Mary Augusta Wakefield (19 August 1853 – 16 September 1910) was a British composer, contralto, festival organiser, and writer.[1]

Biography

Early life

Wakefield was born in Kendal, where her paternal ancestors had been members of the Quaker community before converting to Anglicanism. Her parents William Henry Wakefield and Augusta Hagarty Wakefield had four sons (including the cricketer William Wakefield) and two other daughters. Her mother was from an Irish-American background. In the 1860s her father took over the family business, which included a bank and a gunpowder mill. In 1868, he built Sedgwick House a few miles outside Kendal. (The family gunpowder mill started in Sedgwick in the 18th century, but production had moved to a new site in 1850).[2]

As a child, Wakefield learned traditional border folksongs from her nurses, which she later included in her collection Northern Songs. As a teenager she was sent to a finishing school in Brighton. She studied music in London with Alberto Randegger and George Henschel, and in Rome with Giovanni Sgambati.

Later life

Wakefield corresponded with and visited many musicians and writers, including Lucy Broadwood,[3] J. A. Fuller Maitland, Herbert Oakeley, John Ruskin, John Stainer, and Maude Valérie White.[4] Author Vernon Lee dedicated her short ghost story A Wicked Voice to Wakefield in 1887.[5]

Wakefield suffered from neuritis and rheumatic problems from 1905 onwards and had poor health until she died on 16 February 1910. She is buried alongside her parents in the churchyard of St Thomas' Church, Crosscrake; her coffin was carried by the conductors of several choirs from the Festival, and members of those choirs sang in the funeral service.[4]

Music

Wakefield was an early member of the Folk Song Society (now the English Folk Dance and Song Society).[3] She presented recitals throughout England, sometimes with Maude Valerie White. While in Rome in the 1880s, she socialised with composers Theo Marzials and Edvard Grieg. Grieg coached her on singing his songs and gave her an album of his compositions with this inscription: "Mary Wakefield with my best thanks for her beautiful songs. Edward Grieg. Roma. 1887."[4]

Wakefield's musical compositions included:[4][6]

Vocal music

  • 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[5]
  • May Time in Midwinter (text by Algernon Charles Swinburne)
  • Milkmaid (text by Henry Austin Dobson)[7]
  • Molly Maloney (text by Alfred Perceval Graves)[7]
  • Moonspell
  • More and More
  • Nancy
  • No Sir!
  • Northern Songs (collection)
  • Queen of Sixty Years (for chorus)
  • Serenade
  • Shaking Grass
  • Shearing Day
  • Sweet Sally Gray
  • When the Boys Come Home
  • Yes Sir!
  • You May

Writing and lectures

Wakefield knew John Ruskin, whose many interests included music. Towards the end of his life she edited a collection of his observations on the subject, Ruskin on Music (1894).[8] She presented lectures and wrote articles about various musical topics. Several of her articles were published in Murray's Magazine from July to December, 1889, under the title Foundation Stones of English Music .[4] The topics of her lectures and articles included:

  • 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

Festivals

Wakefield started several choirs in villages around Kendal, near her family home. In 1885, with her sister Agnes, she brought the choirs together for an outdoor festival to raise money for her local parish church St Thomas', Crosscrake,[9] which had been built with support from her father. In addition to raising money for the church, Wakefield wanted to encourage local, amateur music and make music more important in English life.[citation needed]

Legacy

Her festival continues today as the Mary Wakefield Westmorland Festival, and has inspired similar music festivals in other English towns. The festival continues to take place biennially, with the 2025 event taking place in Kendal Town Hall and the local leisure centre and a date set for 2027.[10] When Wakefield died in 1910, the Association of Musical Competition Festivals created a Mary Wakefield medal to be awarded at English music festivals. The medal included an image of Wakefield and Martin Luther's quotation "Music is a fair and glorious gift from God."[5][11] The medal has been awarded between 1999 and 2014 for "best performance by a mixed choir" at the Peterborough Music Festival[12] and in 2004 at the Leith Hill Music Festival.[13]

Musicologist Rosa Newmarch published Mary Wakefield: a Memoir (1912, Kendal: Atkinson & Pollitt).[14]

In 2003, a plaque was erected at Wakefield Bank House, Stricklandgate, Kendal, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Wakefield's birth and commemorate her pioneering work developing English music festivals.[15]

References

  1. ^ Stern, Susan, 1953- (1978). Women composers : a handbook. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-1138-3. OCLC 3844725.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Wilson, Paul N (1973). "Kendal Reservoirs" (PDF). Archaeology Data Service. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 April 2019.
  3. ^ a b Allan, Sue. "MISS WAKEFIELD'S FOLK SONG COMPETITION 1902-1906 AND ITS LEGACY". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ a b c d e Newmarch, Rosa Harriet Jeaffreson (1912). Mary Wakefield, a memoir by Rosa Newmarch. Music - University of Toronto. [Kendal Atkinson and Pollitt].
  5. ^ a b c Craske, Michael (16 May 2019). "'The world, what is it to you, dear': Mary Wakefield's Maytime in Midwinter (1885)". Verseandmusic.com. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  6. ^ Cohen, Aaron I. (1987). International encyclopedia of women composers (Second edition, revised and enlarged ed.). New York. ISBN 0-9617485-2-4. OCLC 16714846.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ a b Wakefield, Mary Augusta. "imslp.ort". IMSLP. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  8. ^ Ruskin, John; Wakefield, Augusta Mary (5 December 2015). Ruskin on Music. Creative Media Partners, LLC. ISBN 978-1-347-32554-4.
  9. ^ "The Mary Wakefield Westmorland Festival". The Mary Wakefield Westmorland Festival. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  10. ^ "Mary Wakefield Westmorland Festival - Home". web.archive.org. 20 March 2025. {{cite web}}: Check |archive-url= value (help)
  11. ^ "1853-1910 Mary Wakefield Medal". J.W.B Coins & Collectables. Retrieved 20 March 2025.
  12. ^ "About". Glebe Singers. Retrieved 20 March 2025. formed in 1999 by Sara Woolhouse and David Scoffield. Sara was musical director for nearly 15 years during which Glebe Singers twice won the Mary Wakefield Medal for best performance by a mixed choir at the Peterborough Music Festival
  13. ^ "Music for the season and oh-so-English". Surrey Live. 19 May 2004. Retrieved 20 March 2025. the society's success in the Leith Hill Music Festival. They were overall winners ... gaining highest aggregate on the day and the Mary Wakefield Medal.
  14. ^ "Mary Wakefield: a Memoir, by Rosa Newmarch ML" (PDF). Mary Wakefield Westmorland Music Festival. Retrieved 20 March 2025. Full text online
  15. ^ Plaques, Open. "Mary Wakefield green plaque". openplaques.org. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Augusta_Wakefield
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