Person:Alexander Mackenzie (15)

Biographical Summary

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie KCVO (22 August 1847 – 28 April 1935) was a Scottish composer, conductor and teacher best known for his oratorios, violin and piano pieces, Scottish folk music and works for the stage.

Mackenzie was a member of a musical family and was sent for his musical education to Germany. He had many successes as a composer, producing over 90 compositions, but from 1888 to 1924, he devoted a great part of his energies to running the Royal Academy of Music. Together with Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford, he was regarded as one of the fathers of the British musical renaissance in the late nineteenth century.

Video/Musical History

Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie, MusD. FRAM (full photo)

Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie

Burkes Peerage Entry

Mackenzie: Cricket on the Hearth

Mackenzie: Scottish Concerto (Opus 55)

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Rebecca West, in The Paris Review: Interview of Rebecca West, The Art of Fiction No. 65 by Marina Warner
   1981.

   Quote by Rebecca West: "We had an uncle, who was very preoccupied. He was principal of the Royal Academy of Music, Sir Alexander MacKenzie, and he didn’t really think anything of any woman but his wife. He was very thoughtless about his own daughter, who was an actress who acted very well in the early Chekhov plays. He treated her very inconsiderately and made her come back and nurse her mother and leave her husband in Paris, and the husband, after six years, lost heart and went off with someone else. We were very feminist altogether, and it was a very inspiring thing."

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Alexander Mackenzie, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
   Retrieved 25 Feb 2015.

   He had many successes as a composer, producing over 90 compositions, but from 1888 to 1924, he devoted a great part of his energies to running the Royal Academy of Music. In October 1887, the principal of the Royal Academy of Music, Sir George Macfarren, died, and in early 1888 Mackenzie was appointed to succeed him. He held the post for 36 years until his retirement in 1924. At the time, the Academy was overshadowed by its younger rival, the Royal College of Music, and Mackenzie set about reviving its reputation.

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4} Mackenzie, Sir Alexander Campbell, in Royal Academy of Music, Museum & Collections.

   First name: Alexander
   Middle name: Campbell
   Last name: Mackenzie
   Date of Birth: 22/08/1847
   Place of Birth: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
   Date of Death: 28/04/1935
   Place of Death: London, United Kingdom
   Biography: Won a King's Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, where some of his early works were performed. Elected Principal of the Royal Academy of Music in 1888, a post he held for 36 years (until 1924) during which time many substantial reforms were made to the college; he was also responsible for the move to Marylebone Road. With Sir George Grove he founded the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. He was knighted in 1895, created KCVO in 1922 and was President of the Royal College of Organists (1893-7 and 1914-16). The printed Certificate of Merit awarded to students says 'Principal, 1887-1924'.
   Holdings: Items held in the Royal Academy of Music Library include a catalogue of his works compiled by Walter Stock (former librarian).

4. ↑ Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie, in AllMusic: Alexander Mackenzie Biography by Bruce Eder.

   One can be forgiven for not recognizing the name of composer Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie. He was championed by one of the greatest violin virtuosos (and composers) of the nineteenth century, had commissions from some of the most prestigious festivals in the British Isles, and was a sought after violinist in his own right. But in the twentieth century, the world of serious music became intellectualized, and somewhere amidst that change in taste and outlook, Mackenzie's music passed out of the repertory and memory. Alexander Campbell Mackenzie was the eldest son of Alexander Mackenzie (1819 - 1857), who was the principal violinist of the orchestra at the Theater Royal in Edinburgh. It was intended that the younger Mackenzie follow his father's career path, and he was given a serious music education, including study in Germany.

5. ↑ Alexander Campbell Mackenzie, in IMSLP: Compositions by Mackenzie, Alexander Campbell
   Retrieved 25 Feb 2015.

   45 musical compositions listed.

6. ↑ The Musical Times: A Talk With Sir Alexander Mackenzie
   Vol. 65, No. 973, Pages 209-211, 1 March 1924.

   Article on the resignation of Sir Alexander Mackenzie from the post of Principal of the Royal Academy of Music.

7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5} MACKENZIE, Sir Alexander Campbell, in Oxford University Press: Who's Who & Who Was Who
   April 2014.

   MACKENZIE, Sir Alexander Campbell
   Kt 1895; KCVO 1922
   Born Edinburgh, 22 Aug. 1847; e s of Alex. Mackenzie, Theatre Royal; m 1874, Mary Melina (d 1925), d of John Burnside, Edinburgh; one d ; died 28 April 1935.
   Principal Royal Academy of Music, 1888–1924 (retired).
   EDUCATION: Sondershausen, Germany; Royal Academy of Music, London
   CAREER: Mus. Doc. St Andrews, Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Oxford; LLD Glasgow and Leeds; DCL McGill; member Royal Swedish Academy; Orders, Pour le merit, Hesse-Darmstadt, Saxe-Coburg. Violinist, teacher of music; conductor in Edinburgh, 1866–81; conductor Novello’s Oratorio concerts; in Italy until 1888; conductor Philharmonic Society
   PUBLICATIONS: Colomba, Troubadour, Rose of Sharon, Jason, Story of Sayid, The Bride, Dream of Jubal, Opera, The Cricket on the Hearth; Scottish Rhapsodies, La Belle Dame sans Merci; overture, Twelfth Night, Britannia, etc., for orchestra; Pibroch, concerto, etc., for violin; Scottish concerto for pianoforte; music to Ravenswood; Little Minister; Coriolanus; songs, part-songs, anthems; Sun-God’s Return (Cantata); Eve of St John (Opera); A Musician’s Narrative, 1927, etc
   CLUBS: Savage, Garrick
   ADDRESS: 20 Taviton Street, WC1
   Source citation: ‘MACKENZIE, Sir Alexander Campbell’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 2 March 2015

8. ↑ Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie, in Google Books: A Musician's Narrative
   1927.

   Title: A Musician's Narrative
   Author: Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie
   Publisher: Cassell, Limited, 1927
   Length: 267 pages

9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2} Alexander Mackenzie, in Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
   27 Aug 2001.

   Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie (Born Edinburgh 22 Aug 1847, died London 28 Apr 1935) was widely recognized as the greatest Scottish composer of his day. As a youth he went to Germany to study at the Saunderhausen Conservatory (1857-62), winning the King's Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in 1862. In 1865 he returned to his native Edinburgh, where he spent 14 years as violinist, teacher, and choir conductor. In 1879 he went to Florence and devoted himself to composition, until 1888 when he was appointed principal of the Royal Academy of Music, a post he held until 1924. He was knighted in 1895. Mackenzie's only association with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a composer and first night conductor of His Majesty, a two-act comic opera written by F. C. Burnand, R. C. Lehmann, and Adrian Ross, and produced at the Savoy on February 20, 1897. His Majesty ran for just 61 performances, closing on April 24, 1897. It was also performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company on tour. Mackenzie wrote five operas in all. In addition to His Majesty, be wrote Columba (1883) and The Troubador (1886) for the Carl Rosa Company, The Cricket on the Hearth (1914), and The Eve of St. John (1925). None enjoyed any lasting popularity, although the overture to The Cricket on the Hearth is among his orchestral works in the Hyperion CD catalogue today. He was also a frequent contributor of oratorios to British music festivals (Norwich, Worcester, Bristol, Edinburgh, and Cardiff). His memoirs, "A Musician's Narrative," were published by Cassell, London, in 1927.

   Mackenzie wrote five operas in all. In addition to His Majesty, be wrote Columba (1883) and The Troubador (1886) for the Carl Rosa Company, The Cricket on the Hearth (1914), and The Eve of St. John (1925). None enjoyed any lasting popularity, although the overture to The Cricket on the Hearth is among his orchestral works in the Hyperion CD catalogue today. He was also a frequent contributor of oratorios to British music festivals (Norwich, Worcester, Bristol, Edinburgh, and Cardiff).

   His memoirs, "A Musician's Narrative," were published by Cassell, London, in 1927.