Lilias Mackinnon

Lilias Livingstone Mackinnon LRAM (20 April 1889 – 1974) was a Scottish pianist and music educator.

Lilias Mackinnon

A white woman, seated, wearing a headband across her forehead and a loose-fitting velvety tunic-style dress
Lilias Mackinnon, from a 1923 publication
Born20 April 1889
Aberdeen, Scotland
Died1974
Other namesLillias L. Harley
Occupation(s)Pianist, lecturer, writer, educator
RelativesDoris Mackinnon (sister)
Esther Blaikie MacKinnon (sister)
George Thompson (great-grandfather)
Aileen Fox (cousin)

Early life and education

Mackinnon was born in Aberdeen, the daughter of Lachlan Mackinnon and Theodora Thompson.[1] Her father was a lawyer and a consular agent, and her mother ran a home for unemployed women. Her older sisters were zoologist Doris Mackinnon and artist Esther Blaikie MacKinnon.[2] Her great-grandfather was shipowner George Thompson.

She studied piano with Julian Rossetti, and with Carlo Albanesi at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM).[1] She won the Macfarren Gold Medal at the RAM in 1916.[3] She also studied with Tobias Matthay.[4]

Career

Pianist

In Mackinnon gave concerts of piano works by Scriabin in London, beginning in 1917.[3][5] In 1918 she joined Mary Ramsay and Oscar Beringer for a benefit concert of works to two pianos, at London's Aeolian Hall.[6] In 1933 she played at the BBC Proms concerts at Queen's Hall.[7] Her cousin, archaeologist Aileen Fox, remembered seeing a concert by Mackinnon at Wigmore Hall.[8][9] She toured Canada[10][11] and the United States[12] several times in the 1930s.[13][14]

Critics generally praised Mackinnon's technique and choice of programme,[6] though Scriabin was considered quite "futuristic" in the 1920s.[15][16] Ezra Pound described her playing as having "a fluid, not an architecture manner; it is not a confusion."[17] The Guardian expressed admiration for her charm and intelligent choices in 1932, but some disappointment at her restraint, when "something more of audacity is wanted."[18] The Oakland Tribune's critic highlighted her "meticulous taste" and "refined and poetic sensibility".[19]

Lecturer, writer, arts patron

Mackinnon devised her own method of memorising piano music, which she taught by correspondence. In 1935, she conducted a summer music school in St. Andrews.[20] She wrote Music by Heart (1938), "the only non-technical book in English devoted primarily to memorization", and "a classic", according to a 1955 review.[21]

During World War II, Mackinnon taught at Dominican College in California, and at Bradley Polytechnic Institute in Illinois.[22] She lectured on musical memory in Chicago in 1942,[23] in New York in 1945,[24] and at a piano clinic in North Carolina in 1956.[4] Composer Nancy Laird Chance was one of her students.[25]

Alexander Stuart-Hill painted Mackinnon's portrait in about 1920; she donated that painting to the Perth Art Gallery.[26] Maurice Besly dedicated a 1928 composition to Mackinnon.[27] She also donated some of her sister's art to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.[28][29]

Publications

  • Musical Secrets (1936)[30]
  • Music by Heart (1938)[31]

Personal life

Mackinnon married a younger American man, William P. Harley, in 1959. They divorced in 1965.[32] She died in 1974, in her eighties.[26]

References

  1. "A Pianoforte Recital by Lilias Mackinnon". Radio Times. 19 July 1935. p. 40. Retrieved September 24, 2023 via Radio Times Issue Explorer.
  2. Dawes, Ben (November 17, 1956). "Prof. Doris L. Mackinnon" (PDF). Nature: 1093–1094.
  3. "Lilias Mackinnon" The Scottish Musical Magazine 5(4)(1 December 1923): 70.
  4. "Piano Clinic Begins Here June 25; Newman to Direct". The Daily Tar Heel. 1956-06-15. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-09-24 via Newspapers.com.
  5. Anderson, W. R. (June 12, 1920). "London Music Week by Week: A Scriabin Enthusiast". Musical News and Herald. 58 (1492): 538.
  6. "An Interesting Recital". The North Devon Herald. 1918-07-25. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-09-24 via Newspapers.com.
  7. Leonard Darke Collection, 1931-34, Concert Programmes.
  8. Fox, Aileen (2000). Aileen: A Pioneering Archaeologist. Gracewing Publishing. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-0-85244-523-5.
  9. "London Notes". The Scottish Musical Magazine. 8 (5): 99. 1 January 1927.
  10. "Canadian Club Hears Address on Memorizing". The Vancouver News-Herald. 1934-01-06. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-09-24 via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Pianist, Lecturer". Calgary Herald. 1935-04-01. p. 16. Retrieved 2023-09-24 via Newspapers.com.
  12. Hicks, Arthur C. (1934-01-30). "Pianist Scores Hit; Miss Lilias Mackinnon Presents Program at Normal". The Bellingham Herald. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-09-24 via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Musical Memory is Subject of Lecture; Miss Lilias Mackinnon of London, England, Spoke Saturday". The Kingston Whig-Standard. 1936-02-24. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-09-24 via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Scots Pianist's Post". Daily Record. 29 July 1939. p. 11 via The British Newspaper Archive, via The Wikipedia Library.
  15. "Miss Lilias Mackinnon". The Daily Telegraph. 1925-01-30. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-09-24 via Newspapers.com.
  16. Smith, Kenneth; Kallis, Vasilis (2022). Demystifying Scriabin. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-78327-656-1. JSTOR j.ctv24tr735.
  17. Pound, Ezra (2008). Ezra Pound and Music: The Complete Criticism. New Directions Publishing. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-8112-1784-2.
  18. "Yesterday's Broadcast: Scriabin's Piano Music". The Guardian. 1932-09-16. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-09-24 via Newspapers.com.
  19. Mason, Jack (1934-03-25). "Intermission". Oakland Tribune. p. 30. Retrieved 2023-09-24 via Newspapers.com.
  20. "Scottish Summer School". The Vancouver News-Herald. 1935-09-13. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-09-24 via Newspapers.com.
  21. Newman, William S. (1955). "Review of Music by Heart; Indispensables of Piano Playing; Hints for Piano Normal Studies; On Teaching the Piano". Notes. 12 (4): 592–595. doi:10.2307/891747. ISSN 0027-4380. JSTOR 891747.
  22. "Aberdeen Pianist". Aberdeen Weekly Journal. 25 March 1943. p. 2. Retrieved September 24, 2023 via The British Newspaper Archive, via The Wikipedia Library.
  23. "YMCA Music School is to Present Lecturer". Chicago Tribune. 1942-07-12. p. 59. Retrieved 2023-09-24 via Newspapers.com.
  24. "Memory Expert Sees Need of Aid by Psychologists". Democrat and Chronicle. 1945-06-27. p. 12. Retrieved 2023-09-24 via Newspapers.com.
  25. "Nancy Laird Chance Interview". Bruce Duffie. 1990. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
  26. "Lilias Livingstone Mackinnon (d.1974)". Art UK. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
  27. Besly, Maurice (1928). "3 Piano Pieces, Op.29". IMSLP, Petrucci Music Library. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
  28. "Candlemaker's Hall". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
  29. "Goats in a Field". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
  30. Mackinnon, Lilias (1936). Musical Secrets. Oxford University Press, H. Milford.
  31. MacKinnon, Lilias (1954). Music by Heart. Monumental Publishing Company.
  32. Virginia, U.S., Divorce Records, 1918-2014 for Lilias Livingstone Mackinnon and William P. Harley, divorce granted May 12, 1965; via Ancestry
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