Jump to content

Jeffrey Mark: Difference between revisions

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
mNo edit summary
 
(7 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|English composer, folk song collector and writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Jeffrey Mark''' (1898 – December 1965) was an English composer, folk song collector and writer.
'''Jeffrey Mark''' (1898 – December 1965) was an English composer, folk song collector and writer.


Line 4: Line 6:
Mark was born in Carlisle, [[Cumberland]], the son of a cabinet maker, and in 1909 won a scholarship to the Carlisle Grammar School. At 16 he joined Martin's Bank in Carlisle.<ref name=whit>Whitaker, Betsy. 'In Search of the Father I Never Knew', ''The Guardian'', 9 August 1990, p. 34</ref> He enlisted in the war at the age of 17 as a gunnery officer, rising to the rank of first lieutenant in the [[Royal Field Artillery]]. But he was gassed in France and hospitalised for a year. The medical consequences and trauma affected him for the rest of his life.<ref name=tipp/>
Mark was born in Carlisle, [[Cumberland]], the son of a cabinet maker, and in 1909 won a scholarship to the Carlisle Grammar School. At 16 he joined Martin's Bank in Carlisle.<ref name=whit>Whitaker, Betsy. 'In Search of the Father I Never Knew', ''The Guardian'', 9 August 1990, p. 34</ref> He enlisted in the war at the age of 17 as a gunnery officer, rising to the rank of first lieutenant in the [[Royal Field Artillery]]. But he was gassed in France and hospitalised for a year. The medical consequences and trauma affected him for the rest of his life.<ref name=tipp/>


After the war Mark took a degree in English and Music at [[Exeter University]], then joined the [[Royal College of Music]] as a mature student under [[Charles Villiers Stanford|Stanford]], [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]] and [[Gustav Holst|Holst]]. A fellow student there (seven years his junior) was [[Michael Tippett]], and the two remained friends.<ref name=os>[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JFRrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT308&lpg=PT308&dq=Fantasia+%22Jeffrey+Mark%22&source=bl&ots=6xwkZBkd6M&sig=ACfU3U1qxa9Xx_FFL9kbxEyUZorNCoeHDw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj8kuv7ovfwAhVM5uAKHVu6BGgQ6AEwD3oECBAQAw#v=onepage&q=Fantasia%20%22Jeffrey%20Mark%22&f=false Soden, Oliver. ''Michael Tippett: The Biography'' (2019)]</ref> In 1924 Mark moved to the US, where for three years he was head of the [[New York Public Library]]'s Music Department. While there he worked on the manuscripts of [[Orlando Gibbons]] held by the library.<ref>Mark, Jeffrey. 'The Orlando Gibbons Tercentenary. Some virginal manuscripts', in ''The New York Library Bulletin'', January 1926</ref> A nervous breakdown led him to return to England.<ref name=tipp/>
After the war Mark took a degree in English and Music at [[Exeter University]], then joined the [[Royal College of Music]] as a mature student under [[Charles Villiers Stanford|Stanford]], [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]] and [[Gustav Holst|Holst]]. A fellow student there (seven years his junior) was [[Michael Tippett]], and the two remained friends.<ref name=os>[https://books.google.com/books?id=JFRrDwAAQBAJ&dq=Fantasia+%22Jeffrey+Mark%22&pg=PT308 Soden, Oliver. ''Michael Tippett: The Biography'' (2019)]</ref> In 1924 Mark moved to the US, where for three years he was head of the [[New York Public Library]]'s Music Department. While there he worked on the manuscripts of [[Orlando Gibbons]] held by the library.<ref>Mark, Jeffrey. 'The Orlando Gibbons Tercentenary. Some virginal manuscripts', in ''The New York Library Bulletin'', January 1926</ref> A nervous breakdown led him to return to England.<ref name=tipp/>


Throughout his life Mark performed, collected and arranged folksongs from Cumberland, [[Northumberland]] and the [[Scottish Borders|Border Counties]].<ref name=folk>Mark, Jeffrey. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/738443 'Recollections of Folk-Musicians'] in ''Musical Quarterly'', Vol. 16, No. 2 (Apr., 1930), pp. 170-185</ref> His ''Four North Country Songs'', concert arrangements of dialect songs – including ''[[Robert Anderson (poet)|Sally Gray]]'', ''[[Alexander Craig Gibson|L’al Dinah Grayson]]'', ''[[Susanna Blamire|Barley Broth]]'' and ''[[John Richardson (poet)|Auld Jobby Dixon]]'' – were first performed and broadcast in 1927, and published by OUP in 1928.<ref>'Folk Song and Dialect: Mr Jeffrey Mark's Concert', ''The Carlisle Patriot'', 18 March, 1927</ref><ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/4b883a22f955910d12f5fce4b3cf09cc 'Northumberland and Cumberland Dialect Concert'], radio broadcast, 25 May 1927, ''Radio Times'' Issue 190, 25 May, 1927, p. 21</ref> They also acquired local popularity through performances by the Carlisle Music Society during the 1930s and 1940s. Mark was encouraged to make the arrangements by Newcastle composer and musicologist [[William G. Whittaker|William Gillies Whittaker]].<ref>[https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/86194/1/Sue_Allan_thesis_April_2017.pdf Allan, Susan Margaret. ''Folk Song in Cumbria'', University of Lancaster thesis (2016)]</ref>
Throughout his life Mark performed, collected and arranged folksongs from Cumberland, [[Northumberland]] and the [[Scottish Borders|Border Counties]].<ref name=folk>Mark, Jeffrey. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/738443 'Recollections of Folk-Musicians'] in ''Musical Quarterly'', Vol. 16, No. 2 (Apr., 1930), pp. 170-185</ref> His ''Four North Country Songs'', concert arrangements of dialect songs – including ''[[Robert Anderson (poet)|Sally Gray]]'', ''[[Alexander Craig Gibson|L’al Dinah Grayson]]'', ''[[Susanna Blamire|Barley Broth]]'' and ''[[John Richardson (poet)|Auld Jobby Dixon]]'' – were first performed and broadcast in 1927, and published by OUP in 1928.<ref>'Folk Song and Dialect: Mr Jeffrey Mark's Concert', ''The Carlisle Patriot'', 18 March 1927</ref><ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/4b883a22f955910d12f5fce4b3cf09cc 'Northumberland and Cumberland Dialect Concert'], radio broadcast, 25 May 1927, ''Radio Times'' Issue 190, 25 May 1927, p. 21</ref> They also acquired local popularity through performances by the Carlisle Music Society during the 1930s and 1940s. Mark was encouraged to make the arrangements by Newcastle composer and musicologist [[William G. Whittaker|William Gillies Whittaker]].<ref>[https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/86194/1/Sue_Allan_thesis_April_2017.pdf Allan, Susan Margaret. ''Folk Song in Cumbria'', University of Lancaster thesis (2016)]</ref>


During the 1940s and 1950s he worked in London, writing for ''[[Picture Post]]'' magazine with his lifelong friend [[Tom Hopkinson]].<ref name=whit/><ref>Mark, Jeffrey. 'The Fairy Queen: a Highbrow Pantomime', in ''Picture Post'', 11 December 1946, pp. 11-12</ref> In 1960 Mark returned to the Royal College of Music to teach composition.<ref>Leach, Gerald. ''British Composer Profiles'' (2012), p. 139</ref> There he revived his interest in dialect song settings through student performances.<ref>'Burns Night in Song', ''The Times'', 20 December, 1961, p. 7</ref> He died in London of cancer in December 1965, a victim of a lifetime's heavy smoking and the severe gassing he suffered in the trenches.<ref name=whit/>
During the 1940s and 1950s he worked in London, writing for ''[[Picture Post]]'' magazine with his lifelong friend [[Tom Hopkinson]].<ref name=whit/><ref>Mark, Jeffrey. 'The Fairy Queen: a Highbrow Pantomime', in ''Picture Post'', 11 December 1946, pp. 11-12</ref> In 1960 Mark returned to the Royal College of Music to teach composition.<ref>Leach, Gerald. ''British Composer Profiles'' (2012), p. 139</ref> There he revived his interest in dialect song settings through student performances.<ref>'Burns Night in Song', ''The Times'', 20 December 1961, p. 7</ref> He died in London of cancer in December 1965, a victim of a lifetime's heavy smoking and the severe gassing he suffered in the trenches.<ref name=whit/>

⚫
==Composer==
⚫
His own works include orchestral [[Strathspey|strathspeys]], a piano concerto, the ''North Country Suite'' for orchestra (performed at the RCM in 1927),<ref>''The Times'', 12 December 1927, p. 19</ref> the ''Scottish Suite'' for four violins and piano (published in 1927 as part of the [[Carnegie Collection of British Music]]), some choral music and the ballad opera ''Mossgiel'', after [[Robert Burns]].<ref>[http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Sept01/lakes.htm Scowcroft, Philip. ''Music and the Lake District'' (2001)]</ref> Mark based the final movement of his ''Scottish Suite'' on a close study of the [[Pibroch|Piobaireachd]], which he described as "the old music of the Great Highland Bagpipe".<ref name=folk/> The unpublished ''Dance Concerto'' for piano and orchestra was performed in his memory at the RCM following his death.<ref name=whit/>


==Relationship with Tippett==
Michael Tippett described him as "a [[Percy Grainger|Percy Grainger-ish]] person...very anti-classicist, feeling that the music we were all writing was fundamentally based on German folk-song and we should try to get away from that".<ref name=tipp>Tippett, Michael. ''Those Twentieth Century Blues'' (1991), p.46</ref> Tippett identified the polyrhythms and Northumbrian elements in his own [[Concerto for Double String Orchestra (Tippett)|Concerto for Double String Orchestra]] as coming from the influence of Mark. The piece is dedicated to him, and Tippett also produced a portrait of Mark in the second variation of the ''Fantasia on a Theme of Handel'': "for war traumatised Jeffrey Mark a jangling explosion of octaves".<ref name=os/>
Michael Tippett described him as "a [[Percy Grainger|Percy Grainger-ish]] person...very anti-classicist, feeling that the music we were all writing was fundamentally based on German folk-song and we should try to get away from that".<ref name=tipp>Tippett, Michael. ''Those Twentieth Century Blues'' (1991), p.46</ref> Tippett identified the polyrhythms and Northumbrian elements in his own [[Concerto for Double String Orchestra (Tippett)|Concerto for Double String Orchestra]] as coming from the influence of Mark. The piece is dedicated to him, and Tippett also produced a portrait of Mark in the second variation of the ''Fantasia on a Theme of Handel'': "for war traumatised Jeffrey Mark a jangling explosion of octaves".<ref name=os/>


Politically, Mark was very different from Tippett. He was drawn to the ideas of [[Ezra Pound]] (with whom he corresponded) and developed an anti-Marxist, anti-Semitic political theory involving bankers.<ref name=tipp/>
Politically, Mark was very different from Tippett. He was drawn to the ideas of [[Ezra Pound]] (with whom he corresponded) and developed an anti-Marxist, anti-Semitic political theory involving bankers.<ref name=tipp/>

⚫
==Composer==
⚫
His own works include orchestral [[Strathspey (dance)|strathspeys]], a piano concerto, the ''North Country Suite'' for orchestra (performed at the RCM in 1927),<ref>''The Times'', 12 December 1927, p. 19</ref> the ''Scottish Suite'' for four violins and piano (published in 1927 as part of the [[Carnegie Collection of British Music]]), some choral music and the ballad opera ''Mossgiel'', after [[Robert Burns]].<ref>[http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Sept01/lakes.htm Scowcroft, Philip. ''Music and the Lake District'' (2001)]</ref> Mark based the final movement of his ''Scottish Suite'' on a close study of the [[Pibroch|Piobaireachd]], which he described as "the old music of the Great Highland Bagpipe".<ref name=folk/> The unpublished ''Dance Concerto'' for piano and orchestra was performed in his memory at the RCM following his death.<ref name=whit/>


==Author==
==Author==
During the 1920s Mark wrote a series of substantial articles for publications including ''Music and Letters'', ''Musical Quarterly'' and ''The Musical Times'', such as 'Dryden and the Beginnings of Opera in England'<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/726784 ''Music & Letters'' Vol. 5, No. 3 (Jul., 1924), pp. 247-252]</ref> and 'The Fundamental Qualities of Folk Music',<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/726974 ''Music & Letters'' Vol. 10, No. 3 (Jul., 1929), pp. 287-291]</ref> as well as pieces on more general subjects like 'The Problem of Audiences'<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/726282 ''Music & Letters'' Vol. 4, No. 4 (Oct., 1923), pp. 348-355]</ref> and 'The Critic and the Composer'.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/912254 ''The Musical Times'' Vol. 65, No. 978 (Aug. 1, 1924), pp. 693-697]</ref>
During the 1920s Mark wrote a series of substantial articles for publications including ''Music and Letters'', ''Musical Quarterly'' and ''The Musical Times'', such as 'Dryden and the Beginnings of Opera in England'<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/726784 ''Music & Letters'' Vol. 5, No. 3 (Jul., 1924), pp. 247-252]</ref> and 'The Fundamental Qualities of Folk Music',<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/726974 ''Music & Letters'' Vol. 10, No. 3 (Jul., 1929), pp. 287-291]</ref> as well as pieces on more general subjects like 'The Problem of Audiences'<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/726282 ''Music & Letters'' Vol. 4, No. 4 (Oct., 1923), pp. 348-355]</ref> and 'The Critic and the Composer'.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/912254 ''The Musical Times'' Vol. 65, No. 978 (Aug. 1, 1924), pp. 693-697]</ref>


He also wrote on economics, including two books: ''The Modern Idolatry'' (1934) and ''The Analysis of Usury'' (1935),<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/title/modern-idolatry-being-an-analysis-of-usury-the-pathology-of-debt/oclc/752701550?referer=di&ht=edition Worldcat]</ref> in which he formulated a system of free money, arguing that savings should be penalised and rents abolished.<ref>[https://academic-oup-com.eres.qnl.qa/ej/article-abstract/46/181/143/5268276?redirectedFrom=fulltext ''Economic Journal'', Vol 46, Issue 181, March 1936]</ref> The ''Times Literary Supplement'' characterised his theories as "unworldly",<ref>''Times Literary Supplement'' Issue 1695, 26 July, 1934, p. 4</ref> and later as "an attack on the accepted bases of civilisation".<ref>''Times Literary Supplement'' Issue 1756, 26 September, 1935, p. 11</ref> There are also two unpublished books on mental illness.<ref name=whit/>
He also wrote on economics, including two books: ''The Modern Idolatry'' (1934) and ''The Analysis of Usury'' (1935),<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/752701550 Worldcat]</ref> in which he formulated a system of free money, arguing that savings should be penalised and rents abolished.<ref>[https://academic-oup-com.eres.qnl.qa/ej/article-abstract/46/181/143/5268276?redirectedFrom=fulltext ''Economic Journal'', Vol 46, Issue 181, March 1936]</ref> The ''Times Literary Supplement'' characterised his theories as "unworldly",<ref>''Times Literary Supplement'' Issue 1695, 26 July 1934, p. 4</ref> and later as "an attack on the accepted bases of civilisation".<ref>''Times Literary Supplement'' Issue 1756, 26 September 1935, p. 11</ref> There are also two unpublished books on mental illness.<ref name=whit/>


==References==
==References==
Line 26: Line 29:


{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mark, Jeffrey}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mark, Jeffrey}}
[[Category:1898 births]]
[[Category:1898 births]]
Line 32: Line 36:
[[Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music]]
[[Category:English folk-song collectors]]
[[Category:English folk-song collectors]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Royal Field Artillery officers]]

Latest revision as of 11:21, 29 August 2023

Jeffrey Mark (1898 – December 1965) was an English composer, folk song collector and writer.

Life and career

[edit]

Mark was born in Carlisle, Cumberland, the son of a cabinet maker, and in 1909 won a scholarship to the Carlisle Grammar School. At 16 he joined Martin's Bank in Carlisle.[1] He enlisted in the war at the age of 17 as a gunnery officer, rising to the rank of first lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery. But he was gassed in France and hospitalised for a year. The medical consequences and trauma affected him for the rest of his life.[2]

After the war Mark took a degree in English and Music at Exeter University, then joined the Royal College of Music as a mature student under Stanford, Vaughan Williams and Holst. A fellow student there (seven years his junior) was Michael Tippett, and the two remained friends.[3] In 1924 Mark moved to the US, where for three years he was head of the New York Public Library's Music Department. While there he worked on the manuscripts of Orlando Gibbons held by the library.[4] A nervous breakdown led him to return to England.[2]

Throughout his life Mark performed, collected and arranged folksongs from Cumberland, Northumberland and the Border Counties.[5] His Four North Country Songs, concert arrangements of dialect songs – including Sally Gray, L’al Dinah Grayson, Barley Broth and Auld Jobby Dixon – were first performed and broadcast in 1927, and published by OUP in 1928.[6][7] They also acquired local popularity through performances by the Carlisle Music Society during the 1930s and 1940s. Mark was encouraged to make the arrangements by Newcastle composer and musicologist William Gillies Whittaker.[8]

During the 1940s and 1950s he worked in London, writing for Picture Post magazine with his lifelong friend Tom Hopkinson.[1][9] In 1960 Mark returned to the Royal College of Music to teach composition.[10] There he revived his interest in dialect song settings through student performances.[11] He died in London of cancer in December 1965, a victim of a lifetime's heavy smoking and the severe gassing he suffered in the trenches.[1]

Relationship with Tippett

[edit]

Michael Tippett described him as "a Percy Grainger-ish person...very anti-classicist, feeling that the music we were all writing was fundamentally based on German folk-song and we should try to get away from that".[2] Tippett identified the polyrhythms and Northumbrian elements in his own Concerto for Double String Orchestra as coming from the influence of Mark. The piece is dedicated to him, and Tippett also produced a portrait of Mark in the second variation of the Fantasia on a Theme of Handel: "for war traumatised Jeffrey Mark a jangling explosion of octaves".[3]

Politically, Mark was very different from Tippett. He was drawn to the ideas of Ezra Pound (with whom he corresponded) and developed an anti-Marxist, anti-Semitic political theory involving bankers.[2]

Composer

[edit]

His own works include orchestral strathspeys, a piano concerto, the North Country Suite for orchestra (performed at the RCM in 1927),[12] the Scottish Suite for four violins and piano (published in 1927 as part of the Carnegie Collection of British Music), some choral music and the ballad opera Mossgiel, after Robert Burns.[13] Mark based the final movement of his Scottish Suite on a close study of the Piobaireachd, which he described as "the old music of the Great Highland Bagpipe".[5] The unpublished Dance Concerto for piano and orchestra was performed in his memory at the RCM following his death.[1]

Author

[edit]

During the 1920s Mark wrote a series of substantial articles for publications including Music and Letters, Musical Quarterly and The Musical Times, such as 'Dryden and the Beginnings of Opera in England'[14] and 'The Fundamental Qualities of Folk Music',[15] as well as pieces on more general subjects like 'The Problem of Audiences'[16] and 'The Critic and the Composer'.[17]

He also wrote on economics, including two books: The Modern Idolatry (1934) and The Analysis of Usury (1935),[18] in which he formulated a system of free money, arguing that savings should be penalised and rents abolished.[19] The Times Literary Supplement characterised his theories as "unworldly",[20] and later as "an attack on the accepted bases of civilisation".[21] There are also two unpublished books on mental illness.[1]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e Whitaker, Betsy. 'In Search of the Father I Never Knew', The Guardian, 9 August 1990, p. 34
  2. ^ a b c d Tippett, Michael. Those Twentieth Century Blues (1991), p.46
  3. ^ a b Soden, Oliver. Michael Tippett: The Biography (2019)
  4. ^ Mark, Jeffrey. 'The Orlando Gibbons Tercentenary. Some virginal manuscripts', in The New York Library Bulletin, January 1926
  5. ^ a b Mark, Jeffrey. 'Recollections of Folk-Musicians' in Musical Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Apr., 1930), pp. 170-185
  6. ^ 'Folk Song and Dialect: Mr Jeffrey Mark's Concert', The Carlisle Patriot, 18 March 1927
  7. ^ 'Northumberland and Cumberland Dialect Concert', radio broadcast, 25 May 1927, Radio Times Issue 190, 25 May 1927, p. 21
  8. ^ Allan, Susan Margaret. Folk Song in Cumbria, University of Lancaster thesis (2016)
  9. ^ Mark, Jeffrey. 'The Fairy Queen: a Highbrow Pantomime', in Picture Post, 11 December 1946, pp. 11-12
  10. ^ Leach, Gerald. British Composer Profiles (2012), p. 139
  11. ^ 'Burns Night in Song', The Times, 20 December 1961, p. 7
  12. ^ The Times, 12 December 1927, p. 19
  13. ^ Scowcroft, Philip. Music and the Lake District (2001)
  14. ^ Music & Letters Vol. 5, No. 3 (Jul., 1924), pp. 247-252
  15. ^ Music & Letters Vol. 10, No. 3 (Jul., 1929), pp. 287-291
  16. ^ Music & Letters Vol. 4, No. 4 (Oct., 1923), pp. 348-355
  17. ^ The Musical Times Vol. 65, No. 978 (Aug. 1, 1924), pp. 693-697
  18. ^ Worldcat
  19. ^ Economic Journal, Vol 46, Issue 181, March 1936
  20. ^ Times Literary Supplement Issue 1695, 26 July 1934, p. 4
  21. ^ Times Literary Supplement Issue 1756, 26 September 1935, p. 11
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jeffrey_Mark&oldid=1172799081"