Joseph Holbrooke: Barcarolle No.1,

Joseph Holbrooke (1878 – 1958) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. Joseph Holbrooke belongs to the generation of composers at the core of the twentieth century British musical renaissance. He died in 1958, the same year as Vaughan Williams, and in almost total obscurity. His neglect began after the Great War and the gradient of descent increased dramatically from 1925 onwards. However he had a heyday and one with considerable celebrity. He wrote a considerable amount of light music and not once did he veer in the direction of atonalism although the four dances for solo piano may be taken as lampooning the trendiness of people like Ornstein and Schoenberg. Jazzy moments find their way into some of the music of the Twenties. For example he wrote music for the big society balls of the day and also went dancing with his wife Dorothy, better known as ’Dot’. Holbrooke has a strong handle on melody and perhaps his apprenticeship in the music halls accounts for the fact that he r