A portrait of Allen Macbeth (1856-1910) by Duncan Brown.
Macbeth was born in Greenock in 1856 and studied music at the highly prestigious Leipzig Conservatory in Germany. He conducted the Glasgow Choral Union between 1880 and 1887 and from 1890 directed the Glasgow Athenaeum's Music School.
Macbeth's compositions included chamber music, piano music, songs, two sets of arrangements of Scottish Airs, an operetta, various cantatas and incidental music to the play Bruce, Lord of the Isles. His light intermezzo Forget Me Not Opus 22 quickly became a favourite with professional and amateur orchestras and remained in their repertoires for decades. Macbeth also wrote extremely popular light orchestral miniatures such as Forget-me-Not (arranged for violin/piano, cello/piano and other combinations), Heart's Ease and Love in Idleness.
Duncan Brown (1819-1897) was a talented amateur photographer whose work documented aspects of Glasgow life from the 1850s until the 1890s.
Reference: 123
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow School of Art Archives
Keywords:
composers, conductors, Glasgow Athenaeum School of Music, Glasgow Choral Union, Leipzig Conservatory, musicians, organists