Charles James Kennedy Osborne Scott (16 November 18762 July 1965) was an English organist and choral conductor who played an important part in developing the performance of choral and polyphonic music in England, especially of early and modern English music.
Early career Scott was born in Romsey. Educated at Southampton Grammar School, he entered the Brussels Conservatory in 1894. Beginning by studying the violin, he transferred to the organ under the outstanding virtuoso and teacher Alphonse Mailly, who encouraged a special interest in plainchant and in the phrasing of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ music: he also studied composition under Hubert Ferdinand Kufferath (1818–1896) (a pupil of Mendelssohn's), teacher of counterpoint and fugue, and under the organist-composer Edgar Tinel (1854–1912). In 1897 he took the Premier Prix avec distinction and the Mailly Prize for organ playing.
He settled in London in 1898 as a professional organist and teacher, and married a second cousin who had also studied at Brussels.Stainton de B. Taylor, "Charles Kennedy Scott", The Musical Times 92 (November 1951) (1305), 492–496. .A. Eaglefield-Hull, A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London 1924), 449.
Oriana Choir In 1904 Scott founded the Oriana Madrigal Society, consisting of 36 voices, which made its first public appearance at the Portman Rooms in July 1905.For archive of concert programmes of the Oriana Madrigal Club, see Arts and Humanities Research Council Its initially stated object was 'to press the claims of our Elizabethan school', and 'to devote itself solely to the singing of English madrigals.'R. Elkin, Queen's Hall, 1893–1941 (Ryder & Co., London 1944), 64–65. Scott was by chance shown the publications of the Musical Antiquarian Society, including a volume of madrigals by John Wilbye, and formed the determination to lift English Elizabethan music from its position of comparative neglect. He scored many examples over the next years and held gatherings which became the core of his society.Taylor 1951 (cited above). Later on the number of voices was increased to 60, and its work was extended to include modern compositions, both English and foreign, but always with emphasis on the English.Elkin 1944, 65.
The Oriana Choir brought high standards of precision and flexibility to choral performance, which had a beneficial influence on choral music in general.Scott had the vision of raising choral standards generally by establishing a few leading choral societies to a standard equivalent to that of the professional orchestras, see 1920 interview Charles Kennedy Scott, Musical Times 1 October 1920, p. 659. Their work naturally drew Scott towards the contemporary English scene, and he came to know H. Balfour Gardiner and Arnold Bax, and through them Norman O'Neill, Frederick Delius, Gustav Holst, Percy Grainger, Benjamin Dale, Roger Quilter and others.M. Lee-Browne, Nothing so Charming as Musick! The Life and Times of Frederic Austin (Thames, London 1999, pp. 68–70.
Thus the Oriana gave madrigal concerts in the two series devoted to English contemporary music, of 1912 and 1913, promoted by Gardiner,Elkin 1944, 45. and in the Philharmonic Society concert of 20 November 1913, under Scott and Balfour Gardiner, which also included part-songs by Charles Villiers Stanford, Gardiner and Hubert Parry.R. Elkin, Royal Philharmonic (Ryder & Co., London 1946), 139. In 1920 they gave the first hearing of Delius's unaccompanied choruses To be Sung of a Summer Night on the Water.T. Beecham, Frederick Delius, revised edition (Severn House, 1975), p. 188. In 1922 they sang in a special concert of the works of Arnold Bax, with the Goossens Orchestra,Elkin 1944, 47. giving the first performance of his motet for double choir Mater ora filium, a work dedicated to Charles Kennedy Scott.
In 1926 and 1927 the Oriana joined with the Bach Cantata Club for performances of Bach's Mass in B minor: in 1931 they sang works by Bax, Peter Warlock and Holst at a Festival for the International Society of Contemporary Music, and in 1936 they formed the core of a 100-voice chorus for the first London performance of Gabriel Fauré's Requiem, and for Heinrich Schütz's History of the Resurrection under Nadia Boulanger.Elkin 1944, 65, 79. All of these performances were given at the Queen's Hall, but latterly most Oriana concerts were at the Aeolian Hall, usually three times yearly, and often in collaboration with the English Folk Dance Society.
Recordings Delius, arr. Percy Grainger: Brigg Fair: Norman Stone (tenor), Oriana Madrigal Society directed by Charles Kennedy Scott (Dutton CD AX 8006)
West London Ethical Society
Scott was involved in the Ethical movement and in 1911 became the musical director of Stanton Coit’s Ethical Church which would later become the British Humanist Association. In 1913 he produced ‘volume two’ of Social Worship which was edited by Stanton Coit. As the live-in organist for the West London Ethical Church in Bayswater Scott remained close to Coit and was a dedicated humanist for the rest of his life. During the war years he collaborated with Cecil Sharp and Gustav Holst to form the League of Arts which aimed to bring music and theatre to people in a time of war. Later Scott moved to 13 Prince of Wales Terrace where he would stay until his death, the building then housed the Union of Ethical Societies and is still the headquarters of Humanists UK today.https://heritage.humanists.uk/charles-kennedy-scott/https://heritage.humanists.uk/the-ethical-church/
Philharmonic Choir
In October 1919 Scott founded the Philharmonic Choir, the predecessor of the present London Philharmonic Choir.For a history of the Philharmonic Choir, see Daniel Snowman, Hallelujah! An Informal History of the London Philharmonic Choir (London: London Philharmonic Choir, London 2007), p. 127-33 – Appendix II: 'The History of the Philharmonic Choir'. This first appeared at a Philharmonic Society concert in February 1920, to give the first performance of Delius's A Song of the High Hills, and also Bach's Sing Ye to the Lord and Beethoven's 9th Symphony (directed by Scott, under Albert Coates).Elkin 1944, 65: Elkin 1946, 148. Most of its concerts took place in the Queen's Hall, where the space available limited the membership to about 300. The choir contained a large professional element, especially among the tenors, to achieve a high standard of performance: the costs of their employment were met principally by Balfour Gardiner.
The Choir gave two or three concerts of its own each season under its own conductor, but also made very numerous appearances with the Royal Philharmonic Society, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC, and the Courtauld-Sargent Concerts (established 1929). On 25 March 1920 they gave the first performance of Holst's The Hymn of Jesus, the composer conducting: they went on to introduce many modern works to London, including Delius's Requiem and Songs of Farewell, César Franck's Psyche: St Patrick's Breastplate, Walsinghame and This Worldes Joie by Bax; Requiem Mass by Sir George Henschel; April by Balfour Gardiner; Psalmus Hungaricus of Zoltán Kodály; San Francesco d'Assisi of Malipiero; The Prison by Ethel Smyth; The Canterbury Pilgrims and In Honour of the City by George Dyson; Ode on a Grecian Urn by Philip Napier Miles; Magnificat and Flourish for a Coronation by Ralph Vaughan Williams; Constant Lambert's Summer's Last Will and Testament, Igor Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, Sergei Rachmaninoff's The Bells and Paul Hindemith's Mathis der Maler.Elkin 1944, 65–66.
The choir was suspended in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II: when the London Philharmonic Choir was formed in 1946 Scott was unable to resume direction, and a new conductor was appointed.Elkin, writing in c.1944 phrased it thus: 'Owing to the dispersal of its members, however, the Philharmonic Choir has been obliged to suspend its activities during the war, and the destruction of Queen's Hall will probably entail some modification of the scheme when normal conditions are resumed.' Elkin 1944, 67.
The choir played a major part with the London Symphony Orchestra in Sir Thomas Beecham's 'revitalisation' of George Frideric Handel's Messiah in December 1926, and undertook much of the choral work in the Delius Festival of 1929.
They gave many performances of the great standard works such as the Mass in B minor, the St Matthew Passion and St John Passion, the Christmas Oratorio, the Requiems of Mozart and Brahms, and many of the Handel oratorios. As an offshoot of the Philharmonic Choir appeared the Junior Philharmonic Choir, consisting of two to three hundred girls and young men from the London Secondary Schools' Festival, who gave several concerts from 1932 onwards in major religious works by Bach.
Recordings Mozart: Requiem Mass, K 626 (abridged version): Requiem aeternam, Kyrie, Dies Irae, Domine Jesu Christe, Hostias, Agnus Dei, Lux aeterna, Cum sanctis tuis. Soloists, Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra, directed by C. Kennedy Scott, 6 July 1926, Queen's Hall (3 12-inch 78 rpm, HMV D 1147–49: others unpublished). Schubert: Mass in G major: Kyrie eleison, Gloria in Excelsis, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei. Elsie Suddaby, soprano; Howard Fry, baritone; Percy Manchester, tenor; Philharmonic Choir; London Symphony Orchestra; directed by Charles Kennedy Scott, 2 and 3 July 1928 (3 12-inch 78 rpm, HMV D 1478–80).
A Cappella Singers Scott created the A Cappella Singers as a small group of 14 professional singers, for singing madrigals and part-songs under chamber-music conditions rather than in the concert hall. It was first assembled in 1922, and gave most of its performances in private houses or for music clubs, though occasionally singing at Queen's Hall in company with other Kennedy Scott choirs.Elkin 1944, 66.
Involvement in opera In 1914, at the Glastonbury Festival, Scott conducted the first performance of Rutland Boughton's opera The Immortal Hour.Museum of Music History. Retrieved 9 December 2015
Recordings Purcell: Dido and Aeneas (first complete): Nancy Evans (Dido), Mary Hamlin (Belinda), Roy Henderson (Aeneas), Mary Jarred (Sorceress), Olive Dyer (Spirit), Dr Sydney Northcote (Sailor), Gladys Currie (Second woman), Gwen Catley and Gladys Currie (Witches), Charles Kennedy Scott's A Cappella Singers, Boyd Neel String Orchestra, Boris Ord (continuo), Clarence Raybould (conductor), Hubert J. Foss (Musical director). (Decca Records, X 101–107, 7 12-inch 78 rpm records, by subscription only for the Purcell Society).R. D. Darrell, The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music (Gramophone Shop, New York 1936).For a full-length review of this recording see
Also in 1922 Scott founded the Euterpe String Players.Baker's Biographical Dictionary of 20th Century Classical Musicians (1997). See Bach Cantatas website.
The Bach Cantata Club