FredericHCowen

Frederic H Cowen (1852-1935) – Introduction

Frederic Hymen Cowen, as he was known throughout his career, was born at Kingston, Jamaica on the 29 January 1852 (his name being registered as Hyman Frederick Cohen), son of Frederick Augustus Cohen, who later became secretary to William Ward, first Earl of Dudley, and treasurer to Her Majesty’s Opera in London (a position which, after eleven years, due to the destruction of that house by fire, he exchanged for a similar position at Drury Lane, under Messrs. Mapleson & Gye’s management), by his wife, Emily, second daughter of James Davis, of Kingston. Frederic was the fifth and last child of Frederick and Emily, and his other siblings were: (1) Elizabeth Rose, born 9 January 1843, St. Andrew’s Parish, Jamaica; (2) Henrietta Sophie, born about 1845; (3) Lionel Jonas, born 21 January 1847; and (4) Emma Magnay, born 16 April 1849, Kingston. Frederick, Emily, and their children came to England in 1856. Frederic says in his autobiography, My Art and My Friends (London, E. Arnold, 1913), that he thinks that they arrived, rather ironically, on 5 March, the very day that the Covent Garden Theatre burnt down.
The Anglicisation of the family name of Cohen into Cowen seems to have occurred on the family’s arrival in England or soon after, as even the earliest articles in Britain refer to them as Cowen. Frederic was initially known by his original names – Hyman Frederick. The spelling of Hyman is clearly with an ‘a’ in all the early surviving documents and literature concerning him, and he spelt Frederick with a ‘k’, like his father. The change from Hyman Frederick to Frederic Hymen seems to have occurred during his youth. It appears that both his family and he preferred Frederick to Hyman, and some of his early published compositions state the composer as ‘H. Frederick Cowen’. Perhaps he later dropped the ‘k’ in Frederick to avoid confusion with his father. This change of name suggests that both his family and he wished to play down their Jewish origins. Indeed, in Frederic’s autobiography there is barely any reference to his Jewish background.
Frederick Augustus Cowen’s household must have had a very cultured environment indeed, as Frederic was not the only one of Frederick’s children to have a successful career. Frederic’s brother Lionel became a successful painter and was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. Indeed, he was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy on many occasions between 1873 and 1887, elsewhere at the Suffolk Street and Grosvenor Galleries, and ventured abroad to Germany in 1874. He specialised in colouristic genre, portrait, and figural subjects in interiors. His paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy were mostly of the last of these types, particularly of women in interiors, with sentimental titles. He died at sea while returning from Tasmania in 1895.
Frederic’s sister Henrietta also became a famous reader/elocutionist/actress, taught by Mrs Sterling. She gave a number of readings in and around London (including at St. George’s Hall, Langham Place and Steinway Hall, Seymour Street, Portman Square), Jersey and Liverpool, in the 1870s and 80s. By the 1890s she was active in the theatre: she was the original ‘Miss Tesman’ in the English version of Hedda Gabler (1891), of ‘Mrs Hervey-Hervey’ in Parker’s Chris (1892), and of ‘Lucy Price’ in Miss Barney’s The County (1892). She was also in the cast of Leida (1893).
Of Frederic’s other two sisters - Emma became a Ladies club proprietor, and Elizabeth married a David Morales, 4 April 1865, at Paddington, London.

Brought up amid such artistic surroundings, Frederic quickly showed a precocious talent for music, and with the help of his father, he soon made his first musical acquaintance: Henry Russell, who had achieved great popularity by his songs: Cheer, boys, cheer, A life on the ocean wave and The ship on fire. Under Russell’s guidance, Frederic Cowen completed his first composition, The Minna-Waltz, for piano, aged six, which was published (in 1858) with the financial support of his father. In the following year, two further piano pieces came from Cowen’s pen: The Pet Polka and The Daisy Waltz, and he issued his first song: A Mother’s Love. From these prodigious beginnings Cowen would soon blossom into one of the most significant musicians within Victorian Britain. With the help of the Earl of Dudley, his father’s employer, he studied piano with Benedict, and composition with Goss; in 1865 he was at Leipzig under Hauptmann, Moscheles, Reinecke and Plaidy; and in 1867 at the Stern Conservatory, Berlin, where he was under Kiel. Although a competent pianist, with the success of his first symphony and piano concerto in 1869 at St. James’s Hall, his career soon developed into one of composer and conductor, further confirmed by the success of his Scandinavian Symhony (1880). He conducted the Philharmonic Society in London (1888-92 and 1900-7), Hallé Orchestra (1896-9), Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (1896-1913), Handel Triennial Festivals (1902-23), Bradford Festival Choral Society and subscription concerts (1897-1914), Bradford Permanent Orchestra (1899-1902), and Scottish Orchestra (1900-10). He made frequent appearances elsewhere as a guest conductor.

Cowen’s long and industrious career, both as composer and conductor, is now almost forgotten, but although he regarded himself primarily as a symphonist, he was most successful in lighter orchestral pieces when treating fantastic or fairy subjects, where his gifts for graceful melody and colourful orchestration are shown to best advantage. Much of his more serious music is commendable rather than inspired and seldom successful in portraying the graver aspects of emotion. Indeed, his choral works, written for the numerous musical festivals around Victorian and Edwardian Britain, typify the public taste of his time. Of his 300 or so songs, they encompass everything from the popular ballad to the high art song, the latter of which led him to be described as ‘the English Schubert’ in 1898.

Cowen received honorary doctorates from Cambridge and Edinburgh in 1900 and 1910 respectively, and was knighted at St. James’s Palace on 6 July 1911. Cowen married Frederica Gwendoline Richardson at St. Marylebone Registry Office, London, 23 June 1908. She was 30 years his junior and they had no issue. He died on 6 October 1935 and was buried at the Jewish Cemetery, Golders Green. His wife died at Hove, Sussex, in 1971. © Christopher J. Parker, 2002.

If you have an interest in Frederic Cowen’s music, or have any information concerning Cowen’s life or music (scores, manuscripts, letters or other memorabilia), Christopher would be delighted to hear from you. He can be e-mailed at Christopher.Parker@dur.ac.uk or parkermusic@btopenworld.com