Mary Augusta Wakefield facts for kids

Mary Augusta Wakefield (born August 19, 1853 – died September 16, 1910) was a talented British musician. She was a composer, a singer with a deep voice (called a contralto), and she helped organize many music festivals. She also enjoyed writing.

Mary Wakefield's Life Story

Growing Up in Kendal

Mary Wakefield was born in a town called Kendal in England. Her family had been part of the Quaker community, which is a Christian group known for its simple lifestyle and peaceful beliefs. Later, her family became Anglican. Her mother came from an Irish-American background.

In the 1860s, Mary's father took over the family business. This included a bank and a factory that made gunpowder. He built a large house called Sedgwick House close to the gunpowder factory, a few miles outside Kendal. Mary's parents, William Henry Wakefield and Augusta Hagarty Wakefield, had four sons and three daughters. One of her brothers, William, became a cricketer.

As a child, Mary learned many traditional folk songs from the Anglo-Scottish border region from her nurses. She later collected these songs in a book called Northern Songs. When she was a teenager, she went to a special school in Brighton to learn social skills and arts.

Her Musical Education

Mary studied music in London with famous teachers like Alberto Randegger and George Henschel. She also traveled to Rome, Italy, to study with Giovanni Sgambati.

Friends and Connections

Mary Wakefield kept in touch with and visited many other musicians and writers. These included people like Lucy Broadwood, J. A. Fuller Maitland, Herbert Oakeley, John Ruskin, John Stainer, and Maude Valérie White. A writer named Vernon Lee even dedicated a short ghost story to Mary in 1887.

Mary Wakefield's Music

Mary was one of the first members of the Folk Song Society. This group is now known as the English Folk Dance and Song Society. She gave many singing performances across England. Sometimes, she performed with her friend, Maude Valerie White.

While she was in Rome in the 1880s, she met composers like Theo Marzials and Edvard Grieg. Grieg, a very famous composer, even helped her learn to sing his songs. He gave her an album of his music with a special message: "Mary Wakefield with my best thanks for her beautiful songs. Edward Grieg. Roma. 1887."

Songs and Compositions

Mary Wakefield wrote many musical pieces, mostly songs for singers. Here are some of her compositions:

• After Years
• Beyond All, Thine
• Bunch of Cowslips
• Children are Singing
• Courting Days
• For Love's Sake Only
• Lass and Lad
• Leafy June
• Life Time and Love Time
• Little Roundhead Maid
• Love's Service
• Love that Goes A-Courting
• May Time in Midwinter (words by Algernon Charles Swinburne)
• Milkmaid (words by Henry Austin Dobson)
• Molly Maloney (words by Alfred Perceval Graves)
• Moonspell
• More and More
• Nancy
• No Sir!
• Northern Songs (a collection of songs)
• Queen of Sixty Years (for a choir)
• Serenade
• Shaking Grass
• Shearing Day
• Sweet Sally Gray
• When the Boys Come Home
• Yes Sir!
• You May

Writing and Lectures

Mary Wakefield was friends with John Ruskin, a famous writer and artist who was also interested in music. Near the end of his life, Mary put together a book of his thoughts on music, called Ruskin on Music (published in 1894).

Mary also gave talks and wrote articles about different music topics. Several of her articles were printed in Murray's Magazine in 1889. These articles were called Foundation Stones of English Music. Her talks and articles covered subjects like:

• English National Melody in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Centuries: Monks and Minstrels
• English Melody under Elizabeth, Including Contemporary Settings of Some of Shakespeare's Songs
• English Melody in the 17th Century: Cavaliers and Roundheads
• English Melody in the 18th Century
• Irish National Melodies
• Jubilee Lecture on Victorian Song
• Madrigal Time
• Scotch National Melodies
• Shakespeare's Songs and their Musical Settings
• Skene and Straloch Lute Manuscripts
• Songs of Four Nations (England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales)
• Songs of Handel
• Songs of Schubert
• Songs of Schumann

Music Festivals

Mary Wakefield started several choirs in villages near her family home in Kendal. In 1885, she and her sister Agnes brought these choirs together for a big outdoor music festival. The goal was to raise money for their local parish church, St Thomas' in Crosscrake. Her father had helped build this church. Besides raising money, Mary wanted to encourage local people to make music and make music more important in English life.

Mary Wakefield's Legacy

Mary's festival is still held today! It is now known as the Mary Wakefield Westmorland Festival. This festival has inspired similar music festivals in other towns across England.

When Mary Wakefield passed away in 1910, a group called the Association of Musical Competition Festivals created a special Mary Wakefield medal. This medal is given out at English music festivals. The medal shows an image of Mary Wakefield and a quote from Martin Luther: "Music is a fair and glorious gift from God."

In 2003, a special plaque was put up at Wakefield Bank House in Kendal. This was to celebrate 150 years since Mary's birth. It also honored her important work in starting English music festivals.