Oliveria Prescott

Oliveria Louisa Prescott (3 September 1842 – 9 September 1919) was an English writer and composer.[1]

Biography

Oliveria Prescott was born in London, the daughter of Frederick Joseph Prescott and Elizabeth Oliveria Russell.[2] She studied with Lindsay Sloper and then at the Royal Academy of Music under George Alexander Macfarren. She became Macfarren's amenuensis.[3]

She lectured in harmony and composition for Newnham College, Cambridge, and also taught harmony at the High School for Girls in Baker Street, London.[3] She died in London.

Works

Prescott composed several overtures, a piano concerto, shorter orchestral pieces, vocal and choral works and two symphonies.[4]

In 1876 Prescott's first symphony in B-flat “Alkestis” won third prize in a competition for new British symphonies that was held at the Alexandra Palace in north London.[5] In that competition Charles Villiers Stanford's first symphony in B-flat took second place,[6] while Francis William Davenport's symphony in D-minor was placed first.[7] A total of 38 symphonies had been submitted to the competition.[8]

Selected works include:[1]

Stage

• Carrigraphuga, The Castle of the Fairies, musical comedy in three acts (1914), words by S. Phillips

Keyboard

• Concert Finale, pianoforte duet (1878)

Choral

• "A Border Ballad", four-part song (1844), words by Francis William Bourdillon
• Lord Ullin's Daughter, choral ballad (1869), after Lord Ullin's Daughter by Thomas Campbell
• "Song of Waterspirits" four-part song (1874), words by E. Evans
• The Righteous Life for Evermore, anthem for four voices (1876)
• "The Ballad of Young John and his True Sweetheart", part song (1878)
• "The Douglas Raid", four-part song (1883), words by J. Stewart
• "The Huntsman", four-part song (1883), words by J. Stewart
• "Equestrian Courtship", part song (1885), words by T. Hood
• "Say Not, the Struggle Nought Availeth", part song (1885), words by A. H. Clough

Song

• "There Is for Every Day a Bliss" (1873), words by J. W. H.
• "Ask Me No More", with violoncello obbligato (1874), after The Princess by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• "Cheerio!", marching song for whistlers and singing (1915), words by S. Phillips

References

1. Cohen, Aaron I. International Encyclopedia of Women Composers.
2. Fuller, Sophie (2018). Golding, Rosemary (ed.). The Music Profession in Britain, 1780-1920. London and New York: Routledge. pp. 149–169.
3. Brown, James Duff; Stratton, Stephen Samuel (1897). British musical biography: a dictionary of musical artists, authors and composers, born in Britain and its colonies. Birmingham: Chadfield. p. 327. Retrieved 30 November 2010. Oliveria Louisa Prescott.
4. Elson, Arthur (1903). Woman's work in music: Being an account of her influence on the Art, in Ancient as well as Modern Times. Boston: The Page Company. p. 54.
5. "'Music Theory for the “Weaker Sex'. Oliveria Prescott’s Columns for The Girl’s Own Paper" by Rachel Lumsden. Music Theory Online: a journal of the Society for Music Theory" Volume 26, Number 3, September 2020. Online resource, accessed 27 March 2024.
6. 'Stanford, Sir Charles Villiers.' by Jeremy Dibble. Grove Music Online. 2001; Accessed 27 Mar. 2024.
7. 'Davenport, Francis William' by Stephen Banfield. Grove Music Online. 2001; Accessed 27 Mar. 2024.
8. 'Notes'. Musical Standard; London Vol. 10, Iss. 612, (Apr 22, 1876): 265. Online resource accessed 24 March 2024.

Sophie Fuller, "Women musicians and professionalism in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries." In The Music Profession in Britain, 1780–1920, ed. Rosemary Golding (London and New York: Routledge, 2018), 149–69.