A Little Knight Music: Selected Works by Sir Maurice Grove Taylor. With Birgit Knecht, violin, Joan Harrison, cello. CD Enterprising Rabbit, 2012.
General Sir Maurice Grove Taylor, KCB, CMG, DSO (1881-1961) led a fascinating life, retiring at the age of 60 as commanding officer of the Royal Engineers in England. His passionate avocation, though, was to compose music. As a child he had been surrounded by music because his father was the esteemed piano pedagogue, Franklin Taylor (1843-1919) of the Royal College of Music, London. Although his father had had a significant career in music, studying at the Leipzig Conservatory with fellow students Edvard Grieg and Arthur Sullivan, publishing musical editions, and then entries in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the elder Taylor refused to teach music to his son. Maurice Taylor subsequently taught himself music, becoming a competent amateur pianist. From at least 1905 he would compose in his spare time. Most of his compositions were written for home performance, as his wife was a very fine violinist. Some of his orchestral works received public performances including his Piano Concerto (1927), Violin Concerto (1928), and the orchestral suites, Llyn Maelog (1932), and Sea Music (1938).