Ellen Riley Wright

Ellen Riley Wright

Ellen Riley Wright (24 December 1859 - 3 August 1904) was an English composer of music for popular songs.

Biography

Ellen Riley was born in London, the daughter of American engineer George Riley, and married an attorney. She began to compose with no instruction and published her first songs in 1891. Encouraged by her success, she studied harmony with Henry Gadsby and instrumentation with F. W. Davenport and expanded her career as a composer.^[1]

Works

Her compositions include:

• "Lovesight" (Text: Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
• "Morgens send' ich dir die Veilchen" (Text: Heinrich Heine)
• "Violets" (Text: Julian Fane after Heinrich Heine)^[2]
• "She Walks in Beauty"
• "Queen of My Days"
• "Had I but Known"
• "Love's Entreaty"
• "The Dawn of Life," with orchestral accompaniment^[1]

References

1. Brown, James Duff; Stratton, Stephen Samuel (1897). British musical biography: a dictionary of musical artists, authors (Digitized online by GoogleBooks). p. 459. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
2. "Ellen Wright, née Riley". Retrieved 23 October 2010.