Margate Municipal Orchestra
One of the Margate orchestras
In the 1890s Margate had a municipal "Red Viennese Band" directed by Moritz Würm (an accomplished violinist from Lemberg/Austria). In 1903 Würm moved to Fashionable Folkestone, where he also had a "Blue" Viennese Band (which was upgraded to a "Viennese Blue Orchestra" for the 1907 Irish International Exhibition). At Margate he was succeeded by a "Blue Hungarian Band" directed by Karoly Klay (a pseudonym for Charles W. Clay; his light orchestra continued into the 1930s, and many of the works he composed/arranged can still be found).
It is said that Gustav Holst played trombone in one of the bands when a student - although other records (Imogen Holst's biography of her father) indicate he played in a White Viennese Band directed by Stanislas Wurm (possibly Moritz's son?).
Then, in 1904, some seventeen members of the new London Symphony Orchestra (later augmented by others from the Royal Opera Orchestra] formed a "Royal Meister Orchestra". The conductor was Edmund Maney (an LSO violinist) and the leader was Edward Carwardine, who went on to conduct the Rochester/Strood/Chatham/Gillingham Choral & Orchestral Society (1914) and the Light Symphony Orchestra (1934).
The RMO grew to 25, 36 then (during the season) 41 members, and when Margate's Winter Gardens opened on 3 August 1911 to replace the Fort Hill bandstand, it was rechristened Margate Municipal Orchestra. Concerts included prominent soloists such as sopranos Luisa Tetrazzini and Dame Nellie Melba, contralto Dame Clara Butt, violinist Fritz Kreisler and pianist Wilhelm Backhaus. A programme and photograph of Maney can be seen on the website of Margate Civic Society.
Maney went on to act as musical director for London shows, and after him the orchestra was conducted by Bainbridge Robinson until around 1928/9, then Herbert Lodge until the start of the Second World War. When Lodge took over, the orchestra had 19 players, but by 1935 it had been reduced to 12 "versatile" musicians. There appears to have been a substantial overlap with Margate Concert Orchestra (or "New" Margate Concert Orchestra), as shown below, and the naming "New" Margate Municipal Orchestra seems to have been applied somewhat randomly.
Despite an article claiming that a remarkable Indian grocer owns "an 1898 rendition of the Slavonic rhapsody, Part I and II by the New Margate Concert Orchestra, London", this seems unlikely: although Edison Bell were around in 1898, the Indian record is described as a 78 rpm record so probably refers to one from the 1920s.
Damian's 78s lists several MMO recordings from 1926 under Bainbridge Robinson:
- Edison Bell: Cockaigne Overture
- Edison Bell "Velvet Face": Delibes – Overture to Le Roi l’a dit / Gounod – Overture to Mireille
- Edison Bell "Velvet Face": Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody arr. Adolf Lotter
- Edison Bell "Winner": Overtures to the Bohemian Girl and Light Cavalry
A more comprehensive list, compiled by Bill Dean-Myatt, shows 44 recordings by MMO made under the baton of Bainbridge Robinson:
X-1192-2 | Velvet Face (2nd) 0533 | 12” | Valse triste |
X-1193-2 | Velvet Face (2nd) 0533 | 12” | Funeral march of a marionette |
X- | Velvet Face (2nd) 0555 | 12” | “Mirella” overture |
X- | Velvet Face (2nd) 0555 | 12” | “Le Roi L’a Dit” overture |
X- | Velvet Face (2nd) 0556 | 12” | “Euryanthe” overture, part 1 |
X- | Velvet Face (2nd) 0556 | 12” | “Euryanthe” overture, part 2 |
X-1471- | Velvet Face (2nd) 0622 | 12” | Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 part 1 |
X-1472- | Velvet Face (2nd) 0622 | 12” | Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 part 2 |
X- | Velvet Face (2nd) 0643 | 12” | “Patience” selection, part 1 |
X- | Velvet Face (2nd) 0643 | 12” | “Patience” selection, part 2 |
X- | Velvet Face (2nd) 0645 | 12” | “The Gondoliers” selection, part 2 |
X- | Velvet Face (2nd) 0645 | 12” | “The Gondoliers” selection, part 1 |
X- | Velvet Face (2nd) 0669 | 12” | “Cockaigne” - Concert overture, part 1 |
X- | Velvet Face (2nd) 0669 | 12” | “Cockaigne” - Concert overture, part 2 |
X-1624-2 | Velvet Face (2nd) 0697 | 12” | The Selfish Giant, part 1 |
X-1625-2 | Velvet Face (2nd) 0697 | 12” | The Selfish Giant, part 2 |
X-1659-2 | Velvet Face (2nd) 0718 | 12” | “Ruddigore” selection, No. 1 |
X-1660-1 | Velvet Face (2nd) 0718 | 12” | “Ruddigore” selection, No. 2 |
07137-2 | Velvet Face (2nd) 1025 | 10" | The Mice and the Trap |
07138-1 | Velvet Face (2nd) 1025 | 10" | The Rooster and Hens – humoresque |
07135-1 | Velvet Face (2nd) 1026 | 10" | “Miniature Suite” No. 2, intermezzo |
07136-1 | Velvet Face (2nd) 1026 | 10" | “Miniature Suite” No. 3, scene du bal |
07440-1 | Velvet Face (2nd) 1055 | 10" | The Cat and the Mice – humoresque |
07441-1 | Velvet Face (2nd) 1055 | 10" | The Donkey and the Drover – humoresque |
08152-2 | Velvet Face (2nd) 1088 | 10" | “Shamis O’Brien” overture, part 1 |
08153-1 | Velvet Face (2nd) 1088 | 10" | “Shamis O’Brien” overture, part 1 |
08154- | Velvet Face (2nd) 1091 | 10" | The Parade of the Tin Soldiers – descriptive |
08186-1 | Velvet Face (2nd) 1091 | 10" | The Clock is Playing |
Velvet Face (2nd) 1094 | 10" | Oasis – a caravan episode | |
Velvet Face (2nd) 1094 | 10" | Berceuse- cradle song | |
Velvet Face (2nd) 1129 | 10" | “A Sketch of Montmartre” – Monsieur Tricotrin | |
Velvet Face (2nd) 1129 | 10" | The Spirit of Pageantry | |
09147-3 | Velvet Face (2nd) 1157 | 10" | “Peer Gynt” Suite No. 1, Morning |
09148-1 | Velvet Face (2nd) 1157 | 10" | “Peer Gynt” Suite No. 2, Death of Åse |
09149-1 | Velvet Face (2nd) 1158 | 10" | “Peer Gynt” Suite No. 3, Anitra’s dance |
9150- | Velvet Face (2nd) 1158 | 10" | “Peer Gynt” Suite No. 4, In the hall of the mountain King |
07133-2 | Winner 3654 | 10" | Campanas – foxtrot |
07134-1 | Winner 3654 | 10" | Counting the days – foxtrot |
07438- | Winner 3761 | 10" | “The Last Waltz” part 1 |
07439- | Winner 3761 | 10" | “The Last Waltz” part 2 |
09846-1 | Winner 4396 | 10" | “The Bohemian Girl” overture |
09847-1 | Winner 4396 | 10" | “Light Cavalry” overture |
8186-1 | Winner 6258 (export) | 10" | The Clock is Playing |
Winner 6258 (export) | 10" | The Bird Call |
Further 10" issues recorded on 19 April 1929 under Lodge's baton are shown in the Electron list:
- Edison Bell "Electron": Hungarian Rhapsody No. 14 (?), parts 1 & 2 (Liszt) - New Margate Municipal Orchestra
- Edison Bell "Electron": Caprice De Nanette / Demande Et Reponse (Coleridge-Taylor) - New Margate Concert Orchestra
- Edison Bell "Electron": Un Sonnet D'Amour / La Tarantelle Fredtillante (Coleridge-Taylor) - New Margate Concert Orchestra
- Edison Bell "Electron": Slavonic Rhapsody, parts 1 & 2 (Friedmann) - New Margate Concert Orchestra
- Edison Bell "Electron": Der Rosenkavalier waltz / Invitation A La Valse - New Margate Concert Orchestra
At least one of these also appears to have been issued in the "Winner" format:
The October 1929 edition of The Gramophone mentions two further records, again conducted by Herbert Lodge:
- Edison Bell "Winner": Lotter's Oriental Fantasy, Yishma El (God has heard) - New Margate Concert Orchestra
- Dominion: Waldteufel Memories (Finck) - Margate Municipal Orchestra
A further selection, "Tunelandia" (arranged by "Lodge & Franks") was issued on Dominion in November 1929, as Margate Municipal Orchestra. More information, and indeed a digital download, can be found at: Fluff on the Needle.
The orchestra (still under Herbert Lodge) was featured in at least two BBC regional (London) broadcasts:
- 19 July 1937 15.00, from the Winter Gardens (leader: Harry Lipman - a pupil of Brodsky, not to be confused with the clarinettist bandleader also known as Harry Roy); the programme also featured Charles Winterbottom (Lodge's tutor at the Royal Academy) and Bainbridge Robinson
- 4 July 1938 15.00, from the Winter Gardens (leader: Harry Lipman)
After the war its name changed to the Winter Gardens orchestra.
See also Margate orchestras.