Ruth Gipps (1921-99)

[Spotted Horses]

My first experience with Gips, Symphony No 2, didn't make a strong impression. I am think of whether to return to the piece, or try a different one.

[Symphonic Addict]

My first experience with Gips, Symphony No 2, didn't make a strong impression. I am think of whether to return to the piece, or try a different one.

Yes, definitely try something different: a different composer. 

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Re: Ruth Gipps



This is the only recording I own of Gipps music and I was not encouraged to buy the other volumes. The music wasn't 'bad' or trite, but there's nothing within it that held my interest or that intrigued me. Now that I've stopped buy CDs and only occasionally buying a digital download, I doubt I'll pursue her music any further. I've probably listened to this first volume at least twice over a period of a year and half.

So I'm in agreement with @Symphonic Addict and @Spotted Horses in their impressions of Gipps' music.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Yes, definitely try something different: a different composer. 

Ouch! That's pretty harsh!

[JBS]

Re: Ruth Gipps



This is the only recording I own of Gipps music and I was not encouraged to buy the other volumes. The music wasn't 'bad' or trite, but there's nothing within it that held my interest or that intrigued me. Now that I've stopped buy CDs and only occasionally buying a digital download, I doubt I'll pursue her music any further. I've probably listened to this first volume at least twice over a period of a year and half.

So I'm in agreement with @Symphonic Addict and @Spotted Horses in their impressions of Gipps' music.

I'd have to go back and listen again, but I think that first installment of the series was unfortunately the weakest one in the series, for whatever reason--whether it was the music or the performers not being yet in tune with the composer.  Try sampling the later volumes--the Horn Concerto jumps to mind, because it's on the most recent one I have. (The most recent one of all was part of the order I did last week.)

[Spotted Horses]

Yes, definitely try something different: a different composer. 

I've only listened to one work, one time, so I am not ready to give up yet, especially since some members have expressed enthusiasm for the music. The question in my mind is whether to listen to the second symphony again or try something else.

[foxandpeng]

Yes, definitely try something different: a different composer. 

This did make me laugh.

[JBS]

I've only listened to one work, one time, so I am not ready to give up yet, especially since some members have expressed enthusiasm for the music. The question in my mind is whether to listen to the second symphony again or try something else.

Maybe some chamber music? (She herself performed as an oboist.)

[Christo]

I have made a different sound here before, and will continue to do so. In recent months I had the rare opportunity to play both her five symphonies and George Lloyd's twelve - which I had also skipped for decades. They are compared by more people here, but for me the outcome is clear: Gipps wins on all fronts. It's a real question for me why some -- here including the highly respected Cesar, who already reacted so much differently to what I think is her masterpiece so far, her Third, but similar sounds I saw in a video of the always forminadable Hurwitzer -- find her modal tonality so "boring" and repetitive, where to me, on the contrary, it is exciting, contrasting and extremely creative. Indeed: I admire many British symphonic cycles, from Vaughan Williams to Alwyn, Arnold, Brian, Bate, Rubbra and so many more, but she is at the top for me. Does it have something to do with her modality? On that point, otherwise I find her quite different, there are similarities with Vaughan Williams. Or with the late Respighi or with Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, the one work by Barber that the forlorn Hurwitzer finds unbearably boring, while I find it his best and most exciting work. Anyway: I am happy to be among the minority here who find Gipps a discovery of the first order. Glad there are now such good performances. And always special to discover how differently we can react to some music. I fully comply with Jill Halstead, writing on her centenary: >Stylistically her work parallels the other British composers of her generation who were influenced by the folk song revival and the new Franco-Russian movement. Her style is easily accessible and rich in character, marked by use of highly melodic tonal-modal themes and vibrant orchestration; harmonically her work can be chromatically complex yet never fully leaves the realms of tonality.< 

[Iota]

Britten:
The Diversions were the big discovery for me.

Yes, although you probably intended to post this on a different thread, I think it's a fun and engaging work. Britten was yet another composer who found a Wittgenstein commission to be a slightly bruising experience.

[Spotted Horses]

Maybe some chamber music? (She herself performed as an oboist.)

Useful suggestion. I listened to the first work on that recording, the Oboe sonata No 2, and found it interesting. But I found the audio disappointing, mainly because the piano seemed too recessed compared with the oboe. In any case, will keep Gipps on my list of composers to explore (meanderingly).

[foxandpeng]

First three listens to Symphony #2 have proven to be extremely enjoyable.

I confess a level of previous scepticism for the strong positive reaction to the Gipps symphonies, but #2 has kept my attention on each playthrough. Another go later before bed, I think. Surprisingly good.

[Harry]

First three listens to Symphony #2 have proven to be extremely enjoyable.

I confess a level of previous scepticism for the strong positive reaction to the Gipps symphonies, but #2 has kept my attention on each playthrough. Another go later before bed, I think. Surprisingly good.

I for one am happy to hear this from you dear friend. I hope that the rest of your journey through the music by Ruth Gipps, will be as successful, if not even better indeed! 

[foxandpeng]

I for one am happy to hear this from you dear friend. I hope that the rest of your journey through the music by Ruth Gipps, will be as successful, if not even better indeed! 

Thank you, my friend. I had anticipated some disappointment or disinterest, tbh - partly due to my current listening habits, and partly because of so much over-promotion of female or seemingly underrepresented groups. I wondered how a genuinely gifted composer from the time of RVW could have gone unnoticed, unless it was because she actually wasn't very good.

I know that I am only one symphony in, but she seems to state a claim on her own merit. Looking forward to hearing the rest of the cycle.

[Christo]

First three listens to Symphony #2 have proven to be extremely enjoyable.

I confess a level of previous scepticism for the strong positive reaction to the Gipps symphonies, but #2 has kept my attention on each playthrough. Another go later before bed, I think. Surprisingly good.

"Extremely enjoyable" has been my experience with all five symphonies over the last few months. Only a few times before have I been so struck by a cycle of unknown symphonies. It happened to me with Tubin in the 1980s, Holmboe in the 1990s and Braga Santos again a decade after that. For me, Gipps is "the discovery" of the past twenty years. 

[vandermolen]

"Extremely enjoyable" has been my experience with all five symphonies over the last few months. Only a few times before have I been so struck by a cycle of unknown symphonies. It happened to me with Tubin in the 1980s, Holmboe in the 1990s and Braga Santos again a decade after that. For me, Gipps is "the discovery" of the past twenty years. 

My experience is very similar. I would add the symphonies (or the ones that I know) by John Kinsella as well.

[Christo]

My experience is very similar. I would add the symphonies (or the ones that I know) by John Kinsella as well.

How could I forget those wonderful years! Yes, Kinsella fills the decade between Braga Santos and Gipps. To complete the series of discoveries of unknown cycles of symphonies, for me it went something like this:
1970s Vaughan Williams
1980s Tubin
1990s Holmboe
2000s Braga Santos
2010s Kinsella
2020s Gipps. 

[foxandpeng]

I'm more than a little surprised by the 'unknown' stature of Gipps - not by me, of course, because I couldn't find my rear end in the dark if one turned out the light, but by serious lovers of classical music (ie the people on this forum).

She lived and composed so recently, and yet until recently, has little exposure. Is it because she is a woman? Were her works only recently discovered? No airplay because stylistically she doesn't represent a more modern, more astringent, more avant-garde approach? Too RVW? Insufficiently serial and jarring?

Help me out.

One would imagine that as George Lloyd or Alwyn or other British composers from the same kind of place have had their fans, Gipps would have been similarly exposed. Arnold and Bax have never struggled. Even if you go to female composers, Maconchy isn't without aficionados.

I'm not going to drown her in superlatives at this point, simply because I have only listened to Symphony 2 four or five times, and Symphony 1, twice. I may be happy to increase my expressions of praise as I get to know her music better, as I do think there is something enduring to get hold of.