The Dolmetsch Story

Arnold Dolmetsch's signature in the register of the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory which he visited in 1897

Text   The story of this remarkable family and their pioneering work over one hundred and twenty years in the field of early music, The Dolmetsch Story, is available in two versions:   online version in English online version in French   If you want your own copy, refer to our pdf file archive page.   Film   There is a short film on Youtube showing Arnold Dolmetsch and his family playing various instruments and, in the case of Mabel Dolmetsch, dancing. We believe the film was shot in 1928 at the family home, Jesses, in Haslemere, Surrey. The information below was drawn from Reflections - Fall 2000 - University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C.   The card for this film clip, no. 1-78, provides only the following: Surrey, England, August 31st, 1928; Shots of Arnold Dolmet[s]ch and family playing old fashioned instruments of 15th & 16th Century; Cameraman, Davis."   The Youtube URL is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDcvJRuBAfI.   The music is an extract from Divisions on a Ground by Daniel Norcome (c.1576-1655) performed by Rudolph Dolmetsch (viola da gamba) and Arnold Dolmetsch (lute) (taken from Columbia History of Music by Eye and Ear (1929-1933)).   We offer a short description of the different scenes that make up the excerpt:   Arnold Dolmetsch playing a clavichord Arnold Dolmetsch playing a lute - Mabel Dolmetsch dancing Rudolph Dolmetsch playing a triangular Dolmetsch harpsichord Nathalie Dolmetsch playing a tenor viol Recorder players (left to right: (front row) Mabel, Arnold, Leslie Ward, Rudolph: (back row) ?, ?, Carl, Nathalie) Arnold Dolmetsch playing a clavchord

Dolmetsch Research

The work of the Dolmetsch family, in particular that of Arnold, his third wife Mabel and their four children, Rudolph, Carl, Cécile and Nathalie, is being, or has been, researched by several scholars.   The life work of Arnold Dolmetsch and of his son Carl Dolmetsch are both well known but Mabel, Cécile and Nathalie all made significant contributions to various areas of early music.

Mabel, Arnold Dolmetsch's third wife, was skilled in early and modern languages and she translated many original treatises on early dance written in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. She published two books on early European dance which are still used by early dance teachers around the world. The Dolmetsch Historical Dance Society is inspired by her contribution to the modern appreciation and understanding of early dance.   The picture (taken in the mid-1950s in the 'studio', until the mid-1930s the site of Arnold Dolmetsch's Haslemere workshop, and now gloriously restored as a music room) shows Mabel Dolmetsch dancing with one of her grand-daughters, Marie-Therese Carley, Joseph Saxby at the harpsichord, Carl and Mary Dolmetsch visible under the dancers' arms and Cécile Dolmetsch (Mrs Ward) to the right. Marie-Therese's older sister, Marie-Louise Bailey, is playing the famous Maggini violone. She stands behind a seated Jeanne Dolmetsch who is playing a recorder. Marguerite, Jeanne's twin sister, is also playing the recorder but only her hands are visible. The lutenist, sitting on the far left of the picture, is David Channon (David died in 2014, aged 90); the one nearer the harpsichord is Diana Poulton.

Cécile and Nathalie, sisters of Dr. Carl Dolmetsch, were players of the viol, Nathalie wrote an excellent book on the Viola da Gamba and was president of the Viola da Gamba Society of Great Britain.   The second picture (taken at the same time as the one above) shows the 'younger generation' dancing, Nathalie Dolmetsch with her back to us, Marie-Louise Carley facing us and to the left Marie-Therese (her back to us) and a fourth dancer, Rosalind Ward (daughter of Cécile) with plaits. Both Joseph Saxby (at the harpsichord) and Dr. Carl Dolmetsch (playing the recorder) are obscured by the four dancers, but Mary Dolmetsch, Carl's wife, is playing the bass recorder, with Marie-Louise's husband, John Bailey, playing the bass viol, Cécile Dolmetsch, playing the rebec, and Mabel Dolmetsch playing the Maggini violine. On the right, Jeanne Dolmetsch is obscured by her twin sister, Marguerite, who also hold a viol. David Channon is the lutenist on the far left of the picture; the one nearer the harpsichord is Diana Poulton.   We maintain a list of Nathalie's writings on the viol as well as information about articles by her sister Cécile and their father Arnold. Cécile was a pioneer in performance on and the promotion of music written for the pardessus d'viol, the sopranino of the viol family which enjoyed a vogue in France in the seventeenth and eighteen centuries.

References

Brian Blood and The Blood Family