untimely died in Windsor.

Guests of Windsor Castle include Haydn (1792), Liszt (1825, 1886), Offenbach (1844), Sousa (1856), Rubinstein (1877), Wagner (1877), Saint-Saëns (1880, 1898), Mascagni (1893) an Grieg (1897). The Merry Wives of Windsor one will only find in Otto Nicolai’s opera.

House of the actor, dramatist and composer Ivor Novello (1893-1951) from 1927 until his death. Since 1964, the house is the student department of Bedroofs School of Performing Arts.

The composer Thomas Arne presented here his masque Alfred before the Prince and Princess of Wales on 1 August 1740. The final number was Rule Britannia, which became a sort of second national anthem of Britain, to be heard every year during the ‘Last Night of the Proms’ in London.

The composer Arnold Bax (1883-1953) lived here from 1915 until 1940. During the two preceding years, he lived in another house on Station Road.

Mendelssohn (1832) and the singer Malibran (1833) visited the musicologist F.G. Ouseley in this 17^th century palace.

The composer Granville Bantock (1868-1946) lived here in the 1930s.

The composer Edmund Duncan Rubbra (1901-1986) lived here from 1961 until his death.

Edmund Rubbra lived here from 1933 to 1961.

House of the conductor and composer Walter Goehr (1903-1960), who was born in Berlin and lived in England from 1933, in this house from 1940. Goehr was in the first place a conductor, but he also composed film music and made arrangements of works by Musorgsky.

His wife ran a photo studio here and his son Alexander, born in 1932 and a composer too, spent his youth here.

The opera composer Giacomo Puccini stayed here with Alfred de Rothschild in July 1900. Today the house is the RAF Holton Officers’ Mess.

Edmund Rubbra and Egon Wellesz were teachers at Oxford University. William Walton studied here. Honorary degrees were presented to Haydn (1791), Grieg (1906), Glazunov (1907), Saint-Saëns (1907), R. Strauss (1914), Smyth (1926), Ravel (1928), Hindemith (1954), Poulenc (1958), Shostakovich (1958), Birtwistle (2014).

The composers Richard Davy (c1465-1507) and John Sheppard (c1515-1558) worked here as Master of the Choristers and Henry’s Brother Daniel Purcell was organist from 1688 until 1695.

Liszt gave a recital and passed a night in ‘The Star’ in 1840.

The composer John Taverner (c1490-1545) was organist and master of the choristers from 1526 to 1530, the prodigy William Crotch (1775-1847) became organist aged 15 and after seven years university professor as well. John Stainer also was attached at Magdalen. William Walton was a choral scholar between 1912 and 1918.

The institute for the teaching of musicology also has the disposal of the Bate collection of woodwind instruments.

St Mary’s is the church of the university. Handel appeared here in 1733 with the Coronation Anthems and the Utrecht Te Deum.

The main theatre of Oxford was built in 1669 by the young Christopher Wren; he also designed the organ case.

Handel directed several performances of operas between 5 and 12 July 1733, including the FP of Athalia; it yielded him £2000. On 6-8 July, Haydn conducted own works and received his honorary degree. In his diary he complained about the ‘funny’ required robe but welcomed the honour which gained him entry to the greatest houses.

The famous Bodleian Library, founded in 1598, has a vast music collection of manuscripts, autographs and prints which covers the whole musical history from the 11^th century Winchester Troper to the present time. http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Built in 1748, Holywell is one of the oldest concert rooms in use today, with 194 fixed seats and extra chairs. Between 1836 and 1901 it had other functions. The organ by John Donaldson is from 1790. 

Grave of the organist and composer John Stainer (1840-1901). He was organist of the church (memorial window). Stainer’s best known composition is The Crucifixion.

The Hill collection of bowed and plucked string instruments includes the earliest dated violin by Amati (1564) and the famous Messiah by Stradivari (1716). Also non-European instruments.

Collection of 9000 instruments, of which 1200 currently on display. Mostly folkloristic and non-European, but also mechanical instruments and an Italian virginal from 1552.

Annex at 60 Banbury Road.  http://www.objects.prm.ox.ac.uk

Birthplace of the composer Humphrey Searle (1915-1982). Liszt, Schönberg and Webern were his greatest examples; he followed private lessons from the latter.

House of the composer Lennox Berkeley (1903-1987). Born in nearby Boars Hill, he may have lived here before 1927 when he went to France for study. Berkeley was closely befriended with Benjamin Britten.

The chapel – with a nice ‘Minstrels Gallery’ – belonged to the palace of Willougby Bertie, 4^th earl of Abingdon (1740-1799). He was an amateur flutist and composer and a music patron. He was closely involved in the English careers of J.Chr. Bach and Joseph Haydn. His grave is in the chapel; the palace has been demolished in 1807.

This Tudor house was restored by the Morell family, who hosted many writers and musicians during the 1920s, including Peter Warlock and William Walton. The next owner, Leonard Ingrams, founded an annual open air opera festival from 1989 until 2010.

House of the eccentric novelist, painter and composer Lord Berners (Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 1883-1950). Stravinsky visited him on various occasions in the 1920s and ‘30s; other visitors include William Walton, Constant Lambert and the painter Salvador Dali. Berners ashes were interred near the house.