From the Dustbin

[hopefullytrusting]

Deleted.

[DaveF]

Do you know the Unsung Composers' forum?  I imagine it could be of use in your researches:

https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/

[Roasted Swan]

I am in desperate need of the Marion Stokes of BBC 3. You see Strokes was an archivist extraordinaire, recording hundreds of thousands of hours of the news.

You see we have a print record of a little concert played on the BBC on Tuesday, October 24th, 1995, at 3 PM.

It consisted of four pieces:

Ina Boyle's The Magic Harp
Lawrence Collingwood's Poeme symphonique
Edward Mitchell's Fantasy Overture
John McEwan's Solway Symphony

Those latter three were played by the Richard Morris Quartet.

The piece of interest to me is the Edward Mitchell, who is now forgotten, but is one of the main reasons Scriabin is so famous in the west, as he was an active promoter and lecturer of his work.

Back when this piece was first heard, this was said about it:

"The other novelty at this concert was Edward Mitchell's Fantasy Overture, for which I cannot find a single good word to say, despite the fact that the judges who recommended this work for inclusion in the Carnegie Trust collection described it as-so the programme notice informs us --'a striking and original work of great force and character . . . full of interest'" (M.D.C., 1928, p. 258).

That deters me none for wishing to save it from the dustbin.

I cannot imagine a string quartet playing McEwen's orchestral Solway Symphony....?  I think you have mis-read the listing that the Richard Morris Quartet in A was also a Carnegie publication{??] - which was what this Radio Series featured but everything else in that programme in 1995 was orchestral. The Wiki page on Mitchell links to the Radio Times listing saying it was a concert by Barry Wordsworth and the BBC Concert Orchestra

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/e0180a1fbf0b45c68cdee77b4a872c9b

Intriguingly the listing does say "archived recording".  I wonder if Albion who frequents this forum will know more....?  If anyone does - Albion will!!

Slight mystery though is that the Wiki listing of the Carnegie publications does not list a Richard Morris Quartet - there is an R O Morris Fantasy Quartet.  R (Reginald) O Morris probably best known as Vaughan Williams' brother in law by his first marriage.  I cannot find any Richard Morris from that time period listed as a composer.

[pjme]

"As a composer Mitchell's greatest success was the 13 minute long Fantasy Overture for orchestra with six horns, which was first performed in 1922. It won a Carnegie Trust award and was published as part of the Carnegie Collection of British Music. Other works (now entirely forgotten) include the orchestral overture Spirit of Youth, and piano works such as the Sonata Fantasy (1922), Six Studies, Poem: Autumn, Valse Sérieuse (published Elkin, 1921), Witches' Dance and the Two Sketches 'Reverie' and 'Fantasy Dance' (published Elkin, 1921).[9][10] There were also some songs including Clouds and Yet Look on Me (a setting of Shelley).[11] The Fantasy Overture was revived for its first modern performance in 1995 by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Barry Wordsworth.[12] An archived recording exists."

Indeed, a very interesting musician.
I checked , but found no recording.
https://archive.org/search?query=Edward+Mitchell

[Roasted Swan]

The Richard Morris Quartet came from this link:

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/20/20?order=first&filt=bbc_radio_three&q=%22Mark+Steyn%22

I think I jumbled it though.

Yes - there is a line return missing in that listing which should therefore read;

Ina Boyle The Magic Harp
Richard Morris Quartet in A
Lawrence Collingwood Poeme symphonique
Edward Mitchell Fantasy Overture
John McEwan Solway Symphony

Not helped by spelling John McEwen's name wrong too.............!!!

[pjme]

" His compositions have been overshadowed by his formidable reputation as a teacher. However, Morris enjoyed a ten-year period of creativity as a composer roughly between 1922 and 1932, writing symphonic and chamber music, songs and choral works.[5] One of the first, the Fantasy String Quartet in A, won a Carnegie Trust Award and was published as part of the Carnegie Collection of British Music.[6] "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._O._Morris

and 

https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Carnegie_Collection_of_British_Music

[Roasted Swan]

" His compositions have been overshadowed by his formidable reputation as a teacher. However, Morris enjoyed a ten-year period of creativity as a composer roughly between 1922 and 1932, writing symphonic and chamber music, songs and choral works.[5] One of the first, the Fantasy String Quartet in A, won a Carnegie Trust Award and was published as part of the Carnegie Collection of British Music.[6] "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._O._Morris

and

https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Carnegie_Collection_of_British_Music

R O Morris is NOT Richard Morris.....

[Pohjolas Daughter]

@hopefullytrusting

There appears to be a PDF on cloudfront.net about it; however, I was a bit uncomfortable with clicking on it as I don't know much about cloudfront and was concerned about possible malware.  All I typed in was "richard morris fantasy string quartet" and scrolled down a bit.

PD

p.s.  I also tried looking on YT and didn't see anything uploaded there.

[pjme]

OK. But could this be a mistake? Richard / Reginald?

Reginald Morris did win a Trust award  with a quartet in A, as you can see in the IMSLP list. No other composer with the name Morris is mentioned.....?

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/carnegie-collection-of-british-music

https://www.warcomposers.co.uk/morris

[Pohjolas Daughter]

...the plot thickens!

🔍

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Those are liner notes for Stephen Dodgson, and R.O. Morris was his composition teacher. The Fantasy is Dodgson's own. (Going to look him up, as the disc looks interesting.)

This feels correct given the sportiness of the archives.

You do like to go down bunny holes!   

PD

[Roasted Swan]

Those are liner notes for Stephen Dodgson, and R.O. Morris was his composition teacher. The Fantasy is Dodgson's own. (Going to look him up, as the disc looks interesting.)

This feels correct given the spotiness of the archives.

That was the conclusion I came to about Richard/Reginald.

Meanwhile sharing your bunny hole (if you don't mind!) I was checking out R O Morris' quartets.  There is one on IMSLP which - big fanfare - was recorded in part by the Lindsay Quartet here;



The work is called "Canzoni Ricetati" which is in 6 short movements and received great praise from the likes of Finzi.  It can be played by string orchestra as well (a bass part is kind of cued in) but was intended for quartet.  The score can be seen on IMSLP so I think I feel my next writing out the parts project coming on......!