Margate Municipal Orchestra

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.

Herbert-Lodge.jpg

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
Another undated MMO 10-inch Edison Bell record found on eBay was entitled "The Clock is Playing" (B-side "The Bird Call").
Margate-Municipal-Orchestra.jpg

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:

Slavonic-Margate-Orchestra.jpg

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
TheGramophone-October-1929.jpg

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)
WinterGardens-1935.jpg

After the war its name changed to the Winter Gardens orchestra.
See also Margate orchestras.

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