Relayed from the National Museum of Wales
National Orchestra of Wales
(Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Cymru)
Dunhill, a distinguished former pupil of the Royal College of Music in London, where he held a Composition Scholarship, earned the gratitude of many of his fellow countrymen by a series of chamber music concerts which he ran for several years. Their special object was to bring forward music of young native composers which, although already performed, was in danger of being forgotten. His own most important works, apart from some distinguished chamber music and many beautiful songs, are a set of variations on an original theme, dedicated to the memory of Sir Hubert Parry, and a Symphony. The former was played in 1922 at the Gloucester Festival, and the latter a year later at Bournemouth. It has also been heard abroad. Dunhill gained a Carnegie Award in 1925 for his one-act Opera The Enchanted Garden, although the opera has not so far been adequately presented.
He has done notable work in teaching at Eton and elsewhere; he has been examiner at the Royal College of Music, and is enthusiastic in the Music Competition Festival movement. Many of his cantatas, operettas, and smaller pieces for young people are valuable from the educational point of view, and he is the author of an important book on chamber music.
(to 12.45)
