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Scan 36
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 1916
54 lines. Read by computer on 7 September 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1to the Royal Academy of Music, Florence was his residence for at least part of the year; but as time went on, his importance in regard to music in London steadily increased, and at last he was obliged to live altogether in England. From the commencement of his residence in Florence dates the first of his more important choral works, the cantata, 'The Bride,' performed at the Worcester Festival of 1881. Each year after this saw some work of large calibre, and many festival and other commissions followed rapidly. In 1885-86 Mackenzie was appointed conductor of Novello's Oratorio Concerts, and introduced many important works to London audiences. It was primarily in order to hear his 'Saint Elizabeth' under Mackenzie's direction that Liszt paid his final visit to England in 1886, and Mackenzie renewed his old friendship with the composer. By this time, his second Scottish Rhapsody called 'Burns,' the opera, 'Colomba,' and 'The Rose of Sharon,' an oratorio composed for the Norwich Festival of 1884, had raised Mackenzie to a high position among English composers, and on the death of Sir George Macfarren he was appointed to succeed him as principal of the Royal Academy of Music. He undertook the duties of the post on Feb. 22, 1888. He conducted the Royal Choral Society occasionally during the lifetime of Sir Joseph Barnby, on whose death he directed the concerts for the remainder of the season. In 1892 he was appointed conductor of the Philharmonic Society, and during his tenure of the post, which he resigned in 1899, introduced Tchaikovsky's Pathetic Symphony to London, as well as Borodin's Symphony in B minor. In 1903 he undertook a tour in Canada, in the course of which he conducted concerts of British music in all the most important towns of the Dominion. He received the Mus.D. degree from St. Andrews, in 1886; Cambridge in 1888; Edinburgh in 1890; that of D.C.L. from Glasgow, 1901, and the M'Gill University in 1903; and that of LL.D. from Leeds in 1904. He received the gold medal for art and science from the Grand Duke of Hesse in 1884, and the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Order for Arts and Science in 1893. He is a corresponding member of the Istituto Reale Musicale of Florence, and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy. In 1895 he was knighted. He has lectured repeatedly at the Royal Institution and elsewhere.
3It is peculiarly difficult in a few words to attempt the appreciation of Mackenzie's music. Like that of many other admirable composers, it has earned the epithet 'academic' from certain critics who are fond of employing that word as a term of indefinite abuse. But the work of an 'academic' musician would surely always reach, yet seldom or never surpass, one dead level of merit; but with Mackenzie, as with all men of an ardent temperament, his best things surpass some of his others by a distance that is hard to estimate. He is at his best in dealing with subjects of a strongly imaginative or romantic kind, and naturally his Scottish extraction makes northern themes, whether musical or poetical, thoroughly congenial to him. In the two Scottish Rhapsodies, 'The Cottar's Saturday Night,' the 'Pibroch' violin suite, some of the 'Marmion' and 'Ravenswood' music, the violin pieces, 'From the North,' and the Scottish pianoforte concerto, op. 55, a very high poetical standard is reached; in the orchestral ballad of 'La Belle Dame sans Merci,' the 'Story of Sayid,' and throughout the opera of 'Colomba,' he shows himself a master of powerful and sustained imaginative effort; and in a lighter vein, the 'Britannia' overture, the comic opera, 'His Majesty,' and the orchestral suite, 'London Day by Day,' tell of a genuine gift of distinctly musical humour, which in the case of the second of these works, was just a little too subtle for the audience for which it was intended. Of his larger sacred compositions, the highest place may possibly be claimed for his fine 'Veni Creator.' A complete list of Mackenzie's works is appended:—
5UNPUBLISHED WORKS, WITHOUT OPUS NUMBERS
6(With places and dates of first performance.)
7Trio, pf. and strings, in D (Classical Chamber Concerts, Edinburgh, 1874).
8String Quartet in G (Do. 1875).
9Overture to a Comedy (played under Julius Tausch at Düsseldorf, 1876).
10Overture, 'Cervantes' (played under Max Erdmannsdörfer, Sondershausen, 1877, and under Bülow, Glasgow, 1879).
11Scherzo for orchestra (Glasgow, 1878).
13WITH OPUS NUMBERS
14Op.
151-7. Songs and pianoforte pieces.
168. Seven Part-Songs.
179. Rustic Scenes for pf.
1810. Larghetto and Allegretto for Violoncello.
1911. Quartet for pf. and strings in E flat (Classical Chamber Concerts, Edinburgh).
2012. Songs.
2113. Five pieces for pianoforte.
2214. Drei Lieder von H. Heine.
2315. Trois Morceaux pour piano.
2416. Three Songs.
2517. Three Songs, by Christina Rossetti.
2618. Three Songs.
2719. Three Anthems.
2820. Six Pieces for pf.
2921. Rhapsodie Ecossaise, for orchestra, No. 1 (Glasgow, under Manns, Jan. 1880).
3022. Three Vocal Trios.
3123. 'In the Scottish Highlands,' for pf.
3224. 'Burns,' second Scottish Rhapsody (Glasgow, under Manns, 1881).
3325. Cantata, 'The Bride' (Worcester Festival, 1881).
3426. Cantata, 'Jason' (Bristol Festival, 1882).
3527. Three Organ Pieces.
3628. Opera, 'Colomba' (Drury Lane, Carl Rosa Company, April 9, 1883).
3729. Orchestral Ballad, 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' (Philharmonic, 1883).
3830. Oratorio, 'The Rose of Sharon' (Norwich Festival, 1884).
3931. Five Songs.
4032. Concerto for violin (Birmingham Festival, 1885, played by Sarasate).
4133. Opera, 'The Troubadour' (Drury Lane, Carl Rosa Company, June 8, 1886).
4234. Cantata, 'The Story of Sayid' (Leeds Festival, 1886).
4335. Three Songs by Shakespeare.
4436. Jubilee Ode (Crystal Palace, 1887).
4537. Six Pieces for violin (including 'Benedictus'), (Monday Popular Concerts, played by Lady Hallé, 1888).
4638. Ode, 'The New Covenant' (Glasgow Exhibition, 1888).
4739. 'The Cottar's Saturday Night,' for chorus and orchestra.
4840. Overture, 'Twelfth Night' (Richter Concerts, 1888).
4941. Cantata, 'The Dream of Jubal' (Liverpool Philharmonic, 1889).
5042. Suite for violin, 'Pibroch' (Leeds Festival, played by Sarasate, 1889).
5143. Prelude, Entr'actes, and Songs for 'Marmion' (Glasgow, 1889; songs only published).
5244. Spring Songs.
5345. Music to 'Ravenswood' (Lyceum Theatre, 1890).
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