Albert Ketèlbey

Albert William Ketèlbey was an English composer, conductor and pianist. He is best known for his short pieces of light orchestral music. One of his earliest works in the genre, In a Monastery Garden, sold over a million copies and brought him to widespread notice.

About Albert Ketèlbey in brief

Albert William Ketèlbey was an English composer, conductor and pianist. He is best known for his short pieces of light orchestral music. He was born in Birmingham and moved to London in 1889 to study at Trinity College of Music. After a brilliant studentship he became musical director of the Vaudeville Theatre before gaining fame as a composer of light music and as a conductor of his own works. One of his earliest works in the genre, In a Monastery Garden, sold over a million copies and brought him to widespread notice. His later musical depictions of exotic scenes caught the public imagination and established his fortune. In a 2003 poll by the BBC radio programme Your Hundred Best Tunes, Bells Across the Meadows was voted the 36th most popular tune of all time. In 1949 he moved to the Isle of Wight, where he spent his retirement, and he died at home in obscurity. His music was included in the 2009 Proms season finale, the first time his music had been included on the festival’s finale. The grave accent was Albert’s invention: the family name was spelled without it at the time of his birth and there had been several variants of the name in the previous generations. In 1892 he won the annual scholarship competition and was appointed as the organist at St John’s Church, Wimbledon, London. He held the post for the next five years, during which time he wrote several anthems and hymns, including the posthumous Be Strong! All Ye People! He added the accent to his surname, with the aim of moving onto the second syllable, rather than the first.

In 1895 he played in a series of concerts in London and provincial cities, and was awarded several prizes before being awarded his first certificate at the college. He died in 1949, and his music has been reappraised since his death. His works were frequently recorded during his heyday, and a substantial part of his output has been put on CD in more recent years. He also wrote music for silent films until the advent of talking films in the late 1920s, and celebrated British life in Cockney Suite and ceremonial music for royal events. In his last work, In A Persian Market, In a Chinese Temple Garden, and In the Mystic Land of Egypt became best-sellers in print and on records; by theLate 1920s he was Britain’s first millionaire composer. His popularity began to wane during the Second World War and his originality also declined; many of his post-war works were re-workings of older pieces and he increasingly found his music ignored by theBBC. In the last night of the 2009 proms season marked the fiftieth anniversary of his death—the first time he had been featured in the finale of the Proms. In March 1892 in London he played Frédéric Chopin’s No 2 in B-flat minor, No 2 Scherin’s Scherin.

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