Mark Hugh Lubbock (17 November 1898 – 10 November 1986) was a British conductor and composer, especially of operetta and light music.
Life Lubbock was born in Downe, Kent, the son of Hugh Nevile Lubbock and Margaret Tiarks. His grandfather was the Kent county cricketer Sir Nevile Lubbock, and his cousin was the politician Eric Lubbock, 4th Baron Avebury. He was educated at Eton College, and later in Dresden.Who's Who in Music, 1st edition (1935) He also served in World War I with the Royal Artillery and the Labour Corps.Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 13 November 1986, p. 14
He began his career as a singer in the choruses of several musical comedies, making his conducting debut with theatrical touring companies in 1920,Obituary, The Times, 18 November, 1986, p.22 initially with the Shaftesbury Theatre. The earnings from this funded his study period in Dresden, where he also became a répétiteur and assistant conductor to Kurt Striegler. In 1933, he and Harry S. Pepper were recruited by the BBC, both being noted as "established composers of light music".The Strand Magazine, Volume 85 (1933), p. 34 Lubbock was the BBC's Light Music Conductor from 1933 to 1944, replacing Stanford Robinson.
On 15 January 1930 he married the writer Bea Howe,Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936 (Holy Trinity, Brompton, 15 Jan 1930) author of the group biography A Galaxy of Governesses (1954), regular contributor to Country Life and a close friend of Sylvia Townsend Warner. They lived in Kensington, London and at The Old Forge, Althorne in Essex.Who's Who in Music, 5th edition (1969) Lubbock also had a relationship with the actress Barbara Shotter (sister of Winifred Shotter), with whom he had a daughter.Barbara Shotter obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 3 January, 2013, p.27
Lubbock appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 15 June 1974.
Works His 1931 operetta The King Can Do No Wrong was one of the first to be commissioned and broadcast by the BBC specifically for radio broadcast.The King Can Do No Wrong, Radio Times, Issue 408, 26 July 1931, p. 40 It was one of at least 12 musical comedies he wrote in collaboration with the playwright and BBC producer C. Denis Freeman, including Seat in Hyde Park (1931), His Majesty Proclaims, Fame in a Night, Uplift, Wonderful Weekend (1932)Wireless Magazine, November 1932, p. 496 and The Castle on the Hill (1933). A later radio operetta was The Rose and the Violet (1942), with book and lyrics by Barbara Cartland, set against the Edwardian background of Rotten Row."The Rose and the Violet", Radio Times, Issue 989, 13 September, 1942, p. 10
His other compositions include light orchestral pieces such as Fiesta,Recorded by Robert Farnon and the Queen's Hall Light Orchestra on Chappell C.311 (1947) Polka Dots,Recorded on British Light Music Miniatures, Marco Polo/Naxos 8.223522 (1994) and Saltarello. One such piece, Moon Lullaby,Recorded by Charles Williams conducting The Queen's Hall Light Orchestra, Chappell C.236 (1945) was featured in "Arrival", the first episode of cult classic television series The Prisoner. In addition, Lubbock wrote songs such as A Smuggler's Song, Blackbird in the Apple Tree, Dance Again, Lullaby River, The Whispering Poplar, and Winter Rose. He also wrote the incidental music for the 1952 London production of An Italian Straw Hat at the Old Vic.
In 1962 Lubbock published a reference work, The Complete Book of Light Opera, a book of synopses conceived as a companion to Kobbé with an American section by David Ewen.The Musical Times, Vol. 103, No. 1438 (December 1962), p. 848
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