George Henry Robinson - Revision history

Brett at 15:59, 20 August 2023

2023-08-20T15:59:20Z

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	English organist and music teacher (b. 22 July 1840 in Leamington; d. 10 September 1909 in Leamington), also known as '''''George H. Robinson ''''' <ref name="note1"/>.		English organist and music teacher (b. 22 July 1840 {{NS}} in Leamington; d. 10 September 1909 {{NS}} in Leamington), also known as '''''George H. Robinson ''''' <ref name="note1"/>.

	George Henry's father was a bookbinder and stationer in the spa town of Leamington, in Warwickshire. He was encouraged by his parents to pursue a musical career from an early age and he had piano lessons with [[Karl Klindworth]] in [[London]] which helped him to develop into “a brilliant piano player” who “could play any or all of [[Bach]]'s fugues by heart” according to a later account <ref name="note2"/>. Aged just eighteen, he was appointed organist at St Mary Abchurch in [[London]] in 1858. He took up a similar post at the famous St Bartholomew's Hospital (Bart's) in 1864. In the second half of the 1860s he also began giving piano lessons to pupils from Charterhouse School, which was then still based in [[London]]. When the school moved to Godalming in Surrey in 1872, Robinson was offered a fixed post as organist and choirmaster there. Alongside his teaching duties at Charterhouse Robinson, in 1879, he enrolled in Trinity College, [[Cambridge]] as a student for the Bachelor of Music degree, which he was eventually awarded in 1886.		George Henry's father was a bookbinder and stationer in the spa town of Leamington, in Warwickshire. He was encouraged by his parents to pursue a musical career from an early age and he had piano lessons with [[Karl Klindworth]] in [[London]] which helped him to develop into “a brilliant piano player” who “could play any or all of [[Bach]]'s fugues by heart” according to a later account <ref name="note2"/>. Aged just eighteen, he was appointed organist at St Mary Abchurch in [[London]] in 1858. He took up a similar post at the famous St Bartholomew's Hospital (Bart's) in 1864. In the second half of the 1860s he also began giving piano lessons to pupils from Charterhouse School, which was then still based in [[London]]. When the school moved to Godalming in Surrey in 1872, Robinson was offered a fixed post as organist and choirmaster there. Alongside his teaching duties at Charterhouse Robinson, in 1879, he enrolled in Trinity College, [[Cambridge]] as a student for the Bachelor of Music degree, which he was eventually awarded in 1886.
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	* '''[[Letter 4947a]]''' – 2/14 June 1893, from [[London]].		* '''[[Letter 4947a]]''' – 2/14 June 1893, from [[London]].

	Two letters from George Henry Robinson to Tchaikovsky, dating from 1893, are preserved in the archive of the Tchaikovsky House-Museum at [[Klin]].		Two letters from George Henry Robinson to Tchaikovsky, dating from 1893, are preserved in the archive of the Tchaikovsky House-Museum at [[Klin]] (a{{sup\|4}}, Nos. 3824–3825).

	==Bibliography==		==Bibliography==
	* {{bib\|2013/33}} (2013)		* {{bib\|2013/33}} (2013)

			==External Links==
			* {{viaf\|3319152025926203600001}}

	==Notes and References==		==Notes and References==
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	[[Category:People\|Robinson, George Henry]]		[[Category:People\|Robinson, George Henry]]
	[[Category:Correspondents\|Robinson, George Henry]]		[[Category:Correspondents\|Robinson, George Henry]]
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Tony: Text replacement - "have survived" to "are preserved" (for consistency)

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Text replacement - "have survived" to "are preserved" (for consistency)

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	* '''[[Letter 4947a]]''' – 2/14 June 1893, from [[London]].		* '''[[Letter 4947a]]''' – 2/14 June 1893, from [[London]].

	Two letters from George Henry Robinson to Tchaikovsky, dating from 1893, ~~have survived~~ in the archive of the Tchaikovsky House-Museum at [[Klin]].		Two letters from George Henry Robinson to Tchaikovsky, dating from 1893, are preserved in the archive of the Tchaikovsky House-Museum at [[Klin]].

	==Bibliography==		==Bibliography==

Tony: Added "he" for clarity of meaning

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Added "he" for clarity of meaning

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	English organist and music teacher (b. 22 July 1840 in Leamington; d. 10 September 1909 in Leamington), also known as '''''George H. Robinson ''''' <ref name="note1"/>.		English organist and music teacher (b. 22 July 1840 in Leamington; d. 10 September 1909 in Leamington), also known as '''''George H. Robinson ''''' <ref name="note1"/>.

	George Henry's father was a bookbinder and stationer in the spa town of Leamington, in Warwickshire. He was encouraged by his parents to pursue a musical career from an early age and he had piano lessons with [[Karl Klindworth]] in [[London]] which helped him to develop into “a brilliant piano player” who “could play any or all of [[Bach]]'s fugues by heart” according to a later account <ref name="note2"/>. Aged just eighteen, he was appointed organist at St Mary Abchurch in [[London]] in 1858. He took up a similar post at the famous St Bartholomew's Hospital (Bart's) in 1864. In the second half of the 1860s he also began giving piano lessons to pupils from Charterhouse School, which was then still based in [[London]]. When the school moved to Godalming, in Surrey, in 1872 Robinson was offered a fixed post as organist and choirmaster there. Alongside his teaching duties at Charterhouse Robinson, in 1879, enrolled in Trinity College, [[Cambridge]], as a student for the Bachelor of Music degree, which he was eventually awarded in 1886.		George Henry's father was a bookbinder and stationer in the spa town of Leamington, in Warwickshire. He was encouraged by his parents to pursue a musical career from an early age and he had piano lessons with [[Karl Klindworth]] in [[London]] which helped him to develop into “a brilliant piano player” who “could play any or all of [[Bach]]'s fugues by heart” according to a later account <ref name="note2"/>. Aged just eighteen, he was appointed organist at St Mary Abchurch in [[London]] in 1858. He took up a similar post at the famous St Bartholomew's Hospital (Bart's) in 1864. In the second half of the 1860s he also began giving piano lessons to pupils from Charterhouse School, which was then still based in [[London]]. When the school moved to Godalming in Surrey in 1872, Robinson was offered a fixed post as organist and choirmaster there. Alongside his teaching duties at Charterhouse Robinson, in 1879, he enrolled in Trinity College, [[Cambridge]] as a student for the Bachelor of Music degree, which he was eventually awarded in 1886.

	Robinson was elected a director of the [[London]] Philharmonic Society in the early 1890s. When towards the end of 1892 he found out that the University of [[ Cambridge]] intended to confer honorary degrees on [[Saint-Saëns]], Boito, Tchaikovsky, [[Grieg]] and Max Bruch he wrote a letter in January 1893 to the Society's Honorary Secretary, [[Francesco Berger]], suggesting that these composers be engaged for concerts at the Philharmonic at the same time, and mentioning, in particular, how "Tschaikowski has written two fine overtures, one to ''[[Romeo & Juliet]]'', the other a superb work to ''[[Francesca da Rimini]]''" <ref name="note3"/>.		Robinson was elected a director of the [[London]] Philharmonic Society in the early 1890s. When towards the end of 1892 he found out that the University of [[ Cambridge]] intended to confer honorary degrees on [[Saint-Saëns]], Boito, Tchaikovsky, [[Grieg]] and Max Bruch he wrote a letter in January 1893 to the Society's Honorary Secretary, [[Francesco Berger]], suggesting that these composers be engaged for concerts at the Philharmonic at the same time, and mentioning, in particular, how "Tschaikowski has written two fine overtures, one to ''[[Romeo & Juliet]]'', the other a superb work to ''[[Francesca da Rimini]]''" <ref name="note3"/>.

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Text replacement - "is available in an English translation on this website" to "has been translated into English on this website"

New page

English organist and music teacher (b. 22 July 1840 in Leamington; d. 10 September 1909 in Leamington), also known as '''''George H. Robinson ''''' <ref name="note1"/>.

George Henry's father was a bookbinder and stationer in the spa town of Leamington, in Warwickshire. He was encouraged by his parents to pursue a musical career from an early age and he had piano lessons with [[Karl Klindworth]] in [[London]] which helped him to develop into “a brilliant piano player” who “could play any or all of [[Bach]]'s fugues by heart” according to a later account <ref name="note2"/>. Aged just eighteen, he was appointed organist at St Mary Abchurch in [[London]] in 1858. He took up a similar post at the famous St Bartholomew's Hospital (Bart's) in 1864. In the second half of the 1860s he also began giving piano lessons to pupils from Charterhouse School, which was then still based in [[London]]. When the school moved to Godalming, in Surrey, in 1872 Robinson was offered a fixed post as organist and choirmaster there. Alongside his teaching duties at Charterhouse Robinson, in 1879, enrolled in Trinity College, [[Cambridge]], as a student for the Bachelor of Music degree, which he was eventually awarded in 1886.

Robinson was elected a director of the [[London]] Philharmonic Society in the early 1890s. When towards the end of 1892 he found out that the University of [[ Cambridge]] intended to confer honorary degrees on [[Saint-Saëns]], Boito, Tchaikovsky, [[Grieg]] and Max Bruch he wrote a letter in January 1893 to the Society's Honorary Secretary, [[Francesco Berger]], suggesting that these composers be engaged for concerts at the Philharmonic at the same time, and mentioning, in particular, how "Tschaikowski has written two fine overtures, one to ''[[Romeo & Juliet]]'', the other a superb work to ''[[Francesca da Rimini]]''" <ref name="note3"/>.

Robinson, who had first met Tchaikovsky during the composer's second concert in [[London]] at which he had been particularly impressed by [[Vasily Sapelnikov]]'s playing of "your ravishing [[Piano Concerto No. 1|concerto]]", wrote to Tchaikovsky during the composer's third ‘tour' of [[London]] to invite him to a dinner at the St Stephen's Club on 2 June 1893, the day after Tchaikovsky conducted the British premiere of the [[Fourth Symphony]] at the Philharmonic Society <ref name="note4"/>. Due to his obligations at Charterhouse, Robinson was unable to attend the ceremony in [[Cambridge]] at which Tchaikovsky, on 13 June 1893, was awarded an honorary doctorate in music. However, he had written to the composer a few days earlier to give him some advice on accommodation in [[Cambridge]] and inviting him to stay at his house in the countryside <ref name="note5"/>. Tchaikovsky was unable to accept this invitation. However, it seems that during the summer of 1893, when [[Berger]] and he exchanged letters discussing the possibility of his conducting the [[Sixth Symphony]] in [[London]] in May 1894, Robinson repeated his invitation through [[Berger]]. In his reminiscences of Tchaikovsky, [[Berger]] wrote: "It had been arranged that at his next visit to England, in the following year [i.e. 1894], he should accept the invitation of a friend of mine to stay with him at his charming house; but on the very morning when I received a letter from this friend enquiring on what day he might expect his guest, I took up the ''Daily Telegraph'' to read he had passed away" <ref name="note6"/>.

The boarding house ''Robinites'' at Charterhouse, which was established when the school moved to Godalming, and which exists to this day, is named after Robinson, its first House Master. Robinson served as the school's organist and choirmaster and also as House Master of ''Robinites'' until his retirement in 1901. Among the pupils who were at ''Robinites'' during his tenure was the future composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), who would later recall: "Robinson was a sensitive musician and a kind-hearted man and gave me, and others, leave to practise on the chapel organ" <ref name="note7"/>.

==Correspondence with Tchaikovsky==
One letter from Tchaikovsky to George Henry Robinson has survived, dating from 1893, which has been translated into English on this website:
* '''[[Letter 4947a]]''' – 2/14 June 1893, from [[London]].

Two letters from George Henry Robinson to Tchaikovsky, dating from 1893, have survived in the archive of the Tchaikovsky House-Museum at [[Klin]].

==Bibliography==
* {{bib|2013/33}} (2013)

==Notes and References==
<references>
<ref name="note1">A copy of Robinson's birth certificate was kindly provided by Catherine Smith, the Archivist of Charterhouse School.</ref>
<ref name="note2">See: J. L. Smith-Dampier, ''Carthusian Worthies'' (Oxford, 1940), p. 284. A scan from this book was kindly provided by Catherine Smith.</ref>
<ref name="note3">Letter from George Henry Robinson to [[Francesco Berger]], 2 January 1893 — [[London]] (England): The British Library. Manuscripts Division (RPS MS. 361, f. 18). The full text of the letter can be found in {{bib|2013/34|Tschaikowsky-Gesellschaft Mitteilungen}} (2013), p. 97.</ref>
<ref name="note4">Letter from George Henry Robinson to Tchaikovsky, 30 May 1893 — [[Klin]] (Russia): Tchaikovsky House-Museum (a4, No. 5638). Published for the first time thanks to the kind assistance of Polina Vaidman in {{bib|2013/33|Tschaikowsky-Gesellschaft Mitteilungen}} (2013), p. 148.</ref>
<ref name="note5">Letter from George Henry Robinson to Tchaikovsky, 10 June 1893 — [[Klin]] (Russia): Tchaikovsky House-Museum (a{{sup|4}}, No. 5665). Published for the first time thanks to the kind assistance of Polina Vaidman in {{bib|2013/33|Tschaikowsky-Gesellschaft Mitteilungen}} (2013), p. 149.</ref>
<ref name="note6">{{bib|1913/2|Reminiscences, Impressions and Anecdotes}} (1913), p. 88.</ref>
<ref name="note7">Quoted from {{bib|2008/17|Vaughan Williams on Music}} (2008), p. 95.</ref>
</references>
[[Category:People|Robinson, George Henry]]
[[Category:Correspondents|Robinson, George Henry]]