Cora Cardigan

Cora Cardigan was the stage name of Hannah Rosetta Dinah Parks (1860 – 1931), an English virtuoso flautist known as the 'Queen of Flute Players' who worked mainly in theatres. She performed throughout Europe and the United States, and was known for her skill playing the flute, piccolo and violin.[1][2]

Early life

She was born Hannah Rosetta Dinah Moulton in 1860, Clerkenwell, illegitimate daughter of Rosetta Moulton (born 1833). The Era (newspaper) gave her birth as 18 September.[3] On the 1861 Census the family were living at Hermes Street, Clerkenwell. By 1871 she had been adopted and lived with the family of her aunt, Caroline Parks (née Moulton), and her husband Henry Thomas Parks (1823–1903), "Professor of Flute", in Leyton, Essex; her occupation was given as "Scholar And Flute Player".[1][4]

Career
Louis and Hannah Honig, 1889

She was performing in Music Halls from as early as 1879,[5][6] including touring the United States in 1880 for two years with M. B. Leavitt's Grand English Operatic Burlesque Company,[7][8][9] where she "played concerts in 178 towns in America".[10] Later in 1882 she appeared at the Opera Comique with Lila Clay and her Musical and Dramatic Company of Ladies, described as "one of the greatest, if not the chief, success of the opening section of the entertainment. This was a thoroughly legitimate performance, and the spontaneous manner in which the audience cheered and encored it testified to its effectiveness".[11]

She studied under her father, who was a music teacher,[12] and completed her education at the Guildhall School of Music, performing in student concerts in 1884, where she "fairly astonished her hearers by her facility of execution in a flute fantasia, but this lady can scarcely be called a student."[13][14] There she studied under Richard Shepherd Rockstro (1826–1906), solo flutist at Covent Garden Opera and author of several books on the flute. Her first performance was at the Royal Music Hall, Holborn, then at the Oxford,[15] and the Royal Aquarium. She then gave concerts in Prince's Hall (17 February 1885)[16] and then toured in Britain and Europe.

Early in her career she was described as a 'Musical Novelty' or 'Musical Eccentrics';[17] a reviewer in 1885 wrote that she was "the best of female flautists" and "is the most modest instrumentalist we have ever encountered; in fact, the absence of self-assertion in her character has done nothing to assist her career."[18] At a concert at The South London Palace, Lambeth, in 1887 she was described as "an accomplished flautist, and plays the piccolo like an angel. She gets a beautiful tone from the latter instrument, which is so much abused in our London orchestras. It is a genuine pleasure to hear this young lady execute difficult variations on either instrument without flaw or fault of any kind. She glides over most arduous passages with an ease and certainty that can only come of steady, patient, persevering practice. She was deservedly recalled twice after a performance that proved one of the pleasantest experiences of the evening."[19]

A guest performance in the Berlin Reichshallen Theatre in 1886 was apparently regarded as one of the highlights of her career, "where her engagement was extended for 28 performances".[20][1] She also appeared in Nice.[10] An article in The Musical Herald and Tonic Sol-Fa Reporter by John Curwen in 1889 called her 'The Queen of Flute Players' and described how she always performed from memory.[1][2] "Her performances, a music hall manager said, were appreciated by him because they helped to raise the music halls above the level of clever comic singers and acrobats. Miss Cardigan was so successful that her services were retained for upwards of fifty successive nights at the Royal Aquarium, and she has been heard in almost every large town in the Kingdom“.[1]

She appeared at the opening of the Paragon Theatre of Varieties in 1885,[21] the Bow and Bromley recitals and at the opening of the Metropolitan Theatre in 1897.[22] In 1891 she performed for the Prince of Wales.[23] She later performed works composed by her husband[24] and performed with him at the Theatre Royal, Richmond.[25]

Her playing was remarkable for brilliancy of execution, and purity of tone.[1][26][27] She was described as "Probably the most famous of all English lady flute players”.[28] Rockstro wrote "The excellent and brilliant performer Miss Cora Cardigan ( Mrs. Louis Honig ), known as the 'Queen of Flute-Players' always plays on an ebonite flute.  The charming quality of the tone that this talented lady elicits from her instrument is too well known to need any panegyric in these pages."[29] Another reviewer wrote "I have heard a lady flautist – Miss Cora Cardigan – on several occasions. I heard her play some most difficult pieces in excellent style, and I am still waiting to listen to a better performer“ (Musical Opinion and Music Trade Review 1889, Oct., S. 29).[1]

She seems to have stopped performing about 1908. In some of her last performances she appeared with her daughter Pauline and stepdaughter Marguerite Honig.[30][31]

Personal life

She married the composer and pianist Louis Honig (1849–1906) at St John the Divine, Richmond on 14 January 1889.[32] Their daughters born in Richmond were Pauline (b 1889) and Lucy (1891–1892).[33]

She died 17 March 1931 at Rochford, Essex.[34][35]

References
  1. Hoffmann, Freia (2012). "Cardigan, Cora, geb. Hannah Rosetta (Dinah) Moulton, adopt. Parks, verh. Honig". Sophie Drinker Institut.
  2. Black, Kaleena (September 2017). "Fascinating Flute-Related Finds in the Library of Congress Dayton C. Miller Collection". Music Educators Journal: 25–27. doi:10.1177/0027432117721905. S2CID 149186659.
  3. "Birthdays of the Week". Era. 16 September 1931. p. 19.
  4. England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VFFJ-L68 : 28 September 2019), Hannah D R Parks in entry for Henry T Parks, 1871.
  5. "THE LONDON MUSIC HALLS". Era. 21 December 1879. Retrieved 26 September 2020 – via British Library Newspapers.
  6. "THE LONDON MUSIC HALLS". Era. 15 February 1880. Retrieved 26 September 2020 – via British Library Newspapers.
  7. "THEATRICAL GOSSIP". The Era. 15 August 1880 – via British Library Newspapers.
  8. "Theatrical Exodus to the United States". Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser. 13 August 1880. Retrieved 26 September 2020 – via British Library Newspapers.
  9. "AT TONY PASTOR'S FOURTEENTH STREET THEATRE". New York Clipper. 12 November 1881 – via The Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.
  10. McGee, Terry (March 2006). "A Snapshot of Late Nineteenth Century Opinion on the Flute, and a Reality Check on its Development". McGee-Flutes. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
  11. "Lila Clay and her Musical and Dramatic Company of Ladies". Footlight Notes. 17 February 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  12. "Advertisements & Notices". Era. 8 May 1886 – via British Library Newspapers.
  13. "Concert at the Mansion House". Lloyd's Illustrated Newspaper. 2 November 1884. Retrieved 26 September 2020 – via British Library Newspapers.
  14. "THE GUILDHALL SCHOOL OF MUSIC". Era. 8 November 1884. Retrieved 26 September 2020 – via British Library Newspapers.
  15. "THE LONDON MUSIC HALLS". Era. 30 May 1885. Retrieved 26 September 2020 – via British Library Newspapers.
  16. "A very remarkable performance". The Musical Standard: A Newspaper for Musicians, Professional and Amateur: 139. 28 February 1885 – via Google Books.
  17. "Advertisements & Notices. Mr Richard Warner". Era. 25 April 1885 – via British Library Newspapers.
  18. "Music Halls". London and Provincial Entr'acte. 4 July 1885.
  19. "The London Music Halls: South London Palace". ERA. 10 December 1887 – via British Library Newspapers.
  20. Curwen, John (July 1889). "The Queen of Flute Players". The Musical Herald and Tonic Sol fa Reporter: 149–150 – via Google Books.
  21. "THE PARAGON THEATRE OF VARIETIES". Era. 23 May 1885 – via British Library Newspapers.
  22. "The Metropolitan Theatre, 267 Edgware Road, Paddington". The Music Hall and Theatre History Site Dedicated to Arthur Lloyd, 1839 – 1904. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  23. "MUSIC HALL GOSSIP. Miss Cora Cardigan". Era. 4 July 1891 – via British Library Newspapers.
  24. "MUSIC HALL GOSSIP". Era. 21 January 1899 – via British Library Newspapers.
  25. "THEATRICAL GOSSIP". Era. 31 August 1895 – via British Library Newspapers.
  26. Brown, James Duff; Stratton, Stephen Samuel (1897). A DICTIONARY OF MUSICAL ARTISTS, AUTHORS AND COMPOSERS, BORN IN BRITAIN AND ITS COLONIES. p. 79.
  27. Gillett, Paula (2000). Musical Women in England, 1870–1914 "Encroaching on All Man's Privileges". Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 196–197.
  28. Fitzgibbon, Henry Macauly (1914). The Story of the Flute. London, William Reeves. p. 223.
  29. Rockstro, Richard Shepherd (1928). A Treatise on the Construction the History and the Practice of The Flute (PDF). Rudall, Carte and Co. p. 146.
  30. "Concert at Banchory". Aberdeen Journal. 8 January 1908. p. 8. Retrieved 25 September 2020 – via British Library Newspapers.
  31. "SHEPHERD'S BUSH". West London Observer. 14 November 1902 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  32. "Marriage". East London Observer. 26 January 1889 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  33. "Hannah Rosetta Dinah Parks". Family Search.
  34. England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837–2007. Hannah R D Honig Jan–Feb–Mar 1931 Rochford, Essex Volume: 4A Line Number: 76
  35. Andrew, Fairley (1982). Flutes, Flautists and Makers (active Or Born Before 1900). Pan Educational Music. p. 24.
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