So deft a builder : an account of the life and work of Sir Henry Hadow

• Main Author: Simmons, Jennifer R.
• Published: University of Sheffield 1978
• Subjects: 370.92
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.472698

From the 1890's until his death in 1937 Sir Henry Hadow exercised a considerable influence on English musical and educational policy. His qualities of scholarship and artistic perception combined with a gift of administrative skill in a life which fulfilled itself in three main sequences. The early chapters of this study offer some account of Hadow's education at Malvern and oxford against the background of his home and family life. His training as a classical scholar was realized, and a summer spent in Germany enriched his interest in musical composition. With the publication of Studies in Modern Music in 1892 and 1895, and his subsequent editorship of the Oxford History of Music, he established a distinguished reputation as a music critic. A new phase in Hadow's life began with his appointment as Principal of Armstrong College - later the University of Newcastle - which was primarily a scientific and technological institution. He was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Durham and a member of five national committees. In January 1919, Hadow was knighted, and in this same year he undertook work as a pioneer in the Army Education scheme. The later chapters, which incorporate Hadowts term of office as Chairman of the Consultative Committee to the Board of Education, also embrace his service to Sheffield as Vice-Chancellor of the University. It was during this final phase that the many "Hadow Reports", including the six reports of the Consultative Committee and the report for the B. B. C., "New Ventures in Broadcasting" (1928) were published. Hadow continued, as at Oxford and Newcastle, to address a variety of audiences on a variety of subjects; and the lectures and writings of this period are as felicitous in style and expression as they are rich in scholarship.