Arthur Eaglefield Hull

Arthur Eaglefield Hull (10 March 1876 – 4 November 1928)[1] was an English music critic, writer, composer and organist.[2] He was the founder of the British Music Society.[3]

Early life and education[edit]

Born in Little Bowden near Market Harborough, Hull was initially a music student of the pianist and theorist Tobias Matthay and the organist Charles W Pearce (1856-1928). He graduated from Oxford University with a B.Mus in 1898 and was awarded a Doctorate of Music (Mus. Doc.) in 1903.[4] In 1898 he was appointed organist and choirmaster at Bishop's Stortford Parish Church.[5]

Career[edit]

Hull moved to Huddersfield in Yorkshire where he founded the Huddersfield Music Club in 1900, and where he was the organist at Huddersfield Parish Church from 1904 to 1920. In 1908 he founded the School of Music in Huddersfield, forerunner to the University Music Department. In 1918 he founded the British Music Society.[6] In these roles he championed the music of William Baines in 1920.[7]

He became an editor of several music publications including The Monthly Musical Record (from 1912 until his death),[8] International Library of Books on Music, Library of Music and musicians (a series of books on composers), The Music Lover's Library (short books on classical music subjects) and others.[9] He also taught the piano and organ privately. Frederic Lord, George Oldroyd and Alfred Whitehead were among his notable pupils.[10][11]

As a composer, Eaglefield Hull's organ works include the Variations poétiques sur un thème original (1911), the Prelude, Berceuse and Rêverie (1913), and the Fantasy on an old English carol (1921).[12][13] There was also an orchestral Overture in A, Three Shakespeare Songs for voice and strings, and a string quartet.[14] He produced editions of music scores, including the organ sonatas of Alexandre Guilmant.[15][2]

Author[edit]

Hull wrote a biography of Alexander Scriabin, and coined the term "mystic chord"[16] to describe the harmonic and melodic device which the Russian composer used in some of his later works.[17] He also wrote a living biography of another mystically inclined composer, Cyril Scott, for whom he had a high regard, calling him "at the least, the equal of those (composers) of any other country".[18] Hull translated and edited biographies of Mussorgsky, Handel, Beethoven and others.[19] He was the general editor for the reference work A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, 1924), which covered the period from 1880 onwards,[20] and wrote books and articles on subjects such as musical harmony and organ technique.[21]

Controversy and death[edit]

In 1927 his book Music: Classical, Romantic and Modern was published but material in it was found to be borrowed from other writers. How much of this was plagiarism and how much a mere careless, hasty failure to cite sources is not known, but the resultant public denunciations (led by Percy Scholes)[22] left Hull very upset. He killed himself by falling under a train at Huddersfield station on 18 September 1928, dying a few weeks later.[23]

Bibliography[edit]

Books written by Hull[edit]

Books co-written by Hull[edit]

  • Scott, Cyril & Hull, A. E. The Philosophy of modernism – its connection with music (London: Waverley Book Co.).
  • Calvocoressi, M. D. & Hull, A. E. The national music of Russia, Musorgsky and Scriabin (London: Waverley Book).

Books translated and/or edited by Hull[edit]

  • Rolland, Romain. Handel (New York : Henry Holt and Co., 1916).
  • Musorgsky, the Russian musical nationalist (London : K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1919?).
  • A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London & Toronto 1924).

References[edit]

  1. ^ Sadie, S. (ed.) (1980) The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, [vol. #8]
  2. ^ a b Arthur Eaglefield Hull (Sibley Music Library – 7 September 2010).
  3. ^ Alexandre Guilmant. Organ sonatas. Courier Corporation; 1913. ISBN 978-0-486-40620-6. p. 137–.
  4. ^ 'Hull, Arthur Eaglefield', from Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians
  5. ^ The Musical Times, Vol. 39, No. 667 (September 1898), p. 610
  6. ^ Huddersfield Music Society website
  7. ^ William Baines and Flamborough Head, British Music Society
  8. ^ "An English Progressivist". The Cambridge Companion to Vaughan Williams. Cambridge University Press; 14 November 2013. ISBN 978-0-521-19768-7. p. 67, 76.
  9. ^ 'Arthur Eaglefield Hull,' Monthly Musical Record 58, No. 696 (December 1928), pp. 357-58
  10. ^ Margaret Frazer. "Frederic Lord". The Canadian Encyclopedia.
  11. ^ Leach, Gerald. British Composer Profiles (2001), p. 152
  12. ^ Hull, Arthur Eaglefield, scores at IMSLP
  13. ^ Compositions and arrangements for the organ by A. E. Hull (University of Rochester).
  14. ^ Arthur Eaglefield Hull (ed.) A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London & Toronto 1924)
  15. ^ Organ Sonatas by Alexandre Guilmant
  16. ^ "Skryabin and the Impossible", p.314. Simon Morrison. Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 51, No. 2. (Summer, 1998), pp. 283–330.
  17. ^ A great Russian tone poet, Scriabin ("Library of Music and Musicians", London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1916) pp. 101–115.
  18. ^ Cyril Scott, composer, poet and philosopher ("Library of Music and Musicians", London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1919) p180.
  19. ^ See advertisement at the front of Handel (London : K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1920).
  20. ^ "A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians". Music and Letters (review). V (4): 374–375. October 1924. doi:10.1093/ml/V.4.374.
  21. ^ Grainger the Modernist. Routledge; 9 March 2016. ISBN 978-1-317-12502-0 p. 80–.
  22. ^ Scholes, Percy. "The Ethics of Borrowing", Musical Times, No 1019, 1 January 1928, p 59
  23. ^ 'Dr Eaglefield Hull's Death', in The Manchester Guardian, 6 November, 1928, p.20
  24. ^ The Alexander Scriabin Companion: History, Performance, and Lore. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; 27 June 2017. ISBN 978-1-4422-3262-4. p. 274–.

External links[edit]

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