Ivor Novello

Lore & Background

Novello was born David Ivor Davies in Cardiff, Wales, to a rent collector father and a mother who was an internationally known singing teacher and choral conductor. As a boy, he was a successful singer in the Welsh Eisteddfod and studied harmony and counterpoint with Herbert Brewer, the cathedral organist in Gloucester. He won a scholarship to Magdalen College School in Oxford, where he was a solo treble in the college choir. After leaving school, he gave piano lessons in Cardiff and moved to London in 1913 with his mother, taking a flat above the Strand Theatre that became his London home for the rest of his life. He adopted his mother's middle name 'Novello' as his professional surname, legally changing it in 1927.

In 1914, at the start of the First World War, Novello wrote 'Keep the Home Fires Burning' to a lyric by Lena Guilbert Ford, which brought him money and fame at age 21. He avoided enlistment until June 1916, when he joined the Royal Naval Air Service as a probationary flight sub-lieutenant, but after twice crashing aeroplanes, his mentor Sir Edward Marsh arranged his move to the Admiralty office in central London for the rest of the war. Novello continued to write songs while serving, and had his first stage success with Theodore & Co in 1916, a production with a score composed by Novello and Jerome Kern. In 1917, Marsh introduced him to actor Bobbie Andrews, who became Novello's life partner.

In the 1920s, Novello turned to acting, first in British films and then on stage, with considerable success in both. He starred in two silent films directed by Alfred Hitchcock, The Lodger and Downhill (both 1927). On stage, he played the title character in the first London production of Liliom (1926). He briefly went to Hollywood but soon returned to Britain, where he had more successes on stage, appearing in his own lavish West End productions of musicals, the best-known of which were Glamorous Night (1935) and The Dancing Years (1939). From the 1930s he often performed with Zena Dare, writing parts for her in his works.

Reader's Guide

Ivor Novello was a central figure in British entertainment from the 1910s through the 1940s, known for his work as a composer, actor, and dramatist. His song 'Keep the Home Fires Burning' became an anthem of the First World War, establishing his early fame. He later achieved his greatest successes with stage musicals in the style of operetta, often composing to libretti by Christopher Hassall. His best-known musicals include Glamorous Night (1935), The Dancing Years (1939), Perchance to Dream (1945), King's Rhapsody (1949), and Gay's the Word (1951). As an actor, he was a matinee idol in silent films, starring in two Alfred Hitchcock films, and later appeared in his own West End productions. His legacy is commemorated by the Ivor Novello Awards, named after him in 1955, which recognize excellence in songwriting and composing.

Did You Know?

• Novello's first big hit was 'Keep the Home Fires Burning' (1914), which became enormously popular during the First World War.
• The Ivor Novello Awards were named after him in 1955.

Musical Roots and a Young Talent in the Making

David Ivor Davies was born in Cardiff in January 1893 into a household where music was the family language. His father collected rents for the city council, while his mother, Clara Novello Davies, was an internationally known singing teacher and choral conductor. Young Novello sang at the Welsh Eisteddfod and, at just six, learned "Abide with Me" from the contralto Clara Butt. His schooling moved from private tuition in Cardiff to Gloucester, where cathedral organist Herbert Brewer drilled him in harmony and counterpoint, and then to Magdalen College School in Oxford, where he sang as a solo treble. Novello later admitted that long immersion in early sacred choral music drove him, in reaction, toward lush romantic composition. Brewer had told him he would never make a career in music, yet the boy was publishing songs by fifteen. After teaching piano in Cardiff, he moved to London in 1913 with his mother, taking a flat above the Strand Theatre that anchored him there for the rest of his life. In the capital, the arts patron Sir Edward Marsh became his mentor, urging him to compose and introducing him to influential figures. Novello adopted his mother's middle name as his stage surname, a change he would not make legally until 1927.

A Wartime Anthem and the Forging of a Songwriter

When the First World War erupted in 1914, the twenty-one-year-old Novello composed the music for what would become his defining song, "Keep the Home Fires Burning," to lyrics by the American writer Lena Guilbert Ford. The tune captured the grief of families torn apart by the conflict and swept across Britain, bringing him sudden wealth and fame almost overnight. The war touched his life less directly than many of his contemporaries: he avoided enlistment until mid-1916, when he reported to a Royal Naval Air Service training depot as a probationary flight sub-lieutenant. After crashing aeroplanes on two separate occasions, his mentor Marsh arranged a transfer to a desk job at the Admiralty in central London, where he served out the remainder of the war while continuing to write songs. His wartime stage output was prolific. In 1916 he co-composed the score for Theodore & Co alongside the young Jerome Kern and contributed numbers to André Charlot's revue See-Saw. The following year he added songs to the operetta Arlette. After the armistice, his songwriting momentum never faltered: he supplied the full score for The Golden Moth in 1921, contributed to Charlot's revues Tabs, A to Z, and Puppets, and penned the comedy number "And Her Mother Came Too" for Jack Buchanan.

From Silent Screens to Lavish West End Stages

Novello's striking profile earned him a kind of matinee-idol status among cinema audiences, and the Swiss director Louis Mercanton spotted him from a single publicity photograph, casting him as the romantic lead in The Call of the Blood in 1920. He followed that with Miarka and his first British film, Carnival, in 1921. His stage debut came that same year in Sacha Guitry's Deburau, and he went on to play Bingley in a charity adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. The most notable cinematic chapter of this period was his work with Alfred Hitchcock: Novello appeared in two of the director's early silent films, The Lodger and Downhill, both released in 1927. He also took on the title role in the first London production of Liliom in 1926. A brief foray into Hollywood proved unsatisfying, and he returned to Britain, where his stage career flourished. Writing musicals in the operetta tradition, often to libretti by Christopher Hassall, he mounted lavish West End productions of his own works. Glamorous Night (1935) and The Dancing Years (1939) became his most celebrated stage shows, and from the 1930s onward he frequently performed alongside Zena Dare, writing roles specifically for her. His later decades saw further triumphs: Perchance to Dream in 1945, King's Rhapsody in 1949, and Gay's the Word in 1951.

Personal Bonds, Rivalries, and a Lasting Name

Novello's private world was shaped by a small circle of powerful relationships. In 1917, Edward Marsh introduced him to the actor Bobbie Andrews, who became his life partner for the rest of his days. Andrews also brought the young Noël Coward—six years Novello's junior—into his orbit. Coward, who would go on to become one of the century's most celebrated playwrights, was openly envious of Novello's effortless glamour, writing that he felt "the long way I had to go before I could break into the magic atmosphere in which he moved and breathed with such nonchalance." Around 1921, Novello also had a brief affair with the poet and war veteran Siegfried Sassoon. His professional life was marked by a steady stream of collaborations: with Jerome Kern on the stage, with Christopher Hassall on libretti, with Zena Dare as a recurring performance partner, and with a long list of lyricists including Clifford Grey, Dion Titheradge, and Lena Guilbert Ford. He died in March 1951, and four years later, in 1955, the British music industry established the Ivor Novello Awards in his honour, cementing his name as a permanent fixture in the landscape of British popular music.