Identity area
Reference code
GB GB1179 AB-AB/089
Title
'Letters from Tchaikovsky to Brodsky'
Date(s)
- 1962 (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
1 item
Context area
Name of creator
(1903-1999)
Biographical history
Thomas Baron Pitfield was born Apr 5 1903 in Bolton. He was a music teacher, composer, 'cellist, pianist, engineer, inventor, artist, calligrapher, woodworker, cabinet maker, book binder, lino print maker,writer, essayist, pacifist, conscientious objector and vegetarian. In his teen years he worked in engineering on leaving school at 14. In 1924 he entered the Royal Manchester College of Music for a year. He taught at Tettenhall College from 1935-1945, becoming composition tutor at the Royal Manchester College of Music in 1947 and latterly the Royal Northern College of Music, retiring in 1973. His numerous compositions included works for orchestra, brass band, chamber ensembles, piano solo, and choral. Pitfield published 2 volumes of autobiography: No Song, No Supper (1986) and A Song After Supper (1991), and many other works. Fuller details of his life can be found in these volumes. He married Alice Astbury, a fellow student at the RMCM, on December 26 1934, and died in 1999.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
This article was originally broadcast on the Home Service and later published in The Listener pages 683 and 684, dated 19 April 1962. The Tchaikovsky letters were translated by Mrs. Alice Pitfield, wife of the author. Thomas Pitfield mentions how the letters now known at the R.M.C.M. as the Brodsky Collection, came to be discovered many years after the Brodskys' death at their home, 3 Laurel Mount, Bowdon, Cheshire. The house was bequeathed to Anna's sister Olga and after her death when aged over 100 years the house fell to her son, Leon Picard. He died intestate and the packets of correspondence were found and opened by the Principal of the Royal Manchester College of Music.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
31 by 25cm
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Pitfield, Thomas Baron (1903-1999), Composer, artist (Creator)
- Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il'yich (1840-1893), Composer (Subject)
- Brodsky, Adolph Davidovich (1851-1929), Violinist, Principal of the Royal Manchester College of Music (Subject)
- Pitfield, Alice Maud (1903-2000), Craftswoman (Subject)
- Brodsky, Anna (c.1855-1929), scientist, President of RMCM Club, writer (Subject)
- Neruda, Olga (1858-1945) pianist, teacher at the Royal Manchester College of Music (Subject)
- Picard, Leon (fl.1900s-fl.1940s) (Subject)