Walter Willson Cobbett CBE
Born	(1847-07-11)11 July 1847 Blackheath, England
Died	22 January 1937(1937-01-22) (aged 89) London, England
Occupations	Businessman amateur violinist
Spouse	Ada Florence (née Sells)

Walter Willson Cobbett CBE (11 July 1847 – 22 January 1937) was an English businessman, amateur violinist and an influential patron of British chamber music from the decade before World War I until his death in 1937. He was an innovative and astute businessman with an enthusiasm for the composition and performance of chamber music. Cobbett's business successes enabled him to focus on his musical interests from about 1905.

Cobbett sponsored a series of competitions for the composition of new chamber music works by British composers and endowed the Cobbett Medal for services to chamber music. He devised and encouraged the adaption of a short musical form called a 'phantasy'. He compiled and edited the two-volume Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, published in 1929, a comprehensive review of the musical genre.

Walter Willson Cobbett was born on 11 July 1847 at Blackheath in south-east London. His father was a businessman "of literary and musical tastes".^[1][2]

Young Walter was sent to France and Germany "as a supplement to his education", where he received private tuition.^[2] In about 1861, when he was aged fourteen, Cobbett received a Guadagnini violin from his father and he began studying the instrument with Joseph Dando, who introduced chamber music to his young student.^[3][4] Cobbett was overtaken by a "consuming enthusiasm" for the musical genre when he heard the Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim lead a quartet performing Beethoven compositions at St. James's Hall in London.^[1] Cobbett later described the experience as akin to the opening of "an enchanted world". He wrote: "From that moment onward I became a very humble devotee of this infinitely beautiful art, and so began for me the chamber music life".^[5]

Cobbett began his business life as an underwriter employed by Lloyd's of London. He later worked in journalism, as a foreign correspondent.^[2]

By the late 1870s Cobbett had established his own business in London selling industrial goods. Cobbett was on vacation in Sweden where he met William Fenton, a Scotsman working as the weaving manager at a Swedish textile mill. Fenton had invented a sturdy twill woven belt for driving machinery, an improvement on the leather and canvas belts then being used on machines. Cobbett recognised a business opportunity and formed a partnership with Fenton to sell and market the product in Britain. In 1879 Fenton moved with his family from Sweden to Dundee in Scotland, where he established a factory to manufacture the woven belt material, the entire output of which was sold from Cobbett's offices in London. The partnership was successful and within four years both men moved to larger premises. In 1883 the manufacturing plant was transferred to Stanley in Perthshire. By the late 1880s Fenton's two sons became involved in the business, forming their own company.^[6][7]

Cobbett played chamber music regularly at home and was involved with several amateur orchestras including the Strolling Players' Orchestral Society, formed in about 1890.^[3][8]

Walter Willson Cobbett and Ada Florence Sells were married in 1889 at Lambeth in South London.^[9]

In August 1897 the businesses of the Fenton brothers and Cobbett were incorporated under the name of W. Willson Cobbett Ltd., with Cobbett as the chairman of directors. William Fenton died in 1898, after which W. Willson Cobbett Ltd. acquired his company (William Fenton & Co.). In 1901 the business moved both its production and sales facilities to Cleckheaton in West Yorkshire, which became known as the Scandinavia Mills.^[6][7] In 1902 Charles Treiber and George Beach formed an agency in Boston to sell Scandinavia belting imported from the United Kingdom. Treiber had emigrated to the United States several years previously, and had formerly been in a business partnership with Eugene Bartikeit, the export director of W. Willson Cobbett Ltd. In May 1904 Treiber and Beach formed the Scandinavia Belting Co. in Boston as a subsidiary of W. Willson Cobbett Ltd. The head-office was relocated to New York as trade continued to flourish.^[10]

From about 1907, having become independently wealthy, Cobbett began to focus less attention on his business in favour of his musical interests.^[3] His biographical entry in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, written when Cobbett was aged about eighty, commented that "it has been humorously remarked of him that he has given to commerce what time he could spare from music".^[11] Cobbett himself claimed that he retired "at the age of sixty" in order to "devote myself to what I consider to be my life's work" as a promoter and proponent of chamber music.^[2] However despite the shift in focus when he turned sixty, Cobbett continued to maintain close connections with his business interests in his later life. Cobbett remained chairman of the company until his death in 1937.^[7]

The years prior to World War I was the beginning of a boom period for Cobbett's company. From 1908 large quantities of belting began to be ordered by Henry Ford in the United States, used as transmission linings in the Ford Motor Company's Model T motor vehicle. Over the following years the Cleckheaton factory increased production of transmission linings, eventually producing linings for other automobile manufacturers such as Morris, Austin and Vauxhall in the United Kingdom and Renault and Bugatti in France.^[6] In 1911 the name of the British parent company was changed to Scandinavia Belting Ltd.^[7] In 1912 Beach resigned from the US subsidiary and sold his shares to the parent company, by which process Scandinavia Belting Co. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Scandinavia Belting Ltd.^[10] During World War I production at Cleckheaton was primarily switched to the supply of specialist military equipment.^[6]

In 1920 Scandinavia Belting Ltd., with Cobbett as the chairman of the board of directors, acquired a competitor named British Asbestos Co. Ltd. and expanded its production facilities. In 1923 the company expanded their manufacturing capability to the United States, establishing a belting factory at Paterson in New Jersey. In 1925 Scandinavia Belting Ltd. and British Asbestos Co. formally merged under the name of British Belting & Asbestos Ltd. (BB&A Ltd.).^[6][12][10] By the early 1920s Cobbett was also a director of W. F. Stanley and Co. Ltd., manufacturers of surveying and microscopic equipment.^[12][13]

In 1904 Cobbett delivered a lecture titled 'The Violin Family and its Music' during the Music Loan Exhibition by the Worshipful Company of Musicians, a musicians' guild that had originated in London in the medieval period. The exhibition of ancient musical instruments, rare books and manuscripts, scores and musical mementos, on loan from collectors, was held at the Fishmongers' Hall (adjacent to London Bridge) in June and July 1904.^[14]

In May 1905 Cobbett was elected a member of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. At the same meeting of his membership acceptance, Cobbett offered a sum of fifty guineas as first prize in a composition competition to be organised under the auspices of the Musicians' Company.^[15] The competition was named the Cobbett Musical Competition. It was open only to "British subjects" to submit for judging a musical composition called a 'phantasy', in the form of a string quartet for two violins, a viola and a violoncello. ^[16] The 'phantasy' was Cobbett's modern conception of an older genre, short pieces for viols called 'fancies' or 'fantasies' from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by composers such as William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons.^[17] Under the terms of the competition a 'phantasy' was described as a piece of music of up to twelve minutes duration, which "may consist of different sections varying in tempi and rhythms".^[16][18] Charles Stanford later defined a 'phantasy' as "a condensation of the three or four movements of a sonata into a single movement of moderate dimensions".^[3][19] The stated object of the competition was "to popularise the String Quartet among general audiences, and to endeavour to bring into life a new Art Form providing fresh scope for the composers of Chamber Music".^[16]

Cobbett went on to sponsor five separate chamber music competitions, which took place during the period from 1905 to 1919, all but one of the competitions restricting submissions to British composers. Each composition entailed the composition of phantasies, or other chamber music forms, for different combinations of instruments or in a specific style. The Worshipful Company of Musicians assisted with funding for the first two competitions, after which Cobbett became the sole sponsor.^[20]

• In 1905 the competition called for the composition of a phantasy for a string quartet. The panel of judges included the composer Alexander Mackenzie, Royal Academy of Music professor Alfred Gibson and the Belgian violinist Hermann Sternberg. Sixty-seven manuscripts were received and six prizes were awarded.^[21] The winner of the competition received fifty guineas. Other prizes awarded were ten pounds for second place and a special prize and three consolation prizes of five guineas each.^[22]

• The second competition in 1907 required a phantasy composition for a piano trio (a piano, violin and cello). Sixty-seven manuscripts were received and six prizes were awarded.^[23]

• The third competition in 1909 differed from the first two in several ways. The competition was international, attracting 134 entries, and called for a musical composition in sonata form.^[24]

• The competition in 1915 required a composition for a string quartet in a sonata, suite or phantasy form, with Cobbett specifying that the two violin parts be of equal importance. Forty-five works were submitted.^[25][26]

• The competition in 1917 required a musical composition for a string quartet or piano trio based on English, Welsh, Scottish or Irish folksongs.^[27]

• The 1919 competition called for a "Dance Phantasy" for a string quartet or piano trio, described as a work of moderate length that may be a "ballet in miniature" or music which "contains the soul of the dance and lends itself to dance interpretation".^[28][29]

During the period of his sponsorship of the chamber music competitions, Cobbett also directly commissioned a number of works from emerging and leading British composers. Eleven of his commissioned compositions, each of them in the phantasy form, were composed and published between 1910 and 1912. By 1915 a further thirteen new chamber works "could be credited to Cobbett's activities".^[30] One of the works commissioned in 1912 was Phantasy String Quintet with Two Violas, composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, which Cobbett later described as: "A piece of music which represents so exactly the phantasy as I conceived it that it may well serve as prototype to those who care to write in this form in the future".^[31]

Cobbett was a prolific writer and publicist for chamber music. He wrote frequent articles that were published in The Strad magazine and contributed sixty articles to Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians.^[32] In the period June 1913 to November 1916 Cobbett was responsible for the issue of a monthly series of 'Chamber Music' supplements, published with each issue of The Music Student, a newsletter produced by the Royal College of Music.^[11][33]

After the outbreak of World War I Cobbett served as a member of the Music in War-Time Committee which sought to safeguard the interests of British musicians during the conflict. The committee organised concerts at military camps and hospitals, providing paid engagements for musicians and entertainment for serving and wounded soldiers. Concerts were also given in social clubs for the wives of armed forces personnel. In 1916 the work of the committee was extended to factories, providing lunchtime concerts for munitions workers.^[34]

In 1918 Cobbett established, at his own expense, a Free Library of Chamber Music in conjunction with the Society of Women Musicians. The library was a collection of chamber music, sonatas, trios, quartets and quintets which could be borrowed or purchased.^[35]

Cobbett was the owner of "a fine collection of Cremona violins".^[11] In 1918 and 1923 Cobbett sponsored competitions for violins made by British luthiers. Concerts were held at Aeolian Hall by musicians using the submitted instruments, with the audience participating in the voting.^[36][3]

In the period 1920 to 1927 Cobbett sponsored a series of annual prizes for various forms of chamber music activity at the Royal College of Music. He awarded fifty guinea prizes for the study of chamber music, encompassing both composition and performance. In 1928 these prizes were permanently established by an endowment from Corbett. In some cases his prizes led to the establishment of groups that continued to perform on a professional basis.^[37][38][39]

In 1924 Cobbett established a medal through the Worshipful Company of Musicians, endowed by his initial £50 contribution. The award was named the Walter Willson Cobbett Medal. A silver gilt medal is presented annually to a distinguished recipient in recognition of their services to chamber music.^[40][36] In 1928-29 Cobbett served as Master of the Worshipful Company of Musicians.^[3][40]

Cobbett provided funding to the British Federation of Musical Competition Festivals to start the summer school of chamber music at Bangor in North Wales. He became a regular visitor to the summer schools and "delighted to take out his violin and join in the practices".^[1]

In the mid-1920s Cobbett began working on his Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, which was published in two volumes in 1929.^[3] A writer for The Review of Reviews described Cobbett's encyclopedia as detailing aspects of chamber music "in every conceivable way, by instrument, by composer, by ensemble, and so on". Important works of the genre were analysed in detail and articles covered the history and aesthetics of chamber music.^[41] In addition to his own extensive contributions, the two-volume survey includes articles by leading musicians and musicologists of the time, including Vincent d'Indy, Donald Tovey, Ralph Vaughan Williams and others.^[42] One reviewer declared that "some of the articles in the first volume are little masterpieces".^[41] Another review of Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey described the editor's writing style as having "a note of keen, if somewhat naïve, enthusiasm", though it was pointed out that "the actual scholarship is amply supplied by other hands". The reviewer wrote that "the cyclopedia provides the facts in a well-ordered manner", but the information is "apt to get lost in a haystack of personal opinions".^[43]

Cobbett's wife Ada died in 1932. She was buried on 5 September 1932 at Charlton Kings, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire.^[9]

In the New Year honours in January 1933 Cobbett was awarded a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE).^[44] In 1934 he founded the Chamber Music Association, with an initial gift of one thousand pounds, to foster chamber music activity.^[3]

Cobbett "continued to play the violin into extreme old age and retained astonishing vigour and clarity of mind up till the end".^[1]

On 22 January 1937 Cobbett died of influenza at his home at 34 Avenue Road, St. John's Wood in London, aged 89. He was buried at the Nunhead cemetery.^[1][38]

In Cobbett's will £100 was left to the Worshipful Company of Musicians and £300 to the Society of Women Musicians, "mainly for the upkeep of the Cobbett Free Library". Cobbett's music collection was bequeathed to the Chamber Music Society.^[45] The beneficiary of Cobbett's interest in British Belting & Asbestos Ltd. was Arthur Anselm Pearson, who had been with the business since 1889 and a director of the company since 1912.^[7]

The Cobbett chamber music competitions were instrumental in advancing the careers of leading and emerging British composers of the time. The major prize-winners of the six chamber music competitions sponsored by W. W. Cobbett were:^[22]

1905 Cobbett Competition for Phantasy String Quartet

The winner of the 1905 competition, William Hurlstone, died following an asthma attack only a year after the prize was awarded.^[46]

1907 Cobbett Competition for Phantasy Piano Trio

1909 Cobbett Competition for a Sonata for Violin and Piano

1915 Cobbett Competition for String Quartet (in Sonata, Suite, or Phantasy form)

1917 Cobbett Competition for a Folksong Phantasy

1919 Cobbett Competition for a Dance Phantasy for Piano and Strings

The Free Library of Chamber Music, originally financed by Cobbett, was maintained by the Society of Women Musicians until the society disbanded in 1972.^[48]

The first recipient of the Cobbett Medal in 1924 was the composer Thomas Dunhill. The medal continues to be awarded annually by the Worshipful Company of Musicians (in more recent times known as the Musicians' Company).^[40]

A modern assessment of Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music (from Grove Music Online): "In spite of a highly idiosyncratic editorial style and some inconsistency in the level of coverage between volumes, the Cyclopedic Survey represents an important lexicographical achievement and remains a vital historical document of British attitudes towards chamber music in the inter-war years".^[3]

The Cobbett Association for Chamber Music Research was founded in 1990, named in honour of W. W. Cobbett, with the objective of disseminating information about lesser known chamber music of merit. The Association ceased operations in 2010.^[49]

The New Cobbett Prize for Chamber Music was instigated in 2014 by the Berkeley Ensemble to build upon Cobbett's legacy. The first winner was Sequenza for string quartet by Samuel Lewis.^[50]

• Walter Willson Cobbett (1913-16), Chamber Music, a supplement to The Music Student (No. 1-22a June 1913 - November 1916), London: Home Music Study Union.

• Walter Willson Cobbett (editor) (1929), Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music (two volumes), London: Oxford University Press.

• Walter Willson Cobbett & Sidney Dark (editors) (1932), Fleet Street: An Anthology of Modern Journalism, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.

• Walter Willson Cobbett Medal
• Cobbett Association
• Clements Memorial Prize
• Charles Lucas Medal

Sources

• Walter Willson Cobbett (compilor & editor) (1929), Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music (two volumes), London: Oxford University Press.
• Betsi Hodges (2008), W. W. Cobbett's Phantasy: A Legacy of Chamber Music in the British Musical Renaissance, dissertation submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate school, University of North Carolina (available online, NC Docks website; accessed 4 November 2024).