Ernest Walker (composer)

Ernest Walker (15 July 1870 – 21 February 1949) was an Indian-born English composer, pianist, organist, teacher and writer on music.

Ernest Walker was born in Bombay, India, in 1870, where his father was a partner in a merchant firm (his father had also had ambitions to be a writer, and even published two novels under the pseudonym "Powys Oswyn", but these plans were abandoned). Ernest came to England with his parents in 1871. From an early age he exhibited a mystic attraction to nature. He studied the piano with Ernst Pauer and harmony with Alfred Richter (a son of the cantor at St Thomas's Church, Leipzig). Through a mutual friend, he became friendly with Harold Bauer (then still only a violinist) and the two would often play duos together. He was educated at Oxford, becoming a Doctor of Music in 1898. There, his mystical bent was fostered and became more pronounced.

He was assistant organist at Balliol College from 1891 to 1901, and organist from 1901 to 1913 (resigning only because he felt his private views on religion were incompatible with the religious nature of the texts sung by the choir, even though there was no requirement that the organist profess Christian beliefs). He remained at Oxford for the rest of his life, and died there. He was director of music at Balliol from 1901 to 1925 and organised the Sunday chamber music concerts there, at which he often appeared as a pianist. He arranged appearances at these concerts by artists such as the baritone Harry Plunket Greene, the tenors Steuart Wilson and Gervase Elwes, the pianists Fanny Davies, Leonard Borwick and Donald Tovey, the violinists Adolf Busch and Jelly d'Arányi, and the violist Lionel Tertis. These concerts often featured English premieres, such as César Franck's Violin Sonata in A major, and songs by Joseph Marx and Richard Strauss. He was for many years an examiner and member of the Board of Studies for music, and he did much to improve the standard of the B.Mus and D.Mus degrees. He encouraged many promising musicians, among them the Australian Frederick Septimus Kelly, who was killed in World War I, and Donald Tovey, who became his lifelong friend. Tovey dedicated his Balliol Dances for piano duet to Ernest Walker.

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