In the Beginning:  Doctoral Essay

Dana Muller became acquainted with Scottish/American pianist and composer Helen Hopekirk (1856-1945) as a doctoral student (DMA, 1995).  While researching the music of 19th-century New England composers for a course assignment, she came upon several solo piano pieces by Hopekirk in the shelves of the music section of the Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts.  The scores were in tattered condition and had not been borrowed since the 1920’s, but Library staff kindly allowed her to check out the crumbling scores for perusal.  Struck by the lyricism and fresh harmonies in pieces such as “Cronan” and “Wandering”, Dana determined to make Hopekirk the subject of her culminating doctoral essay. 

Preparation to write the document demanded careful study of materials in the Helen Hopekirk Collection at the Library of Congress in Washington DC donated by one of Hopekirk's patrons.  There Dana found voluminous boxes of music manuscripts, folders of handwritten memoirs and drafts for articles on music teaching, and five overstuffed scrapbooks of concert programmes and reviews documenting Hopekirk’s performances between 1879 and 1939.  Combining this treasure trove and a series of interviews she conducted with elderly pianists who had studied with Hopekirk during the early decades of the twentieth century, Dana wrote the initial portion of her essay, Helen Hopekirk (1856-1945): pianist, composer, pedagogue.  Her compilation of biographical material and a thematic catalogue of the composer’s solo piano compositions offered the most thorough account of Hopekirk’s life and musical career since the publication of a brief biography by two of the composer’s former students in 1954.

Performance Edition of Concertstück for Piano and Orchestra

The final portion of Dana’s essay comprised a performance edition of Hopekirk’s Concertstück in D Minor for Piano and Orchestra.  Composed in Paris in 1893-1894, the single-movement Concertstück was performed by Hopekirk in Edinburgh and Dundee in 1894 and twice with the Boston Symphony Orchestra ten years later.  The work remained unpublished at Hopekirk’s death in 1945.  Two manuscript versions of the conductor’s score and several copies of individual orchestral parts, along with Hopekirk's arrangement for two pianos, were preserved in the Helen Hopekirk Collection.

Dana’s job was to reconcile differences in pitches, slurs, dynamic markings, etc., among the four scores and parts.  Given Hopekirk’s penmanship and corrections that occasionally left holes in the manuscript paper, this proved to be a challenging task.  Particularly puzzling were the final bars of the work, which seemed to have perplexed Hopekirk herself, as she experimented with various combinations of orchestra and piano, together, or answering one another, in the final bars of crashing chords.  Studying the final bars of Anton Rubinstein’s Concerto No. 3 in G Major, a work Hopekirk had performed, led to the resolution Dana chose for her edition.

Dana’s edition was used for the first modern-day performance of the Concertstück by Gary Steigerwalt with the Mount Holyoke Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tian Hui Ng on 17 April 2015.  A recording of the performance can be heard here. 

Commemorative Concert and Birthplace Memorial Plaque

Ongoing biographical research about Hopekirk led Dana and Gary to the Portobello History Society for information about her early life in Portobello.  The chairman of the Society, Archie Foley, had never heard of her, but after learning of their research, he realized how important Hopekirk was to Portobello.  In collaboration with the Portobello Community Council and the support of the Edinburgh City Council, Dana and Gary organized and performed a program of Hopekirk's music with local musicians in a concert to mark the 150th anniversary of Hopekirk's birth. 

As part of the celebration, Portobello residents erected a plaque at her birthplace in a flat above her father's former book and stationery shop on Portobello High Street.

Further information about the celebration and additional photographs are available at the Portobello Heritage Trust website:

http://www.portobelloheritagetrust.co.uk/helen_hopekirk.html

A full-length Hopekirk biography is forthcoming!

For now, please read here for a biographical sketch of the pianist/composer.