Frances Allitsen facts for kids
Mary Frances Allitsen (born December 30, 1848 – died October 1, 1912) was an English composer. A composer writes music. One of her most famous songs is "The Lord is My Light", which uses words from Psalm 27 in the Bible.
Her real name was Mary Bumpus. This information comes from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Contents
Biography
Frances Allitsen was born in London. When she was a child, she loved reading and writing more than music. She even wrote a novel and some short stories. But eventually, she decided to focus completely on music.
Her family moved to a small village. Frances felt very alone there. She said that her family did not support her interest in music. Because of this, she was not encouraged to get a proper music education.
Starting Her Music Career
Frances began her music career as a singer. She sang as a contralto soloist in a performance of The Last Judgement by Louis Spohr in Kilburn. However, she later had problems with her voice. She stopped singing and started teaching voice lessons and composing music.
She took some of her new songs to Thomas Henry Weist Hill. He was the head of the Guildhall School of Music. He told her it was a shame she had waited so long to study music seriously.
Studying and Composing
Frances decided to study music with great determination. But she had to teach to earn money. This meant traveling to her students' homes by train and bus. So, she could only study music late at night when she was already tired. Later, when she was on a tour in America, she told Etude magazine that she barely knew how she got through those tough days.
Her first big success was a song called "Old English Love Song." Her Album of Six Songs was also very popular. She also received praise for eight songs she wrote using poems by Heinrich Heine. Marie Corelli, a famous writer, described Frances's song "Prince Ivan's Song" as "the very fire of sound." This song was from Corelli's book A Romance of Two Worlds.
Popular Songs and Other Works
Frances Allitsen published more than fifty songs. They were written in many different styles. Some of her most successful songs included "Song of Thanksgiving," "Mary Hamilton," "False or True," "Spring Contrasts," "King Duncan's Daughter," and "King and Slave." Famous singers like C. Hayden Coffin, Clara Butt, Esther Palliser, and Ada Crossley helped make her songs well-known.
She also wrote two overtures, which are pieces of music played at the start of a show. They were called Undine and Slavonique. She also composed a Funeral March and a Tarantella. These pieces were performed by the Royal Artillery Band and the Crystal Palace orchestra. She also wrote a Caprice, which was played by the famous pianist Vladimir de Pachmann. De Pachmann said that Miss Allitsen had four gifts for composing: "Originality, imagination, feeling, and grace."
The Strand Musical Magazine said that her songs "The Lute Player," "Love is a Bubble," and "Fidelity" showed her "dramatic talent and virility." This means she was good at telling stories through music and wrote with strength.
Frances Allitsen was also a well-known singing teacher. She was a mezzo-soprano, which is a type of female singing voice. People reported that she kept a photograph of Lord Kitchener on her piano. She had been in poor health for many years. She once told a reporter, "Whenever I feel like shirking my duty I look at his portrait." Later, she was quoted as saying she could not compose without a picture of Lord Kitchener in front of her.
Works
Here are some of the musical works by Frances Allitsen:
- "Adieu! Love" (1895)
- "The Lord is My Light" (1897)
- "There's a Land" (1897) – The words for this song were written by Charles MacKay.
- "Like Violets Pale" (1898) – The words for this song were written by James Thomson.
- Album of Eight Songs (1900) – The words for these songs were written by Heinrich Heine.
- "Afterward" (1901)
