User:Christine Round

Enoch Round (1841 - 1886) Musician, composer, editor, publisher and co-owner of Wright and Round music publishers from 1875 until 1886.

Enoch Round

Enoch Round was born in 1841 in the Parish of Kingswinford, Staffordshire, England to Jeremiah Round and Hannah Round (nee Hickman). When he was born his brother Henry was 2 and his sister Sarah 1 and later there were two further siblings. Enoch’s father, Jeremiah came from Oldswinford and is listed as a Coalminer. However, the Rounds and Hickman and Wright are also listed as Coalmasters and although it is not clear if Jeremiah Round was a Coalmaster himself the family clearly had sufficient income to educate their children and provide Enoch and Henry with tuition to enable them to play musical instruments, read music and compose.

When Enoch was 14 (and Henry 16) his father Jeremiah died. In the 1861 Census Enoch is listed as being a labourer and living in Mill Street with his mother and siblings. However at some point Enoch, Henry and other friends, possibly including Thomas Wright, formed a band. Enoch played the Cello (see photo) and the band toured Spa towns in England providing dance music and music to entertain.

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Enoch Round and band that toured Spa towns in the UK in the mid 19th century. Enoch played the Cello.

Whilst carrying out their musical tours Enoch and Henry settled in Torquay, Devon at some point. In the 19th century Torquay was developing as a seaside resort and as a result started to attract visitors suffering ‘ill health’ and became a ‘winter resort because of its fresh air and mild climate’ as well as becoming ‘a favoured resort for the upper classes’. The harbour was also used ‘extensively for importing coal and wool from Australia’ . With increasing railway links to the Torquay area and the influx of wealthy and royal visitors (including the Russian Royal Family) it is not surprising that Enoch and Henry settled there. Also, as Newsome [: page 10] points out ‘concert halls appeared in major provincial cities’ during the 1850s, providing venues for concerts … additionally, many spa towns and seaside resorts built pavilions and employed orchestras and soloists during the tourist season. These appeared in such places as Bath, Bournemouth, Brighton, Eastbourne, Harrogate, Margate, Scarborough and Torquay’.

Enoch moved to Rock Road, Torquay and married Ann/Annie Doutch (from Merriott, Somerset) who was living at Swan Street, Torquay, in 1866. The 1871 Census shows Enoch Round living in the Parish of Tormonham in a household comprising his mother Hannah Round, his wife Ann, and three children Edith Ann (b. 1868), and George (b.1870. George died in infancy but subsequently Enoch Charles (b.1872), Elizabeth (b. 1877) and Louise (b. 1880) were born.

During the time that Enoch Round lived in Torquay he is listed as a musician and he, and his brother Henry, as Professors of Music. Both were working and earning a living professionally as musicians and music teachers in Torquay. They were also travelling with their band and were in contact with their mining family in Staffordshire and West Derbyshire.

It may have been the mining connection which fuelled Enoch and Henry’s interest in brass bands. The instruments used in brass bands were often used for church, village and military bands and from the 1840s onwards the brass band became a popular pastime, especially within mining communities where sometimes the mining companies helped organize and finance the bands . From around 1851 onwards many brass bands were emerging and many ‘working men were offered special train excursions to attend the Great Industrial Exhibition in 1851’ which introduced them to a range of instruments and the railway [: page 11]. These developments must have influence Enoch and Henry Round and both began to compose and arrange music. Enoch seems to have specialised in arranging music for brass bands whilst Henry was a prolific composer. In 1874 they both moved to Liverpool and in 1875 Enoch and Henry Round, together with Thomas Wright, jointly financed and set up the Wright and Round music publishing company based at 34 Erskine Street, Liverpool.

The establishment of Wright and Round enabled Enoch Round, Henry Round and Thomas Wright to publish, arrange and compose music for dances and brass bands. Enoch focused on the arranging, editing, and publishing side of the company and Henry the composing. However, Enoch did compose some pieces including Innocence, a polka, with a solo cornet part which was printed in Brass Band News, November 1881 and he also did arrangements for Brass Bands of British traditional music such as The Ash Grove.

The music that Wright and Round published not only included original compositions by Henry Round, Thomas Wright, Sam Potter, H.B. Burns, Fred de Vere, Percy Fitzgerald, William Rimmer and many others but also included arrangements of music by Beethoven, Donizetti, Handel, Mendelsohn, etc., for dances and brass bands. The music was printed by C.G. Röder, Leipzig, Germany, a major music engraving and printing firm of the 19th century, so there must have also been an international connection.

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Front page of Wright and Round Book Seventeenth, published in the 19th century.

Initially Wright and Round published music but in 1881 they ‘were the first publishers of a paper which dealt solely with the interests of brass bands’ . Called the Brass Band News it was edited by Enoch Round. Initially sales of this paper were around 5000 but rose to 25000 by 1889 [: page 9]. This paper appeared without a break until 1958. Wright and Round also published The Complete Method. The essential tutor for all Brass Instrumentalists and the Soloist’s Companion towards the end of the nineteenth century.

During this busy time Enoch and his family (wife Ann, children Edith Ann, Elizabeth, Enoch Charles and Louise and his sister-in-law Emma) were living at 15 Ogwen Street, Everton, Liverpool. In the 1881 census Enoch is recorded as being an orchestral musician and publisher and in terms of the work and developments of Wright and Round this must have been a busy time for Enoch. However sadly in August 1881 Enoch’s wife Ann died. In 1882 he remarried to Elizabeth Swift.

The busy demands of the Wright and Round business, travelling, performing and family life, must have taken its toll because in May 1886 Enoch Round died of heart failure (Morbus Cordis) at 46 Alton Road, Anfield, Liverpool. His brother, Henry, was in attendance. Enoch’s early death caused profound changes for his family and his contribution to the Wright and Round business. His second wife, Elizabeth, sold up Enoch Round’s share of the business and the family were split up. Edith Ann and Enoch stayed in the United Kingdom and by 1891 were living with their maternal grandmother in Torquay. Elizabeth (daughter) eventually settled in California and Elizabeth (second wife) and Louise went to Brisbane, Australia.

Enoch Round was a key player in the development of Brass Band music and the Wright and Round company. However, his early death and the splitting up of the family meant that his contribution to Wright and Round, and music publishing generally, got somewhat lost. He was, however, a major part in the setting up and growth of Wright and Round and in the arranging, editing and publishing of music for brass bands and other composers.

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