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Oliveria Prescott

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Oliveria Louisa Prescott (3 September 1842 – 9 September 1919) was an English writer and composer.[1]

Biography

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Oliveria Prescott was born in London, the daughter of Frederick Joseph Prescott and Elizabeth Oliveria Russell.[2] She studied with Lindsay Sloper and then at the Royal Academy of Music under George Alexander Macfarren. She became Macfarren's amenuensis.[3]

She lectured in harmony and composition for Newnham College, Cambridge, and also taught harmony at the High School for Girls in Baker Street, London.[3] She died in London.

Works

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Prescott composed several overtures, a piano concerto, shorter orchestral pieces, vocal and choral works and two symphonies.[4]

In 1876 Prescott's first symphony in B-flat “Alkestis” won third prize in a competition for new British symphonies that was held at the Alexandra Palace in north London.[5] In that competition Charles Villiers Stanford's first symphony in B-flat took second place,[6] while Francis William Davenport's symphony in D-minor was placed first.[7] A total of 38 symphonies had been submitted to the competition.[8]

Selected works include:[1]

Stage

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  • Carrigraphuga, The Castle of the Fairies, musical comedy in three acts (1914), words by S. Phillips

Keyboard

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  • Concert Finale, pianoforte duet (1878)

Choral

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  • "A Border Ballad", four-part song (1844), words by Francis William Bourdillon
  • Lord Ullin's Daughter, choral ballad (1869), after Lord Ullin's Daughter by Thomas Campbell
  • "Song of Waterspirits" four-part song (1874), words by E. Evans
  • The Righteous Life for Evermore, anthem for four voices (1876)
  • "The Ballad of Young John and his True Sweetheart", part song (1878)
  • "The Douglas Raid", four-part song (1883), words by J. Stewart
  • "The Huntsman", four-part song (1883), words by J. Stewart
  • "Equestrian Courtship", part song (1885), words by T. Hood
  • "Say Not, the Struggle Nought Availeth", part song (1885), words by A. H. Clough

Song

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  • "There Is for Every Day a Bliss" (1873), words by J. W. H.
  • "Ask Me No More", with violoncello obbligato (1874), after The Princess by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
  • "Cheerio!", marching song for whistlers and singing (1915), words by S. Phillips

References

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  1. ^ a b Cohen, Aaron I. International Encyclopedia of Women Composers.
  2. ^ Fuller, Sophie (2018). Golding, Rosemary (ed.). The Music Profession in Britain, 1780-1920. London and New York: Routledge. pp. 149–169.
  3. ^ a b Brown, James Duff; Stratton, Stephen Samuel (1897). British musical biography: a dictionary of musical artists, authors and composers, born in Britain and its colonies. Birmingham: Chadfield. p. 327. Retrieved 30 November 2010. Oliveria Louisa Prescott.
  4. ^ Elson, Arthur (1903). Woman's work in music: Being an account of her influence on the Art, in Ancient as well as Modern Times. Boston: The Page Company. p. 54.
  5. ^ "'Music Theory for the “Weaker Sex'. Oliveria Prescott’s Columns for The Girl’s Own Paper" by Rachel Lumsden. Music Theory Online: a journal of the Society for Music Theory" Volume 26, Number 3, September 2020. Online resource, accessed 27 March 2024.
  6. ^ 'Stanford, Sir Charles Villiers.' by Jeremy Dibble. Grove Music Online. 2001; Accessed 27 Mar. 2024.
  7. ^ 'Davenport, Francis William' by Stephen Banfield. Grove Music Online. 2001; Accessed 27 Mar. 2024.
  8. ^ 'Notes'. Musical Standard; London Vol. 10, Iss. 612, (Apr 22, 1876): 265. Online resource accessed 24 March 2024.

Sophie Fuller, "Women musicians and professionalism in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries." In The Music Profession in Britain, 1780–1920, ed. Rosemary Golding (London and New York: Routledge, 2018), 149–69.

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