Editing Ivor Novello (section)

==Early years==
[[File:Ivor Novello's birthplace in Cardiff.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Novello's birthplace, in [[Cowbridge Road East]], [[Cardiff]]<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_east/8121374.stm "Statue honours composer Novello"], [[BBC News]], 27 June 2009, accessed 26 September 2014.</ref>]]
Novello was born David Ivor Davies in [[Cardiff]], Wales, to David Davies (c. 1852–1931), a rent collector for the city council,<ref name=dnb>Snelson, John. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35264 "Novello, Ivor (1893–1951)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2011, accessed 17 March 2011 {{subscription required}}</ref> and his wife, [[Clara Novello Davies]], an internationally known singing teacher and choral conductor.<ref name=grove>Webb, Paul. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/20146 "Novello, Ivor"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford Music Online, accessed 17 March 2011 {{subscription required}}</ref> As a boy, Novello was a successful singer in the [[National Eisteddfod of Wales|Welsh Eisteddfod]].<ref>MacQueen-Pope, p. 29</ref> His mother set up as a voice teacher in London, where he met leading performers, including members of [[George Edwardes]]'s [[Gaiety Theatre, London|Gaiety Theatre]] company, classical musicians such as [[Landon Ronald]], and singers such as [[Adelina Patti]].<ref name=dnb/> Another of his mother's associates was [[Clara Butt]], who taught him to sing "[[Abide with Me]]" when he was a boy of six.<ref name=tls/>

Novello was educated privately in Cardiff and then in Gloucester, where he studied harmony and counterpoint with [[Herbert Brewer]], the cathedral organist.<ref name=Grdn>[[Simon Callow|Callow, Simon]]. [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/aug/03/ivor-novello-musicals-simon-callow "Ivor Novello, master of the musical"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 3 August 2012</ref> From there he won a scholarship to [[Magdalen College School, Oxford|Magdalen College School]] in [[Oxford]], where he was a solo treble in the college choir. He later said that this prolonged youthful exposure to early sacred choral music had turned his tastes, in reaction, to lush romantic music.<ref name=dnb/> Although Brewer had told him he would not have a career in music,<ref name=grove/> Novello from his early youth showed a facility for writing songs, and when he was only 15, one of his songs was published.<ref name=times>Obituary, ''[[The Times]]'', 7 March 1951, p. 6</ref> After leaving school, he gave piano lessons in Cardiff, and then moved to London in 1913 with his mother. They took a flat above the [[Novello Theatre|Strand Theatre]], which became his London home for the rest of his life.<ref name=dnb/><ref>Ibell, P. (2010) ''Theatreland: A Journey Through the Heart of London's Theatre'', p. 89, London: Bloomsbury Continuum, {{ISBN|978-1847250032}}</ref>

In London he found a mentor in Sir [[Edward Marsh (polymath)|Edward Marsh]], a well-known patron of the arts and [[Winston Churchill]]'s secretary. Marsh encouraged him to compose and introduced him to people who could help his career.<ref name=dnb/> He adopted his mother's middle name, "Novello", as his professional surname, although he did not change it legally until 1927.<ref>MacQueen-Pope, p. 120</ref>
{{Listen
|filename=Keep the Home Fires Burning - Frederick Wheeler.ogg
|title="Keep the Home Fires Burning"
|description=Performed by Frederick Wheeler for Edison Records in late 1915}}
In 1914, at the start of the [[First World War]], Novello wrote "[[Keep the Home Fires Burning (1914 song)|Keep the Home Fires Burning]]", a song that expressed the feelings of innumerable families sundered by the war. Novello composed the music for the song to a lyric by the American [[Lena Guilbert Ford]], and it became a huge popular success, bringing Novello money and fame at the age of 21.<ref name=Grdn/><ref>''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|Grove Music Online]]'' states that the song dates from 1915, but the ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'' gives the date as 1914, a fact confirmed by the [[British Library]] [http://catalogue.bl.uk/F/6U6CFV8D8YT61TJ95YFXQS36L1967UNQDCNB164KJNXYL77SCB-02460?func=full-set-set&set_number=030723&set_entry=000011&format=999 catalogue]</ref> In other respects, the war had less impact on Novello than on many young men of his age. He avoided enlistment until June 1916, when he reported to a [[Royal Naval Air Service]] (RNAS) training depot as a probationary flight sub-lieutenant. After Novello twice crashed aeroplanes, Marsh arranged his move to the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] office in central London for the rest of the war.<ref name=MP57>MacQueen-Pope, pp. 57–62</ref>