iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

37) Syd Dale, self-taught composer and arranger of big band, easy listening and library music, such as "Here in a Smoky Room", a Brian Fahey test card composition played by the Otto Keller Band – O.K. being a pseudonym for Syd Dale en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_F... www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZokW...

en.wikipedia.org

Brian Fahey (composer) - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

36) The Daimler Car Hire Garage, now a fashionable art deco style office for a fintech company - always a wonderful sight when you find yourself wandering in the back streets of Bloomsbury en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimler... #jawiki

en.wikipedia.org

Daimler Car Hire Garage - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The TLS (despite the efforts of Paul Griffiths) doesn't cover music enough in my opinion. So great to see this article by Ysenda Maxtone Graham on the 100th anniversary of the BBC's Choral Evensong broadcasts www.the-tls.com/arts/music/1...

the-tls.com

A still point at three o’clock

100 years of evensong, the longest-running outside broadcast

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

35) Eric Crozier, theatre director, founder of English Opera Group, librettist for Bliss, Britten and Lennox Berkeley. First director of Peter Grimes in 1945, and a fierce defender of the opera, but there was a later falling out with Britten that was never repaired. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Cr...

en.wikipedia.org

Eric Crozier - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

34) William Crotch: "a child prodigy without parallel in the history of music" (and rather spoiled). Organist at the age of 3½, first oratorio aged 14. He may have composed Big Ben's Westminster Chimes. First principal of the Royal Academy of Music in 1822 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William... #jawiki

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I also passed (on Edgehill Road) one of the few Ealing sites associated with The Beatles - Ringo takes his jacket off to cover a puddle for a female pedestrian in "A Hard Day's Night", filmed on 24 April 1964. One of those two manholes presumably involved! www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXbT...

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Enjoyable Ealing ramble yesterday took in the Grimson family home (with contemporary lamp post outside), and an excellent afternoon concert at St Mary's Perivale (with lots more coming up, including Peter Donohoe on Friday 2nd October) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimson... www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASUU...

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

33) Guirne Creith's Violin Concerto was premiered in 1936, conducted by Constant Lambert, but only revived again in 2020. A pianist, after injuring her hand she became a singer. In the 1970s she wrote guides to cooking and wine en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guirne_... #jawiki www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZRQ...

en.wikipedia.org

Guirne Creith - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

32) David Cox, only remembered for his 18 second arrangement of Lillibullero, which introduced hourly World Service news broadcasts for 30 years. He eventually extended Lillibullero into a full concert overture, London Calling en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_C... #jawiki www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGn1...

en.wikipedia.org

David Cox (composer) - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

31) Norman Cocker, organ scholar at Merton College Oxford, sent down for not doing enough work. Learned to play every instrument in the orchestra. Composed the popular "Tuba Tune" in 1922. Also an amateur magician and a cook. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_... #jawiki www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4e3...

en.wikipedia.org

Norman Cocker - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Intriguingly he also worked with W.B Yeats as his "authorised" poetry reader. Yeats chose him and worked with him as preferred reader for a landmark series of poetry broadcasts at the BBC in 1937. Clinton-Baddeley later directed and performed audio recordings of poetry by Yeats for Jupiter Records

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

30) VC Clinton-Baddeley was a playwright, actor, elocutionist and writer, an early radio broadcaster in the 1920s reading Dickens and others. He provided texts for operettas, wrote plays, pantomimes, detective novels, non-fiction and produced early audiobooks en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V.C._Cl... #jawiki

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Excellent to see this newly unearthed live recording of a Royal Festival Hall concert on 14 November 1959 - one of Beecham's last - featuring four scenes and dances from Leonard Salzedo's once very popular ballet score The Witch Boy somm-recordings.com/recording/th...

somm-recordings.com

The Beecham Collection – Salzedo: The Witch Boy; Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 3; Delius: By the River; Grieg: Symphonic Dance No. 2 | SOMM Recordings

SOMM’s Ralph Vaughan Williams’ 150th celebrations continue with Vaughan Williams Live, Volume 3 featuring signature works conducted by the composer himself.

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

29) Hubert Clifford, Australian born British composer, surveyed the ruins of Queen's Hall beside John Gough and Henry Wood in May 1941. Became Musical Director for Alexander Korda films after the war and commissioned some classic scores from Alwyn and others en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_... #jawiki

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

29) Hubert Clifford, Australian born British composer, surveyed the ruins of Queens Hall beside John Gough and Henry Wood in May 1941. Became Musical Director for Alexander Korda films after the war and commissioned some classic scores from Alwyn and others en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_... #jawiki

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

27) James Kenelm Clarke, son of one of the founders of the UK's pioneering Argo record label, producer of somewhat dubious films (including UK's answer to Saturday Night Fever), and composer of this sublime piece of light music en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_K... #jawiki www.youtube.com/watch?v=50Do...

en.wikipedia.org

James Kenelm Clarke - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

26) Winifred Christie, pianist, advocate of the two manual Moór-Duplex piano (invented by her husband Emanuel Moór). Only about 60 of the pianos were ever made. She also provided monetary support to establish the Westminster Central Music Library en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winifre... #jawiki

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

25) Chiswell Street - my office (when I had an office) looked out over Chiswell Street, opposite the Chiswell Archer - so I revamped the Wikipedia page, which now explains why the archer is there, and also details the huge modern developments now encroaching en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiswel... #jawiki

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

24) Francis Chagrin, born Bucharest, nightclub pianist to support his studies with Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger, settled in England in 1936, founded Society for the Promotion of New Music. His son, actor Julian Chagrin, played the 'secret lemonade drinker'. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis... #jawiki

en.wikipedia.org

Francis Chagrin - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

23) Hiawatha Coleridge-Taylor, son of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, helped produce the spectacular Albert Hall stagings of Hiawatha from 1924 to 1939. He married his accompanist, pianist Kathleen Markwell, and sued Novello for not paying his father's royalties en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiawath... #jawiki

en.wikipedia.org

Hiawatha Coleridge-Taylor - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

22) Herbert Chappell studied with the formidable Egon Wellesz in Oxford. He wrote music for television, and his children's cantata The Daniel Jazz set the template for school "pop cantatas" by Michael Hurd, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Joseph Horovitz & many others en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert... #jawiki

en.wikipedia.org

Herbert Chappell - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

21) John Carmichael, Australian composer, pupil of Arthur Benjamin, now approaching his 96th birthday. Music therapy pioneer in the UK. Best known for Concierto folklorico (1965), a 'Last Night of the Proms' (Perth version) favourite www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOgM... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ca...

youtube.com

John Carmichael : Concierto folklorico for piano and String orchestra (1965) 1/3 **MUST HEAR**

YouTube video by collectionCB

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

20) Adam Carse built a collection of 350 antique wind instruments, now in the Horniman Museum. He researched the history of the orchestra and edited classical symphonies. He also wrote five symphonies of his own, much music for strings, and music for schools en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Ca... #jawiki

en.wikipedia.org

Adam Carse - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

19) Basil Cameron helped steer the Proms through the difficult post WW2 years. He bravely programmed Schoenberg's Piano Concerto on 7 September 1945 with the young pianist Kyla Greenbaum as soloist. It was received by the audience with unexpected enthusiasm #jawiki en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_C...

en.wikipedia.org

Basil Cameron - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

18) Percy Buck, organist, music teacher, professor, Tudor music expert, taught Madeleine Dring and had a 17 year-long affair with Sylvia Townsend Warner #jawiki www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dxa...

youtube.com

O Lord God (Percy Buck)

YouTube video by Chris Hopkins

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

I enjoyed the production very much, but music played very little part, which I think missed a trick. The original production featured music (from the two time zones) by Jeremy Sams, and the final waltz (much abbreviated) can be heard here, from 2 hours 33 minutes archive.org/details/stop...

archive.org

*Stoppard - Arcadia - 1994 Fielding Sewell Nighy : Tom Stoppard : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Arcadia by Tom Stoppardwith Emma Fielding - Thomasina Coverly, Rufus Sewell - Septimus Hodge, Allan Mitchell - Jellaby, Derek Hutchinson - Ezra Chater, Sidney...

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Have renewed one of my favourite reference books. My old copy was falling apart, so replaced it with revised 3rd edition (2008, rather than 1983), still with most of the original text intact. Like all reference books these days, it was cheap: £4.95, free postage, 2nd hand but never been read

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

17) Spanish violinist Antonio Brosa was a champion of British music - advisor to Walton and premieres by Elizabeth Poston, Haydn Wood, Arthur Benjamin, Britten (Violin Concerto), Helen Perkin, Denis ApIvor, Roberto Gerhard, Stanley Bate. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio... #jawiki

en.wikipedia.org

Antonio Brosa - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

16) When Dora Bright's career as a pianist began to tail off (early 1900s) she began composing ballet scores for Adeline Genée. She was credited with "returning English ballet to the centre of London Theatre" and helped establish the Royal Academy of Dancing en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dora_Br... #jawiki

en.wikipedia.org

Dora Bright - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

And it may be me hallucinating this time, but I suspect I'm seeing more wrong answers than I was a few months ago (unless I was just more trusting then). If the quality of the models deteriorate due to model data pollution caused by previous wrong answers generated, we are really in trouble

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

It takes as much or more time than before. What it does bring (to a complex, technical subject), is the ability to ask the stupidest, basic questions and work up your understanding from there. I think that's quite valuable. But at the same time it's undermining Google as a research starting point

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Wrote a report yesterday and used AI (various models) as the primary research tool - not to generate text. Approximately one third of the time it provided wrong answers, some easy to spot, others much more feasible and subtle. Had to ask the same question, multiple time, and then check elsewhere.

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

15) There were many first performances by Ina Boyle in the 1920s and 1930s (though almost never second performances). She mostly stayed at home (at Bushey Park near Enniskerry) to look after her family, but composed every day en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ina_Boyle #jawiki www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgn3...

en.wikipedia.org

Ina Boyle - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Keller's review was so savage that Burgess later dedicated a piece to him. ''Homage to Hans Keller" (1982) is scored for four tubas. Roger Lewis (rightly) describes it as "a kind of lavatorial blast". The Crystal Palace Band tuba section recorded its premiere for a BBC documentary in 2025

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

14) Blooms of Dublin by Anthony Burgess, based on Ulysses. Free interpretation of Joyce's text with interpolations, all set to music that blends opera with Gilbert and Sullivan and music hall - such as "Copulation Without Population". Hans Keller loathed it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blooms_... #jawiki

en.wikipedia.org

Blooms of Dublin - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I didn't really attempt to find the uncredited films, just linked to other Wikipedia entries where he has been credited - so I see now that Sabotage used the uncredited team of Bath, Beaver and Levy. Always more research to do...

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Thanks - I took that from Andrew Lamb's notes from this CD, and because he was part of the Gaumont–British Pictures composing team - Louis Levy and Ernest Irving also talk about that way of team working in their various memoirs I think www.hyperion-records.co.uk/notes/67400-...

hyperion-records.co.uk

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

13) Jack Beaver wrote around 40 film scores between 1932 and 1947, including the score for Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and the fake piano concerto in ''The Case of the Frightened Lady". Marius Goring actually played the piano. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Be... #jawiki www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHB0...

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Holding Court, by Clive James - first printed it the Times Literary Supplement on 1 March, 2013

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

I missed Arcadia at the Old Vic, will now see it at the Duke of York. I still vividly remember its premiere in 1993, which I went to multiple times. Just as long as they don't use The End by the Doors as the final music (as in a touring version I saw). Apart from anything else it's not even in 3/4!

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

12) Frederic Bayco built his career as an organist, uneasily positioned between church, college and cinema. He's best remembered now for his library music and light music, particularly the pastiche Elizabethan Masque of 1957. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederi... #jawiki www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4EC...

en.wikipedia.org

Frederic Bayco - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

11) Stanley Bate, an intriguing composer who will never be fashionable, has at least had some of his long-forgotten music made available again through recordings. He died in 1959, broke and depressed by his lack of recognition. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley... #jawiki www.youtube.com/watch?v=40Lx...

en.wikipedia.org

Stanley Bate - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

10) John Banting, left wing English Surrealist artist and writer associated with the Bloomsbury Group. Book jackets for Hogarth Press, set designer for Constant Lambert's ballet Pomona, and of the front cover to the score of The Rio Grande. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ba... #jawiki

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

9) Enid Bagnold, obviously National Velvet (which I enjoyed), but also a fascinating, chaotic circle of friends - Walter Sickert, Frank Harris, Hugh Kingsmill - and a broad range of writing, including "The Squire" (1938) and "The Chalk Garden" (1955) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Ba... #jawiki

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

8) Algernon Ashton, studied with Raff in Frankfurt (pre Frankfurt Group), composed 24 piano sonatas and 24 string quartets in all keys. Compulsive letter writer to the newspapers, 58 volumes of his diary (unfortunately lost) www.youtube.com/watch?v=jId8... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerno... #jawiki

en.wikipedia.org

Algernon Ashton - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

7) Marian Arkwright composed a Japanese Symphony, a 1914 Requiem (later judged "jingoistic in the extreme"), and perhaps a more authentic response to the war in "Through the Mist" (1920) www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Q3... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_... #jawiki

en.wikipedia.org

Marian Arkwright - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

6) Neil Ardley, something of a British Gil Evans, whose record contract was terminated after 1975's Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows (which Duncan Heining judged his masterpiece), and who went on to become a successful writer of non-fiction books on science and music en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Ar... #jawiki

en.wikipedia.org

Neil Ardley - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

5) Frederic Archer, Oxford born composer, conductor and organist who became better known in the US, where he founded the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1896. His Duo Concertante for flute and piano has been recorded www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEVP... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederi... #jawiki

en.wikipedia.org

Frederic Archer - Wikipedia

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

4) The Apollonicon, a self-acting barrel organ, supposedly the largest ever built with 1,900 pipes, 45 stops and five keyboards, was presented for the first time at 101 St Martin's Lane in 1817, played by blind organist John Purkis and drawing massive crowds en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollon... #jawiki

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John Abbott @sfjohna.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

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