Alfred Charles Hobday (19 April 1870 in Faversham – 23 February 1942 in Tankerton) was an English viola player who made his career in England. He was the elder brother of the double-bass player Claude Hobday. [1]
Faversham is a market town and civil parish in the Swale district of Kent, England, United Kingdom. The town is 48 miles from London and 10 miles from Canterbury and lies next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient British trackway which was used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons, and known as Watling Street. The Faversham name is of Latin via Old English origin, meaning "the metal-worker's village".
Tankerton is a suburb of Whitstable in Kent in south-east England. It was designed in the late 19th century as the train network brought holidaymakers to the sea.
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to the west and Scotland to the north-northwest. The Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
Hobday studied violin and viola at the Royal College of Music in London with Henry Holmes, [2] and he was one of the college's earliest graduates on viola. He played in several leading string quartet musical ensembles, notably at St James's Hall, with Joseph Joachim, Lady Hallé, Ries and the cellist Alfredo Piatti. He also gave many viola recitals with his wife, the pianist Ethel Sharpe, later known as Ethel Hobday.
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Art including performance, composition, conducting, music theory and history. The RCM also undertakes research, with particular strengths in performance practice and performance science. The college is one of the four conservatories of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and a member of Conservatoires UK. Its buildings are directly opposite the Royal Albert Hall on Prince Consort Road, next to Imperial College and among the museums and cultural centres of Albertopolis.
London is the capital and largest city of the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile (80 km) estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans. The City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles (2.9 km2) and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow closely its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
A string quartet is a musical ensemble consisting of four string players – two violin players, a viola player and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group. The string quartet is one of the most prominent chamber ensembles in classical music, with most major composers, from the mid 18th century onwards, writing string quartets.
Much of Hobday's career was spent as an orchestral musician. In 1895 he became principal viola in Queen Victoria's private band and was awarded the Diamond Jubilee medal and Coronation medal for services as part of that group. [3] Hobday was solo viola at the Royal Covent Garden Opera from 1900 to 1914. He was also the leading viola of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, of the Goossens Orchestra, of the London Symphony Orchestra from its inception in 1904 until 1930, [2] and of the orchestras of the chief festivals. He soloed with orchestras on a few occasions, most notably in several performances of Hector Berlioz's Harold in Italy. [2]
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later, Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), based in London, was formed by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days the orchestra secured profitable recording contracts and important engagements including the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the concerts of the Royal Philharmonic Society. After Beecham's death in 1961 the orchestra's fortunes declined steeply; it battled for survival until the mid-1960s, when its future was secured after an Arts Council report recommended that it should receive public subsidy; a further crisis arose in the same era when it seemed that the orchestra's right to call itself "Royal" could be withdrawn.
Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens was an English conductor and composer.
Hobday premiered several works including Frank Bridge's Phantasy for Piano Quartet, Vaughan Williams' Four Hymns for Tenor, and String Orchestra and Vaughan Williams's Quintet in C Minor for Pianoforte, Violin, Viola, Violoncello, and Double Bass. The English composer Ernest Walker also composed works specifically for Hobday. [2]
Frank Bridge was an English composer, violist and conductor.
Ernest Walker was an Indian-born English composer, pianist, organist, teacher and writer on music.
