Lilias Mackinnon

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Lilias Mackinnon
LRAM
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)

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

Early life and education[edit]

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[edit]

Pianist[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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

Personal life[edit]

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[edit]

  1. ^ a b "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. ^ a b "Lilias Mackinnon" The Scottish Musical Magazine 5(4)(1 December 1923): 70.
  4. ^ a b "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. ^ a b "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. ^ a b "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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