Benjamin Dale

Benjamin James Dale (17 July 188530 July 1943) was an English composer and academic who had a long association with the Royal Academy of Music. Dale showed compositional talent from an early age and went on to write a small but notable corpus of works. His best-known composition is probably the large-scale Piano Sonata in D minor he started while still a student at the Royal Academy of Music, which communicates in a potent late romantic style. Christopher Foreman has proposed a comprehensive reassessment of Benjamin Dale's music. Dale married one of his students, the pianist and composer Kathleen Richards in 1921.

Early life and education Benjamin Dale was born in Upper Holloway, Islington, London, to Charles James Dale, a pottery manufacturer from Staffordshire, and his wife, Frances Anne Hallett, daughter of a furniture manufacturer from Clerkenwell. His father, who had migrated first to Derbyshire and then to London, was a director of the Denby Pottery Company and London manager of James Bourne & Son. He was also a self-taught but enthusiastic amateur musician, church organist and Methodist hymn tune writer who nurtured the Finsbury Choral Association (attracting composers such as Sullivan and Stanford to come and conduct their choral works) There he reunited with an early playground companion, the concert pianist and composer York Bowen, who also remained an especially close friend for the rest of Dale's life. The sonata extended to sixty pages, leading to problems in publication, and the Society of British Composers was founded by a group of composers including Frederick Corder, John Blackwood McEwen and Tobias Matthay at the Royal Academy of Music to address that and similar problems. The society published the sonata in its first publication through its imprint Charles Avison, Ltd.

Composed between 1902 and 1905 and dedicated to York Bowen, Dale's piano sonata is a large-scale virtuoso work in just two movements, the second of which combines slow movement, scherzo and finale in a set of variations, a form apparently influenced by Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio. Commentators have discerned various other influences and echoes within this eclectic work, including Liszt's Sonata in B minor, Schumann's Fantasie in C, Balakirev's Islamey, Glazunov's first piano sonata and Wagner's Liebestod. In the opinion of Francis Pott, "the swirling arpeggiation and rich variety of gesture imply an attempted pianistic parallel to Wagnerian and Straussian orchestration, thus carrying the illusion of symphonic transcription to new places". by the 1920s Dale's sonata had fallen out of fashion. and Danny Driver (Hyperion, 2011), It probably remains the single composition for which Dale is best known today.

By this time, Dale had established himself as a successful composer and teacher, having been appointed Professor of Harmony at the RAM in 1909. in what was probably its last performance to date. Dale was also one of the musicians who helped MacMillan recreate the score of The Mikado from memory for a full performance in the camp. In 1918, Dale was released early from Ruhleben after breaking his arm, being allowed to stay on a farm in the Netherlands for the duration.

Despite deteriorating health after the war, Dale was able to travel round the world, examining in Australia and New Zealand for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. He started composing again and became professor of harmony and later Warden at the Royal Academy of Music. He also worked for the BBC's Music Advisory Panel. In the post war period, Dale composed several chamber works for violin (recorded for Dutton Epoch), including a large scale Violin Sonata (1921–22). In a detailed review of the event, Christopher Foreman hailed the work as a "major British orchestral masterpiece."

Dale died in July 1943 in London, aged 58, collapsing after having conducted a rehearsal for the première of The Flowing Tide.

Selected works Orchestral Horatius, Overture (1899) Overture for orchestra (1900) The Tempest, Overture to the Shakespeare play (1902) Concertstück (Concert Piece) for organ and orchestra (1904) Concert Overture in G minor (1904) English Dance for small orchestra (1919); arrangement of original (1916) for string octet, also arranged for violin and piano, Op. 10, No. 1 [see below] Prunella for small orchestra (1923); arrangement of original (1916) for violin and piano [see below] A Holiday Tune for small orchestra (1925); arrangement of original (1920) for violin and piano [see below] The Flowing Tide, Tone Poem (1924–1943)

Chamber Piano Trio in D minor – 1st movement only (performed 1902) English Dance for 4 violins, 2 violas and 2 cellos (1916); originally intended to introduce Act 3 of Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle

Violin English Dance for violin and piano, Op. 10, No. 1 (1916); originally titled Country Dance Prunella for violin and piano, Op. 10, No.2 (1916); originally intended as an Intermezzo for the play of the same name by Laurence Housman and Harley Granville-Barker A Holiday Tune for violin and piano, Op. 10, No. 3 (1920) Sonata in E major for violin and piano, Op. 11 (1921–1922) Ballade in C minor for violin and piano, Op. 15 (1926)

Viola Suite in D major for viola and piano, Op. 2 (1906) Maestoso – Allegretto espressivo Romance (also arranged for viola and orchestra, 1909) Finale: Allegro (also viola and orchestra, 1909) Phantasy in D minor for viola and piano, Op. 4 (1910) Introduction and Andante for 6 violas, Op. 5 (1911, revised 1913) English Dance (1916); arrangement for viola and piano by York Bowen; original for violin and piano

Keyboard Organ Sonata in D minor (first performed 1902) Sonata in D minor for piano, Op. 1 (1902–1905) Night Fancies, Impromptu in D major for piano, Op. 3 (1907) English Dance for piano (1919); original (1916) for violin and piano Prunella for piano (1923); original (1916) for violin and piano

Vocal Music, when soft voices die, a song setting in E major for treble voices with piano accompaniment of the poem by Shelley (1914) Part-songs, Op. 8[?] (1914) My Garden in A, setting of a mystical poem by T.E. Brown Crossing the Bar in F major, setting of the poem by Tennyson Two Songs from Shakespeare, Op. 9 (1919); Songs from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night O Mistress Mine in F major for low voice and piano Come Away, Death in D major for low voice, viola and piano

Choral Three Christmas Carols, Op. 6 (1911) Before the Paling of the Stars for chorus and orchestra, Op. 7 (1912); setting of a Christmas hymn by Christina Rossetti A Song of Praise, Festival Anthem for soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op. 12 (1923); words by Reginald Heber; composed for the 269th annual festival of the Sons of the Clergy Rosa Mystica, Carol for mixed voices with tenor solo (1925); the words from the Mediaeval anthology collected by Mary Segar

Writing Harmony, Counterpoint and Improvisation by Benjamin Dale, Gordon Jacob, Hugo Anson

Recordings Complete Music for Violin and Piano: Sonata in E major, Op.11, English Dance, Prunella, Holiday Tune, Ballad, Op.15. Dutton Epoch CDLX7157 (2006) Music for Viola and Piano: Suite, Op.2, Phantasy, Op.4, and two piano pieces (Impromptu and Prunella). Etcetera KTC 1105 (1991) Music for Viola: Suite, Op.2, Phantasy, Op.4, Introduction & Andante for Six Violas, Op.5, English Dance (arr. York Bowen). Dutton Epoch CDLX7204 (2008) Piano Sonata in D minor Mark Bebbington. SOMMCD 097 (2010) Danny Driver. Hyperion CDA67827 (2011) (plus Night Fancies, Prunella and York Bowen's Miniature Suite in C Major, Op. 14) Peter Jacobs. Continuum CCD1044 (1991) (plus Night Fancies and Prunella) The Romantic Viola: Suite, Op.2, Phantasy, Op.4, Introduction & Andante for Six Violas, Op.5. Naxos 8.573167 (2013)