Albert Ketèlbey

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Contents 1 Biography 2 Works 3 Connected individuals 4 Sources and References 5 External links

Albert William Ketèlbey (9 August, 1875 - 26 November, 1959) was an English composer, conductor and pianist.

Biography

Ketèlbey was born in Birmingham, England, as son of George Ketelbey (no accent), and Sarah Aston. At the age of eleven he wrote a piano sonata that won praise from Edward Elgar. Ketèlbey attended the Trinity College of Music in London, where he showed his talent for playing various orchestral instruments reflected in the masterfully colourful orchestration, especially of oriental inspiration, that became his trademark, and beat the runner-up, Gustav Holst, for a musical scholarship. He used the pseudonyms Raoul Clifford and Anton Vodorinski for some of his earlier works (some reference books mistakenly give Vodorinski as his true name and Ketèlbey as the pseudonym). His name is frequently misspelt Ketelby.

Being appointed musical director of London's Vaudeville Theatre, Ketèlbey continued writing diverse vocal and instrumental music. Later, he became famous for composing lightweight, popular music, much of which was used as accompaniments to silent films, and as mood music at tea dances. Success enabled him to relinquish his London appointments.

Once, whilst conducting a programme of his own music at a Royal Command Performance, Ketèlbey gave a second rendering of the State Procession movement of his Cockney Suite during the interval, at the request of King George V, who had arrived too late to hear it performed at the beginning of the programme.

He was active in several other fields including being music editor to some well-known publishing houses and for some years Musical Director of the Columbia Graphophone Company.

Ketèlbey had a long and happy marriage to a singer, Charlotte Siegenberg (born 1871, died 1947). After her death he married Mabel Maud Pritchett. There were no children by either marriage. He died at his home, Egypt Hill, in Cowes, where he had moved to in order to concentrate on writing and his hobby of playing billiards.

Ketèlbey's music is frequently heard on radio. In a 2003 poll by the BBC radio programme Your hundred best tunes, 'Bells across the meadow' was voted 36th most popular song of all time.

Works

His most famous compositions include:

• The Heart's Awakening (1908)
• In a Monastery Garden (1915) — at age 40, the hit that made his name. Ronnie Ronalde would make it famous again in 1938.
• Phantasy for String Quartet Listed but never found (1915)
• In the Moonlight (1919)
• In a Persian Market (1920) — in 2006, a syncopated arrangement of this tune was used in a TV commercial for TomTom automotive navigation systems - this tune was also adapted for one of the songs by Taiwanese girl band S.H.E.
• Romantic Suite (1922)
• Bank Holiday (Appy 'Ampstead) (1924) from Cockney Suite
• In a Chinese Temple Garden (1925)
• By the Blue Hawaiian Waters (1927)
• In the Mystic Land of Egypt (1931)
• From a Japanese Screen (1934)
• Italian Twilight (1951)
• Cockney Suite
• Jungle Drums
• Tangled Tunes
• Bells across the Meadows
• Dance of the Merry Mascots
• The Clock and the Dresden Figures
• With Honour Crowned

Connected individuals

Ketèlbey's nephew, the pianist Sir Clifford Curzon, recalled in his BBC Desert Island Discs broadcast, 'Little Clifford was supposed to be in bed but he never was, he was out sitting on the landing, listening to my uncle playing through the well of the stairway of my father's old house, and so the first [pieces of] music I really heard were these immortal melodies of Ketèlbey.'

Ketèlbey's sister was the the historian and author C.D.M Ketelbey. Works included "A History of Modern Times", 1929 and "History Stories to Tell", 1931.

Graham Ovenden, an English painter, fine art photographer, writer and architect, was taught music privately by Albert Ketèlbey.

Sources and References

• Albert Ketelbey - From the Sanctuary of his Heart, John Sant 2001
• Brian Jones in the booklet with the Philips Digital Classics CD 400011-2 (1981 recording)
• The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, Phil Hardy 2001
• Chambers Biographical Dictionary, Edinburgh 1990
• The Times, London 1908, 1915, 1922

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