MARIGOLD, Marguerite

Marguerite Marigold (later Marguerite Monckton) was an English composer active at the turn of the 20th century. Born in Birmingham into the prominent Marigold family, she received classical musical training in piano and composition, engaging in the lively British parlor, salon, and light orchestral music scenes of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. Marigold achieved broad popular recognition primarily through her light concert and salon dance music. Her best-known work, the "Midsummer Valse" (published in London by Hawkes & Son in 1903), became an international success. Scored originally for solo piano, it was quickly adapted for small orchestra, full salon orchestra, and military brass band, receiving continental distribution in Berlin via Apollo-Verlag and being captured on early 78-rpm shellac discs by the Victor Talking Machine Company in the late 1900s. Beyond dance pieces, Marigold composed parlor songs and lieder, including English-language art song settings of continental poetry, such as Heinrich Heine’s "Thou'rt like a tender blossom" (translated by C. M. Aikman).