The musicians of the Titanic were an octet orchestra who performed chamber music in the first class section aboard the ship.
The group is notable for playing music, intending to calm the passengers for as long as they possibly could, during the ship's sinking in the early hours of April 15, 1912 in which all of the members perished.
Eight musicians – members of a three-piece ensemble and a five-piece ensemble – were booked through C. W. & F. N. Black, in Liverpool. [1] They boarded at Southampton and traveled as second-class passengers. They were not on the White Star Line's payroll but were contracted to White Star by the Liverpool firm of C. W. & F. N. Black, who placed musicians on almost all British liners. Until the night of the sinking, the players performed as two separate groups: a quintet led by violinist and official bandleader Wallace Hartley, that played at teatime, after-dinner concerts, and Sunday services, among other occasions; and the violin, cello, and piano trio of Georges Krins, Roger Bricoux , and Theodore Brailey, that played at the À La Carte Restaurant and the Café Parisien. [2]
After the Titanic hit an iceberg and began to sink, Hartley and his fellow band members started playing music to help keep the passengers calm as the crew loaded the lifeboats. Many of the survivors said that Hartley and the band continued to play until the very end. Reportedly, their final tune was the hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee", [3] although other sources suggest it was "Songe d'Automne" (also known simply as "Autumn"). One second-class passenger said:
Many brave things were done that night, but none were more brave than those done by men playing minute after minute as the ship settled quietly lower and lower in the sea. The music they played served alike as their own immortal requiem and their right to be recalled on the scrolls of undying fame. [4]
All eight musicians died in the sinking. [5]
Name | Age | Hometown | Country | Position | Body | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
William Brailey | 24 | London | England | Pianist | – | [6] |
Roger Bricoux | 20 | Cosne-sur-Loire | France | Cellist | – | [7] |
John Clarke | 28 | Liverpool, Merseyside | England | Bassist | 202 MB | [8] |
Wallace Hartley | 33 | Colne, Lancashire | England | Bandmaster, violinist | 224 MB | [9] |
Jock Hume | 21 | Dumfries | Scotland | Violinist | 193 MB | [10] |
Georges Krins | 23 | Spa | Belgium | Violinist | – | [11] |
Percy Taylor | 40 | London | England | Cellist | – | [12] |
John Wesley Woodward | 32 | West Bromwich | England | Cellist | – | [13] |
William Theodore Ronald Brailey | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 15 April 1912 24) | (aged
Occupation | Pianist |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service | British Army |
Years of service | 1902–1907 |
Unit | Lancashire Fusiliers |
William Theodore Ronald Brailey (25 October 1887 – 15 April 1912) was an English pianist. [5] [6] Born on 25 October 1887 in Walthamstow in Greater London (then part of Essex), [14] he was the son of William "Ronald" Brailey, a well-known figure of Spiritualism. [15] Brailey studied piano at school, and one of his first jobs was performing in a local hotel. [16]
In 1902, he joined the Royal Lancashire Fusiliers regiment signing for 12 years service as a musician. [17] He was stationed in Barbados but left the army prematurely in 1907. [18] He returned to England and lived at 71 Lancaster Road, Ladbroke Grove, London. [6] In 1911, he enlisted aboard ship, playing first on the Saxonia, prior to joining the Cunard steamer RMS Carpathia in 1912, where he met the French cellist Roger Bricoux. Both men then joined the White Star Line and were recruited by Liverpool music agency C. W. & F. N. Black to serve on the Titanic. [6] [19] Brailey boarded the Titanic on Wednesday 10 April 1912 in Southampton. His ticket number was 250654, the ticket for all the members of Hartley's orchestra. His cabin was in the second class quarters. [4] [6] [20]
Brailey was 24 years old when he died; his body was never recovered. [6] [21]
Roger Marie Bricoux | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 15 April 1912 20) | (aged
Occupation | Cellist |
Roger Marie Bricoux (1 June 1891 – 15 April 1912) was a French cellist. [22] Born on 1 June 1891 in Rue de Donzy, Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, France, [23] Bricoux was the son of a musician. The family moved to Monaco when he was a young boy, [24] and he was educated in various Catholic institutions in Italy. [25] It was during his studies that he joined his first orchestra and won first prize at the Conservatory of Bologna for musical ability. [26] After studying at the Paris Conservatory, he moved to England in 1910 to join the orchestra in the Grand Central Hotel in Leeds. [27] At the end of 1911, he moved to Lille, France, lived at 5 Place du Lion d'Or, and played in various locations throughout the city. [4]
Before joining the Titanic, Bricoux had served with Brailey on the Cunard steamer Carpathia before joining the White Star Line. [4] [26] [7] He boarded the Titanic on Wednesday 10 April 1912 in Southampton. [26] His ticket number was 250654, the ticket for all the members of Hartley's orchestra. His cabin was second class, and he was the only French musician aboard the Titanic. [28]
Bricoux was 20 years old when he died; [26] his body was never recovered. [4]
In 1913, after his apparent disappearance, he was declared a deserter by the French army. It was not until 2000 that he was eventually officially registered as dead in France, mainly due to the efforts of the Association Française du Titanic. [29] On 2 November 2000, the same association unveiled a memorial plaque to Bricoux in Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire. [23] [29]
Wallace Henry Hartley (2 June 1878 – 15 April 1912), an English violinist, was the bandleader on the Titanic. Hartley's body was recovered by the CS Mackay-Bennett, [30] before being returned to England for burial in his home town of Colne, Lancashire.
The violin that he used on the Titanic was found in its case strapped to his body. It is now on display at the ''Titanic'' Museum (Pigeon Forge, Tennessee).
John Law Hume | |
---|---|
Born | Dumfries, Scotland | 9 August 1890
Died | 15 April 1912 21) Atlantic Ocean | (aged
Burial place | Fairview Lawn Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia |
Occupation | Violinist |
John Law "Jock" Hume (9 August 1890 – 15 April 1912) was a Scottish violinist. [31] Hume was born on 9 August 1890 in Dumfries, Scotland and lived with his parents at 42 George Street, Dumfries. [31] He had already played on at least five ships before the Titanic, and was recruited to play on its maiden voyage due to his good reputation as a musician. [32]
Hume spent the winter of 1910/1911 in Kingston, Jamaica, where he performed in the Orchestra for the Constant Spring Hotel, a grand resort of the time. Future Titanic cellist John Woodward was also a member of the Constant Spring Orchestra. During his four months in Jamaica, Hume entered a relationship with barmaid Ethel McDonald. Hume left Jamaica in April 1911, and Ethel gave birth to their child, Keith Neville McDonald Hume, in November 1911. [33]
He boarded the Titanic on Wednesday 10 April 1912 in Southampton. His ticket number was 250654, the ticket for all the members of Hartley's orchestra. His cabin was in the second class quarters.
Hume was 21 years old when he died and his fiancée, Mary Costin, was pregnant with his child. [32] His body was recovered by the CS Mackay-Bennett, [10] and was passed into the care of John Henry Barnstead who arranged for his burial in grave 193 of the designated Titanic plot at Fairview Lawn Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, on 8 May 1912. [10] [34] [35] A memorial was erected for Hume and Thomas Mullin (third class steward) in Dock Park, Dumfries. It reads:
In memory of John Law Hume, a member of the band and Thomas Mullin, steward, natives of these towns who lost their lives in the wreck of the White Star Liner Titanic which sank in mid-Atlantic on the 14th day of April 1912. They died at the post of duty. [34]
Hume and the other members of Hartley's orchestra all belonged to the Amalgamated British Musicians Union and were employed by a Liverpool music agency, C. W. & F. N. Black, which supplied musicians for Cunard and the White Star Line. [10] [36] [37] On 30 April 1912, Hume's father, Andrew, received the following note from the agency:
Dear Sir:
We shall be obliged if you will remit us the sum of 5s. 4d. [five shillings and sixpence], which is owing to us as per enclosed statement.
We shall also be obliged if you will settle the enclosed uniform account.
Yours faithfully,
The letter caused controversy at the time when it was reprinted in the Amalgamated Musicians Union's monthly newsletter. [36] Andrew Law Hume decided not to settle the bill. [37]
In April 1914 John W. Furness, the violinist of the Canadian liner RMS Empress of Ireland made a pilgrimage with Anglican Church officials to visit the grave of John Law Hume at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery and pay his respects. Furness himself died in a shipwreck only a few weeks later when Empress of Ireland sank on 29 May 1914. [38]
Georges Alexandre Krins | |
---|---|
Born | Paris, France | 18 March 1889
Died | 15 April 1912 23) | (aged
Occupation | Violinist |
Georges Alexandre Krins (18 March 1889 – 15 April 1912) was a Belgian violinist. [11] Born on 18 March 1889 in Paris, France, [39] his family was from Belgium, and soon after his birth they moved back there to the town of Spa. He first studied at Academie de Musique de Spa. He then moved to the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liège, Belgium, where he studied from 30 October 1902 until 1908, when he won first prize for violin, with the highest distinction. [40] [4] [11]
As a young man he wanted to join the army; however, his parents persuaded him otherwise. [11] He worked in his father's shop and played in La Grande Symphonie, Spa, and in 1910 he moved to Paris to be first violin at Le Trianon Lyrique. [11] He subsequently moved to London and played for two years at the Ritz Hotel until March 1912. [11] He lived at 10 Villa Road, Brixton, London and became bandmaster of the Trio String Orchestra, which played near the Café Français. [11] This led to his being recruited by CW & FN Black, Liverpool to play on the Titanic. [4]
He boarded the Titanic on Wednesday 10 April 1912 in Southampton. His ticket number was 250654, the ticket for all the members of Hartley's orchestra. [11] His cabin was second class, and he was the only Belgian musician aboard the Titanic. After the Titanic began to sink, Krins and his fellow band members assembled in the first class lounge and started playing music to help keep the passengers calm. They later moved to the forward half of the boat deck, where they continued to play as the crew loaded the lifeboats. Krins was 23 years old when he died. His body was never recovered. [4] [11] [41]
A memorial concert for the Bandsmen of the Titanic was held at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday 24 May to raise funds to support the families of the musicians lost at sea. [42] Musicians from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Queen's Hall Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, [43] the New Symphony Orchestra, the Beecham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Opera Orchestra, and the London Opera House Orchestra [44] made up an orchestra of around 500 players. [45] Ada Crossley opened the concert with Felix Mendelssohn's Oh Rest in the Lord from Elijah , with the rest of the programme consisting of solemn orchestral items including works by Elgar, Tchaikovsky and Wagner, with Chopin's Funeral March and Arthur Sullivan's "In Memoriam". Seven conductors led the orchestra, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Henry Wood, Landon Ronald, Percy Pitt, Thomas Beecham, Fritz Ernaldy and Willem Mengelberg. [46] The audience joined in singing "Nearer, My God, to Thee" as orchestrated by Sir Henry Wood to close the concert. A photograph of the event hangs in the Royal Albert Hall outside the loggia boxes. [47]
Two documentary films have been made about the Titanic's band.
Books written specifically about the Titanic's musicians include:
Wallace Henry Hartley was an English violinist and bandleader on the Titanic during its maiden voyage. He became famous for leading the eight-member band as the ship sank on 15 April 1912. He and the rest of the band died.
"Nearer, My God, to Thee" is a 19th-century Christian hymn by Sarah Flower Adams, which retells the story of Jacob's dream. Genesis 28:11–12 can be translated as follows: "So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it..."
The Unknown Child was the initially unidentified body of Sidney Leslie Goodwin, a 19-month-old British toddler who was recovered by the Mackay-Bennett after the sinking of the RMS Titanic. For almost a century, Goodwin's gravestone in the Fairview Cemetery read "Erected to the memory of an unknown child whose remains were recovered after the disaster to the Titanic April 15th 1912".
The Cable Ship Mackay-Bennett was a transatlantic cable-laying and cable-repair ship registered at Lloyd's of London as a Glasgow vessel but owned by the American Commercial Cable Company. She is notable for being the ship that recovered the majority of the bodies after the sinking of the Titanic.
Michel Marcel Navratil Jr. was a French philosophy professor who was one of the last survivors of the sinking of Titanic on 15 April 1912. He, along with his brother, Edmond (1910–1953), were known as the "Titanic Orphans", having been the only children rescued without a parent or guardian. He was three years old at the time of the disaster.
Thomas Roussel Davids Byles was an English Catholic priest who was a passenger aboard the RMS Titanic on its maiden voyage when it sank after striking an iceberg during the night of 14–15 April 1912. He was reported as being amidst the throng of trapped passengers on the ship's rear deck in its final moments of descent, audibly praying.
Barbara Joyce Dainton was the penultimate remaining survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 14 April 1912 after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage. She was the last living survivor who travelled second-class on the ship.
Edith Eileen Haisman was a South African-British woman who was one of the last remaining and oldest survivors of the sinking of RMS Titanic in April 1912. She was the last survivor born in the 19th century, and therefore the last survivor who was a teenager at the time of the sinking, although seven younger survivors outlived her.
A total of 2,240 people sailed on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, the second of the White Star Line's Olympic-class ocean liners, from Southampton, England, to New York City. Partway through the voyage, the ship struck an iceberg and sank in the early morning of 15 April 1912, resulting in the deaths of 1,517 passengers and crew.
The crew of the Titanic were among the estimated 2,240 people who sailed on the maiden voyage of the second of the White Star Line's Olympic-class ocean liners, from Southampton, England, to New York City in the United States. Halfway through the voyage, the ship struck an iceberg and sank in the early morning of 15 April 1912, resulting in the deaths of over 1,500 people, including approximately 688 crew members.
William Denton Cox was a third class steward aboard RMS Titanic who died while bringing groups of third class passengers to lifeboats during the sinking.
The TitanicMusicians' Memorial is a memorial in Southampton, United Kingdom, to the musicians who died in the RMS Titanic disaster on 15 April 1912. The original Titanic Musicians' Memorial was unveiled by the Mayor of Southampton, H Bowyer on 19 April 1913, and was located in the old Southampton library. This library along with the memorial were destroyed during World War II. A replica was erected in 1990. The plaque features a musical inscription, the opening bars of the 19th century hymn, 'Nearer, My God, to Thee' by Sarah Flower Adams, carvings showing a grieving woman and an iceberg, and an inscription with the names of the musicians on the Titanic, including bandleader Wallace Hartley, all of whom died.
There have been several legends and myths surrounding the RMS Titanic and its destruction after colliding with an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean. These have ranged from stories involving the myth about the ship having been described as "unsinkable" to the myth concerning the final song played by the ship's musicians.
Margaret Bechstein Hays was a passenger on the RMS Titanic. She and her dog survived the ship's sinking, escaping on lifeboat no. 7. Following the disaster, she cared for two small children known as the "Titanic Orphans" in her New York City home until their mother claimed them.
Memorials and monuments to victims of the sinking of the RMS Titanic exist in a number of places around the world associated with Titanic, notably in Belfast, Liverpool and Southampton in the United Kingdom; Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada; and New York City and Washington, D.C. in the United States. The largest single contingent of victims came from Southampton, the home of most of the crew, which consequently has the greatest number of memorials. Titanic was built in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and had a "guarantee party" of engineers from shipbuilders Harland and Wolff aboard all of whom were lost in the disaster and are commemorated by a prominent memorial in the city. Other contingents of engineers aboard the ship came from the maritime cities of Liverpool in England and Glasgow in Scotland, which erected their own memorials. Several prominent victims, such as Titanic's captain, were commemorated individually. Elsewhere, in the United States and Australia, public memorials were erected to commemorate all the victims.
Rhoda "Rosa" Mary Abbott was a passenger on the RMS Titanic. She was the only female passenger who went down with the sinking of the ship and survived.
Frank Manley Warren Sr. was a prominent American businessman from Oregon who made his fortune in the salmon canning industry. The community of Warrendale, Oregon, the site of one of his canneries, was named for him. He died in the sinking of Titanic.
John Wesley Woodward was an English musician. Born in West Bromwich on 11 September 1879, he was the youngest of ten children born to Joseph and Martha Woodward.
Frederick William Barrett was a British stoker. After having served as a stoker on several ships, on 6 April 1912, he was hired on board the RMS Titanic as lead stoker. On April 15, 1912, while the ship was sinking, Barrett boarded lifeboat No. 13 and took command of it, thus surviving the disaster. He later testified before commissions of inquiry into the sinking of the ship and continued to work in the navy until the 1920s. In 1923, after losing his wife Mary Anne Jones, he remained in Liverpool and worked ashore as a logger.
Clarence Moore was a prominent American businessman and sportsman. In 1909, he built a large home in Washington, D.C. that now serves as an embassy of Uzbekistan. Moore died after a leisure trip to England, on his way home as a first class passenger on the RMS Titanic when it sank in the North Atlantic.
1 June 1891
rue de Donzy
On November 2nd 2000, the Association Francaise du Titanic unveiled a memorial plaque in memory of Roger Bricoux in Cosne-sur-Loire, the city where he was born on June 1st 1891. In 1913, Roger had been considered a desertor by the French army, and it was not before 2000, thanks to the AFT's work, that he was officially registered as... dead.
He played on at least five ships before the Titanic and he was put forward to play on the ship because they really wanted to cream of the crop to play for passengers. It was such a famous ship and the largest liner at the time and that's what made John really want to be on its maiden voyage.
in grave 193
Burial: Fairview Lawn Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, on Friday 3rd May 1912
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