| Biography | Frank Merrick (1886 1981) was an English pianist in the early 1900s. He was born in Clifton, now part of Bristol.
Merrick's peers included Artur Schnabel and Mark Hambourg, and he studied with Theodor Leschetizky. From 1911 to 1929, he taught at the Royal Manchester College of Music and from 1929 at the Royal College of Music. His students included Alan Rawsthorne and Thomas Baron Pitfield He first went to Vienna in 1899 for about 18 months and later for a shorter period in 1903. This prevented him from playing at the Bechstein (now Wigmore) Hall when it first opened. ([1]). He is particularly known for winning the Columbia Gramophone Company competition to write the remaining movements (scherzo and finale) of Schubert's 8th Symphony. This occurred in 1928. His composition was recorded by Columbia and sold, although these recordings are primarily, if not all, on 12-inch records and now very rare. Several later LP recordings of Frank Merrick playing various works by John Field and other British composers were released on the British label Rare Recorded Editions and are also rare. A "Frank Merrick Society" was also formed to release his recordings. His book, entitled "Practising the Piano", first published in 1960, has gone through at least 4 printings, and is published by Barrie and Jenkins. His many puplis include the composer Michael Garrett.
The original manuscripts of his compositions were donated to CHOMBEC (Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth) and the archives of Bristol University. There are quite a lot of items, including many Esperanto songs, of which he composed, by his own account, over 30.
During the First World War he had been imprisoned as a conscientious objector, and while there, he learned Esperanto with the help of fellow-prisoner Montagu Butler. He dedicated much time to the language and spoke it well; in 1965 he made a recording of some of the Esperanto songs with the well-known mezzo-soprano Sybil Michelow.
He spent many hours at the British Museum copying by hand the works of John Field, who at that time was little known; the result was his edition of Field's piano concertos which became vol. 17 of Musica Britannica.
He made several recordings of the music of Sir Arnold Bax, including the composer's first violin sonata (reissued on compact disc in 2003). Bax's Pæan for piano is dedicated to him. With Michael Round he made a recording of the Sonata for two pianos and other works by Bax.
Late in his life he was awarded MMus by Bristol University when they first introduced the degree. Around 1967 he returned to the Victoria Rooms, Clifton, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of his first public recital, as a child, largely reprising the programme he had played at his début. Even later, in 1976, he visited the London Esperanto Club to be interviewed, in Esperanto, on the occasion of his 90th birthday. |