Henry Cotter Nixon (17 May 1842 – 25 December 1907) was a British musician and composer. He is credited as possibly being the author of the first British symphonic poem.
Early life and education Nixon was born on 17 May 1842 in Kennington, South London, the fourth son of Henry George Nixon (1796– 1849), an organist and composer, and Caroline Melissa Danby. Caroline was the daughter of Sarah Danby, mistress to J. M. W. Turner. Henry George Nixon died of cholera when Nixon was seven, leaving the family in perilous finances.
As a teenager, he studied under a family friend, Harry Deval. He also continued studying privately with Henry Smart, Charles Steggall, and George Alexeander Macfarren. In 1876, he received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Cambridge.
Career In 1859, he became the organist at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Hull. Around 1860, he returned to London and wrote his earliest surviving work, Nightingale Quadrilles. During the 1860s, he was an active musician, becoming second violinist in the Sacred Harmonic Society Orchestra in 1862. He made his debut as a pianist in 1864. He was a Fellow and Council Member of the Royal College of Organists in 1867 and 1868 respectively.
In 1872, he moved to Sussex due to ill health, where he became organist at St Mary Magdalen Church, St Leonards-on Sea. In 1876, he was appointed conductor of the Hastings and St Leonards Orchestra. His Piano Trio No. 1 in C won the gold medal at the Chamber Music Competition organised by Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1882, he wrote Palamon and Arcite, potentially the first British symphonic poem.
In 1888, he established the Hastings and St Leonards College of Music with Val Marriott and Herbert Dorman. Around this time, he returned to London, where his career largely faded. None of his orchestral works are known to have been performed after this point.
Personal life In November 1873, he married his student Alice Mary Woodward who died of breast cancer in September 1895. They had three children. His son Henry died of diphtheria in 1892 at the age of thirteen.
Nixon died of prostate cancer in 1907. He was survived by his son Conrad Nixon. His and his father's papers are held by the Royal College of Music.
Bibliography
The Tonic Sol-Fa System : What Is It? (1898)
Compositions (selective list) Sources:
Orchestral
1879 – Piano Trio No. 1 in C:Sub Judice 1880 – Concert Overture No. 1:Titania 1880s – Concert Overture No. 2:Anima et Fide 1880s –Concert Overture No. 3:|Jacta est alea 1882 – Palamon and Arcite 1883 – Concert-Stück, Op. 14 1884 – May Day, Op.16 1889 – Dance of the Sea Nymphs 1902 – Coronation March (unfinished)
Choral and Vocal
1890 – Aslauga:Overture c.1895 – Apollo (unfinished)
Operatic and stage
1895 – The Witch of Esgair 1895 – The Gay Typewriters
Chamber Music
1881 – Uno Amino 1884 – String Quartet, Op.15
References