Howard Ellis Carr (26 December 1880 - 16 November 1960) was a British composer and conductor who worked in both Britain and Australia during his career. He was a prolific composer of theatre, operetta and light orchestral music, as well as orchestral works.
In his early career Carr worked as a conductor and musical director in theatres and touring productions, including working for two years in Australia. After returning to England in late 1909 he established a reputation as a specialist in theatrical orchestration. During World War I and afterwards his orchestral compositions were performed at the promenade concerts at Queen's Hall. In the 1920s he was conductor of the Municipal Orchestra at Harrogate in North Yorkshire. Carr returned to Australia in 1928. After several years as musical director in theatrical productions, he took on roles such as teaching at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney and a conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Society. In the mid-1930s he worked on orchestration for radio broadcasts. Carr returned to England in 1938 where he worked for the BBC.
Biography
Early years
Howard Ellis Carr was born on 26 December 1880 in Manchester, the eldest son of Edward Carr and Lillie (née Munkittrick). His maternal uncle was the theatre composer and conductor Howard Talbot.Liner notes from 2005 CD Lehár: The Merry Widow; Cuvillier and Carr, Classics for Pleasure Young Howard was educated at St. Paul's School and the Central Technical College in Manchester.John Parker (compiler & editor), Who's Who in the Theatre (1922), Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, page 133. Carr studied civil engineering at the City and Guilds of London Institute.Notable Londoners, an Illustrated Who's Who of Professional and Business Men (1922), London: London Publishing Agency, page 123; accessed 12 September 2024.
Although he was trained as an engineer, Carr had a natural flair for music and decided to pursue that field of endeavour. In 1898, when he was aged eighteen, his uncle Howard Talbot secured a position for him at Her Majesty's Theatre in Carlisle in county Cumberland, northern England, in order for him to learn the job of musical director. He was in charge of an orchestra of eight players, who performed in full evening dress and white gloves. Whenever a visiting conductor attended the theatre, Carr played either the horn, cello or timpani, instruments upon which he had attained various degrees of proficiency.Ernest Irving (1959), Cue for Music, London: Dennis Dobson, page 65.Music and Drama, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 February 1908, page 4.
For several years Carr was engaged with touring companies operated by the theatrical manager George Edwardes. In 1900 he conducted San Toy on a tour with one of the Edwardes' companies. In late 1903 Carr was appointed musical director of the Vaudeville Theatre, in London's West End, for the productions of The Cherry Girl, which opened in December 1903, and The Catch of the Season in 1904. He worked at the Criterion Theatre in 1905 and Wyndham's Theatre in 1906.'Vaudeville Theatre', The Times (London), 22 December 1903, page 5. Carr composed the music for the songs in Under the Greenwood Tree, a play acted by children and performed at the Scala Theatre in London in December 1906.'Scala Theatre', The Times (London), 14 December 1906, page 4.
Carr was described as one with "a natural genius for music" and "one of those rarely-gifted people who, without definite instruction, can play many instruments". Though his principal instruments were the cello and the horn, but he was "more or less proficient upon every instrument" of the orchestra (except the bassoon and the flute for which he was unable to acquire "the exact embrouchure"). By 1907 Carr had written "several orchestral works of high merit". His second symphony (No. 2 in C major) was described as a "colossal work, essentially in the spirit of the moderns, and cram full of splendid themes".Music, Punch (Melbourne), 31 October 1907, page 30.Howard Carr 1880-1960, Unsung Composers website; accessed 13 September 2024. Carr was described as "an exceptionally brainy man, of somewhat retiring disposition".
In August 1907 it was reported that the Australian theatrical manager J. C. Williamson had engaged Howard Carr, "a young musical conductor of talent", as conductor of the Royal Comic Opera Company in Australia, replacing Andrew MacCunn (whose contract was about to expire).Music and Drama, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 August 1907, page 4.
Australia
Carr arrived in Melbourne on 11 September 1907 aboard the mail steamer Victoria together with two other passengers engaged by Williamson, the leading lady Beatrice Irwin and the stage manager Wybert Stamford.Dramatic Notes, The Australasian (Melbourne), 14 September 1907, page 27.Shipping Intelligence, Mount Alexander Mail, 11 September 1907, page 2. Soon after his arrival Carr took over from MacCunn for the performances of the musical comedy The Dairymaids at Her Majesty's Theatre.Musical, Leader (Melbourne), 14 September 1907, page 33. Carr was the musical director for the production of The Girls of Gottenberg which opened at Her Majesty's in October 1907.Her Majesty's Theatre (advertisement), The Age (Melbourne), 26 October 1907, page 18. Soon after his arrival in Australia it was reported that Carr was engaged in writing an opera.
In November 1908, as part of a concert by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Sydney Town Hall, Carr conducted the first performance of his tone-picture 'The Black Opal', described as a composition showing "a large amount of ingenuity and daring".Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sunday Times (Sydney), 15 November 1908, page 2.
Howard Carr and Beatrix ('Trixie') Tracey were married on 20 March 1909 at St. James' church in Sydney.Marriages, The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 31 March 1909, page 64. Beatrix was a writer, raised in Melbourne, who had been a contributor to The Lone Hand, The Bulletin and other Australian journals, as well as a sub-editor of The Lone Hand.Personal Notes, New Zealand Graphic, 12 May 1909, page 8.
Carr wrote a choral work called The Bush, with lyrics written by Frank Fox. The work, described as a "choric ode for chorus, baritone solo, and orchestra", was first performed on 30 June 1909 at the Sydney Town Hall by the Sydney Liedertafel, a male choir that had been established in the early 1880s.Sydney Liedertafel Concert, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 june 1909, page 16.
During his two years in Australia, Carr composed interpolated numbers and ballets for many of the productions under his musical direction. He wrote ballet music for pantomimes and light operas, including Carnival of the Elements. Carr edited the production of The Lady Dandies, re-writing the finales and composing special ballet music for the play.Howard Carr: Appointed A.B.C. Music Editor, Daily Examiner (Grafton), 8 June 1936, page 8.
Carr conducted the Australian premiere of The Catch of the Season in Melbourne for J. C. Williamson prior to returning to England. His place in the Royal Comic Opera Company was taken by Andrew MacCunn (who he had replaced in September 1907). On 5 October 1909 Howard and Beatrix Carr departed from Melbourne for England aboard the steamer Osterley.Theatrical, The Arrow (Sydney), 9 October 1909, page 12.
England
After returning to London Carr was initially employed as the musical assistant to Hans Richter at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.'Mr. Howard Carr', The Times (London), 18 November 1960, page 19. He was the assistant conductor for the 1910 production of The Ring at Covent Garden.
There were indications that Beatrix was experiencing home-sickness soon after arriving in England. After her initial enthusiasm about being in London, in June 1910 she wrote: "You cannot feel in London as you felt at home... London has killed some faculty of joyousness in you".Pamela K. Gilbert (editor) (2002), Chapter Five: 'The Metropole as Antipodes: Australian Women in London and Constructing National Identity' by Angela Woollacott, Imagined Londons, Albany: State University of New York Press, page 93; citing: Beatrix Tracey (1910), 'London', British-Australasian, 30 June 1910, page 43. In October 1911 the couple's only child was born at Richmond in South London, a boy named Eustace Edward Carr.Family records, Ancestry.com.Mrs. Howard Carr Dead, The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne), 12 June 1929, page 10.
Carr was appointed as one of the conductors, together with Hamish MacCunn (brother of Andrew MacCunn), on the four-month tour of the United Kingdom of Thomas Beecham's Opera Comique company, commencing in September 1910.'Music', The Times (London), 29 July 1910, page 13. He undertook two tours with the company and replaced Hamish MacCunn as musical director of the company.
During the war years and several years afterwards, as a specialist in theatrical orchestration, Carr was the musical director and conductor at various theatres in London: the Empire in 1914, the Adelphi in 1915-1916, the Prince of Wales' in 1916 and the Empire in 1917-1919. He also worked at the Gaiety, Apollo and Lyric theatres. A short ballet composed by Carr, In the Jungle, was included in a new revue called Topsy-Turvy, which opened at the Empire Theatre in August 1917.'Topsy-Turvy', The Times (London), 21 August 1917, page 3. Carr composed the music for the songs in the operetta Master Wayfarer by J. E. Harold Terry, performed at the Apollo Theatre in December 1917.'Belgian Red Cross', The Times (London), 5 December 1917, page 11. He wrote additional numbers for The Lilac Domino and Shanghai during 1918 and collaborated in the composing of Gay Bohemia and The Girl for the Boy in 1919.Charles Cuvillier (1919), The Lilac Domino: Anniversary Souvenir, London: B. Feldman & Co. Carr was a part composer of Shanghai which opened in August 1918 at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, the production in which the Australian actress Dorothy Brunton achieved her breakthrough success in London.
Carr was appointed as the honorary secretary of the Musical Conductors' Association (MCA), formed in London in March 1916 "amidst xenophobic fervour" aroused by the war against Germany. The body was formed "for the purpose of improving and consolidating the position of British conductors". Carr also held the position of honorary treasurer of the MCA for a time and served on the executive council. The immediate post-war years in England was a period of economic depression and protectionist fervour. An article written by Carr, published in the Daily Mail in May 1919, was titled 'Fight the Hun in Music'. Carr urged that the war-time conditions that had ensured all-British orchestras and British repertory should be maintained. He wrote that "composers, conductors, and players are coming out of khaki... and if the nation gives them the proper backing they will defeat the Hun in the theatre and concert-room as completely as he was beaten on the gas-soaked fields of France and Flanders".Howard Carr, 'Fight the Hun in Music', Daily Mail, 29 May 1919, page 4. Carr also served on the committee of the Society of Authors, Playwrights and Composers and was a director of the Royal Philharmonic Society in London.
Carr conducted at the Ambassadors Theatre in 1919 and returned to the Empire in 1920. One notable success was The Rebel Maid, an operetta by Montague Phillips, which Carr conducted for 114 performances from March 1921 at the Empire Theatre. Songs by Carr from some of the shows he contributed to during the 1920s were recorded on the His Master's Voice Red label.For instance, 'Breakfast in Bed' from The Blue Kitten, His Master's Voice C 1241 (1926)