Ralph Horner

Horner, Ralph

Ralph (Joseph) Horner. Conductor, composer, teacher, b Newport, Monmouthshire (now in Gwent, Wales), 28 Apr 1848, d Winnipeg 7 Apr 1926; B MUS (Durham) 1893, D MUS (Durham) 1898. He studied 1864-7 at the Leipzig Cons and returned ca 1868 to London, where he conducted choirs and operatic productions. He also lectured for a time at Nottingham U. He moved in 1906 to New York and in 1909 to Winnipeg, where he was director of the Imperial Academy of Music and Arts ca 1909-11 and music editor of the weekly Winnipeg Town Topics. Conductor 1909-12 of the Winnipeg Oratorio Society, he also directed an opera troupe, which in 1911 presented his comic opera The Belles of Barcelona. He was a bandmaster in the Canadian army 1916-17 and later continued to teach music in Winnipeg. Horner's compositions include two oratorios, David's First Victory and St Peter; the opera Amy Rosbart; six operettas; a suite (performed by the Victor Herbert Orchestra in 1909) and Torch Dance for orchestra (1911, winner of an Earl Grey Prize); cantatas, including the dramatic cantata Confucius (1888); anthems; piano pieces; and approximately 100 songs, some of which were published by Reeder, Weekes, and Ashdown. In Walter McRaye's Pioneers and Prominent People of Manitoba (1925), Horner was referred to as a 'grand old man of music' in Winnipeg.