holbrooke - piano quartet No.1

He was born Joseph Charles Holbrook in Croydon, Surrey.[1] His father, also Joseph, was a music hall musician and teacher, and his mother Helen was a Scottish singer. He had two older sisters (Helen and Mary) and two younger brothers (Robert and James).[2] His mother died when he was only two years old. When he was a young man, he and his father both taught music from the same residence, and the occasional confusion may have influenced his decision to change his name. He changed his name to Joseph Holbrooke,[3] and later to Josef Holbrooke.

Joseph and his wife Dorothy (known as 'Dot') married in 1903 and had four children: Mildred (born 1905), Anton (1908), Barbara (1910)[4] and Gwydion (1912). His son changed his name to Gwydion Brooke and was a prominent English bassoonist.

Holbrooke died in London.

His musical output includes eight symphonies, many tone poems, two piano concertos, chamber music including string quartets, a piano quintet, a quintet for clarinet and strings and a piano quartet, and much music inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, including choral and orchestral settings for "The Raven" and "The Bells", and a ballet score for "The Masque of the Red Death". He also wrote a three-part operatic trilogy based on the Welsh epic the Mabinogion.

The classical music label Naxos notes that his works are rarely performed today, in part because "he made very considerable demands on the resources of promoters and the patience of listeners."[5]

His students included the conductor and composer Anthony Bernard.

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Music

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• holbrooke
• chamber
• music
• piano
• string
• quartet

[mariavon22]

Thank you very much for uploading this and giving the curious a chance to hear an example of this under rated composer's work.