Francis Purcell Warren
Francis Purcell Warren (29 May 1895 – circa 3 July 1916) was a British violinist, violist and composer who was killed in World War One.[1]
Warren was born in Leamington Spa. His father, Walter James Warren, was a musician. He studied at the Royal College of Music from February 1910 and was awarded the Morley Scholarship in May of that year.[2] While at the college he became a close friend of Herbert Howells. Howells portrayed "Bunny" Warren in his light orchestral suite The B's (1914), alongside two other friends, Arthur Bliss and Arthur Benjamin.[3]
In the summer of 1914, before conscription was compulsory, Warren volunteered for war duty, joining the Royal Warwickshire Regiment as a private. After a short spell in France he returned to England and joined the 10th South Lancashire Regiment as a Second Lieutenant. On 3 July 1916 he was reported missing at Mons in Belgium during the Battle of the Somme. His body was not found. Warren is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.[4] His name is also one of the 38 on the War Memorial at the Royal College of Music.[1] Howells dedicated his 1917 Elegy for Viola to the memory of Warren.
His surviving works include the short motet Ave Verum, published by Richards & Co in 1912,[5] the Benediction Service (1912, held in the British Library), the Five Short Pieces for Cello and Piano (Curwen, 1914)[6] and the Variations on an Original Theme (originally the final movement of his String Quartet in A minor), composed circa 1914 and posthumously published by Cramer in 1927.[7][1] There was also a Canon, scored for string orchestra.[8] An Adagio for cello and piano was intended for a sonata that remained unfinished. Cobbett described it as "a powerful and deeply moving piece, in which an almost prophetic foreboding seems to colour the spacious phrases".[9] Thomas Dunhill described it as "indubitably his masterpiece".[2]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Phillip Brookes. Preface to Variations on an Original Theme for String Quartet, published by Musikproduktion Hoeflich (2018)
- ^ a b Thomas Dunhill. 'Francis Purcell Warren, 1895-1916', in Music & Letters, Vol. 7, No. 4 (October 1926), pp. 357-363
- ^ Paul Spicer. Herbert Howells (1998), p. 38
- ^ 'Lives of the First World War', Imperial War Museum
- ^ 2020 performance on YouTube, posted by Peter Mallinson
- ^ Two movements recorded by Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough on Children's Cello, BIS-CD1562 (2006)
- ^ 'Francis Purcell Warren', War Composers: The Music of World War 1
- ^ W.R. Anderson, ‘Forgotten Men of English Music’ in The Listener, Vol 25, No 631, 13 February 1941, p. 245
- ^ Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, Volume 2 (1929), p. 569
External links[edit]
- War Composers: Francis Purcell Warren
- Variations on an Original Theme for String Quartet, realization by Steve's Bedroom Band
- Free scores by Francis Purcell Warren at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)