Hello sciencewhiz
At last we have an answer for you!
This question has been niggling me since I first saw it three weeks
ago, as I had found library catalog entries saying Paul Beaumont was a
pseudonym but not revealing his real name.
Today I was able to find an answer to this puzzle, as I happened to be
in a library with the right kind of reference books.
Paul Beaumont is a name used by the English nineteenth century
composer and music teacher, Sydney Smith.
Edward Sydney Smith was born in Dorchester in 1839. His parents taught
him music at first but when he was sixteen he went to Leipzig, in
Germany, to continue his studies. There he studied piano, cello,
harmony and composition.
In 1859 he settled in London and "developed a considerable reputation"
as a piano teacher as well as composer.
His compositions included dances and what are now called "salon
pieces", works to entertain and impress people at a social gathering
in a salon or drawing-room. Many of his pieces gave the pianist a
chance to show off technical brilliance, but he also composed pieces
to help children learning to play, and arranged opera for piano
performance.
His work was very popular in England and continental Europe for some
decades. The New Grove Dictionary of Music says that his knowledge of
piano technique led him to compose pieces exhibiting "brilliance and
showmanship", with "rapid scales, arpeggios, felicitous ornamentation
and elaborate figuration".
I found no explanation for his decision to take Paul Beaumont as a
pseudonym, so that is still a puzzle.
He died in 1889.
Another surprise for me was that he wrote not one, but four,
tarantellas. Like many of his works, he gave them French titles, so
tarantella becomes tarantelle. They are:
Tarentelle Brillante pour le Piano Op. 8 1862 (Sparkling
Tarantella for piano)
Deuxième Tarantelle pour Piano Op. 21 1862 (Second Tarantella)
Troisième Tarantelle pour Piano Op. 66 1868 (Third Tarantella)
Quatrième Tarantelle pour piano Op. 217 1886 (Fourth Tarantella)
Considering how little information there is about Beaumont/Smith, I
was interested to find that two of his tarantellas can be heard on the
net:
Tarantelle Brillante in E minor Op.8 :
http://www.absolute.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/the_music.htm#Smith
Another tarantella (don't know which)
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/markavitch5
You can also hear part of the very romantic piece "Le Jet d'Eau" (The
Fountain):
Romantic Piano Discoveries
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000007P2G/qid=1055164617/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-5248369-5665708?v=glance&s=classical&n=507846
"Le Jet d'Eau" and the "Tarantelle Brillante" in E minor are among his
most popular pieces. The Grove Dictionary says they are the most
successful of his works along with "La Harpe Éolienne" (Aeolian Harp),
"The Spinning Wheel", and "Chanson Russe" (Russian Song).
If you want a very long list of his compositions you can type "Smith,
Edward Sydney" into the author search box at the British Library:
http://blpc.bl.uk/
Some of his work is available to buy from
http://www.sheetmusicwarehouse.co.uk/
They have "Caprice Espagnole" and "Con Amore" listed under Beaumont,
and Tarantelle Brillante, the Harp and the Fountain with several
others under Sydney Smith.
There are a couple of other pieces of his you can listen to online:
Fête hongroise, mazurka élégante op. 43 (Hungarian Festival: elegant
mazurka)
Dances in French Salons in the 19th century
http://w1.neuronnexion.fr/~goninet/danses.htm
Smith's piano version of Carmen:
http://www.tip.net.au/~apurdam/noteworthy.html
Thanks for the question. I enjoyed getting to the truth of Beaumont's
identity - though I still want to know *why* he published some work
under a pseudonym.
Please feel free to ask for clarification if any links don't work
smoothly, or if anything is unclear.
Regards - Leli
reference books:
Catalogue of Printed Music in the British Library to 1980 (volume 4)
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (volume 23) ed.Sadie
Macmillan (2001)
searches on his names combined with piano, composer, tarantella,
tarantelle etc.:
"paul beaumont"
"p beaumont"
"sydney smith" etc. |
Clarification of Answer by
leli-ga
on
10 Jun 2003 01:18 PDT
Sorry the answer was too late for your concert, but I'm glad you found
it interesting anyway. If I ever solve the name mystery I'll add a
comment here, of course.
Thanks for the rating and tip. I hope we'll see you here again.
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