Henry Geehl
Henry Ernest Geehl [pronounced 'Gale'] (28 September 1881 – 14 January 1961) was an English pianist, conductor, composer and arranger.
Born in London in 1881, Geehl studied piano with
Henry Geehl had an affinity with music written for brass bands. He arranged Gustav Holst's A Moorside Suite[4] for brass band, made many other arrangements and transcriptions, and was the first composer to write serious symphonic music directly for brass band. His Scena Sinfonica, in the style of an operatic selection, has been used as a test piece for brass bands.[5] He made claims to have scored Edward Elgar's The Severn Suite for brass band from the composer's rough sketches, but Geehl's account of his involvement with Elgar has now been exposed[6] as a self-serving fantasy.[4][7]
His other works include a symphony, concertos for piano and violin,[1] Suite espagnole, Comedy Overture, In Fairyland, On the Cornish Coast, Rhapsody for band, Prince Charlie – 1745, piano pieces and songs.
His song "For You Alone" ("Für dich allein"; words by P. J. O'Reilly) achieved great popularity, being recorded by Enrico Caruso,[8] Lauritz Melchior,[9] Jussi Björling[10] and Mario Lanza,[11] among others. (It has been claimed that "For You Alone" was the only song ever sung in English by Caruso[1] but that is contradicted by other evidence, such as his recording of George M. Cohan's "Over There", and his HMV recording - in heavily accented English - of Arthur Sullivan's "The Lost Chord".).
Henry Geehl also wrote some film scores, including the original music for The Magic Bow (1946)[12] and for Jassy (1947).[13]
An arrangement by Geehl of
He conducted Oscar Natzka's recording of "O Isis and Osiris" from Mozart's The Magic Flute, and Handel's "The song of Hybrias the Cretan" and "Honour and Arms" (from Samson).[17] Between 1939 and 1946 he conducted the orchestra for more than 90 recordings by Richard Tauber, made at the Abbey Road Studios in London. [Ref: Hansfried Sieben, Richard Tauber Discography, Wiesbaden, 1986]
Henry Geehl was reputed to be a "prickly individual".[16] Nicholas Temperley, who was taught by him from age 8 to 13, found him a genial teacher who told many interesting stories about musicians he had known, but was inclined to brag about his achievements and relations with famous musicians of the day. He died in 1961, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e Bach Cantatas
- ^ Biographical Dictionary of the Organ
- ^ Biblioz.com
- ^ a b Trevor Herbert, The British Brass Band: A Musical and Social History
- ^ Roy Newsome, The Modern Brass Band: From the 1930s to the new millennium
- ^ See Kay : "The Severn Suite — Manuscripts, Music and Myths" in the Elgar Society Journal for December 2013.
- ^ Official Journal of the North American Brass Band Association, Inc, August 1994
- ^ Naxos
- ^ Naxos
- ^ Naxos
- ^ Naxos
- ^ ImdB: The Magic Bow
- ^ IMdB: Jassy
- ^ Naxos
- ^ Naxos
- ^ a b Classical Music on the Web
- ^ a b Music Australia
- ^ National Library of Australia Catalogue
Sources
- H. C. Colles, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed, 1954, Eric Blom, ed.