British Composers,Havergal Brian,Life Events"

Number times moved house
General Map of where Havergal Brian lived

Havergal Brian - Life Events

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Dates	Age	Events
29th January 1876		Born at 35 Ricardo Street, Dresden
1879	3	Village School.
1886	10	St James Parish School , Longton.
1888	12	Left school. Starts work at a colliery weighing coal trucks.
1889	13	Left colliery. Became apprentice joiner later as railway office boy.
		Deputy Organist at St James.
1892	16	Organist Holy Trinity Church, Meir. Joined Men's choir. Played in various local orchestras as violinist.
1895	19	HB's paternal grandfather Benjamin the tailor dies aged 86
1896 - 1902	20 - 26	Organist Odd Rode Parish Church.
1899	23	Composed Pantalon and Columbine a short orchestral piece. Used movements 2 & 3 in First English Suite.
3rd April 1899	23	Married Isabel (Belle) Alice Priestley.
August 1899	23	HB's grandmother Mary Watson dies.
22nd October 1899	23	First child born - Sterndale Harold Benedict Brian. Named after Sterndale Bennett
1900	24	Joined James Alcock's orchestra played cello.
15th March 1900	24	Death of HB's father - Benjamin Brian acute pleurisy aged 48.
May 1901	25	Death of grandmother - Hannah Brian. Aged 90.
17th June 1901	25	Birth of second child - Hector William Brian. Named after Hector Berlioz.
18th April 1902	26	Death of second child - Hector William Brian - tubercular peritonitus.
20th September 1902	26	Birth of third child - Margery Isabelle Brian.
1903	27	Left job at timber yard. Became traveller for another timber merchant until 1910.
19th December 1903	27	Birth of another son - George Halford Brian. Named after the Birmingham conductor who formed the Halford orchestra.
1 January 1905 - February 1908	29	Became critic of Musical World until paper folded in February 1908.
1905	29	Elgar invited HB to show him an orchestral work - Psalm 23.
1st September 1905	29	Elgar invited HB to Three Choirs Festival. Made Freeman of the city of Worcester.
October 1906	30	Met Granville Bantock shortly after hearing premiere of Omar Khayyam Part 1 at Birmingham Triennial Festival.
24th March 1907	32	Birth of another son - Dennis Brian. Isabel's last child.
1909 - 1913	34 - 37	Sponsored by Herbert Minton Robinson £500 a year. Secretary of the bone china firm Minton
25th August 1914	38	Private Number 1546 No 1 Company of Honorable Artillery Company. Finsbury, East London.
4th May 1915	39	Discharged from Army because of flat feet.
25th May 1915-13th December 1915	39	Clerk at Audit Offices of Canadian Forces Contigent at Westminister House, Millbank, London.
October 1916?	40	Began work on The Tigers.
1919 - 1927	43 - 51	The Gothic Symphony written.
September –October 1920	44	HB worked as a clerk at the Inland Revenue
October 1920	44	HB became music copyist for Godwin and Tabb
2^nd December 1923	47	Death of HB’s Sponsor Herbert Minton Robinson.
1925	49	Taught at Royal College of Music.
1927 -1939	51 - 63	Assistant to Editor Musical Opinion.
3rd December 1928	52	Birth of daughter - Elfreda Brian. Hilda's child.
June 1930	54	Symphony No 2 started
6th April 1931	55	Symphony No 2 finished
12th April 1931	55	Symphony No 3 started
5th June 1932	55	Symphony No 3 finished
1932 - 10th December 1933	55	Symphony No 4
15th April 1933	57	Death of Isabel - heart condition
9th June 1933	57	Married Hilda Mary Hayward at Camberwell Register Office
23rd February 1934	58	Death of Edward Elgar at his home in Worcester.
June 1934	58	Disappearance of short score of first Violin Concerto on Brighton train at Victoria Station
September 1934	58	Minor eye operation at Royal Eye Hospital, St George's Circus SE London.
8th June 1935	59	Violin Concerto in C major based on missing first violin concerto.
12th June 1937	61	Symphony No 5
10th November 1937	61	Began vocal score of Act I of Promethus Unbound
22nd March 1939	63	Completed vocal score of Act I of Promethus Unbound
31st March 1939	63	Began vocal score of Act II of Promethus Unbound
1939-1948	63-72	Clerk at Chislehurst,Kent.
24th June 1942	66	Completed vocal score of Act II of Promethus Unbound
19th August 1944	68	Death of Sir Henry Wood. Aged 75.
September 1944	66	Completed full score of Promethus Unbound
16th October 1946	70	Death of Granville Bantock in Lambeth Hospital. Aged 78
December 1947 - 21 Febuary 1948	71	Symphony No 6 - Sinfonia Tragica
1948	72	Symphony No 7
1948	72	The Tinker's Wedding
17 May 1949	73	Symphony No 8 in Bb minor
1950-1951	74	Turandot, Prinzessin von China
June 1950	74	The Tinker's Wedding - broadcast - first premiere for 16 years.
July - November 1951	75	Symphony No 9
1st September 1952	76	The Cenci - Overture
29th September 1952	76	The Cenci - Scene I.
11th October 1952	76	The Cenci - Scene II.
4th December 1952	76	The Cenci - Scene IV.
12th - 27th June 1953	77	English Suite No 5
1953 - 16th January 1954	77	Symphony No 10.
29th April January 1954	78	Symphony No 11.
April 1955 - 19 August 1955	79	Faust Vocal score
1955 - 11th May 1956	79	Faust Full score finished
4th February 1957	81	Symphony No 12
April 1957	81	Agamemnon music drama. Full score finished
November - December 1959	83	Symphony No 13
10th February 1960	84	Symphony No 14
1960	84	Symphony No 15
1960	84	Symphony No 16
28th November 1960	84	Sketches for Symphony No 17
8th January 1961	85	Full score Symphony No 17
Feb - May 1961	85	Full score Symphony No 18
5th November 1961	85	Full score Symphony No 19
13th April 1962	86	Jolly Miller comedy overture no 3
31st May 1962	86	Symphony No 20
1963	87	Symphony No 21
13th April 1964	88	Cello Concerto
June 1964	88	Concerto for Orchestra
22nd December 1964	88	Symphony No 22 First Movement
8th January 1965	89	Symphony No 22 Second Movement
1965	89	Symphony No 23
1965	89	Symphony No 24
10th January 1966	90	Symphony No 25
1966	90	Symphony No 26
4th August 1966	90	HB attends concert of Symphony No 12 performed at Proms, Albert Hall conducted by Norman del Mar. (First work at Proms for 53 years).
10th December 1966	90	Symphony No 27
April 1967	91	Symphony No 28 in C minor
31 July 1967	91	Symphony No 29 in Eb major
13th November 1967	91	Symphony No 30 in Bb minor
1968	92	Symphony No 31
31 May 1968	92	Legend for Orchestra 'Avt Atque Vale'
June - October 1968	92	Symphony No 32 in Ab major
28th November 1972	96	Death of Havergal Brian at Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex (England)

Brief biography

Havergal Brian was born on 29 January 1876 into a working-class Potteries family in Dresden, Staffordshire. He gained his first musical experience in church choirs and after leaving school at the age of 12 he was in some demand as a church organist; he also played in local bands. He gained a thorough theoretical grounding from a local teacher, but was virtually self-taught in composition. Nevertheless, he seems to have dedicated himself very early to a composer's life and during the first decade of the 20th century began to make a name for himself.

His music was warmly admired by Elgar, works of his were played by such conductors as Henry Wood and Thomas Beecham, and for a number of years he and his family received the financial support of a wealthy Staffordshire businessman so that Brian would be free to compose. This life of material wealth and growing fame came abruptly to an end, however, just before the outbreak of World War One, when a complex of personal crises forced Brian to leave his home and family for London, where he failed to consolidate the reputation he had gained; for many years he - supported a growing second family with a series of menial jobs, often in some poverty. By the late 1920s Brian gained an assistant editorship on the magazine Musical Opimon and the worst days of hardship were over. During all these years he had continued to compose in his spare time, but the musical world had long since passed him by. Through his work for Musical Opinon he was better informed than many British composers about the latest Continental developments, but the musical estabishment both in England and abroad, apart from his close friend, Sir Granville Bantock, knew nothing of what he was doing. This, although Richard Strauss (to whom Brian's Gothic Symphony is dedicated) took him seriously, and although Sir Donald Tovey was moved to write of Brian in 1934 that 'even for the recognition of his smaller works he is being made to wait . . . far longer than is good for any country whose musical reputation is worth praying for'. With the death of Bantock in 1946, Brian lost his last advocate for performances of his music until the early 1950s, when his work came to the attention of a young BBC music producer named Robert Simpson. Starting with Brian's 8th Symphony in 1954, Simpson gradually brought about over the next 25 years increasing performances, mostly in radio broadcasts, which began to initiate a recognition of Brian's achievement. The composer moved from London to Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, in 1958, where he embarked upon a final, immensely rich, 10-year Indian Summuner of composition, which included no fewer than 20 symphonies. Even after he ceased the creation of original works in 1968 he retained full mental vigour until he died as the result of a fall on 28 November 1972, two months short of his 97th birthday.