WILLIAM MURDOCH (FEBRUARY 10, 1888 –
SANDHURST (BENDIGO), VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA – SEPTEMBER 9, 1942 – HOLMBURY ST
MARY, SURREY, ENGLAND)
He was born
at Sandhurst (now Bendigo, Victoria), the son of Andrew Murdoch, an engineer,
and his wife Annie, née Esler. At 11 years of age William began piano lessons
and soon won several solo competitions. In 1903 he was awarded the first
Bendigo Austral Scholarship. This entitled him to three years’ tuition at the
University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, where he continued his studies
under William Adolphus Laver, later Ormond Professor of Music. In 1906 Murdoch
won the (Sir William John) Clarke Scholarship, which entitled him to three
years’ tuition at the Royal College of Music, London. As the scholarship was
not large enough to fully provide for the young man, it was agreed that he
should receive the balance of his Austral Scholarship, and a further amount was
raised from a concert and subscriptions at Bendigo. Murdoch spent four happy
years at the London college and made great progress, under the guidance of
Danish pianist and teacher, Frits Hartvigson. Murdoch’s first public recital at
London towards the end of 1910 was very successful, and in 1912 he toured
Australia with Louise Kirkby Lunn. He remained there in 1913 and toured with
Dame Clara Butt and Kennerley Rumford. He was now a fine player with a
sparkling technique, especially successful in his interpretation of the work of
Chopin and Debussy. He toured the US and Canada during 1914, and for some time
was with the band of the Grenadier Guards in France during the war. On 5 August
1915 Murdoch married Ellen Josephine Tuckfield in London. Murdoch gave recitals
in Scandinavia in 1918 and in the following year began his long association
with the violinist Albert Sammons, which developed into the formation of the
“Chamber Music Players”. These two with Lionel Tertis and Lauri Kennedy did some
remarkable ensemble playing. In 1919 he participated in the premieres of Sir
Edward Elgar’s Violin Sonata in E minor and Piano Quintet in A minor. Murdoch’s
first wife, Ellen Josephine Tuckfield, died; he subsequently married divorcee
Dorothy Violet Lang, née Mascall, on 21 March 1921, and after she divorced him,
married Antonia Dorothea Meek, née Simon, on 25 November 1925. Murdoch
contributed the article on “Pianoforte Music from 1880” to A Dictionary of
Modern Music and Musicians, published in 1924, and in 1929 he again visited
Australia and toured with Harold Williams. In 1933 Murdoch published a volume
on Brahms, in which he analysed all his work for the piano, and in 1934
appeared Chopin: His Life, an interesting record which made use of much new material.
He had intended to include a comprehensive study of Chopin’s works in a later
volume, but this had not appeared when Murdoch died at Holmbury St Mary,
Surrey, on 9 September 1942. Murdoch left a widow, two sons and two daughters.
TRACKLIST
0338 DUO-ART
LEE – Legend; DUNHILL – Dew Fairies
0340 DUO-ART
BOWEN – Reverie; DYSON – Primrose Mount; IRELAND – Rondo
8009 DUO-ART
DEBUSSY – Préludes, Book I, No. 3: Le vent dans la plaine (Wind/Plain)
09 DUO-ART
IRELAND – “Decorations” – No. l: Island Spell
8003 DUO-ART
DEBUSSY – Préludes, Book I, No. 5: Les collines (Hills) d’Anacapri
041 DUO-ART
DEBUSSY – Préludes, Book I, No. 10: La cathédrale engloutie (Engulfed)
