| Performance Title | The 'Titanic' Band Memorial Concert |
| Performance Date | 24 May 1912 |
| Performance Day | Friday |
| Performance Time | 15:00 |
| Main Performers | Ada Crossley - vocal |
| Orchestra or Band | Philharmonic Orchestra,
Queen's Hall Orchestra,
London Symphony Orchestra,
New Symphony Orchestra,
Beecham Symphony Orchestra,
Royal Opera Orchestra,
London Opera House Orchestra |
| Conductors | Sir Edward Elgar (London Symphony Orchestra),
Sir Henry J Wood (Queen's Hall Orchestra),
Landon Ronald (New Symphony Orchestra),
Thomas Beecham (Beecham Symphony Orchestra),
Percy Pitt (Royal Opera House),
Fritz Ernaldy (London Opera House),
Mengelberg |
| Set List | 'Funeral March', Chopin arr. H J Wood (Sir Henry J Wood),
Overture, 'In Memoriam', Sullivan (Percy Pitt),
'Variations for Full Orchestra Op.36', Elgar (Sir Edward Elgar),
Aria: 'O Rest In The Lord' from Elijah, Mendelssohn (Ada Crossley, Percy Pitt),
'Third Movement (Scherzo) from Symphony No.6 in B Minor' (Pathetic), Tchaikovsky (Landon Ronald)
INTERVAL
'Prelude' form Die Meistersinger, Wagner (Mengelberg),
'Aria (for Strings)', Bach (Sir Henry J Wood),
'The Ride of the Valkyries' from Die Walkure, Wagner (Thomas Beecham),
'Vorspiel' from Lohengrin, Wagner (Fritz Ernaldy),
'Overture' from Tannhauser, Wagner (Mengelberg)
Hymn: 'Nearer My God To Thee', Dykes, orch. Henry Wood (Sir Henry J Wood),
'God Save the King' (The National Anthem) |
| Performance Notes | This emotionally charged event took place on Empire Day, Friday 24 May 1912 at 3.00pm, just over a month after the Titanic passenger liner sank beneath the icy Atlantic, causing the deaths of 1,514 people, including the bandmaster Henry Wallace Hartley and eight heroic musicians who died at their posts, playing as the waters closed over them.
The concert performers were led by seven conductors, including Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Henry Wood, Thomas Beecham and Landon Ronald. Billed as 'the greatest professional orchestra ever assembled, the players were drawn from seven London Orchestras including The Philharmonic Orchestra, The London Symphony Orchestra and The Royal Opera Orchestra, augmented by members of The Orchestral Association bringing the total number of musicians to 473. The London Symphony Orchestra had a lucky escape - they were booked on the Titanic to take them for a three week tour of the US and Canada, but due to rescheduling of concerts they had to leave a week earlier than planned so eventually sailed on the SS Baltic. That afternoon Madame Ada Crossley sang Mendelssohn's 'Oh Rest in the Lord' from 'Elijah', with the rest of the programme consisting of solemn orchestral items including works by Elgar, Tchaikovsky and Wagner, with Chopin's 'Funeral March' and Sullivan's 'In Memoriam'.
Empire Day would have been a public holiday, with many families enjoying the freedom and fresh air of Hyde Park opposite. The audience would have arrived on foot, by omnibus or hansom cab, with those in the cheaper seats queuing around the Hall to show their tickets to the top hatted doormen, before rushing to obtain a place with the best view. Inside, the auditorium was painted deep crimson with gold and slate embellishments. A printed canvas velarium hung like a huge convolvulus flower from the glass roof to aid the acoustics, and the gallery was draped with red curtains. The auditorium was packed, with the Corps of Honorary Stewards escorting around 7,750 dignitaries, members of the public and families of the bereaved to seats costing from 1 shilling in the Gallery (around £3 today) to 3 guineas for a seat in a box (around £190 today).
The afternoon ended with the enormous orchestra and organ playing at full throttle, while the whole auditorium rose like a congregation to sing 'Nearer My God to Thee', the hymn that history tells us Hartley and his band were playing as the ship went down. Nearly everyone present was in tears.
Herr Mengelberg travelled from Germany especially to conduct two items.
The following is taken from the National Maritime Museum Cornwall 'Titanic Stories' Exhibition (8 March 2018-7 January 2019):
'The musicians probably played until moments before the ship sank, but the last tune was not a hymn.
The opening notes of 'Nearer My God to Thee' are carved on the Titanic Musicians Memorial in Southampton and on the Lancashire grave of the band leader, Wallace Hartley. That this was the last tune the musicians played on the ship is one of the most enduring stories of the ship's sinking. Several survivors - to boats some distance away - remembered hearing it, but the hymn has at least three well-known settings - the one in America was very different to that played in Britain.
Could the survivors have all heard the same hymn or were they mistaken?
In 1906, 'Nearer My God to Thee' was sung by some of the passengers on the SS Valencia, wrecked off the Canadian west coast, who could not be saved. Was this story transferred to the Titanic, perhaps as a comfort to the bereaved?
Colonel Gracie was one of the last survivors to leave the Titanic - he didn't hear the hymn. Wireless operator Harold Bride, another survivor who was washed off as the ship went under, remembered hearing 'Autumn'. New York newspapers reported this as being an Episcopal hymn tune, In fact it was the common name for 'Songs d'Automne', a waltz tune popular in London in 1912.
Whatever it was that they played, the image of the band remaining on deck to the end is one that inspired musicians and composers to commemorate their bravery.'
This event was by no means unique following the tragedy as memorials were raised and concerts were held to the victims to commemorate their bravery and to promote a set of values that Edwardian society felt were under threat. Between 1912 and 1931 appeals were made for public memorials to the victims, the crew or to the ship's musicians from as far away as Broken Hill in Australia to Washington D.C. They celebrated duty - Captain Smith going down with his ship, the engineers staying at their posts, and the musicians who played on to the end. But they also commemorated the duty of a man to sacrifice his life for a woman. First Class millionaires, such as John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, are portrayed as heroes because they could have demanded a place in a lifeboat, but declined so that women, even Third Class women, would be saved. At the times such events and memorials stood as examples of the idea of duty - to the family and t one's employer - which seemed to be under attack by the women's suffrage and industrial union movements.
According to the Daily Telegraph (6 August 1912) the concert raised £400 for the families of the musicians. |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1912/2),
Large Framed Photograph (RAHE/10/4),
Presscutting |
| Ticket Prices | 3s-£3 3s (Grand Tier box) |
| URL | https://thirdlight.royalalberthall.com/pf.tlx/VzGVqn4VBG5dl |
| Code | Name of Performer(s) |
| DS/UK/194 | Ronald; Sir; Landon (1873-1938); English conductor, composer, pianist, singing teacher and administrator |
| DS/UK/4264 | Queen's Hall; Queen's Hall Orchestra; 1895-1995; British orchestra |
| DS/UK/130 | London Symphony Orchestra (LSO); 1904-; English orchestra |
| DS/UK/324 | New Symphony Orchestra; c1905-c 1931; English orchestra |
| DS/UK/4407 | The Beecham Symphony Orchestra; 1909-1910s; British orchestra |
| DS/UK/1008 | Royal Opera House; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House; 1946-; British operatic orchestra |
| DS/UK/4408 | London Opera House Orchestra; fl 1912; British orchestra |
| DS/UK/4409 | The Philharmonic Orchestra; fl 1912; British orchestra |
| DS/UK/3984 | Crossley; Ada Jemima (1874-1929); Australian singer |
| DS/UK/58 | Elgar; Sir; Edward (2 June 1857-23 February 1934); 1st Baronet, OM, GCVO; English composer and conductor |
| DS/UK/39 | Wood; Sir; Henry (3 March 1869 19 August 1944); CH; English conductor |
| DS/UK/346 | Beecham; Sir; Thomas (29 April 1879-8 March 1961); 2nd Barronet of Ewanville, CH; English conductor and impresario |
| DS/UK/2737 | Pitt; Percy (1870-1932); English organist, conductor |
| DS/UK/4410 | Ernaldy; Fritz (fl 1912); Conductor |
| DS/UK/332 | Mengelberg; Joseph Willem (1871-1951); Dutch conductor |