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Harry Plunket Greene - Biography

Harry Plunket Greene was born on 24th June 1865 at Old Connaught House, Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. His father, Richard Jonas Greene was a barrister, and mother Louisa was a daughter of Lord Plunket, lord chancellor of Ireland. He was educated in Dublin and then Clifton College, Bristol, where a sporting accident changed the direction of his life from a career in the law to professional singing. He studied the art in Stuttgart, Florence and London from 1883.

His public singing career began in 1888 in Handel’s Messiah, which led to performances at Covent Garden and the major London concert venues. However, he leant towards oratorio and solo song. In 1890, he appeared for the first time in the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester, achieving national acclaim in the role of Job in Hubert Parry’s oratorio of the same name. He sang also in Elgar’s oratorios at the Festivals. The Irish composer, Charles Villiers Stanford wrote songs for him to sing.
      Harry Plunket Greene (left) at Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester 1910

      At the Three Choirs Festival, 1910 (left).

With the pianist, Leonard Borwick, Plunket Greene pioneered the solo song recital in London from 1893. They performed German lieder and keenly promoted English songs, many specially written for him, by Stanford, Parry, Somervell, Elgar, Walford Davies, Vaughan Williams, Quilter, O’Neill and Howells. He also sang from the Irish and English folk song tradition, drawing on material collected by Cecil Sharp.

Plunket Greene was professor at the Royal Academy of Music (1911-19) and the Royal College of Music (1912-19). He published his teaching on singing in Interpretation in Song (1912). When he retired from teaching, he devoted more time to writing about music and his great passion, fly-fishing. He was a member of the MCC, and president of the Incorporated Society of Musicians in 1933. He adjudicated in many Music Festivals in Canada and the United States of America.

He married Hubert Parry’s younger daughter, Gwendolen Maud in 1899, and they had three children, Richard (born 1901), David (1904) and Olivia (1907, baptised in St Andrew's Church). Their marriage was unhappy, and they separated in 1920. Harry Plunket Greene died on 19th August 1936 and is buried in Hurstbourne Priors Churchyard. Near his grave are those of his two sons.

Linked articles:

Harry Plunket Greene, in Groves Dictionary of Music & Musicians (4th Edition, 1940)

Greene, Harry Plunket, article by Jeremy Dibble in the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (subscription needed)