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Margaret Marie Dare (4 February 1902 – 11 February 1976), usually known as Marie Dare, was a Scottish composer and cellist, born in Newport-on-Tay. She composed mostly chamber music, including several string quartets and a quintet. Some of her cello music written for educational purposes is still in use today.
While still a teenager, Dare made her professional cello debut on 1 July 1919 at the Aeolian Hall in London, The Musical Times, Vol. 60, No. 917 (July 1919), p. 373 www.jstor.org and also performed as a soloist in a Victory Concert marking the end of World War 1 at the Royal Albert Hall. With the pianist Cecil Dixon she performed for early 2LO radio broadcasts from Marconi House in the early 1920s.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Radio Times, Issue 806, 12 March 1939, p. 35 via genome.ch.bbc.co.uk In 1938 she formed the Maria Dare String Quartet, with Marjorie Hayward (violin), Susan Davies (violin) and Olive Davidson
(viola), which broadcast regularly on BBC radio for the next few years.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Radio Times, Issue 877, 21 Jul 1940, p. 26 via genome.ch.bbc.co.uk
After serving as a Petty Officer in the Women's Royal Navy Service during World War II, Dare was appointed principal cellist in the Reid Orchestra in Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh, Reid Concerts www.reidconcerts.music.ed.ac.uk performing as the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations in 1946. Marie Dare biography, Stainer & Bell stainer.co.uk She gave recitals in Budapest, London, and Vienna. In her later years, she performed in the Scottish Trio with Wight Henderson (piano) and Horace Fellows (violin). She worked as a professor of Cello at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music. In later life she also played and composed for the double bass. She lived at 32A Warrender Park Terrace, Edinburgh, where she died in February 1976. Musical Times, Vol. 117, No. 1598 (April 1976), p. 339 www.jstor.org Who's Who in Music, 5th Edition (1969), p. 73
Other works include pieces for string orchestra (such as the late Scottish Rhapsody, commissioned by the Scottish Amateur Musical Association in 1972 for the National Youth String Orchestra of Scotland), Scottish Rhapsody extract performed by the North Ayrshire Senior Strings video.link three ballet scores (including For the Young Thumbeline, scored for two pianos and broadcast in 1964),
The Hebridean Suite and three other pieces for cello and piano were recorded by Alexandra Mackenzie and Ingrid Sawers in 2023. Beyond Twilight: Music For Cello & Piano By Female Composers, Delphian DCD34306 (2023), www.prestomusic.com Her Phantasy Quartet of the 1930s was recorded in 2025 by The Berkeley Ensemble with Simon Callaghan (piano) and Tom Wraith (additional cello).' Beauty Veil’d, EM Records EMR CD091 (2025)
Composition
Dare composed mostly small scale chamber music, including a distinctive set of works for cello. There are six separate pieces for cello quartet, one of which (the Elégie) was published by Chester in 1956.Lynda MacGregor. Notes to Cello Spice: A Celebration of Cellos, Divine Art CD 25002 (1995) Her Phantasy Quartet (1933) and Phantasy Quintet (with two cellos, 1933-4), both one movement works, along with the full scale String Quartet in G minor (1934-1937), were all heard at an Aeolian Hall concert devoted to her own compositions held on 19 January 1938, in which she performed as both cellist and pianist. The Musical Times, Vol. 79, No. 1140 (February 1938), p. 145 www.jstor.org Her 1939 Piano Trio won the Royal College of Music Society of Women Musicians composition prize. A number of her occasional pieces for cello, such as Serenade and Valse (Grade 2) and Echoes (Grade 5), still feature as ABRSM graded pieces for examination. Serenade and Valse, ABRSM edition www.stgilesmusic.co.uk
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> BBC Genome listing, 18 March 1964 via genome.ch.bbc.co.uk as well as songs and choral works. Her colleague Ronald Stevenson commented on her "fine ear for national intonations". The Scottish Music Centre holds around 100 complete scores and 30 sound recordings.
Selected works
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