Butt, Clara (1872–1936)

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Butt, Clara (1872–1936)

English contralto whose concert hall appearances, early recordings, and broadcasting career made her one of the first entertainment superstars beloved throughout the world. Name variations: Madame Clara, Dame Clara. Born Clara Ellen Butt on February 1, 1872, in Southwick, Sussex, England; died on January 23, 1936, at her home at North Stoke, Oxfordshire; daughter of Henry (a captain in the Mercantile Marine) and Clara (Hook) Butt; attended Royal College of Music, 1890; married Robert Kennerley Rumford, June 26, 1900; children: Joy, Roy, and Victor.

Moved with family to Bristol, England (1880); awarded scholarship to Royal College of Music (1890); was inspiration for songs by Britain's foremost composer, Sir Edward Elgar (1901); began recording career (1909); mobilized women for the war effort (1914–18); appointed a Dame of the British Empire (1920); seriously injured (1931), but continued recording career.

Late in January 1936, three of the best-known figures in Britain—King George V, Rudyard Kipling, and Dame Clara Butt—died within a matter of days. In their lifetimes, all three had become symbols of England's far-flung empire on which it was said that the sun never set, but it is likely that the one held closest in the hearts of many of her compatriots was "Dame Clara." Her magnificent contralto voice had dominated English music since the reign of Queen Victoria , and songs that she sang had become universally loved, heard from the planters' bungalows scattered across Java and the Malay peninsula to isolated British outposts in Fiji, Borneo, and India, as well as households of Australia, Canada, Britain's former colonies in America, and throughout the British Isles. Long before the Beatles captivated the musical world, Clara Butt established a reputation of the kind they would strive to emulate.

Clara Ellen Butt was born at Southwick, Brighton, on February 1, 1873, the second child in a large but close-knit family, where she grew up as the eldest because of the early death of her brother Bertie. Her father was Henry Butt, a captain in the Mercantile Marine, who had a very pleasing baritone, and her mother, also named Clara, possessed a truly beautiful voice. The younger Clara eventually had three sisters and two brothers, and the family, like many Victorians, enjoyed musical evenings together at home. Butt began piano lessons at age eight, and, after the family moved to Bristol in 1880, she joined the family in singing at various churches and homes.

It was a Miss Cook, the headmistress at South Bristol High School, who first recognized the quality of the girl's voice. At her suggestion, 12-year-old Clara sang before Dan Rootham, the leading voice teacher in the West of England, who told her, "You have gold in your throat, my child." Butt's repertory was soon expanded to include Brahms' German Requiem and Handel's Messiah. Singing with the Bristol Festival Choir, she continued her church appearances and accepted a growing number of requests to perform.

At the age of 16, Clara was on the way to her full height of 6′2″, a tall girl with a beautiful and imposing figure, when Rootham had her try out for the Open Scholarship at the Royal College of Music in January 1890. At the audition, the first song she sang was the "Enchantress," delivered in a booming contralto that had acquired a power and beauty that was to mesmerize listeners throughout her lifetime. The judges were unprepared for the first dramatic octave leap that burst upon them without warning. At first, they stared, then jumped to their feet, talking between themselves. Furious at their rudeness and believing they were poking fun, Butt sang even louder. When a judge asked that she sing something softer, the girl chose "Woe unto

them," a lovely air, and was mystified by a tear she saw roll down a judge's cheek. As she sat in the corridor, waiting for the results, she overheard someone say that one of the scholarships had gone to "a great tall girl, a singer." Only then did she realize the impact of her performance.

In February 1890, Butt took up residence at Alexandra House, which provided a comfortable home for female art and music students, and was located next door to the old College of Music and behind the Royal Albert Hall. For four happy years, she studied music and dance and made many friends. The royal sponsor and patron of the establishment was Alexandra of Denmark (1844–1925), then princess of Wales, who paid occasional informal visits to the school, where it was customary for her to take tea in the best kept room. As housekeeping was not one of Butt's many talents, she earned the honor of playing host to the princess only once. But Alexandra liked to hear the young girl sing and would ask Clara for a song no matter where she saw her. Once, when the two chanced to meet in a shop on Baker Street, the princess requested and the student obliged. Such episodes became a joke between them.

Under the strict supervision of the Royal College, Clara was not allowed to perform publicly until she was 21; even so, private performances were allowed and her reputation spread. Her first public performance, in Gluck's Orpheus, was in December 1892. But, because her height proved limiting for operatic roles, it was virtually the only operatic appearance in her long musical career. When she next appeared, in a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, the reception was tremendous. "She has the most beautiful voice in all England," commented Canadian singer Emma Albani . The press was equally enthusiastic, and the young singer was soon invited to appear in a command performance before Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. Only members of the household and a few guests were present, and the queen entered the vast hall leaning on the arm of her Indian servant as the orchestra played the national anthem. Butt was the only performer, and since no applause occurred at such events, she had no idea how she had been received, until she was given a second invitation, very soon, to sing at Windsor Castle. This time she was told by the queen, who, because her mother Victoria of Coburg was German, always spoke German with her immediately family, "I have never liked the English language before, but in your mouth it is beautiful."

Clara Butt's entrance into the professional music world coincided with a time when entertainment was becoming increasingly commercialized. In particular, the 1890s were the golden age of the English music hall. The grim and dirty theaters once filled with poor, rowdy patrons were being displaced by new entertainment palaces patronized by the scions of a wealthier middle class. Such theatrical outings were enjoyed by the entire family, and although programs included some classical works, the ballad became the most characteristic musical form. Heard onstage, songs like "Softly Awakes my Heart," "Abide with Me," and "The Lost Chord" gained huge audiences and sold thousands of copies in sheet music, foreshadowing the internationalization of popular music that has dominated the 20th century. With the arrival of the phonograph and the wireless radio, allowing singers to be heard at any place and at any time, the process was simply accelerated.

Launched at this time in her career, Clara Butt became the first of that new 20th-century breed, the entertainment superstar. Her popularity was instant and her first few years of public performance a triumphal progress. And because her father's financial fortunes had always been precarious, she felt under considerable financial pressure to provide for the members of her large family.

A strikingly beautiful young woman, Butt was often a weekend guest in aristocratic country homes. Once, while returning to London by special train, she was asked by Lord Royston to "bring him luck" by sitting next to him during a poker game. When the noble won, he offered to share his winnings, but Clara declined to accept, and when the train reached the station, some of the card players suggested giving the young singer a farewell kiss. Clara refused, but a member of the party, a Monsieur Plançon, grabbed and kissed her. She slapped his face and burst into tears. Shortly thereafter, when the singer's health began to deteriorate from overwork, she was approached by a famous host, Mrs. Ronalds , who said that someone interested in her well-being had offered to pay for her to have a year of study abroad. When Clara explained that she required funds not only for herself but also for her family, sufficient money was provided, and the timely gift allowed her study, travel, and rest at a point in her career when it was sorely needed. It was many years later before Butt learned that her benefactor had been Lord Royston, who had admired her spunk in the confrontation on the train.

In 1899, Clara Butt made a singing tour of Canada and the U.S. where she was greeted with wild enthusiasm. She had been joined by a young baritone, Robert Kennerley Rumford, who had been accompanying her on tour. The two frequently performed duets. Rumford was smitten with Clara and began to pencil messages in the margins of the sheet music they shared. Butt never knew what message she might find on the page in front of her during a performance. Eventually, these dispatches had their intended effect, and the couple announced their engagement. The news attracted as much notice in the press as a Royal betrothal. Though St. Paul's Cathedral was offered as a site for the wedding, an almost unprecedented honor for commoners, Clara decided to be married in Bristol, among her own. On Tuesday, June 26, 1900, workers were given a half holiday and church bells rang as the city turned out for the event. Thousands jammed the streets outside the cathedral for sight of the couple following the ceremony, and the queen was among the many who sent wedding gifts.

George Bernard Shaw in a letter to Clara Butt (October 1927)">
You are a much bigger person than I. I should look like a ridiculous little busybody making a pretentious bow in your limelight.
—George Bernard Shaw in a letter to Clara Butt (October 1927)

Since her professional name was well established, Clara became known as "Madame" Clara Butt. For several years, she and her husband gave no foreign concerts, while their family expanded to include a daughter Joy and sons, Roy and Victor. There were some musical engagements she could not refuse, and following the death of Queen Victoria, on January 22, 1901, she sang "Abide with Me" at the memorial service at Kensington Palace Chapel. Around this time, Britain's foremost composer, Sir Edward Elgar, also wrote the Sea Pictures, a group of orchestral songs specifically composed for the voice of Madame Clara. His choral Coronation Ode, written for the accession of King Edward VII to the throne, included the memorable solo, "Land of Hope and Glory," also composed for her; the song became a kind of unofficial English national anthem as well as the one most identified with Clara Butt. Even now her rendition of "Land of Hope and Glory" is the standard by which all other versions are measured.

In 1909, Butt began recording, and radio broadcasts of her records and singing soon followed. Not everyone approved of the popularization of her gift through the new technologies, but she welcomed it, recognizing its value to the vast audience beyond the usual reach of concerts, trapped on isolated farms and villages, in hospitals or old folks' homes. "I pray that when the day comes I may not be too old to sing a song that shall be heard in the back-blocks of Australia and New Zealand, on the Pacific slopes of America, in India, and the islands of the Southern Seas," she said. "We have tapped a wonderful source of pleasure and profit, it is true, but surely it is one of world-peace and unity as well. I would like my voice to do something to bring to pass the glorious day 'when war shall be no more.'"

By the time this was spoken, the singer was an outspoken supporter of the mobilization of women for England's labor force during World War I. At one point, she organized a demonstration of 30,000 to 50,000 women demanding to be mobilized for the war effort. Speaking to the press, she pointed out that 80,000 women had signed up for wartime duty but only 3,000 had been asked to contribute their labor. She found it ridiculous that the government was not putting this ready resource to better use.

To demonstrate personally what women could accomplish, Dame Clara also raised funds for various war charities, amounting to hundreds of thousands of English pounds. She organized a series of concerts at hospitals, workhouses, community halls, and other sites throughout the United Kingdom, paying the artists small sums to perform to raise money for the Red Cross. Butt also made concert appearances, because she believed in the healing powers of music. About these performances before soldiers and civilians, rich and poor, she said, "We are a nation in mourning. In this tremendous upheaval, when youth is dying for us, I want to give the people a week of beautiful thoughts." In 1920, when she was knighted, receiving the title of Dame of the British Empire, the honor was bestowed "in recognition of the important services rendered by her during the late War."

Known from that time on as "Dame Clara," this musical artist had the rare luck of being an extremely successful performer who led a happy life. Easygoing, with many friends, she had a happy marriage and a close-knit family. Her later years were clouded by tragedies, however; one son died undergoing surgery, and the other perished in Africa. In 1931, she was in an accident from which she never fully recovered, and she was stricken with cancer before the age of 60. With stoic disregard for her physical and emotional pain, she continued to give concerts and to record, and her magnificent voice lasted to the end.

In 1995, Sir Henry Wood established the Promenade Concerts, known affectionately in Great Britain as the "Proms." This annual program, broadcast worldwide, features popular and classical music performed by a large orchestra and chorus in the concert hall built by Queen Victoria in memory of her husband, Prince Albert. The audience joins in the singing and many of the songs are ones made famous by Dame Clara. A perennial favorite is Elgar's "Land of Hope and Glory," and as the voices of the massed choir and audience rise in unison, one has the sense of Clara Butt joining them, in the hall where the spirit of this artist still seems to hover.

sources:

Aldrich, Richard. "Dame Clara Butt Sings," in The New York Times. December 14, 1923, p. 28.

Bradley, Ian. "Changing the Tune. Popular Music in the 1890s," in History Today. Vol. 42. July 1992, pp. 41–47.

Butt, Clara. "Joan of Arc Day," in The Times. April 26, 1917, p. 6.

"Clara Butt is Statuesque 'Orpheus,'" in The New York Times. August 8, 1920, p. 4.

"Clara Butt Sings Here Again," in The New York Times. March 27, 1922, p. 15.

"Dame Clara Butt. A Famous Contralto," in The Times. January 24, 1936, p. 16.

"Debut of Miss Butt," in The New York Times. October 26, 1899, p. 5.

Henderson, W.J. "Debut of Miss Clara Butt," in The New York Times. October 29, 1899, p. 16.

"Miss Butt's Second Recital," in The New York Times. November 22, 1899, p. 4.

"Mme. Butt and Rumford: English Contralto and Baritone Appear Together in a Song Recital," in The New York Times. April 1, 1914, p. 13.

"Mme Clara Butt Says Many Women, Eager to Work and Needed, Are not Being Employed," in The New York Times. July 18, 1915, p. 1.

"Mme. Clara Butt's Recital," in The New York Times. January 15, 1913, p. 13.

Ponder, Winfred. Clara Butt: Her Life-Story. NY: DaCapo Press, 1978.

"Shaw Would Have Wed Clara Butt, He Says," in The New York Times. April 17, 1928, p. 15.

"Two Voices that Have Come to Interest and Engross New York: Miss Frieda Hempel at the Opera and Mme. Clara Butt in Concert," in The New York Times. January 12, 1913, p. 9.