Obituary SIR HENRY WOOD A GREAT CONDUCTOR Sir Henry WVood, C.H., the conductor of 50 consecutive seasons of promenade concerts, died in hospital at Hitchin on Saturday, after a short illness. He will be remembered as a great teacher of music in the fullest sense of the word-as one wh1o had not only trained generations of students at the R.A.M., created choirs and orchestras, and always lent the helping hand to young composers and instru- mentalists, but had raised the whole musical taste of his country by bringing great music to the people. Over a period of more than half a century he also conducted, besides the " Proms," a large number of symphony concerts at Queen's Hall, and in the provinces famous choral festivals, concerts in America, ranging from Boston to the Hollywood Bowl, and Continental concerts too numerous to be summarized It was hc who first made orchestral conducting a whole-time occupation for a British-born musician, and by concen- trating on that art paved the way for others to distinguish themselves in it, wlhich they have not been slow to do. He may safely be described as the most popular musical figure of his time. Henry Joseph Wood was born in London on March 3, 1869, at what was then 31S, Oxford Street, where his father, an optician, had his shop. Both his parents were musical, and he has recorded that in teaching him the letrer names of the lines of the treble stave his mother instilled the motto, " Every Good Briton Deals Fairly." His father sang tenor at St. Sepulchre's, Holborn, and in the oratorio performances of the Sacred Harmonic Society. Thus the boy grew up surrounded by music and morals. He is said to have hesitated between the choice of music or of painting as a profession, and oil painting vas one of his lifelong hobbies. But the hesitation cannot have been prolonged. At 14 he was engaged to give a series of organ recitals at the Fisheries Exhibition in South Kensington. He had some general musical training at the R.A.M., and profited specially from the experience of accompanist to the operatic class, and to the great teacher Manuel Garcia. His career as a conductor began with a travelling opera com- pany; there can be no better beginning, since the conductor's first business is to be ready for anything, and the Arthur Rousbev Grand Opera Company cultivated to the full that readiness in its young conductor. Other more important operatic associations followed, with the D'Oyly Carte Company, vith Sullivan in producing Ivanlhoe, with the Olympic Thleatre, where he got his first experience of Tchaikovsky by being required to condulct Eugeli Onliegin before that all-important date in 1893 when London's new concert hall, to be known as Qtieen's Hall, opened. Henry Wood's personal career at that time owed as much to the faith and tenacity of the manager, Robert Newman, as did the reputa- tion of Queeni's Hall itself as a music-making institution. It was Newman's idea to found a 10-weeks' season of promenade concerts there, and it was he who fought the battle against sabbatarian opposition for Sunday orclhestral concerts. Promenade concerts since the days of Jullien had been entertainments of low mtusical repute. Newman knew that his concerts must be " popular " first, but was determined that they should be musical after- wards, and not very long after their beginning in 1895 Wagner and Beethoven, then Tchaikovsky and Brahms, became popular composers as presented by T-lenry NWood and the best orchestra obtainable in London. Wood early displayed two characteristics thai always distinguished him-unbounded energ) and extreme conscientiousness. The progress of the promenade concerts from their raw beginninlgs to what they were in 1927, when the B.B.C. took them over and stericotyped their programmes, is too well known to be recounted here. Tlhe Queen s HaU orchestra encountered several crises in its fortunes. A quarrel with the players over the right to send deputies necessitated a complete reorganization of the orchestra early in the new century; then Newmnan suffered financial loss, but (Sir) Edgar Speyer came to the rescue and under his chairmanship with Newman as manager, Wood and his orchestra achieved their most brilliant successes at symphony con- certs and special festivals, as well as in the promenade and Sunday concerts. The musical direction of thcse was entirely in the hands of Henry Wood; many emiient composers. Strauss, Debussy, Scriabin, Elgar, were invited to conduct their own works. The foreigners were amazed at the suppleness and readiness of the players in grasping new music. An enormous repertory was built tip, and at thc promenades more particularly many works bv young British composers were first heard. Wood's personal development as a mtisician was greatly furthered and refined by his marriage in 1898 withi the Russian Princess Olga Ourousoff, a soprano singer and sensi- tive artist of a high order, who sang at his festivals, gave recitals to his piano accompani- ment, and was able to throw helscielf into every one of his musical interests and enterprises. She died in 1909. In 1911, the year of the Coronation of King George V and QueeLn Mary, Wood received the honotir of knight- hood. In the year of his first marriage he ha(d received a command to take his orchestra to Windsor to play to Queen Victoria. This second royal recognition happened in the year of his second marriage, to Muriel. datigiter of Major Greatrex, by whom he had two dauglhters. Early in the 1914-lS war the Qtieens Hlall Orchestra (rcnamed the New Queen s Hall Orclhestra) was taken over by Messrs. Chappell. the lessees of Qticen's Hall. Wood carried on; the Promenades bravely in trying circtimstances throuighi five war seasons. As his younger men were called to the Colours their places were taken by women ; wIlen air raids threatened and darkness prevailcd the concerts were trans- ferred to an afternoon hour. But ihey held on. After the 1914-18 war Wood played his full part in that curiotisly haphazard but energetic musical recovery which was typical of thc carly nineteen-twenties. But there was no getting away from the fact that Iiis orchcstra wvas not, and could not be, wlhat it had been, either in its intrinsic quality or in the position it had formerly held as the centre of LonloiV's musical life. Moreover he was embarrassed by the recalcitrant attitude adopted by his chairman Mlr. William Boosey, towards broadcasting from Queen's Hall. Then Robert Newnman. his faithful colleague, died in 1926. The next year Boosey announced that he was not going on. Wood " pencilled " the dates for the Promenades in his own name; he knew he would have the enthusiastic support of his public. Sir John (now Lord) Rcith however, stepped in, and from henceforth the Promenades passed into the safe hands of the B.B.C. until interrupted by the present war. The Battle of Britain abbreviated thc season of 1940, and the destruction by enemy action of Queen's Hall caused the transfer of the Promenades to the Albert liall. Such was the inexhaustible vitality of the concerts that the audience trebled in size, and after one year of private management the B.B.C. once more resumed responsibility for what has become under Wood's guidance a national institution. Wood took an active part in the selection and formation of the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra. Sir Henry Wood celebrated his jubilee in 1938, 50 years of incessant conducting since lie first took up the baton of the Arthur Rousbey Opera Company. All were eager to honotir the great conductor and to participate in his generous desire to raise a large fund to provide free beds in London hospitals for orchestral players in sickness and old age. The ftind raised exceeded ?ES,00(. At about the same time Wood published his memoirs, " My Life of Music," which described vividly his varied adventures. Typical of his sense of humour was his con- cealment under the pseudonym " Paul Klenov- sky " of his transcription of Biachi's Organ Toccata and Fugue in D minor-whichi hoaxed concertgoers for five years. In l943 illness prevented Wood from appearing more than a few times. This summer his health had improved and he was able to take part in several enthusiastic celebrations of his seventy-fifth birthday and of the jubilee of his association with the " Proms." I-Hc was made a Companion of Honour. On June 10 he conducted the first part of the opening Promenade concert, but the seasonl had to be abandoned after three weeks owing to the danger of flying bombs to the Albert Hall. His disappotitment was acute. all thc more so that attention was deflected from his plan for raising a fund to build a new concert hall for London. Although the broadcast concerts continued, he was taken ill writh an acute attack of jaundice just before the actual jubilee concert on August 10 wihich he was to have conducted.