Rosa Newmarch
Rosa Newmarch (1857-1940) was an English author and musicologist renowned for her significant contributions to the understanding of Russian music and literature. Born in Leamington, Warwick, she received her education at home and at the Heatherly School of Art in London, eventually moving to London to pursue a literary career. Newmarch's pivotal work, *Tchaikovsky: His Life and Works*, published in 1900, offered a nuanced portrayal of the composer, contextualizing him within the broader spectrum of 19th-century Russian music. Her scholarship extended to articles on Tchaikovsky, poetry that explored themes of music and unrequited love, and a biography of conductor Henry Wood. Additionally, Newmarch played a critical role in introducing Russian opera to English-speaking audiences through her 1914 book, *The Russian Opera*. Her later work involved writing programs for the Queen's Hall Orchestra and promoting composers like Leos Janácek in England. Over her lifetime, she published nineteen books and translated over thirty-five works from Russian to English, leaving a lasting legacy in the field of music criticism and biography.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Rosa Newmarch
Poet
- Born: December 18, 1857
- Birthplace: Leamington, Warwick, England
- Died: April 9, 1940
Biography
Rosa Harriet Newmarch was born on December 18, 1857, in Leamington, Warwick, England, to Samuel and Sophie Kenney Jeaffreson. She was educated at home and at the Heatherly School of Art in London. In 1880, she moved to London, where she pursued a literary career. She married Henry Charles Newmarch in 1883.
In 1897, Newmarch embarked on the study of Russian music, preparing a series of articles on Tchaikovsky. That same year, she traveled to Russia to study with Vladmir Stassov, the Director of Fine Arts at the Russian Imperial Library. In 1900, Newmarch published what is undoubtedly her best-known work, Tchaikovsky: His Life and Works, with Extracts from His Writing and the Diary of His Tour Abroad in 1888. This work places Tchaikovsky in the context of Russian music of the nineteenth century. Newmarch is not uncritically favorable to the composer in this work but rather offers a balanced portrayal of his compositions and his likely place in the history of Russian music.
In 1903, Newmarch published another set of articles on Tchaikovsky, including a description of the meeting between writer Leo Tolstoy and the composer. The same year she published her first volume of poetry, Hors Amoris: Songs and Sonnets Not surprisingly, given her other interests, Newmarch’s poetry concentrates on the junction of music and language.
Newmarch turned again to music for her next projects, which included the 1904 biography of conductor Henry Wood before compiling her second volume of poetry, Songs to a Singer, and Other Verses in 1906. These poems drew heavily on the theme of unrequited love. Newmarch also continued her interest in Russian and Eastern Europe, producing books on Russian poetry and opera. Indeed, Newmarch’s book The Russian Opera in 1914 introduced the subject to English-speaking audiences in England and the United States. She traveled to Russia one final time in 1915.
During the 1920’s, Newmarch worked as the program writer for the Queen’s Hall Orchestra and was instrumental in bringing Czech composer Leos Janácek to England. Her major literary output during this decade was her multivolume set The Concert-Goer’s Library of Descriptive Notes. In 1940, Newmarch died, having prepared her final manuscript, The Music of Czechoslovakia, which was published two years after her death.
In all, Newmarch published nineteen books of biography, music criticism, and poetry. She also published more than thirty-five translations of librettos, diaries, and biographies from Russian into English. Her accomplishments as a writer are many; most particularly, she introduced English speakers to the dynamic world of Russian music and ballet in the opening years of the twentieth century.