IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 1249 MS 6956
Held at: Royal College of Music
Title: ARMSTRONG, Marianne Charlotte (1860-1924)
Date(s): 1881-1924, 1954
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 1 file
Name of creator(s): Armstrong | Marianne Charlotte | 1860-1924 | née Rowe musician and composer
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Marianne Charlotte Rowe was born at Norwood on 29 Jan 1860, the only child of Charles George and Marianne Rowe, who ran a school for girls at Warwick Hall, Maida Vale. She was a talented child pianist and commenced lessons aged ten with Sir Julius Benedict for nine years. She commenced composition and assumed the name 'Carlotta Rowe' for her publications. She married at nineteen but divorced three months later. She married George William Armstrong, a London solicitor, in 1886. His death two years later prompted her to devote her life to her mother and to composition. She composed numerous songs and dances, 'Jackeydora' a comic opera, 'The Little Reprobate' a musical comedy and the music for a number of one-act plays as well as the incidental music to Sidney Grundy's play 'The Silver Shield'. She died on 2 Feb 1924. A legacy in her will established at the Royal College of Music the Carlotta Rowe Composition Scholarship for a woman composer of light opera, and the Marianne Rowe Singing Scholarship to a soprano or mezzo-soprano.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers of Marianne Armstrong, comprising letters from 'celebrity' friends and acquaintances (mostly of a minor nature in regard to Rowe's compositions or activities), including Lady Mary Benedict, 1881-1885; Sir W S Gilbert, 1911; Pauline Chase, 1906; James Glover, 1906; Isabel Jay, 1906-1907; Marie Lloyd, 1907; Lady Ada Mansel, 1907; Edna May, 1907; Emmuska, Baroness Orczy, 1911; George Robert Sims, 1907; Vesta Tilley; Mary Moore Wyndham, 1916; Louis Bleriot, 1909; Prince Francis of Teck, 1910; Directory of the National Training School for Music, Jul 1877; An address to the scholars of the National Training School for Music by J Stainer, Principal, 27 Sep 1881; The Laws, Rules and Regulations of the Royal College of Music, 1896; letter from Dmitry Shostakovich to Sir Malcolm Sargent, regarding interpretation of his Fifth Symphony, 1954; photocopies of biographical articles by Armstrong on her parents and herself, and photocopies of her will and solicitor's correspondence in regard to the foundation of the RCM Carlotta Rowe Composition Scholarship and the Marianne Rowe Singing Scholarship and the bequeathal of her papers to the RCM.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English.
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
Usual conditions of the Library of the Royal College of Music apply. See the RCM website or contact the RCM Library for details.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Photocopying is permitted at the discretion of the Archivist for research purposes only.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
There is a partial manuscript catalogue of the letters with the collection; an entry is also given in the supplement to volume 3 of the Manuscripts catalogue in the library of the Royal College of Music.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Bequeathed to the RCM by Marianne Armstrong, 1924. It is not know how the Shostakovich letter came to be in this collection.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
RCM holds letters from Manuel Garcia (MS 4063), from Lindsay Slopes (MS 4064) from Sir Julius Benedict (MS 4065) and Ellen Terry (4066) which were originally part of this collection.
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Compiled by Robert Baxter as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project. Source: Grove Dictionary of Music.
Date(s) of descriptions: Apr 2002