Cecil Armstrong Gibbs

热转印机 有机玻璃 IBM服务器 Dell服务器 IBM服务器 HP服务器 CISCO交换机 IBM服务器 [1] 调查 单片机培训 工控机 北京搬家 北京搬家 会议服务 装饰装潢 展览制作 北京装潢公司 北京装饰公司 北京装修公司 北京月嫂 门窗厂 代开发票　 北京物流　 北京搬家 门窗厂 北京保洁　 　 [2] 代开发票 北京汽车陪练　 空调维修 空调回收 大金中央空调 电地暖 冷库 格力中央空调 约克中央空调 风幕机 劳保用品　 北京物流公司 机柜 机柜 电机修理 净化工程 五粮液酒

燃气灶维修

Life

Born: 1889

Died: 12 May 1960

Biography

A little-known prolific English Composer, Adjudicator and Conductor, who studied under Sir Adrian Boult and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and a contemporary of Sir Arthur Bliss, Herbert Howells and Sir Arnold Bax

Known principally for his solo songs, Armstrong Gibbs also wrote music for the stage, sacred works, three symphonies and a substantial amount of chamber music, much of which remains unpublished. He gained wide recognition during the early part of his life, but until recently, like many of his contemporaries, has been little known. Although he retired from adjudicating, he continued conducting and composing right to the end of his life. He died in Chelmsford on 12th May 1960 and is buried with his wife in Danbury churchyard.

Early life

Cecil Armstrong Gibbs ( he hated the name Cecil ) was born in 1889 at The Vineyards, Great Baddow, Chelmsford, the first child of Ida Gibbs (née Whitehead ) and David Cecil Gibbs, the famous soap and chemicals manufacturer. His mother died when he was only two years old, so he was brought up by his five maiden aunts. So apparent were his musical gifts at a young age, that the aunts begged the boy's father to send him abroad to receive a musical education. However David Cecil, who had himself been educated in Germany, was determined to give his son the benefit of an English public school education. Consequently the young Armstrong was sent first to a preparatory school on the Hove / Brighton borders and then on to Winchester College.

Education

From Winchester, Armstrong Gibbs gained an exhibition and a sizarship to Trinity College Cambridge to read history. After completing his History Tripos in 1911 he stayed on at Cambridge to take his Mus. B. During that period he received composition and harmony lessons from E. J. Dent and Charles Wood and studied the organ briefly under Cyril Rootham. Realising that he could not make a living from composition alone, he decided to take up teaching. He spent just over a year at Copthorne School, East Grinstead, before returning to his old preparatory school, The Wick. Although he was not able to compose as much as he had hoped, he did write some songs to poems of Walter de la Mare. On being asked to produce a play for the headmaster's retirement in 1919, Armstrong Gibbs approached de la Mare directly and was delighted when the author produced the play Crossings for him to set to music.

Entry to the Royal College of Music

The producer of the play, Armstrong Gibbs' old composition teacher E.J. Dent, brought the young Adrian Boult down to conduct Crossings. He was so impressed with the music that he generously offered to fund Gibbs for a year as a mature student at the Royal College of Music. Encouraged by his wife, Honor, to take up the challenge, Armstrong Gibbs resigned from his post and moved back to Essex. After a year at the RCM studying conducting under Boult and composition under Vaughan Williams, he accepted a part-time teaching post at the college.

In Danbury, near Chelmsford

Soon after moving to Danbury in 1919, Armstrong Gibbs set up a choral society which then participated in the Essex Musical Association festivals in Chelmsford. The setting of one of his own compositions, for a festival class in Bath, led to his becoming an adjudicator and eventually Vice-President of the National Federation of Music Festivals. Thereafter followed a busy life of touring the country adjudicating festivals, conducting and composing. As well as conducting the Choral Society in Danbury and singing with the Church Choir, Armstrong Gibbs played cricket and bowls and lent active support to many local organisations.

The War Years

His house Crossings being requisitioned as a hospital during the Second World War, Armstrong Gibbs moved to Windermere, where he continued composing and conducting. After his son David was killed on active service in Italy he wrote his third symphony, The Westmorland. On his return to Essex in 1945 he re-formed Danbury Choral Society and renewed his association with the Festivals Movement, playing a key role in the organisation of the music for the Mothers' Union World Wide Conference of 1948 and the Festival of Britain in 1951.

Armstrong Gibbs - the man

Armstrong Gibbs was a country man at heart who did not care to be part of the London musical scene. He played a full part in village life, serving on several committees and participating in local events. A sincere Christian, he sang in the church choir, supported the bell ringers and spent much time fund raising for the restoration of the Church Tower and Organ. He took a great interest in the local flower show and knew everyone in the village. When he grew too old to play in village cricket matches he became a keen bowls player. Armstrong Gibbs was a warm and affectionate man, devoted to his family, and with many friends to whom he showed great loyalty and generosity. He was scrupulously fair and quick to champion anyone he felt had been unfairly treated. His great sense of humour, clearly recalled by his daughter, is borne out by the many tales he tells in his unpublished autobiography Common Time. He had a large frame and could look imposing, particularly on formal occasions when he wore his Mus D. gown. He had a definite sense of how things should be ordered, so found it difficult to countenance other people's opinions. He always spoke out for what he thought was right. As a young man he had red hair and a temper to match; but he was always the first to apologise after an outburst. His nervous disposition and digestive problems he put down to his father's draconian attitudes when he was a child. As with most people, there were contradictions in his character. For instance, the same person who could tap a young chorister on the shoulder for getting a fit of the giggles, could also himself drum on the choir stall in front of him, when the Rector was in full flood, and mutter audibly 'Whenever will that man finish?'

(Above is part a biography found at the web link below - to see rest of bio use the link.)

http://www.musicweb-international.com/GibbsCA/

View the Wikipedia article on Cecil Armstrong Gibbs.

List of choral works

L E G E N D

Disclaimer

How to download

ICON	SOURCE
	File details
	Help

• A Spring Garland Op. 84
• Almayne (English 17th-Century Air) Op. 71
• Ann's Cradle Song
• Araby
• Arrogant Poppies
• As I Lay in the Early Sun
• Bless the Lord, O my soul
• By a Bierside
• Concertino for piano and string orchestra Op. 103
• Dale and Fell
• Danger
• Dusk
• Dusk (from Fancy Dress)
• Fancy Dress, dance suite, Op. 82
• Five Eyes
• Four songs for a mad sea captain
• Hypochondriacus
• In the highlands
• Love is a sickness, Op. 44/1
• Lullaby
• Mistletoe
• Neglected moon!
• Nightfall
• O, praise God in his holiness
• Sailing homeward
• Silver
• Summer night
• Take heed, young heart
• The ballad of Semmerwater
• The bells
• The birch tree
• The cherry tree
• The fields are full
• The flooded stream
• The mad prince
• The Oxen
• The Rejected Lover
• The Sleeping Beauty
• The splendour falls
• The stranger
• The strife is o'er
• The tiger-lily
• The wanderer
• Threnody for Walter de la Mare
• Titania
• To one who passed whistling through the night
• Tom o' Bedlam
• When I was one-and-twenty

Click here to search for composer on ChoralWiki

External links

add web links here