Ebook: South Sea Foam

Safroni-Middleton, also known as Count Safroni, (1873-1950) was a British composer, director, violinist, harpist, writer and amateur astronomer. For several of his works he used the pseudonym William H Myddleton. He studied violin with Pablo de Sarasate and afterwards performed as a violinist, playing with orchestras in Sydney, Auckland, Providence (RI), and Tokyo. As a solo performer he toured around Australia, South America, Italy and Spain, and later became bandmaster of the Carl Rosa Opera Company in London. His spirit of adventure led him to explore far-flung places such as Borneo, Papua New Guinea and Malaysia, and he wrote travel guides, memoirs, novels and poems. As a composer he is best remembered for his marches and dance music for the harmony orchestra, and his most well-known piece is Imperial Echoes (1913) which for many years was the theme of Radio Newsreel on BBC radio. This book of reminiscences of his youthful exploits in Polynesia, subtitled The Romantic Adventures of a Modern Don Quixote in the South Seas, was first published in 1920.