# Unknown composer #6: Algernon Ashton



## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

*Algernon Ashton (1859-1937)*









*i. Introduction
ii. Life and works
iii. Recommended listening*

(apparently consecutive capital letters aren't allowed anymore.)


----------



## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

*i. Introduction*

In 2008, Dutton Digital release a two-disc set of Algernon Ashton's piano music (played by Leslie De'Ath; highly recommended) - it was to be the first entry in this composer's discography, described as "one of the best-kept secrets in British music" and "one of the most shamefully ignored of English composers with a long list of unqualified masterpieces to his credit [1]. Rutland Boughton wrote that Ashton 'seems to pour out great music thought as easily as the lark trills its delight in cloudland'. With such high praise, why is this man so unknown today?


----------



## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

*ii. Life and works*

Ashton was born in Durham on 9 December 1859. His father, whose twelfth child he was, was the leading tenor at Lincoln Cathedral, with a voice that was widely admired. When Ashton was three years of age, his father died quite unexpectedly, leaving his widow in very straightened circumstances with four surviving children to care for. The composer's mother, Diana, decided at once to move her son and two surviving daughters to Germany since the eldest, also named Diana, was already studying music at the Conservatoire in Leipzig, where the family was to settle. On their arrival they were at once befriended by Clara Schumann and invited to her regular musical soirees where they met the leading composers of the day, including Moscheles, Rubinstein, Dvořak, and Brahms, the latter two taking particular interest in the precociously gifted youngster, who began to study music with Iwan Knorr at the tender age of seven. Ashton entered the Conservatoire, where he was to excel. From 1875 he studied with Reinecke, Jadassohn, and Richter and, after his graduation, with Raff and Knorr (again) in Frankfurt. He did not return to the United Kingdom until 1881 when he settled in Westminster, where he was to stay for the remainder of his life.

One might think that Ashton's music would sound Brahmsian and Germanic; in fact, it is Ashtonian and English to the ear. His highly personal style has been described as "a vibrantly melodic style of freely moving lines, usually of single notes, with chords reinforcing the texture at quite unexpected points, phrases which overlap each other, the whole demanding extreme concentration and the clearest part-writing in a texture tremendously difficult and exciting in its clarity of thought and sound" [1]. The English-to-the-ear phenomenon is difficult to explain, as it seems to predate Ashton's return to his native land.

A glimpse of the young composer in 1882, when he was mentioned in the journals of the artist Henry Holiday:

_This spring saw the beginning of another longstanding friendship. I met one evening at Sir Norman Lockyer's a very young composer and pianist. He played a march of his own composition which struck me as being a work unusual breadth and dignity.

Lockyer introduced us; his name was Algernon Ashton, and he had recently arrived in England after having lived in Germany since he was four years old. He played other works, all fresh and original, and, giving him my card, I made him promise to come and see us.

It happened that my wife and daughter had, only a few days before, at Henry Holmes's, heard a Trio practised in an adjoining room, which they described to me as being full of beautiful melody. I had forgotten the composer's name, but on comparing notes, we found it was the young man I had met. He came to see us with his sister Madeline, on April 2nd, and we have always held him to be in the front rank among composers. His music is generally above ordinary popular taste, and some of it is, in my opinion is needlessly difficult both for players and hearers, but the beauty of most of it is so genuine, that its failure to achieve general recognition is discreditable to those who ought to have promoted its performance._

This Trio that was being "practised in an adjoining room" and "full of beautiful melody" was the *Second Piano Trio*, Op. 88, published in 1883. Rutland Boughton, a life-long devotee of Ashton's music, wrote of the Trio in 1904:

_this is a work for which I have no words of sufficient admiration. There is no weak phrase nor strained sound anywhere, and yet the effect is absolutely melodious and harmonically rich. The five-bar subject of the Larghetto is practically built upon three notes; but from that subject the composer extracts a wealth of beauty, unconceivable until one has realised it, and he clothes it in all the colours of the rainbow. The Scherzo is one continuous delight. Here Ashton decides that his tunes shall be obvious, and accordingly he foots it with the very peasant on the green. Nothing more rhythmically buoyant and frankly humorous has fallen from his pen. The Finale is a triumph of brilliancy and of strength; it is also a triumph of magnificent technique subdued to great art purposes. The first theme itself has a distinct affinity with the principal subject of the first movement; the second theme is constructed on one of the most splendid rhythms it has ever been my joy to know; and in the course of development the composer has called upon themes from the first allegro and the slow movement. I am very sorry for the musician who can know this movement and not be carried away by its impetuous vigour, not be lost to all consciousness but that of the composer. In this great living work Ashton seems to me at his best._

In 1885 Ashton was to join Parry and Stanford on the staff of the Royal College of Music. He had been appointed Professor of Pianoforte there; among his students were Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and William Hurlstone (who were concurrently studying composition with Stanford). He was also active as a concert pianist, undertaking frequent concert tours to the continent. In 1913 he transferred to the London College of Music, where he remained as Professor of Pianoforte until his retirement. Yet throughout this period his commitment remained, above all, to composition.

There were some three hundred and fifty completed works in the composer's house, over two hundred being in print, and one hundred and fifty in manuscript; these included what Ashton believed to be his most important works, namely the five Symphonies, the Symphonic Suite, the Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto and his most recent String Quartet. Mention is also made of a further thirteen String Quartets (he planned a series of 24 String Quartets in all the major and minor keys), a Septet for Piano and Strings, a String Quintet, a String Sextet, a Septet for Piano, Strings and Wind, an Octet, a Nonet for Strings and Wind, and a number of works for various combinations of piano and strings. were already underway. Of the 350 works, most of them were to perish in 1940, when incendiary bombs fell on 22 Carlton Terrace, St John's Wood, where the composer's widow, Ethel, then lived.

Over his life Ashton was highly critical of some compositional styles and stoutly conservative as he grew older. Also, his music was not considered to be "English" by his compatriots, who argued that it was Germanic and therefore deserves neglect [2]. Unfortunately this neglect has carried on into the 21st century.


----------



## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

*iii. Recommended listening*

First off, Ashton's *Fourth Piano Sonata*, Op. 164, is a masterpiece. It is wonderfully melodic, but manages to not sound too anachronistic for being composed in 1925.

Here's the score if all you pianists want to give it a shot (I've heard it's "phenomenally difficult"):
http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/algernon-ashton-piano-sonata-4.pdf

You can sample the fine Eight Sonata as well as the Fourth here:
https://toccataclassics.com/product/ashton-piano-music-1/

Toccata has released a CD of a selection of Ashton's works for cello and piano. As a cellist myself, I find the virtuosity with which he writes for the instrument is surprising.

Dutton said they were working on a series of Ashton's complete piano trios, but that was 8 years ago and the first installment still hasn't arrived. Dutton has, however, released an additional recording of Ashon's piano music; it contains two more sonatas than the Toccata (whose interpretation of the Fourth Sonata I still enjoy more). Nonetheless, when a composer's discography is so limited, it is worth having both in your collection.


----------



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Thanks for the introduction. I had heard nothing from Ashton before just now. I listened to Piano Sonata No. 4. and thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact the first movement was nice, but I found myself liking subsequent movements more and more. It's too bad that only piano and cello works are available. I would have enjoyed sampling works for larger ensembles. I will listen to the second cello sonata and the Phantasiestucke when I have time.


----------



## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Well this is a composer I have never heard of at all, so every bit of information is new to me. It's astonishing really that there are these famous musical circles, like the Clara Schumann group mentioned above, where we have a lot of information and yet people like Ashton who was a participant just fades into obscurity.


----------



## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

mmsbls said:


> Thanks for the introduction. I had heard nothing from Ashton before just now. I listened to Piano Sonata No. 4. and thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact the first movement was nice, but I found myself liking subsequent movements more and more. It's too bad that only piano and cello works are available. I would have enjoyed sampling works for larger ensembles. I will listen to the second cello sonata and the Phantasiestucke when I have time.


Glad that you are enjoying the sonata. One great thing about Toccata Classics is that you can sample entire movements. They should be applauded for that, instead of limiting us to 30-second excepts.


----------



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Portamento said:


> Glad that you are enjoying the sonata. One great thing about Toccata Classics is that you can sample entire movements. They should be applauded for that, instead of limiting us to 30-second excepts.


I'm fortunate to have access to the Naxos Music Library where I can hear all the works on those two CDs (Piano Music Vol 1 and Music for Cello and Piano Vol. 1).


----------



## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

mmsbls said:


> I'm fortunate to have access to the Naxos Music Library where I can hear all the works on those two CDs (Piano Music Vol 1 and Music for Cello and Piano Vol. 1).


That works too.


----------



## Johnnie Burgess (Aug 30, 2015)

mmsbls said:


> I'm fortunate to have access to the Naxos Music Library where I can hear all the works on those two CDs (Piano Music Vol 1 and Music for Cello and Piano Vol. 1).


Both of them are on spotify.


----------



## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Where is the main thread for these unknown composers? And why isn't it a sticky?


----------



## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

eugeneonagain said:


> Where is the main thread for these unknown composers? And why isn't it a sticky?


"Unknown composers we should talk classical about"

Making it a sticky is not a bad idea, as threads get lost quickly in this forum.


----------



## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Thanks Portamento for the info on Ashton. New for me! Here's a very simple, but simply beautiful Romance. I could see the theme orchestrated for a romantic film:






And here is the Largo of Sonata #4 mentioned above:


----------



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

We had a reasonable amount of interest earlier, but things died down significantly. I'm not sure if a sticky thread is appropriate, but certainly it would help. I can try to post during the week to keep the thread fresh for a little while until I see if making it a sticky thread makes sense.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I am always readinf the topics and try to find some pieces to listen to. Alas I have no streaming services so I have to rely on short pieces on websites. Sometimes it just don't click, nothing to do with the good intentions from any O.P just a matter of tastes.


----------

