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Ethel Hobday

Ethel Palmer Hobday, née Sharpe (28 November 1872 – 10 July 1947) was an Irish pianist, who became famous in chamber-music recitals especially in England, and was married to the violist Alfred Charles Hobday.[1] She made several recordings in the 1920s.

Early life and education

Ethel Palmer Sharpe was born in Dublin.[2] She was a pupil at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. She then went on to study at the Royal College of Music in London, under Franklin Taylor. Her further studies in Vienna brought her into the social and professional company of Johannes Brahms in his last years.[2][3]

Career

Sharpe gave her first recital in the Prince's Hall, London in November 1891. She received the silver medal of the Musicians' Company. In 1894 she gave a recital in Vienna, but reappeared in London in 1895.[4] After marriage, she became known as Ethel Hobday. The Hobdays were both heard with the Bath Quartette Society in 1910, and in "war emergency entertainments" in 1915.[5][6] She took part in early recordings of full-length chamber-works (Brahms and Elgar Quintets) with the London Quartet and the Spencer Dyke Quartet. She accompanied violinist Albert Sammons,[7] Adila Fachiri, Jelly d'Arányi,[3][8] Phyllis Allan, Jean Robley,[9] and Bessie Rawlins,[10] cellist Felix Salmond,[11] and violist Lionel Tertis, in concerts and early recordings.[1][12] Myra Hess was one of her close friends.[2]

Hobday performed on radio programmes in the 1920s.[13] She toured in the United States in 1927.[3] In 1940, she played at a British Red Cross benefit concert in Tankerton.[14] "Ethel Hobday as a player of chamber music is unsurpassed," declared a 1920 review. "She gives us the very bones of the thing. She has made the music her very own, as if she had composed it; she cares for it as if it were a human being."[11]

Personal life

Sharpe married English musician Alfred Hobday in 1895. Their children were Olive, Stella, and Ralph.[2] Albert's brother was bassist Claude Hobday.[1] Ralph Hobday became a noted architect; Olive Hobday married Albert Sammons.[2][15] Her husband died in 1942.[16] Ethel Hobday died 10 July 1947, in Tankerton.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b c Potter, Tully. "Alfred Hobday: a Valuable Violist" British Viola Society. Retrieved 22 April 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d e "The Late Mrs. Ethel Hobday". Whitstable Times. 19 July 1947. p. 5. Retrieved 22 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b c Gordon, Christopher (April 2018). "Salut d'Arányi--but con Sospiri? An Elgar letter fleshed out" (PDF). The Elgar Society Journal. 21 (1): 3–31.
  4. ^ Arthur Eaglefield Hull. A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London 1924), p. 455
  5. ^ "Bath Quartette Society; Third Concert of the Season; Mrs. Alfred Hobday as Pianist". The Bath Chronicle. 27 January 1910. p. 5. Retrieved 22 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Music; Concerts of the Week". The Observer. 30 May 1915. p. 14. Retrieved 22 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ Doctor, Jennifer Ruth (1999). The BBC and Ultra-Modern Music, 1922-1936: Shaping a Nation's Tastes. Cambridge University Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-521-66117-1.
  8. ^ Macleod, Joseph (29 November 2021). The Sisters d' Aranyi. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-48130-3.
  9. ^ "Edinburgh Recitals". The Scottish Musical Magazine. 4 (4): 78. 1 December 1922.
  10. ^ Pound, Ezra (2008). Ezra Pound and Music: The Complete Criticism. New Directions Publishing. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-8112-1784-2.
  11. ^ a b "Music: Ethel Hobday and Felix Salmond". The Times. 19 January 1920. p. 10. Retrieved 22 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Pfister, G. A. (1 December 1923). "Talking Machine Review". Musical News and Herald. 65 (1653): 488.
  13. ^ "Tuesday's Programmes". South Wales Argus. 5 November 1923. p. 7. Retrieved 22 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Concert for Red Cross Society; Held at Residence of Mr. and Mrs. F. Cremer". Whitstable Times. 20 January 1940. p. 5. Retrieved 22 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Mr. Albert Sammons. Well Known Viollinist Married at Register Office Today". Evening Standard. 5 December 1921. p. 8. Retrieved 22 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Deaths", The Times, 26 February 1942, p. 1
  17. ^ "Mrs. Alfred Hobday", The Times, 16 July 1947, p. 6