Susan Spain-Dunk

Susan Spain-Dunk FRAM (22 February 1880 Folkestone, England – 1 January 1962 London) was an English composer, conductor and violinist/violist.

Life and career The Concert Party by Frank Owen Salisbury (1929), illustrating W. W. Cobbett's private quartet. Susan Spain-Dunk is playing the viola.Susan was the third of four children (Ethel K Dunk b. 1876; John De Lanoy Dunk b. 1878; Susan Spain Dunk b. 1880; William Major b. 1882). Their father was a master plumber and house builder. Her second name, Spain, was added as the Dunk family were related to the Spain family. She studied violin and composition at The Royal Academy of Music, London with Alfred Gibson, Stewart Macpherson and Richard Walthew and later taught composition and harmony there. For a time she played the viola in a private quartet of Walter Cobbett. She also played (violin or viola) in the Winifred Small Quartet and Cobbett made suggestions for "Anthology" programmes for the quartet. She conducted some of her own works at the British Women's Symphony Orchestra. She also conducted her own works at The London Promenade Concerts (1924-1927) and at Bournemouth, Folkestone, Eastbourne and Torquay. Susan Spain-Dunk also conducted work by other women composers, including Edith Swepstone's tone poem, A Vision. and two grandchildren. In the mid-1930s she was living at 17, Elm Park Mansions in Chelsea. She died on 1 January 1962 aged 81.

Spain-Dunk appears in the book Some Folkestone Worthies by C.H. Bishop, and (anonymously) in the painting The Concert Party (1929) by Frank Owen Salisbury.

Music Her orchestral works include the Suite for String Orchestra (1920), the Idyll for Strings (1925), the overtures Water Lily Pool (1925) and Kentish Downs (1926), two symphonic poems: Elaine (1927) and Stonehenge (1929) and the Cantilena for clarinet and orchestra (1931). The Suite was premiered at the Proms on Thursday 21 August 1924. There is a modern recording, from a new edition of the score edited by Peter Cigleris. The Idyll and Water Lily Pool (for flute, harp and strings) were both premiered at a British Women's Symphony Orchestra concert at Queen's Hall on 25 May 1925, and repeated at the Proms on 13 October 1925.

Kentish Downs, first performed at the Proms on 30 August 1926 was revived on BBC Radio 3 in 1997 with the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Barry Wordsworth with a further BBC Radio 3 broadcast in 2001. Elaine was conducted by the composer at the Proms on 25 August 1927, and Stonehenge was produced at the Eastbourne Festival in 1929 and played again in Bournemouth in 1931. It was revived by the BBC Concert Orchestra in a broadcast from Watford Colosseum under conductor Anna-Maria Helsing on 19 January 2019. The Idyll, Kentish Downs and Elaine are mentioned in the letters of Gerald Finzi and Howard Ferguson (p. 12).

The Cantilena for clarinet and orchestra (sometimes known as Poem) was revived by the Folkestone Symphony Orchestra with soloist Peter Cigleris on 16 March 2019, its first performance since 1931. It has since been recorded.

One of Spain-Dunk's most popular chamber works is the Phantasy for String Quartet in G minor (1915). A recording was made by the Archaeus String Quartet on the Lorelt Label and released on 27 June 2003. There are also modern recordings of her Violin Sonata No 3 in C minor (1910), Piano Quartet (circa 1920) and Rhapsody Quintet for wind ensemble. The autograph manuscript of the Quartet in B flat minor was written and dated March 1914 with an address of 49 Castletown Road, West Kensington, London.

Andred's Weald - for military orchestra (1925) – was conducted by Spain-Dunk on 28 February 1929 with the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra. Andred's Weald was published as the Farmer's Boy overture. It was recorded and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Spain-Dunk's orchestral works and much of her chamber music have been transcribed and edited from her manuscripts by Peter Cigleris. This has led to a number of works being recorded by BBC orchestras and broadcast. Serenade de Capri (1928) Farmer's Boy, Overture (1929) Stonehenge, symphonic poem (1929)

Chamber Petite Serenade for flute and piano (1907) Phantasy piano trio in A minor (1907) (Cobbett prize) Halligen, Scandinavian dance for violin and piano (1908) Springdays, Scandinavian dance for violin and piano (1908) Violin Sonata in B minor (1908) (Cobbett prize - only the Romance survives) Piano Quartet (c.1920, ed. Peter Cigleris, 2021) Les Sylphes (c.1926-29) for violin and piano Trio for two violins and piano Violin Sonata in D minor Wind quintet

Piano Six Spanish Dances - La Madrilena, El Jaleo, Aragonaise, Pepita, Cachucha, El Ole (1936) - four were later orchestrated. London Pride (1937) Two pieces for two pianos based on two hymns by Rev. H. J. Trueman (1941) Piano Preludes No 1 and 2 (1941)

Organ Organ Prelude No 2 (1941), edited by Andrew Johnstone (2024).

Harmonium Farmer's Boy Overture (1935)

Choral Sonnets from the Portuguese - How Do I Love Thee? (1920) Verses from Psalm 43 - Send Out Thy Light (1958) The Baptism of Jesus, cantata (1959)

Brass band Song for Devon (1925) Watch Your Step (1925) London Pride (1937) Cinque Ports Suite - Dover Castle, Rye Beach, Winchelsea Gate (1958)

Military band Kentonia (March) (1925) Serenade for Military Band (1925) Song for Devon (1925) Farmer's Boy (1935) Scottish Phantasy (1937) Weald of Kent (March) (1940)