Cecil Armstrong Gibbs papers
A collection of papers and music manuscripts of the English composer Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960).
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, May 1949
Gibbs read history and music at Trinity College, Cambridge where he received help and tuition from Edward Dent and Charles Wood. He taught at the Wick School, Hove, from 1915 and commissioned Walter de la Mare to write a play, Crossings, for the school in 1919. This production, stage-managed by Dent, brought Gibbs into personal contact with de la Mare, who was to become his lifelong friend and inspiration. Adrian Boult conducted Gibbs’s music for the play and was so impressed that he offered Gibbs the financial backing to enable him to take up composition professionally. Consequently he studied for a year at the Royal College of Music with Vaughan Williams for composition, Charles Wood for theory and Boult for score-reading and conducting. Gibbs subsequently served on the staff of the RCM from 1921 to 1939.
Gibbs actively and enthusiastically pursued a career as a music festival adjudicator from 1923 to 1952, and he held office as vice-president of the British Federation of Music Fesivals from 1937 to 1952. He published a wealth of music for choirs and amateur orchestras, as well as a substantial output of songs.
This collection encompasses the majority of Gibbs's music manuscripts, including his songs, and his choral, dramatic, orchestral, chamber and instrumental works. The papers also include letters to Gibbs, 1918-1960, from various composers, writers, artists and other figures, including Walter de la Mare, Herbert Howells and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Also of interest are papers relating to Crossings and Gibbs's unpublished autobiography Common Time, 1958.
The collection also comprises manuscript texts of lectures by Gibbs primarily on the subject of music, including the history of music and modern music, and in particular on music in relation to education, festivals, the theatre and choirs. There are also two printed lectures (Competition or non-competition? and The trend of modern music), as well as the publication The Festival Movement (London, 1946) and published editions of Gibbs's music.
- For further details of the collection’s content visit the online archive catalogue; collection reference CG.
- The Armstrong Gibbs Society was established in 2002, and can provide information on concerts, recordings and other events relating to the music of Armstrong Gibbs.
Biography of Gibbs from Stephen Banfield/RO Hancock-Child: 'Gibbs, Cecil Armstrong', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 18 May 2004), http://www.grovemusic.com