Corder, Frederick
Corder, Frederick
Corder, Frederick , English composer and teacher, father of Paul Corder; b. London, Jan. 26, 1852; d. there, Aug. 21, 1932. He was a pupil at the Royal Academy of Music in London (1873–75), and in 1875 won the Mendelssohn Scholarship. He studied with Ferdinand Hiller at Cologne (1875–78). He was conductor of the Brighton Aquarium Concerts from 1880 to 1882, and greatly improved their quality. From 1886 he was a prof. of composition at the Royal Academy of Music and, from 1889, also curator. In 1905 he founded the Soc. of British Composers. He was remarkably successful as a teacher, many prominent British composers having been his pupils. A zealous apostle of Wagner, Corder and his wife made the first Eng. tr. of The Ring of the Nibelung, Die Meistersinger, and Parsifal
Works
DRAMATIC Opera : Morte d’Arthur (1877); Nordisa (Liverpool, Jan. 26, 1887); Ossian (1905). O p e r e t t a s : Philomel (1880); A Storm in a Teacup (1880); The Nabob’s Pickle (1883); The Noble Savage (1885). I n c i d e n t a l M u s i c to P l a y s : The Tempest (1886); The Termagant (1898); The Black Tulip (1899). ORCH.: Evening on the Sea Shore, idyll (1876); Im Schwarzwald, suite (1876); Ossian, overture (1882); Nocturne (1882); Prospero, overture (1885); Roumanian Suite (1887); Pippa Passes, orch. poem (1897); A Fairy Tale (1913). CHAMBER : Roumanian Dances for Violin and Piano (1883); Elegy for 24 Violins (1908). VOCAL: C a n t a t a s : The Cyclops (1881); The Bridal of Triermain (1886); The Blind Girl of Castel-Cuille (1888); The Sword of Argantyr (1889). O t h e r : Dreamland, ode for Chorus and Orch. (1883); The Minstrel’s Curse, ballad for declamation, with Orch. (1888); True Thomas, musical recitation (1895); The Witch’s Song (1904); Empire Pageant Masque (1910); The Angels, biblical scene for 6 Choirs (1911); Sing unto God, 50-part motet (1912).
Writings
Exercises in Harmony and Musical Composition (1891); The Orchestra and How to Write for It (1895); Modern Composition (1909); Musical Encyclopaedia (1915); History of the Royal Academy of Music (1922).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire