John Goss

John Goss (10 May 189413 February 1953) was a baritone recital singer and teacher. He was a key figure in 1920s English musical life, befriending composers such as Rebecca Clarke, Frederick Delius, Bernard van Dieren, E J Moeran and Peter Warlock. He became well known for his concerts mixing classical lieder and English art song with what he called "sociable songs" - folk song, popular drinking songs, army songs and sea shanties. He moved to Canada in 1939, where he stayed until 1950. England Born in London, Goss only took up singing as a profession while in his mid-20s. Before that he had studied at Ruskin College, Oxford and worked at a variety of labouring jobs. His teachers were Victor Beigel and Reinhold von Warlich. His first engagement as vocalist was with a touring concert party, The Buskins. Goss built his reputation from 1920 onwards as a recitalist (he never performed in opera or oratorio), touring extensively in Europe, the US, Japan and Canada. Hubert Foss was his frequent accompanist in the UK. As a well-known bon vivant he became a key member of the Peter Warlock circle and championed the set of English composers surrounding Warlock at that time. He was a frequent visitor to Warlock's cottage in Eynsford, Kent. Goss sang in the second performance of Warlock's The Curlew, at the Hyde Park Hotel on 31 January 1923 with the Charles Woodhouse string quartet and Léon Goossens playing the cor anglais. Goss helped revive the British ballad form through his recordings for HMV in 1925 at its Hayes recording studios with the Cathedral Male Quartet, and (in the 1930s) with the London Singers. He also helped Warlock with the revival of interest in Jacobean and Elizabethan lute songs. He recorded a sequence of Warlock songs for HMV in 1928.