J. Weston Nicholl

Joseph Weston Nicholl (1876-1925), conductor of the West Riding Military Band 1908-10 and of Black Dyke 1910-12, had a different musical upbringing. His father was a Halifax organist. Joseph a protégé of the great violinist Joachim, studied under him in Berlin and later with Rheinberger at Munich and Guilmant in Paris. Nicholl was a fine violinist, organist and pianist. His best-known brass band composition was the tone poem The Viking recorded by Black Dyke in 1923; his arrangements for brass included Bach’s Little Fugue and Reubke’s Organ Sonata on Psalm 94: a far cry from the operatic overtures and Liszt tone poems and rhapsodies transcribed by William Rimmer. For military band, he wrote a Festival Overture and a Commemorative Ode and March for the Jubilee of the opening of the Halifax People’s Park. In other media he wrote an opera Comala; the orchestral symphonic poem In English Seas, a Concert Overture for organ and orchestra (1904), an early Scherzo for organ and piano, the piano solo Carillon, solo songs, like The Bells of Ys; and sundry partsongs. He died, sadly early, of tuberculosis (ill health had prevented his being more than an adviser to Black Dyke for the last 13 years of his life);

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