Henry Watson, 1846-1911 - 'All for love and nothing for reward'

7 January - 21 February 2011

The Henry Watson Music Library & Royal Northern College of Music are marking the centenary of the death of Henry Watson with a free joint exhibition. Using exciting original documents such as letters and photographs from the extensive Henry Watson archive collection this celebrates the life of a man who left a wonderful legacy to the citizens of Manchester. That legacy remains today in the public music library collection which bears his name and the Collection of Historic Musical Instruments at the RNCM.

For further details please contact either archives@rncm.ac.uk or r.edwards@manchester.gov.uk. 

Royal Connections

In light of the recent Royal engagement (and to distract us from all the snow), this week’s featured item from the Archives is a letter written by Jean Pike, Lady-in-Waiting to HRH The Princess of Wales.  The letter, from the Carroll collection, is addressed to Ida Carroll, Principal of the Northern School of Music between 1956 and 1972 and Dean of Management of the Royal Northern College of Music from 1972 until her retirement in 1976.

Ida Carroll has been described as a staunch royalist, and this letter thanks her for sending a letter and book to ‘Prince William and Prince Henry’. It could reasonably be surmised that the book Ida sent to the princes was one of her father’s (Walter Carroll) famous piano lessons for children, such as Scenes at a Farm or Sea Idylls perhaps. These books were first published at the beginning of the twentieth century yet remain popular today with children and piano teachers alike.  Prince William would have turned 7 on 21 June 1989 while Prince Harry would be nearing his 5th birthday (on 15 September) - both were thus the right sort of age to benefit from the lessons contained within Carroll's books. 

From Carroll/IGC/3, copyright The Ida Carroll Trust

The full text of the letter reads:

'2nd August 1989

Dear Mrs Carroll,

The Princess of Wales has asked me to thank you for your letter together with the book for Prince William and Prince Henry.

Her Royal Highness was most touched by your kind thought and has asked me to send you her sincerest thanks and best wishes.

Yours sincerely,
Jean Pike

Mrs Max Pike’

For further information about the Carroll collection or any other aspect of the RNCM Archives, please see the links on the right hand side.

We Will Remember Them

The following image is a touching one taken from the Elizabeth Harwood collection.  Elizabeth drew this picture celebrating the end of World War Two when she was approximately 7 years old.  Note the numerous 'V' for victory signs at the top of the picture. 

From EH/12, RNCM Archives.  Copyright Julian Royle.

Elizabeth Harwood was an internationally renowned soprano who studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music between 1956 and 1960.  Further information about her life and the collection of papers held by the RNCM Archives can be found by clicking the link to the Archives Catalogue on the right hand side. 

Exciting new acquisition

The signatures and musical sketches of such eminent musicians and composers as Dvořák, Saint-Saëns, Grieg, Brahms and Rachmaninoff are just some of the wonderful features of an autograph book recently donated to the RNCM Archives. The book belonged to Carl Fuchs, the Royal Manchester College of Music’s first Professor of Cello (a post he held between 1893 and 1942) and eminent member of the Brodsky Quartet.


The autograph book forms part of a very generous donation by Carl Fuchs’s granddaughter, Tessa. Other material in the collection includes photographs, scrapbooks and a beautiful silk cover for Carl’s cello which was made by his wife.

This collection is a welcome addition to the existing Carl Fuchs material held by the Archives and will prove invaluable for historians and musicians alike.

                                                      Carl Fuchs, Cellist (1865-1951)

Signature of Antonin Dvořák dated 1891

Signature of Camille Saint-Saëns dated 1901

This is the week that...

... Walter Carroll was born (4th July 1869).

Walter Carroll's birth certificate (Ref: Add-Carroll/12)

                                    Walter Carroll, aged about 17 (Ref: Carroll/Family/2)              Walter Carroll, taken about 1900 (Ref: Carroll/Family/2)

Walter Carroll, prominent Manchester music educationalist and composer of the still popular music for children, was born 4th July 1869. The sixth child and only son of Richard (b.1829), an upholsterer, and Fanny W. (b. 1832), he worked hard to escape his humble beginnings and was the first person to gain the DMus by examination at the Victoria University of Manchester, taking further degrees at Durham University.

He held several posts at the University of Manchester and at the Royal Manchester College of Music, delivering the first lecture on the opening of the latter institution in 1893. He became the first Professor in the Art and Practice of Teaching at the RNCM, resigning in 1918 to become Manchester's first Music Adviser.

It is his music for children, however, written originally for his daughters Elsa and Ida, which is Carroll's claim to enduring fame. After Scenes at a Farm, published by Forsyth Brothers Ltd in 1912, came all the other sets over a period of forty one years. These included The Countryside (1912), Sea Idylls (1914), Forest Fantasies (1916), Water Sprites (1923), and River and Rainbow (1933). The uniqueness of Carroll's brilliant idea was to fire the child's imagination by uniting what he called the Sister Arts: by simultaneously stimulating the child visually and poetically as well as musically.