Eric Fenby
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Eric Fenby, O.B.E. (1906–1997) is best known for transcribing the works of Frederick Delius from 1928 to 1934. He was also a composer in his own right and wrote the score for Alfred Hitchcock's film of Daphne du Maurier's novel Jamaica Inn.
Fenby was born in Scarborough, England, and as a youth took lessons in the piano, organ and cello. As a composer he was largely self taught. He went on to become a composer, conductor, teacher and author. By 1925 he had conducted a work for string orchestra at Scarborough and had written some minor pieces.
In 1928, hearing that Delius had become virtually helpless because of blindness and paralysis, he offered to serve him as an amanuensis. Fenby worked at the composer's home in Grez-sur-Loing, near Paris, for extended periods until Delius died almost six years later. The project was taxing due to Delius' difficult temperament and atheism (Fenby was a devout Catholic) and the requirement to act as nurse during Delius' final days. After further responsibilities including visiting Delius' severely ill widow Jelka and accompanying Delius' exhumed body back to England for burial, the experience left him "completely burnt out". In 1936, he published an account, Delius As I Knew Him.
After Delius' death, Fenby entered the employ of the music publisher Boosey & Hawkes. After writing the Jamaica Inn score, his career was interrupted by World War II; after joining the Royal Artillery, he was transferred to the education corps at Bulford, where he conducted the Southern Command Orchestra, and later commissioned to run Royal Army Education Corps courses in Lancashire. He married Rowena Marshall in 1944.
After the war he founded the music department of the North Riding Training School. He was awarded the O.B.E. after being artistic director for the 1962 Bradford Delius Festival. He was professor of harmony at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1964 until 1977.
Fenby made numerous recordings, including the definitive performances found in the Fenby Legacy, and was advisor to Ken Russell for the film Song of Summer (in which Fenby was played by Christopher Gable). He recorded the Delius Violin sonatas with Yehudi Menuhin and the Delius cello sonata with Julian Lloyd Webber. He was also the subject of a documentary film by Yorkshire Television called Song of Farewell. He died in Scarborough.
[edit] References
- Eric Fenby - Obituary, The Times, London, February 22, 1997
- Richard Stoker, "Fenby, Eric William (1906–1997)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 13 June 2007]
