A forgotten British composer

Liberal England's mention yesterday of The Heart Within reminded me that one of the stars, Earl Cameron, is still with us and declares that he is still available for work at the age of 101. Checking on his c.v., I found that he had trained with the granddaughter of black American actor Ira Aldridge.

Now this is a story in itself. Aldridge had lived in Hamlet Road, Upper Norwood near the Crystal Palace and brought up a family there. (Coincidentally, composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was to be a resident of Croydon, so south London/north Surrey must have been more tolerant of brown-skinned people in late Victorian days than now.) One of his daughters was a singer and composer, Amanda, who published under the nom-de-guerre Montague Ring. It appears that gender was a greater bar to acceptance as a composer than race! She wernt on to coach other singers and actors. Since Amanda died as recently as 1956, and she had trained Paul Robeson among other well-known performers, it is probable that it was she, and not a granddaughter, who had worked with Cameron.

Montague Ring was good enough to have one of her pieces played on the early BBC. I am fairly sure I heard one of her songs on Radio 3 in a recent programme about her and her opera-singer sister, and that it was enjoyable, if conventional. While R3 is reviving the reputation of American women composers, the network might also give Amanda Aldridge her due.