1. Thomas Frederick Dunhill was a prolific English composer in many genres, though he is best known today for his light music and educational piano works.
22 Facts About Thomas Dunhill
1. 2.
Thomas Dunhill's compositions include much chamber music, a song cycle, The Wind Among the Reeds, and an operetta, Tantivy Towers, that had a successful London run in 1931.
3.
Thomas Dunhill was a teacher, examiner and writer on musical subjects.
4.
Henry Thomas Dunhill was a manufacturer of sacks, tarpaulin and ropes; Jane Thomas Dunhill ran a small music shop.
5.
Thomas Dunhill was educated at the North London High School for Boys, and when the family moved to Kent, at Kent College, Canterbury.
6.
In 1893 Dunhill entered the Royal College of Music studying the piano with Franklin Taylor, counterpoint with James Higgs and W S Rockstro, and harmony with Walter Parratt.
7.
In 1899 Thomas Dunhill was the first winner of the Tagore Gold Medal, awarded to the college's outstanding students.
8.
From 1899 to 1908 Thomas Dunhill was assistant music master at Eton.
9.
Thomas Dunhill began a career as an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, working in Britain and throughout much of the British Empire.
10.
From 1907 to 1919 Thomas Dunhill presented concerts of chamber music in London, featuring the works of British composers.
11.
Later, Dunhill presented works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Charles Wood, Eugene Goossens, Rutland Boughton, J B McEwen, Richard Walthew and Nicholas Gatty.
12.
Thomas Dunhill was invited to address the Musical Association in 1908 on the topic "The evolution of melody"; his remarks were widely reported in the general press.
13.
One of the composers whom Thomas Dunhill greatly admired was Arthur Sullivan.
14.
Thomas Dunhill generally avoided Sullivan's influence in his own music, but his 1928 study of Sullivan's music broke new ground: there had been many biographies and memoirs, but Dunhill's was the first book by a practising musician to analyse the music.
15.
Thomas Dunhill was widely thought to have succeeded more with the music for the latter than for the former, and was criticised for avoiding any hint of jazz in his Chelsea music.
16.
Thomas Dunhill was a stalwart of organisations dedicated to the welfare of his fellow musicians: these included the Performing Right Society and the Musicians' Benevolent Fund.
17.
Thomas Dunhill was a director of the Royal Philharmonic Society and Dean of the Faculty of Music at the University of London.
18.
Thomas Dunhill was in steady demand as musical examiner, lecturer, and adjudicator, and returned to teaching, first at the Royal College, taking the chamber music class, and later at Eton, where he returned during the Second World War.
19.
At a time when Elgar's music was out of fashion, Thomas Dunhill was a strong advocate for it.
20.
Thomas Dunhill lived with his wife Mary at 74, Lansdowne Road in Notting Hill Gate until 1924, when they moved to Guildford.
21.
Mary Thomas Dunhill died in October 1929, after which Thomas Dunhill returned to London, living at 27, Platts Lane in Hampstead for the last years of his life.
22.
Thomas Dunhill died at his mother-in-law's house in Scunthorpe, aged 69.