December 27, Birthday of Hope Temple

Since July, I have been concentrating solely on female composers.  You can read about that in my post from July 19.  If I can’t find one born on the calendar day, I won’t post.  On with today’s composer.

There is a very short entry for Hope Temple, nee Alice Davis, in Wikipedia.  She studied piano in London starting at age 13, but then due to a riding accident that injured her hand, she turned to composing.  I can only find one piece by her on Youtube.  It’s an Irish song called “My Lady’s Bower,” which was sung by Molly Bloom in James Joyce’s Ulysses.  The other is an excerpt, not very well performed, from her husband’s (Andre Messager), opera Mirette, which she cowrote with him.  She wrote two operettas, which I cannot find.

From Wikipedia:  Hope Temple, born as Alice Maude (called “Dotie”) Davis (27 December 1859 – 10 May 1938) was an Irish songwriter and composer. She was also known as “Mrs. André Messager“.

My Lady’s Bower
For the Wind of Night Comes Wandering

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