Howard Carr

Howard Ellis Carr (26 December 1880 - 16 November 1960) was a British composer and conductor who worked in both Britain and Australia during his career. He was a prolific composer of theatre, operetta and light orchestral music, as well as orchestral works.

In his early career Carr worked as a conductor and musical director in theatres and touring productions, including working for two years in Australia. After returning to England in late 1909 he established a reputation as a specialist in theatrical orchestration. During World War I and afterwards his orchestral compositions were performed at the promenade concerts at Queen's Hall. In the 1920s he was conductor of the Municipal Orchestra at Harrogate in North Yorkshire. Carr returned to Australia in 1928. After several years as musical director in theatrical productions, he took on roles such as teaching at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney and a conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Society. In the mid-1930s he worked on orchestration for radio broadcasts. Carr returned to England in 1938 where he worked for the BBC.

Biography

Early years

Howard Ellis Carr was born on 26 December 1880 in Manchester, the eldest son of Edward Carr and Lillie (née Munkittrick). His maternal uncle was the theatre composer and conductor Howard Talbot. Young Howard was educated at St. Paul's School and the Central Technical College in Manchester. Carr studied civil engineering at the City and Guilds of London Institute.

Although he was trained as an engineer, Carr had a natural flair for music and decided to pursue that field of endeavour. In 1898, when he was aged eighteen, his uncle Howard Talbot secured a position for him at Her Majesty's Theatre in Carlisle in county Cumberland, northern England, in order for him to learn the job of musical director. He was in charge of an orchestra of eight players, who performed in full evening dress and white gloves. Whenever a visiting conductor attended the theatre, Carr played either the horn, cello or timpani, instruments upon which he had attained various degrees of proficiency.

For several years Carr was engaged with touring companies operated by the theatrical manager George Edwardes. Carr composed the music for the songs in Under the Greenwood Tree, a play acted by children and performed at the Scala Theatre in London in December 1906.

Carr was described as one with "a natural genius for music" and "one of those rarely-gifted people who, without definite instruction, can play many instruments". Though his principal instruments were the cello and the horn, but he was "more or less proficient upon every instrument" of the orchestra (except the bassoon and the flute for which he was unable to acquire "the exact embrouchure"). Carr was described as "an exceptionally brainy man, of somewhat retiring disposition".

Australia

Carr arrived in Melbourne on 11 September 1907 aboard the mail steamer Victoria together with two other passengers engaged by Williamson, the leading lady Beatrice Irwin and the stage manager Wybert Stamford. Soon after his arrival Carr took over from MacCunn for the performances of the musical comedy The Dairymaids at Her Majesty's Theatre. Carr was the musical director for the production of The Girls of Gottenberg which opened at Her Majesty's in October 1907. Soon after his arrival in Australia it was reported that Carr was engaged in writing an opera.

Howard Carr and Beatrix ('Trixie') Tracey were married on 20 March 1909 at St. James' church in Sydney. Beatrix was a writer, raised in Melbourne, who had been a contributor to The Lone Hand, The Bulletin and other Australian journals, as well as a sub-editor of The Lone Hand.

Carr wrote a choral work called The Bush, with lyrics written by Frank Fox. The work, described as a "choric ode for chorus, baritone solo, and orchestra", was first performed on 30 June 1909 at the Sydney Town Hall by the Sydney Liedertafel, a male choir that had been established in the early 1880s.

During his two years in Australia, Carr composed interpolated numbers and ballets for many of the productions under his musical direction.

Carr conducted the Australian premiere of The Catch of the Season in Melbourne for J. C. Williamson prior to returning to England. His place in the Royal Comic Opera Company was taken by Andrew MacCunn (who he had replaced in September 1907). On 5 October 1909 Howard and Beatrix Carr departed from Melbourne for England aboard the steamer Osterley.

England

After returning to London Carr was initially employed as the musical assistant to Hans Richter at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. He was the assistant conductor for the 1910 production of The Ring at Covent Garden. In October 1911 the couple's only child was born at Richmond in South London, a boy named Eustace Edward Carr.

Carr was appointed as one of the conductors, together with Hamish MacCunn (brother of Andrew MacCunn), on the four-month tour of the United Kingdom of Thomas Beecham's Opera Comique company, commencing in September 1910. He undertook two tours with the company and replaced Hamish MacCunn as musical director of the company. Carr composed the music for the songs in the operetta Master Wayfarer by J. E. Harold Terry, performed at the Apollo Theatre in December 1917. He wrote additional numbers for The Lilac Domino and Shanghai during 1918 and collaborated in the composing of Gay Bohemia and The Girl for the Boy in 1919. Carr was a part composer of Shanghai which opened in August 1918 at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, the production in which the Australian actress Dorothy Brunton achieved her breakthrough success in London. The immediate post-war years in England was a period of economic depression and protectionist fervour. An article written by Carr, published in the Daily Mail in May 1919, was titled 'Fight the Hun in Music'. Carr urged that the war-time conditions that had ensured all-British orchestras and British repertory should be maintained. He wrote that "composers, conductors, and players are coming out of khaki... and if the nation gives them the proper backing they will defeat the Hun in the theatre and concert-room as completely as he was beaten on the gas-soaked fields of France and Flanders". Carr also served on the committee of the Society of Authors, Playwrights and Composers and was a director of the Royal Philharmonic Society in London.

Orchestral works composed by Carr were performed at the promenade concerts at Queen's Hall each year from 1917 to 1925. Carr's suite called The Jolly Roger (a piratical fantasy), was included in the Promenade Concerts season at Queen's Hall commencing in August 1917. The first performance of Three Heroes "excited so much applause that, after taking seven or eight recalls, Mr. Carr, who conducted, was obliged to allow the last movement to be played again". The prelude The Shrine in the Wood and the symphonic march The Sun God were performed during the 1925 promenade season, conducted by Carr.

In 1921 Carr was appointed conductor of the Municipal Orchestra at Harrogate, in North Yorkshire, succeeding Julian Clifford after his death. He remained at Harrogate for two years, performing eight concerts a week, including a symphony concert on Thursday afternoons. He founded the Harrogate Choral Society.

In 1928 Carr received an offer from the J. C. Williamson company to return to Australia, which he accepted. By late October 1928 Carr was in Sydney as musical director of the J. C. Williamson production of The Vagabond King at Her Majesty's Theatre.

Sketch of Howard Carr, published in The Wireless Weekly, 27 December 1929.

Beatrix Tracey Carr died on 11 June 1929 at South Yarra in Melbourne, "after an illness lasting several months". Carr was appointed as the Society's permanent conductor in 1932. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Philharmonic Society was being affected by a lack of public support, a decline in subscriber numbers and low morale amongst its members. To conserve funds Carr minimised the hiring of professional musicians for the orchestra and attempted to utilise mainly amateur musicians. Despite these efforts the Society was forced to suspend its rehearsals and performances for most of 1933 due to a lack of funds. In 1934 the members of the Philharmonic Society voted to suspend its activities. With 1935 being the fiftieth anniversary year of the Royal Philharmonic Society, the milestone was celebrated in November 1935 with a restructured orchestra performing Haydn's The Seasons. Despite the goodwill from the public during its anniversary year, the Society's amateur orchestra was performing poorly and concerts were not well attended. The Philharmonic Society approached the government-funded Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), formed in July 1932, seeking assistance in the form of personnel from the Commission's orchestra and choirs. The collaboration was approved, with ABC members augmenting the Society's chorus and orchestra in many subsequent concert programmes.

In December 1932 Carr orchestrated and conducted the first staging of the musical Collits' Inn by Varney Monk, praised by the Sydney Morning Herald as "an Australian opera".

Carr made an appearance as an extra in the Cinesound film about the exploits of the Kelly Gang, When the Kellys Rode, the first adaptation of the Kelly story with sound. He played the leader of a country orchestra in an inn scene.

From about February 1934, during Alfred Hill's year-long leave of absence from the New South Wales State Conservatorium in Sydney, Carr took his classes in musical theory and rehearsed and conducted the students' orchestra.

In May 1936 Carr was appointed as the musical editor for radio transmissions by the ABC, "responsible for orchestrations and adaptations of major works in both serious and lighter fields of music".

Carr resigned as conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Society in April 1938. He returned to England in July 1938.

Back to England

After returning to England in 1938 Carr was employed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as an orchestrator and arranger. He worked with the BBC Theatre Orchestra throughout World War II.

In 1950, on the occasion of Carr's seventieth birthday, he conducted a concert produced by the BBC of his own works.

Music Carr's theatre music included musical contributions and additional songs for light operettas such as A Chinese Honeymoon, The Girl for the Boy (Duke of York's Theatre, 1919), The Blue Kitten (Gaiety, December 1925), Under the Greenwood Tree, Charles Cuvillier's The Lilac Domino (1918 London revival) and Shanghai by Isidore Witmark and William Duncan, the latter first performed in August 1918 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. His own operettas include The Crystal Gazer (1924) and (produced in Australia) Love Wins Through (1935) and The Lady in the Moon (1936). He also provided incidental music for plays including The Potter Diamond and The Master Wayfarer.

His orchestral works include two symphonies (No. 1 in E minor, No. 2 in C major, written circa 1903-5). The manuscripts were donated to the British Library in 1962. He also composed various orchestral suites, overtures and genre pieces which were often performed at The Proms between 1917 and 1925, including The Jolly Roger (overture), The Jovial Huntsmen (rondo), The Shrine in the Wood (Prelude) and The Sun God (symphonic march).

Of these the most popular was Three Heroes, a suite commemorating World War I heroes Michael John O'Leary, Captain Oates and Reginald Warneford, the final movement including a musical depiction of a Zeppelin air raid. This received several performances in the days immediately following the Armistice, and was played at the Proms in 1918, 1920 and 1924. The four movement ballet suite Carnival of the Elements was popular enough to be published by W. Paxton & Co. The four movements were described in the following terms: "'Air' is a light rhythmic scherzo, and "Earth" is a valse lento movement; "Water" a peaceful stream that wends its way in terms of melody; but "Fire" demands the best from any orchestra, not so much for the notation as for the time, which is a 9/8 presto furioso". Reviewing a performance at the Hastings British Music Festival in 1921, Allan Biggs described the style as "enough sensationalism, but little subtlety".

Carr also composed choral works, such as The Bush and Ode to the Deity, and staged a dramatized version of Mendelssohn's Elijah in London (1933) and in Australia (1938). Some of his songs were published by Stainer & Bell.

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