Hamish MacCunn

Hamish MacCunn (Christened James) was a Scottish composer, conductor and teacher. He was born on 22nd March 1868 in Greenock, Scotland and died on 2nd August 1916 in London, England aged 48.

“The Land of the Mountain and the Flood” (1887) 
“Jeanie Deans” (1894) 
“The Wreck of the Hesperus” (1905)

1868: Hamish MacCunn was born on 22nd March in Greenock, Scotland. His father James MacCunn was a wealthy shipowner and amateur cellist. His mother was Barbara, née Neill, was a pianist and former pupil of William Sterndale Bennett. Hamish was christened James and was the second son. He was educated at Greenock Academy and received private lessons in piano, organ, violin and composition.

1876: The family spend a season in London, and MacCunn attends all of August Mann’s concerts at the Crystal Palace.

1883: He wins a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London. Among his teachers in composition are Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford and he studies piano under Franklin Taylor and viola under Alfred Gibson.

1884: Whilst still a student he has several pieces premiered at the Academy including the cantata “The Moss Rose”.

1885: He adopts the first name Hamish, which is a Gaelic version of the name James. His overture “Cior Mhor” is included in a concert at the Crystal Palace in October. 

1886: He resigns the scholarship in a fit of pique believing he is not receiving his due social status and therefore he doesn’t finish his degree.

1887: His first major success is with “The Land of the Mountain and the Flood” which is performed at the Crystal Palace alongside the overuture “Cior Mhor”.

1888: He takes up the post of professor of harmony at the Royal College of Music and also takes on private pupils to boost his income. He composes the Scottish overtures “The Ship o’ the Fiend” and “The Dowie Dens o’ Yarrow” and the choral pieces “Bonny Kilmeny“, “Lord Ullin’s Daughter” and “The Lay of the Last Minstrel“.

1889: Many of his songs are premiered at the house of John Pettie the painter. He marries Pettie’s daughter Alison in June. Carl Rosa the opera manager commissions him to write a work for his company.

1890: He composes the vocal piece “The Cameronian’s Dream“.

1891: He is contracted to write an opera for Richard D’Oyly Carte’s new Royal English Opera House. It is planned to be “Cleopatra” based on H. Rider Haggards’s novel but it is never completed.

1894: His opera was “Jeanie Deans”, based “The Heart of Midlothian” by Walter Scott is first produced and receives considerable success.

1896: “Jeanie Deans” is performed in London and MacCunn begins work on another opera.

1897: The Carl Rosa company produces “Diarmid and Ghrine” at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London with moderate success and MacCunn becomes known now chiefly as an opera conductor. His new orchestral suite, “Highland Memories” is given its premiere.

1898: For two seasons he is musical director of the Carl Rosa company and conducts a wide range of productions including the first performances in English of Richard Wagner’s“Tristan und Isolde” and “Siegfried”.

1900: He signs a new contract as conductor of the Moody-Manners company and leads the orchestra in Wagner’s “Lohengrin”, “Tannhauser” and the “Flying Dutchman” as well as performing George Bizet’s “Carmen” and his own work “The Masque of War and Peace”.

1902: He is appointed as musical director of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre. He produces the premiere of Edward German’s “Merrie England”.

1903: He conducts German’s “A Princess of Kensington”.

1905: His opera “The Golden Girl” is produced at Her Majesty’s Theatre and he composes “The Wreck of the Hesperus“.

1908: His “Pageant of Darkness and Light” is performed in London. 

1910: He conducts “Hansel and Gretel” by the nineteenth century composer Engelbert Humperdinck at His Majesy’s Theatre as part of Thomas Beecham’s season and takes “The Tales of Hoffman” by Jacques Offenbach on tour.

1912: He teaches opera classes at the Guildhall School of Music in London and continues his private tuition.

1915: He conducts “The Tales of Hoffmann” and Charles Gounod’s “Faust” in Beecham’s season at the Shaftesbury Theatre.  

Hamish MacCunn died on 2nd August in 1916 at home in St John’s Wood, London of throat cancer. He was buried in Hampstead Cemetery. 

Hamish MacCunn was the second son of the wealthy shipbuilder, ferry owner and merchant, James MacCunn and showed musical ability from a very young age. He started composing melodies aged five and wrote an oratorio aged twelve. His father was an amateur cellist and his mother had learnt music under the English composer William Sterndale Bennett. She played the piano and taught her son as well as being an accomplished singer. He received private tuition in violin, piano and composition as well as attending the local school, Greenock Academy.

When he was eight in 1876 the family spent a whole musical season in London and he attended several concerts at the Crystal Palace. In 1883 he won a scholarship to the newly established Royal College of Music in London where he studied piano with Franklin Taylor, Viola with Alfred Gibson and composition with the famous composers Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford. Whilst he was there he had many compositions performed such as the cantata “The Moss Rose” in 1884 and began to adopt Hamish as his first name (being the Gaelic form of James, he thought it emphasised his Scottish heritage). He declined his degree in 1887 complaining at the time that: “the professors seem to teach at the lectures a form of musical gymnastics! Dry bones! Never once did they speak of the ideal of art”.

In 1889, the year after he became a Professor at the Royal College of Music, he composed his most famous work and one which he is most known for today the overture “The Land of the Mountain and the Flood” the title of which was derived from Sir Walter Scott’s “Lay of the Last Minstrel”. By the late 1880s after three successful overtures and four orchestral works such as Bonny Kilmeny” of 1888 he was seen as one of the rising stars amongst British composers and later became to be known as Scotland’s national composer.

His early style owed much to Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann although his tutors at the Royal College accused him of apeing Richard Wagner who was not in vogue there. Much of his work is not overtly Scottish especially after 1900 and his reputation rests solely on his earlier work. Although he composed much sophisticated music in the twentieth century his popularity waned and he almost disappeared from concert platforms and when he was included it was the earlier music that was performed.

As a young man he was very good looking and was painted twice by the Edinburgh artist John Pettie, once as Bonnie Prince Charlie and as a suitor to the Pettie’s Governess. It did help however that he had married the artist’s daughter. His opera “Jeanie Deans” based on the plot of Scott’s “Heart of Midlothian”, was very popular at the time and one newspaper critic, Michael Tumelty, wrote “the music is frankly astonishing” when it was revived in Ayr. Another opera “Diarmid” was successful at Covent Garden Opera House in London in 1897 and afterwards toured the provinces. In 1898 Queen Victoria asked for a private performance of selections from it at her Scottish home Balmoral. None of his operas are performed today however, not even by Scottish Opera. His later work at the time shows he was aware of new music by Claude Debussy and Richard Strauss.

Some critics have said that his hectic schedule of composing, conducting and teaching contributed to his early death aged 48 from throat cancer. His music declined further in popularity after his death. In 1951 his manuscripts and published works were donated by his widow to Glasgow University. 

List of compositions by MacCunn.