Gordon Jacob was the musician’s musician par excellence. He was noted for his complete professionalism as a composer and arranger of music both light and serious. Jacob was born in London on 5 July 1895 and died on 8 June 1984, shortly before his 89th birthday. After his initial schooling at Dulwich College, he became a student at the Royal College of Music in London, where his tutors included Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir Hubert Parry and Herbert Howells. He taught briefly at Birkbeck and Morley Colleges, also in London, before returning to the Royal College as a lecturer in 1926; he was to remain there until his retirement in 1966. His students there included Malcolm Arnold, Imogen Holst (composer daughter of Gustav), Elizabeth Maconchy and Bernard Stevens.
Gordon Jacob is remembered for his achievement in a number of fields. His textbooks Orchestral Technique (1931), The Composer and his Art (1955) and The Elements of Orchestration (1962) are still widely read and respected. He arranged a number of works by other composers, producing orchestral versions of Vaughan Williams’ English Folk Song Suite and Holst’s First and Second Suites and Moorside Suite, all originally for wind or brass band, and orchestrating items from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book as the William Byrd Suite (1922, rev. 1939); Mam’zelle Angot is a ballet suite arranged from Lecocq’s opera of 1872.
Jacob also wrote a number of original works for symphonic band, including An Original Suite (1928), Music for a Festival (1951), Flag of Stars (1956), the Concerto for Band (1970), Double Concerto (1976) and Celebration Overture (1984).
His original orchestral works include two symphonies (1929 and 1944), three sinfoniettas (1942, 1951, 1953), a Divertimento for small orchestra (1938), the Galop joyeux (1937) and a generous quantity of concertante pieces: for viola, piano (two concertos), oboe (two concertos), bassoon, cor anglais, horn, violin (two concertos), flute (two concertos), cello, trombone and harmonica.
Gordon Jacob is published by Boosey & Hawkes.
This biography can be reproduced free of charge in concert programmes with the following credit: Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes
https://www.boosey.com/composer/Gordon%20Percival%20Septimus+Jacob?ttype=BIOGRAPHY
https://www.gordonjacob.net/index.html
RHAPSODY FOR ALTO SAXOPHONE AND STRINGS
was composed on October 27, 1948 and was originally written as a Rhapsody for English Horn (Cor Anglais) and Strings for the oboist Terence MacDonagh. Jacob simultaneously created the alternative arrangement for the E-flat alto saxophone, which has since become a staple in classical saxophone repertoire.
In March 1963 Jack Harrison performed the Australian premieres of
Gordon Jacob’s Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone and Strings
and
Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Romance for Harmonica and Orchestra
ABC FREE CONCERT
With
W.A. Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by John Farnsworth Hall
Soloist: Jack Harrison (saxophonist and harmonica player)
Programme includes:
Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone and Strings (Gordon Jacob)
Romance for Harmonica and Orchestra (Vaughan Williams)
Tomorrow Night at 8pm
Supreme Court Gardens
| Mar 1963 | Gordon Jacob Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone and Strings (1948) AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE Vaughan Williams Romance for Harmonica and Orchestra (1951) AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE | Jack Harrison (saxophone) Jack Harrison (harmonica) John Farnsworth Hall (conductor) West Australian Symphony Orchestra | ABC Free Concert, Supreme Court Gardens Perth, Western Australia |
MUSIC
By Peter Hellstrom
Festival Of Perth 1966
The Master of Queens Musick, Sir Arthur Bliss, has told the Festival Of Perth committee that the planning of the musical programs in the coming festival is a magnificent gesture to British music and should be more widely known. That it has become well known already in Britain is showing by letters from many leading authorities there they include congratulations from the executive of the Composers Guild of Great Britain. Though some prominent English music festivals like Cheltenham Aldeburgh and the longest established Three Choirs Festival feature their country music, no British festival has in recent times included such an extensive and exciting range of British music in one series. Works of nearly 70 composers are included. The Perth programs have been wisely spaced over the six week festival period and though many of the concerts will start at the customary 8 pm some will be at 6 pm to enable patrons to attend another festival attraction the same evening.
Works by Vaughan Williams, Gordon Jacob, Howard Ferguson, Lennox Berkeley and Michael Tippett will be new to W.A. The London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Colin Davis will introduce Bliss’s “Discourse for Orchestra” to Australia in one of its Perth concerts. In the other, Tippitt’s Symphony No. 2 and Stravinsksy’s Symphony in Three movements will be played here for the first time. Leading W.A. musicians appearing as soloists in the festival will include soprano Molly McGurk who will sing Benjamin Britain’s song cycle Les Illuminations with the W.A. Symphony Orchestra. She will also sing the solo soprano part in the University Choral Society’s performance of Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony. Stephen Dorman will be the accompanist for tenor David Galliver’s three British song recitals. He will also partner violinist Vaughan Hanley in a Sonata recital and will play the solo part in constant Lambert’s Concerto for Orchestra and Nine Instruments. Jack Harrison will be the soloist in David Tunley’s Clarinet Concerto and will be joined by the Oriole Quartet in Bliss Clarinet Quintet. Graham Wood will introduce James Penberthy’s Romance for Violin and Orchestra and Alice Carrard will be the pianist with the A.B.C. Wind Players in Rawsthorne’s recent quintet. Madame Carrard will be joined by Mr Dornan, Stephanie James and Michael Cole to perform Malcolm Williamson’s new Concerto for Wind Quintet and two pianos. The new university organist, Mr John Hind, will be soloist in a program which will feature the W.A. Bach Society. The Oriel Quartet will also be the soloists with the W.A. Symphony Orchestra in Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro for strings and will give a separate recital of works by Howells, Frank Bridge, John Exton (the newly appointed senior lecturer in music at the university) Gerald Finzi, Elizabeth Lutyens and Edmund Rubbra. [1]
FOURTEENTH ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF PERTH
THE ABC PRESENTS
(in association with Festival of Perth Committee) Opening Concerts of
MUSIC OF BRITAIN SERIES
A 15-concert feast of music from the great heritage of British compositions and including many new works.
Tuesday Feb 8 1966
A.B.C. Festival Orchestra
Conductor: Vaughan Hanly
Soloist: Jack Harrison (clarinet)
Programme:
Symphony No. 4 (Boyce)
Little Symphony (Jacob)
Concerto for Clarinet and Strings – first performance (Tunley)
Serenade (Ferguson)
B Flat Divertimento (Berkeley)
WINTHROP HALL
Reserve Prices 11/-, 8/6, Unreserved from 5/ at hall after 7pm
[1] The West Australian September 1965