Williams, Grace (Mary)
Williams, Grace (Mary)
Williams, Grace (Mary), Welsh composer; b. Barry, Glamorganshire, Feb. 19, 1906; d. there, Feb. 10, 1977. Her father led the local boy’s chorus and played the piano in a home trio, with Grace on the violin and her brother on the cello. In 1923 she entered the music dept. of the Univ. of Wales in Cardiff, in the composition class of David Evans. Upon graduation in 1926, she enrolled at the Royal Coll. of Music in London. There she was accepted as a student of Vaughan Williams, who had the greatest influence on her career as a composer, both in idiom and form; she also took classes with Gordon Jacob. She subsequently received the Octavia Traveling Scholarship and went to Vienna to take lessons with Wellesz (1930-31). She did not espouse the atonal technique of the 2nd Viennese School, but her distinctly diatonic harmony with strong tertian underpinning was artfully embroidered with nicely hung deciduous chromatics of a decidedly nontonal origin. She marked May 10, 1951, in her diary as a “day of destruction,” when she burned all her MSS unworthy of preservation. Among her practical occupations were teaching school and writing educational scripts for the BBC. She was particularly active in her advancement of Welsh music.
Works
dramatic: DRAMATIC: Theseus and Ariadne, ballet (1935); The Parlour, opera (1961). ORCH.: Sinfonia concertante for Piano and Orch. (1941); 2 syms. (1943; 1956, rev. 1975); Sea Sketches for Strings (1944); Violin Concerto (1950); Trumpet Concerto (1963); Castell Caernarfon, for the investiture of the Prince of Wales (1969). CHAMBER: Sextet for Oboe, Trumpet, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano (1931); Suite for 9 Instruments (1934). VOCAL: Numerous choruses; songs.
Bibliography
M. Boyd, G. W.(Cardiff, 1980).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire