Edwin Lemare
The man who made the organ dance
In music, it is difficult and dangerous to describe any artist as “the best”. It is too much a matter of personal taste, and the musician’s form on a particular occasion.
Edwin Henry Lemare was the most popular organist of his time, possibly of all time. He enjoyed what we would now regard as superstar status, with all the associated trimmings, and his career took him throughout the world where he played to capacity audiences. Then, the media and the ovations from those who packed his concerts, seemed to endorse the view that he was, in fact, the best. Even today, the writer has personally heard organ recitalists express the view that Lemare was “the greatest organist that this country has produced”. Furthermore, Malcolm Sargent (later Sir) acknowledged that “he made the organ dance” and that, when at a console, Lemare did things he “wouldn’t have believed possible”.
Chiefly remembered for his Andantino in D flat, later popularised as “Moonlight and Roses”, Lemare nevertheless wrote a large number of compositions. But he also made a prominent feature of his own transcriptions of contemporary orchestral compositions in recitals, thus making the music available to the public before the advent of radio and the gramophone. As his name is enjoying a renaissance in recital programmes and record catalogues, perhaps it is now appropriate to recall his story.
Lemare was born on 9th September 1865 at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight where his father was the organist and choirmaster at the local Holy Trinity Church. This musical background very soon influenced him and at the age of four he built himself an organ. This consisted of two boards placed in the form of a two-deck (or manual) instrument on which he painted the black and white keys, with two upright pieces of cardboard on each side on which circles were drawn to represent the stops. From watching his father compose, and observing printed music, he himself started composing at the age of five.
This early interest was quickly followed by evidence of his actual ability when at the age of six he made his first public appearance playing a piano solo in one of his father’s concerts. If further evidence of his ability was required, at the age of 13 he won the prestigious Sir John Goss Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, being the youngest contestant to do so. As a consequence, his mother leased an apartment in London and stayed with him for the duration of the three-year scholarship. He was subsequently elected a Fellow of the Academy and in 1884 was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists.
Lemare sprang into public prominence at the age of 19 giving demonstration recitals on a Brindley & Foster 1 manual organ at the 1885 London International Inventions Exhibition. Opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales on 4th May, the event drew huge attendances until its closure in October. Other organ recitalists on the programme included a young Henry Wood (later Sir), and concerts featured such artistes as Edward Strauss and his orchestra brought in from Vienna.
After appointments at Cardiff and Sheffield, Edwin Lemare returned to the capital as organist of Holy Trinity, Sloane Square, also being appointed Professor
of the Organ and an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Academy and the Royal College of Music. However, when the Rector at Sloane Square moved to St. Margaret’s, Westminster, Lemare and most of his choir went too!
During the tenure of the two London posts he became famous for his recitals, particularly at St. Margaret’s on a 3 manual Walker organ built to his specifications. Being the parish church of the House of Commons, it was not unusual to see royalty present and, on occasion, Prime Minister Gladstone with whom Lemare became acquainted. Usually, the church was full and the doors closed before recitals commenced, with those unable to gain admittance waiting patiently outside for any seats which became vacant.
Lemare’s skill in transcribing orchestral works for the organ was said to be “amazing”. He had a wonderful “orchestral sense”, and had he not chosen the organ might have, perhaps, been a great conductor. Being a brilliant improviser, and endowed with a good memory, he could play such works as Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique symphony and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger overture without reference to the full score which was in front of him. It was also in 1898 at St. Margaret’s that Lemare presented the First Act of Wagner’s Parsifal, directing the choir from the organ console. Aided by noted Welsh baritone David Ffrangcon-davies, this was the first performance outside Bayreuth, having been given special permission by Cosima Wagner.
In 1900 Lemare made an extensive recital tour of Canada and the USA and from 1902 to 1915 held the post of City Organist at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh. He continued to be based in America, returning to England whenever possible, particularly to Ventnor, but also giving recitals in various parts of the country. In particular, he believed that audiences in the Midlands and the North, comprising steel workers and miners “who kept their caps on during recitals” were among the “most appreciative” he had ever met. He later wrote that, from long experience, he had proved that “the so-called ‘uneducated classes’ were often more intelligent and appreciative, musically, than the audience whose uppermost thought is for the display of diamonds and smart dresses”!
In the meantime, Lemare had also toured Australia and New Zealand and in 1913 visited Freiburg in Germany to make a series of roll recordings for the Welte Organ Company.
In 1915 Lemare was engaged to play daily recitals at the Panama-pacific Exposition, San Francisco. This huge event on a 635-acre site celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal and the rebirth of San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake and fire. By closing day, Lemare had played 121 concerts to a total attendance of over 150,000. Such was his popularity that, at the conclusion of the exposition, the post of Civic Organist was created for him, an appointment which he held until 1921.
The City Mayor, James R. Rolph Jnr., was a loyal patron and never failed to attend a Lemare recital. Having transferred the 4 manual Austin organ from the exposition site to the Municipal Auditorium, the inaugural concert was given on Easter Sunday 1917 just after America had entered the First World War. Being an emotional occasion with patriotism in the air, Lemare pulled all stops out and launched into The Star Spangled Banner following which Mayor Rolph paid the organist the compliment that he “would walk ten miles, any day, to hear him play the National Anthem”.
Following his resignation from the San Francisco position, Lemare became Municipal Organist at Portland, Maine, for two years, whilst also returning to England for a hurried tour. In 1925 he accepted the post of City Organist at Chattanooga, a position he held until 1929.
Edwin Lemare gave his final concert in 1931 at Hollywood High School where his daughter Betty was a student. By this time he was suffering from ill health, years of rich food and smoking having taken their toll. Following a series of heart attacks, he died on 24th September 1934 and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, California. He was survived by his third wife Charlotte, their two children Edwin Jnr. and Betty, and Iris, a daughter from his second marriage.
It has to be admitted that Edwin Lemare was a showman, courting popularity with his compositions and flamboyant style. Yet no one can deny that he was a serious musician, and his technical expertise certainly remains worthy of admiration today. He developed a technique of playing passages on a separate manual with his thumbs only, thus leading one critic to write that “Lemare appeared to play all four manuals at the same time with two hands”.
As he lived in America for such a length of time, one might be forgiven for believing that Edwin Lemare was American, and some publicity certainly gave the impression that he was the “great American organist”. Although he revelled in his popularity in the States, he appreciated the respect of musical colleagues in Britain and never ceased to regard himself as an exiled Englishman, often longing for home.