Arthur Hervey


Arthur Hervey was an Irish composer, music critic, and an expert in French music.

Life

Hervey was born in Paris of Irish parentage – his father was Charles J.V. Hervey who owned Killiane Castle in County Wexford, Ireland. He was educated at the Oratory, Birmingham, and studied in London with Berthold Tours and Edouard Marlois, two organist-composers with a French background. Hervey worked as music critic for Vanity Fair and The Morning Post. He died in London.

Music

Hervey composed in many forms including opera and orchestral music. Some of his larger works were written for and performed at major British music festivals at Cardiff, Norwich and Brighton. A French influence is detectable in his early chamber music. His wife Clare occasionally contributed the words to some of his songs and the libretto to his second opera Ilona. In an obituary for the Musical Times, his musical language was described as being "always marked by melodiousness, straightforwardness of utterance, and polish of manner".
Since 1959, the Royal Academy of Music in London is awarding an annual Arthur Hervey Prize in the form of a scholarship for an outstanding young composer, which was initiated in memory of Hervey by bequest of his step-daughter, Nancy Webster. A relief portrait of Hervey in carved marble is preserved in the museum of the RAM.

Writings

Despite of his substantial musical oeuvre Hervey remained mainly known for his writings, which include biographical studies of composers, most of which being devoted to French contemporaries like Saint-Saëns and Bruneau. He was widely regarded as an expert on French music. His viewpoint was very open-minded for its time, with an exception in the impressionists, and particularly Debussy, whom he regarded as "decadent".

Selected compositions

Opera
Vocal music
Orchestral music
Piano music
Chamber music