Amy Woodforde-Finden

Who was Amy Woodforde-Finden?

Amy Woodforde-Finden was a composer who is best known for writing the music to "Kashmiri Song" from Four Indian Love Lyrics by Laurence Hope.

Amy Woodforde-Finden was born Amelia Ward in 1860 at Valparaíso, Chile, to an American officer serving as British Consul, and a British mother. She was one of nine children, and when her father was killed, her mother relocated the family to London. Around that time Amy displayed a skill for composition and became a student of Carl Schloesser and Amy Horrocks. Her early work, published as Amy Ward, though promising, was received only tepidly.

At the age of 34, she married Lieutenant-Colonel Woodforde Woodforde-Finden, a brigadier and surgeon in the Indian Army; they lived in India for several years, and during her time there she wrote and published what would become her most famous pieces: The Lover in Damascus and Kashmiri Song. The latter was originally self-published in 1902 but because of its popularity and the influence of Hamilton Earle, it was eventually published by Boosey & Co. The popularity of Kashmiri Song and The Lover in Damascus kept her in the good graces of her publishing house and in the hearts of her audience. Her songs are noted for their sentimentality, their romantic fluidity and how they blend a particularly British, middle-class sensibility with an Asian pastiche. In the years that followed the success of Kashmiri Song, Amy composed On Jhelum River, The Pagoda of Flowers and Stars of the Desert.