Florence Ashton Marshall
Florence Ashton Marshall née Thomas was an English composer, conductor and author.
Life
She was born on 30 March 1843 in Rome, Italy, the daughter of Vicar Canon Thomas of All Hallows Barking by the Tower. Her sisters were the novelist Bertha Thomas and the clarinettist Frances Thomas. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music with William Sterndale Bennett, John Goss and G.A. Macfarren.Thomas married the businessman, writer, and music collector Julian Marshall on 7 October 1864 and had three daughters. She contributed to Grove's Dictionary, although to a lesser degree than her husband, and published a set of 70 Solfège exercises in 1885. Her most successful composition, with a libretto by her sister Bertha, was the operetta Prince Sprite for treble voices, written in 1891 while she was Head of Music at Dulwich School and published by Novello. She later went on to help found a music school, the Hampstead Conservatoire.
She was elected an associate of the Philharmonic Society and conducted the South Hampstead Orchestra for over 30 years. The orchestra was substantial enough to perform a Brahms symphony under her direction and the Saint-Saëns violin concerto with Mischa Elman as the soloist. She and her husband were founding members of the Musical Association.
Marshall died on 5 March 1922.
Works
Florence Marshall composed solo songs, part songs, educational pieces, and operettas. Selected works include:- Symphony in B minor Notturno for Orchestra Sweet and Low, song
- The Masked Shepherd, operetta
- * 'Behold the sun in gold descending'
- Piano Trio Ask Me No More, song Rest hath come, partsong To sea! the calm is o’er, partsong Choral Dances, stage work
- Prince Sprite, fairy operetta Hohenlinden, choral Nocturne for clarinet and orchestra