1874–1948 · United Kingdom · 20th century
Ethel Barns was an English violinist, pianist and composer, born in London. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music, performed in England and the United States, and later taught at the Academy. She died in 1948. The site offers her song for voice and piano.
Ethel Barns was born in London. She enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music in 1887, aged thirteen. She studied the violin with Emile Sauret, the piano with Frederick Westlake and composition with Ebenezer Prout.
One of her first public appearances was in 1890, in the Academy's St James's Hall, where she performed two movements from a violin concerto by Louis Spohr. At Cadogan Gardens in 1891 she both sang and played the violin, and in that year she also brought out one of her first compositions, Romance, for violin and piano.
In 1895 Barns graduated from the Academy. She became a substitute teacher there and remained a student of Sauret.
By 1895 Barns was a sought-after performer across London, playing her own music alongside that of other composers. In 1895 she played in the first season of Henry Wood's Proms, and in 1896 at the Crystal Palace. Stanley Lucas issued her first pieces for violin, piano and voice, among them "A Fancy" and "Waiting for Thee".
Her violinist's debut came in 1896 at London's Crystal Palace. She toured England and the United States, and on those tours she at times accompanied the opera singer Adelina Patti.
Barns's husband, from 1899, was the baritone Charles Phillips; the two had met eight years before, at one of her concerts. She did not give up her name or her work. The couple set up the Barns-Phillips Chamber Concert Series at Bechstein Hall, a series meant to help promote Barns's music.
She gave her Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor, never published, at Steinway Hall in 1900, and a critic likened it to music by Edvard Grieg, Anton Rubinstein and Johannes Brahms. The Violin Concerto in A major had its first performance at a concert of the series in 1904, the year Schott published it.
Her music was taken up by others too: Joseph Joachim played both her Second Sonata and the Violin Concerto, while her teacher Emile Sauret gave her Fantasy.
In 1908 the series featured two of her works: her Piano Trio in F minor, and the third of her violin sonatas. For Barns, the sonata meant a comeback to performing once she had got over a grave illness. Her Suite for Violin and Piano was heard that year as well. Her piece for violin and orchestra had its first performance in 1909 at the Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts; Schott printed a piano arrangement of it the following year.
Schott brought out no fewer than 35 of her works from 1907 to 1928, among them "Chant Elegiaque" and "Hindoo Lament" (1907), "Idylle Pastorale" (1909) and the teaching collection "Eight Pieces" (1910). Her Violin Sonata No. 4 in G minor, Op. 24, was issued by Schott in 1911, after she had given its first performance the year before at one of the series' concerts.
In 1911 W. W. Cobbett commissioned a Fantasy Trio for Two Violins and Piano from her on behalf of the Musicians' Company. Barns first played it together with her teacher Sauret.
Barns was among the founding council members of the Society of Women Musicians, set up in 1911. Her composing, publishing and concert work went on until the end of the 1920s: she played her Fifth Violin Sonata in 1927, and three further pieces for violin and piano were published afterwards.
Barns went on to hold a professorship at the Royal Academy of Music, and she died at Maidenhead on 31 December 1948.
Barns's works include chamber music for the violin: sonatas, pieces, fantasies and a trio. She wrote at least five violin sonatas, a violin concerto and a work for violin and orchestra. Barns was herself a violinist and pianist, and many of her works were first heard in her own performance.
Her chamber pieces include "Danse characteristique" for violin and piano (1907) and "L'Escarpolette" ("Swing Song") for violin and piano (1908). The Fantasy Trio for two violins and piano is listed as Op. 26. The collection "Eight Pieces" (1910) was intended for teaching.
Barns also wrote for voice: her early publications include "A Fancy" and "Waiting for Thee". On the site you can find her song "Sleep, Weary Heart" for voice and piano; it is sheet music of advanced level.