Dear Arthur, Thank you very much for this very interesting information about Madame Sydney Pratten and Ernest Shand.
About 30 years ago, I was given some guitar music which seemed to have belonged to someone who may have had guitar lessons in London from Madame Sidney Pratten, or (more likely) from Madame Giulia Pelzer. It included two books of printed music by Ernest Shand (one dated 1910), and various publications by Madame Sidney Pratten (also referred to as Catharina Josepha Pratten), and by Madame Giulia Pelzer. Looking at it now, I am amazed how expensive the music was. For example, _Bolero_, by "Madame R. Sydney Pratten, Teacher of the Guitar to Her Royal Highness the Princess Louise", is a song covering just two pages, and it cost three shillings. There is a note on the cover which reads, "Owing to the limited sale of Guitar Music Mme. Pratten is obliged to charge FULL PRICE for her own publications." On the back cover is a price list of Madame Sydney Pratten's Solos for the Guitar. Most of the pieces cost half a crown. At the top of the page someone has written, "All in this list since the war 6d. extra". Another item costing half a crown [= 2/6 or two shillings and sixpence] is "A Drawing of Mme. Sidney Pratten's _right hand_, showing the positions for striking the strings, with explanations. drawn by Fred: Coleman." There's not even a mention of her left hand. In this small collection there is some handwritten music for guitar by someone called Sanders Papworth. Have you any idea where he fits in? Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Arthur Ness" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lute Net" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Graham Pratten" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, August 15, 2005 11:32 PM Subject: [LUTE] Re: Madame Robert Sidney Pratten, Victoirian guitar virtuosa > Dear Mr. Pratten, > > Thank you very much for the additional information. about musicians in the > Pratten family. Part of the problem is that persons with these dual names > can be confused. The composer Peter Maxwell Davies is sometimes listed > under M (once I noticed with out a cross reference under D) and sometimes > under D. Likewise Madame Robert Sidney Pratten (with and without the > hyphen) is sometimes listed under S (with the hyphen) and sometimes P (for > both Pratten and Pelzer, her maiden name). There was a third form of her > name that she used as a widow. Readers of this list will be amused with > your full name, Graham Dove Pratten. Dove is your mother's maiden name., > just like Sidney was Robert Prattan's. I am also sometimes called Johnny > Dove, after a famous lutenist Johann Daube. > > She appears under Sidney-Pratten and Pelzer (but not Pratten) in Josef > Zuth's important _Handbuch der Laute und Gitarre_ (Vienna 1926-28; Rpt > Hildesheim & New York, 1978), a reference tool widely used by researchers > and music catalogers. And your observation that she and her husband used > Sidney as part of their professional names would suggest additional; reasons > for checking under S and P. Indeed sometimes she refers to herself as "R. > Sidney Pratten." I can imagine you encounter the same problems in doing > genealogical research. The problems increase many fold when dealing with the > eccentricities of earlier indexes. > > Your information already points in directions one might inquire to locate > Madame SP's collection, if it is still intact. (I am not planning to make > such a search.) > > I was involved when it first came up on one of the Internet newsgroups. A > Londoner had just purchased an old guitar at auction. It had belonged to > Madame Sidney Pratten, and in the case was a laundry list with her name on > it. The purchaser seemed to know virtually nothing about her. She was a > composer with over 125 published works, plus songs without opus, and had > taught Shand and other famous guitarists, as well as members of the British > royal family. > > So she was quite famous in her day, as was her husband, who was considered > one of the finest flutists of his time. He also made important improvements > to the fingering system of the flute. Several pages are devoted to him in > Rockstro's history of the flute, some of the information being from his > widow. Among various positions he held, was principal flute of the London > Philharmonic Society. He was a regujlar soloist at the Promenade Concerts > as well. > > I gave some information like that to the person inquiring about his recent > purchase, but warned that should he do archival research seeking more > infornation, he should be sure to check directories and inventories under P > for Pratten and S for Sidney-Pratten, because Sidney Pratten was sometimes > treated as part of the last name. I should have suggested he check under > Pelzer, too. > The Madame S P had an important collection which included guitars reputed to > have belonged to Giulio Regondi, Leonardo Schulz and Fernando Sor. She also > published her Memoires (copies in British Library). I do not know if the > guitars have surfaced, but she also owned an original, unpublished hand > written treatise by Sor that is still missing. Her "Bambino" guitar is now > owned by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. A search of London archives might > provide a trace, and perhaps her collection is in a descendant's attic. It > surely would have valuable things in it. Since she died without issue, I > think her estate went to her sister, another guitarist named Giulia Pelzer > (see your list for her married name; she used Pelzer professionally; she was > alive in 1928.) > > Thank you again for the additional information. > > Arthur J.Ness, Ph.D. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
