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Classical Editor: Rob
Barnett
Music Webmaster
Len Mullenger:
Len@musicweb-international.com
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Classical Editor: Rob
Barnett
Music Webmaster |
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ENGLISH COMPOSERS FOR AMATEURS: No 9 - ALFRED SCOTT-GATTY by Philip L Scowcroft
Alfred Scott-Gatty was born in Ecclesfield, South Yorkshire as plain Alfred Gatty, the son of the similarly named Vicar of Ecclesfield on 26 April 1847. Educated at Marlborough and Christ's College, Cambridge, he achieved eminence in the world of heraldry, becoming Rouge Dragon in 1880; between 1886 and 1904 he was York Herald of the College of Arms. He was knighted in 1904 (he was later made KCVO) and became also a Knight of Justice of the Order of St John. He assumed the name of Scott-Gatty in 1892, Scott being his mother's maiden name. He died in London 18 December 1918, having since 1904 been Garter King of Arms.
As a composer he was doubtless an amateur but his work was popular and highly regarded in its day. His output was largely, if not entirely, for voices and aimed primarily at amateur performers. It included two modest "operettas", Sandford and Merton's Christmas Party (1880) and Not At Home (1886) and three musical plays specifically for children: Rumpelstiltskin, The Goose Girl (1895) and The Three Bears (1896). Mostly these were to words by his sister, the noted children's writer Mrs Ewing.
His songs ran into hundreds, many of them with texts by himself. A few of the best known titles were Ae Fond Kiss, Crofte and Ye Faire Ladye, True Till Death (arranged for baritone and male voice choir as late as 1938 by that indefatigable arranger for male voices, Doris Arnold), Country House Ditties (1898) including Cricket dedicated to the I Zingari Club (published by Boosey and reproduced in D Rayvern Allen's A Song For Cricket - Pelham Books, 1981, pp35-8)! The Gallants of England, Heigho! When Will He Marry Me?, O Fair Dove, O Fond Dove, also set by Sullivan, the duet O That We Two Were Maying, Rothesay Bay, One Morning O So Early and an arrangement of the Irish folk song Bendenzer's Stream.
His concern to provide music for children, already noted, was pursued in Little Songs for Little Voices published in three volumes, 76 short and simple ditties in all. They were his earliest compositions and appeared in Aunt Judy's Magazine, edited first by his mother, then by his sister. Two of these songs, The Sneezing Song and Three Little Pigs were sung by (Scott-) Gatty himself in a concert at Doncaster Grammar School on 21 June 1870, long before they were published. He sang Three Little Pigs again in 1871 along with Camomile Tea, Tittle Tattle and The Yawning Song; Naughty Tom appeared in the 1872 concert but not sung by him.
Scott-Gatty's most popular songs by a long chalk, were the Plantation Songs (1893-5) for baritone solo and mixed voice chorus: 24 songs in total, issued in four volumes. At that time such songs were novelties in this country. They remained popular and three were recorded during 1914-18. During the 1930s, long after Scott-Gatty's death, several of these were rearranged for baritone and male voice chorus by Leslie Woodgate and others had their accompaniments scored for orchestra by various hands. At least one of them, a duet, Good Night, was heard years before it was published in a concert in the imposing surroundings of the Marble Saloon of Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham, then the seat of Earl Fitzwilliam and very much in the Gattys' home territory in South Yorkshire, on 30 January 1891. This was sung by (Scott-)Gatty and his wife (who in the same concert participated in an extended selection from Messiah) and the duet, according to a contemporary press report "caused a furore of enthusiasm."
© Philip L Scowcroft