Eva Ruth Spalding (December 19, 1883 - March 1969) was a British composer, violin and piano teacher who wrote six string quartets, solo piano music and songs.[1][2]

Spalding was born in Blackheath, Kent, to Henry Spalding and his second wife Ellen. She was the youngest of eight children, with four half-siblings and three full siblings. Henry Spalding was a paper merchant.[1]

Spalding studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where she passed the violin teacher exam in 1904.[3] She also studied with Leopold Auer at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia.[4] After returning to England, she taught piano and violin privately and at Bradfield College.[5] From the 1940s she lived at Tyndrum, Pond Lane, Churt in Surrey, where she died in 1969.[6][7]

She set texts by the following poets to music: Léon Bazalgette, William Blake, Phineas Fletcher, Paul Fort, Fernand Gregh, George Herbert, Ioannes Papadiamantopoulos (as Jean Moréas), Edmund Spenser, Charles van Lerberghe, Clara Walsh, and Walt Whitman.[5][8][9][10][11]

Spalding composed six string quartets, the first in the early 1920s. No. 5 was performed by the Aleph String Quartet at the Wigmore Hall on Tuesday 25 April 1950, along with the Five Songs from Spencer's Amoretti, sung by tenor Frederick Fuller.[12] Her music was published by Maurice Senart, with many of the song texts in both French and English versions.[1]

Selected works

Piano

  • Etude for the Left Hand (1919)[13]
  • Fantasie for piano (1958)[14]
  • Prelude (1919)[1]

Songs

  • Five Songs from Spencer's Amoretti (1950)[12]
  • 'Mort! le vent pleure autour du monde' (1925, text Paul Fort)
  • 'Passing of the Spring' (1924, text Clara Walsh)
  • 'Soupirs' (1920, text: Clara Walsh)
  • Three Melodies for voice and piano or string quartet (1929)
    • 'The Lamb' (text: William Blake)
    • 'The Litany' (text: Phineus Fletcher)
    • 'Easter Words' (text: George Herbert)
  • Three Melodies for voice and piano (1919, texts: Walt Whitman)
    • 'Youth, Day, Old Age and Night'
    • 'A Clear Midnight'
    • 'The Lost Invocation'
  • 'Vers le soleil s'en vont ensemble' (1923, text: C.von Leberghe)

Chamber

  • Poeme (violin and piano)[15]  
  • String Quartet No. 1 (1923)[16]
  • String Quartet No. 2 (1928)[16]
  • String Quartet No. 3[1]
  • String Quartet No. 4[1]
  • String Quartet No. 5 (1950)[17][12]
  • String Quartet No. 6[7]
  • Violin Sonata No. 1[1]
  • Violin Sonata No. 2 (1928)[18]
  • Violin Sonata No. 3 (1952)[18]

Orchestral

  • Music for Strings[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Eva Ruth Spalding 1882-1969". www.unsungcomposers.com. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  2. ↑ Stewart-Green, Miriam (1980). Women composers : a checklist of works for the solo voice. Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall. ISBN 0-8161-8498-4. OCLC 6815939.
  3. ↑ The Musical Times. Novello. 1904.
  4. ↑ Hill, Ralph (1946). The Penguin Music Magazine. Penguin Books.
  5. 1 2 Cohen, Aaron I. (1987). International Encyclopedia of Women Composers. Books & Music (USA). ISBN 978-0-9617485-1-7.
  6. ↑ The Times, 30 June 1969, p. 10
  7. 1 2 3 Who's Who in Music 5th edition (1969), p. 294
  8. ↑ "Eva Ruth Spalding (1882 - 1969) - Vocal Texts and Translations at the LiederNet Archive". www.lieder.net. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  9. ↑ Office, Library of Congress Copyright (1958). Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series.
  10. ↑ Catalog of Copyright Entries: Musical compositions. Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1925.
  11. ↑ Whitman, Walt (1938). Complete Poetry & Selected Prose and Letters. Nonesuch Press.
  12. 1 2 3 'A New Quartet', in The Daily Telegraph, 26 April 1950, p. 6
  13. ↑ Patterson, Donald L. (1999). One Handed: A Guide to Piano Music for One Hand. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-31179-6.
  14. ↑ 'Gifted Pianist Lacks Warmth', in The Daily Telegraph, 30 April 1958, p. 10
  15. ↑ British Music Information Centre (1972). Instrumental Solos and Duos by Living British Composers.
  16. 1 2 British Music Collection
  17. ↑ Radio Times, Issue 1605, 15 August 1954, p. 31
  18. 1 2 "Margaret Kitchin: Concert pianist and champion of modern British composers". The Independent. 30 June 2008. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
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