May Henrietta Mukle FRAM (14 May 1880 – 20 February 1963) was a British cellist and composer. She has been described as a "noted feminist cellist", who encouraged other women cellists.
Early life Mukle was born in London, the daughter of Leopold Mukle and his second wife Nan Mukle. Her father was an immigrant from Rohrbach near Furtwangen in the Black Forest, Germany, who trained as a clockmaker, but was best known as an organ builder in London and part of the partnership Imhof & Mukle, which had its premises in Oxford Street. His two surviving sons followed him into the business. May's sisters — Anne (pianist), Lillian (trumpet), Flora (singer) and Louisa — were also musicians. She studied cello at the Royal Academy of Music with Alessandro Pezze (1835–1914).
Career Mukle was a working musician for over fifty years, including concert tours in Australia, Africa, and Asia. Her instrument was built by Montagnana and bought for her by an anonymous donor. Mukle was also a composer of works for cello and piano.
She performed as a soloist, and in chamber ensembles. She was a member of Rosabel Watson's Aeolian Ladies' Orchestra, and of the all-women English Ensemble, with violinist Marjorie Hayward, violist Rebecca Clarke, and pianist Kathleen Long. She toured around the world with Clarke in 1922-3.Liane Curtis. 'Rebecca Clarke and Sonata Form: Questions of Gender and Genre', The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 81, No. 3 (Autumn, 1997), p. 403 In 1925, Mukle played at New York's Aeolian Hall with Percy Grainger and Lionel Tertis. With her pianist sister, Anne Mukle, she was a member of the Maud Powell Trio, which toured South Africa and America. Also with Anne, she gave the first performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Six Studies in English Folk Song in London in 1926. She also performed in the Langley-Mukle Quartet with Beatrice Langley, Marjorie Hayward and James Lockyer,May Mukle. 'Why I Love The Cello', Every Woman's Encyclopedia (1910-12), Vol. 4 and in a Trio with Langley and York Bowen.Bruce Phillips. Notes to Ireland Piano Trios, Naxos CD 8.570507 (2009)
Mukle's apartment near Wigmore Hall was convenient for hosting visiting musicians; she also convinced the landlords to rent other apartments to musicians, so there would be fewer conflicts about noise. She founded the MM (Mainly Musicians) Club in a basement near Oxford Circus in London; during World War II, she converted it into a air raid shelter. She was an original member of the Society of Women Musicians, present at the organization's first meeting in 1911.
Mukle was described in The Times as "in the very front rank of living violoncellists", and her obituary in The Times says of her: "by the turn of the century she was fully recognized not only as an outstanding musician but as one of the most remarkable cellists this country had produced."
Personal life and legacy Mukle broke her wrist in a car accident in 1959, at age 79, but resumed playing after it healed, performing in North Carolina in 1960. She preferred to undertake her extensive journeying around the world by tramp steamer, returning from the last of them only a year before her death.'May Mukle', obituary, The Musical Times, Vol. 104, No. 1442 (April 1963), p. 278
She died at Cuckfield, Sussex, in 1963, at the age of 82. Her portrait, painted by John Mansfield Crealock, is held in the museum of the Royal Academy of Music. The May Mukle Prize was founded in 1964 in her honour and is awarded each year to a cello student of the college.
Musical family Leopold Mukle (1827–1913), German-born organ builder (Imhof & Mukle, founded 1852) Anne Mukle (A.V. Mukle) (1866–1941), pianist, professionally active from the 1890s until 1940, founding member of the Society of Women Musicians, duo with cellist Lilly Phillips, trio with May Mukle and violinist Maud Powell Flora Mukle (1872–1941), singer, flute Lillian Mukle (1874–1951), trumpet, cornet, violin. Trained Guildhall School of MusicWho's Who in Music: a Biographical Record of Contemporary Musicians (1913), p. 148 Louisa Mukle (1878–1926), viola, cello, double bass, percussion'Y.M.C.A' Soldier's Hut', in The Bucks Herald, 16 October 1915, p. 6'The Yeoman of the Guard at Sudbury', in Suffolk and Essex Free Press, 31 January 1924, p. 2 May Mukle (1880–1963), cellist and composer
Leopold's two surviving sons, Fred Mukle (1877–????) and Stanley Herbert Mukle (1883-1970), followed their father into the family business. Stanley's daughter Nora Mukle married the composer Vernon Elliott.'Mostly about Women: Nora Mukle', in The Middlesex County Times, 26 November 1938, p. 10 Their daughter Naomi (born 1938) became a cellist.
References
External links Portrait of May Mukle
Autographed postcard print of May Henrietta Mukle, before World War I, in the National Portrait Gallery. Recordings of May Mukle included in the National Jukebox, Library of Congress.