The name Cecil Coles was completely unknown to me when, at a recent Musica Viva NY concert, one of his works, Cortège, was performed as an organ solo. This sent me on a search for more information about the composer, who served in the Great War and who was killed by a sniper while on active duty in France, in April of 1918.
Born in Scotland, Coles became an assistant conductor at the Stuttgart Opera, and was the organist at St. Katherine's Church in that city. At the onset of the Great War, he signed up immediately and joined the Queen's Victoria Rifles, serving as the regimental band-leader. Coles did not let the war stall his composing career; during his time at the Western Front, he would send his manuscripts back to his friend, composer Gustav Holst, in England.
There's a wonderful page about Cecil Coles on the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's website here. Conductor Martyn Brabbins talks about the many Coles compositions that languished, forgotten, for decades, and of his own efforts in orchestrating some of them.
British mezzo-soprano Fiona Kimm sings one of Cecil Coles' most beautiful songs, A Benediction:
Fiona Kimm - Cecil Coles ~ A Benediction
Cecil Coles is buried at the Crouy British Cemetery in France.
~ Oberon