An in-depth study of the life of Sir Hamilton Harty (1879-1941),
pianist, composer and conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, who arguably
made Manchester the most important focus for music in Britain in his
day.
Sir Hamilton Harty (1879-1941) is best known as the conductor of the
Hallé Orchestra, who arguably made Manchester the most important focus
for music in Britain in his day. This book chronicles and analyses
Harty's illustrious career, from his establishment as London's premiere
accompanist in 1901 to his years as a conductor between 1910 and 1933,
first with the LSO and then with the Hallé, to his American tours of the
1930s. Tragically, Harty died from cancer in 1941 at the age of only
61.
This book also looks at Harty's life as a composer of orchestral and
chamber works and songs, notably before the First World War. Although
Harty's music cleaved strongly to a late nineteenth-century musical
language, he was profoundly influenced during his days in Ulster and
Dublin by the Irish literary revival. A great exponent of Mozart and
especially Berlioz, Harty was also a keen exponent of British music and
an active supporter of American composers such as Gershwin.
Harty's role in the exposition of standard and new repertoire and his
relationship with contemporary composers and performers are also
examined, against the perspective of other important major British
conductors such as Sir Thomas Beecham, Malcolm Sargent and Sir Henry
Wood. Additionally, the book analyses the debates Harty provoked on the
subjects of women orchestral players, jazz, modernism, and the music of
Berlioz.
JEREMY DIBBLE is Professor of Music at Durham University and author of
John Stainer: A Life in Music(The Boydell Press, 2007) and monographs on
C. Hubert H. Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford and Michele Esposito.
