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Arnold Dolmetsch
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==The early music revival== [[File:Arnold Dolmetsch piano.jpg|left|thumb|A harpsichord spinet with Arnold Dolmetsch's inscription, in the studio of Swiss luthier, Claude Lebet]] [[File:Horniman instruments 08.jpg|thumb|Instruments built and restored by Dolmetsch in the Horniman museum, London, UK.]] Dolmetsch was employed for a short time as a music teacher at [[Dulwich College]], but his interest in early instruments was awakened by seeing the collections of historic instruments in the [[British Museum]]. After constructing his first reproduction of a [[lute]] in 1893, he began building keyboard instruments. William Morris encouraged him to build his first [[harpsichord]]. In 1900, he conducted the orchestra at [[Carpenters' Hall|Carpenter’s Hall]] playing 17th century instruments in a revival of the [[First Quarto of Hamlet|First Quarto]] version of Hamlet by the [[Elizabethan Stage Society]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=3 February 1900 |title=Summary of News - Domestic |pages=9 |work=The Manchester Guardian}}</ref> He left England to build [[clavichord]]s and harpsichords for [[Chickering & Sons|Chickering]] of Boston (1905–1911), then for [[Gaveau]] of Paris (1911–1914). During Dolmetsch's time at Chickering, he resided in a house in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], partially of his own design, with the aid of architects Luquer and Godfrey.<ref>{{cite web|website=Dolmetsch Online|title=The Dolmetsch Story|last=Blood|first=Brian|archive-date=June 2, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602211739/https://www.dolmetsch.com/Dolworks.htm|url=https://www.dolmetsch.com/Dolworks.htm|publisher=Dolmetsch Organization}}</ref> It was through Dolmetsch's work in Cambridge that a wealthy benefactress, Miss [[Belle Skinner]], was able to restore a number of rare instruments, including a [[spinet]] owned by [[Marie Antoinette]], which today comprise the founding collection of [[Yale University|Yale's]] [[Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments|Collection of Musical Instruments]].<ref>{{cite AV media | people=Fanny Reed Hammond | time =6:16 (Track 1, Side A) | year=1958 | title=The Belle Skinner Collection of Old Musical Instruments | medium=LP | location=Holyoke, Mass. | publisher=Privately pressed|oclc=79919027|quote=Miss Skinner was fortunate in having close at hand, in our Cambridge, the foremost genius of the century, in making and restoring old musical instruments, Arnold Dolmetsch. Who, with his gifted family, lived over here during the First World War.}}</ref> He went on to establish an instrument-making workshop in [[Haslemere]], Surrey, and proceeded to build copies of almost every kind of instrument dating from the 15th to 18th centuries, including [[viol]]s, [[lute]]s, [[Recorder (musical instrument)|recorder]]s and a range of keyboard instruments. His 1915 book ''The Interpretation of the Music of the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries'' was a milestone in the development of '[[authentic performance]]s' of early music. In 1925, he founded an annual chamber music festival, the International Dolmetsch Early Music Festival, which is held every July at Haslemere in the Haslemere Hall. Dolmetsch settled in Dulwich (at 'Dowlands', 172 Rosendale Road) and was active in the cultural life of London. His friends and admirers included [[William Morris]], [[Selwyn Image]], [[Roger Fry]], [[Gabriele D'Annunzio]], [[George Bernard Shaw]], [[Marco Pallis]], [[Ezra Pound]], [[George Moore (novelist)|George Moore]], whose novel ''Evelyn Innes'' celebrates Dolmetsch's life and work, and [[W. B. Yeats]]. He was responsible for rediscovering the school of English composers for viol [[Consort of instruments|consort]] (including [[John Jenkins (composer)|John Jenkins]] and [[William Lawes]]), leading to [[William Henry Hadow|Sir Henry Hadow]]'s tribute that Dolmetsch had "opened the door to a forgotten treasure-house of beauty". He was also largely responsible for the revival of the [[Recorder (musical instrument)|recorder]], both as a serious concert instrument, and as an instrument which made early music accessible to amateur performers. He went on to promote the recorder as an instrument for teaching music in schools. In 1937, he received a British [[Civil list]] pension and in 1938 he was created a chevalier of the [[Légion d'honneur]] by the French government.
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