The British Composers Thread

[Roasted Swan]

I thought too that it might be self-published. I noticed it on the Blackwell's website which, I thought, gave it some credibility. I hope that it's more than a collection of Wikipedia articles cobbled together.

I'll probably read it anyway!

[vandermolen]

I'll probably read it anyway!

Me too RS.

[Roasted Swan]

This was beautiful but all I could find was choral with organ.  Can you suggest a recording that includes the strings?  I love the passion and melancholy imbued in the work.  How much of it do you believe is English and how much is living through horrific world wars?  For example, I am zero percent English but am melancholic and some of my music has similar devices.  Is it because I identify with the melancholy in this music or because it is English melancholy or something else?

The version with strings was recorded by these same performers (not me sadly - I just played on the broadcast) a few days before the version above.  That will be the first recording of the version with strings - its not yet released.  But here is a link to an off-air recording I made of the live performance - I hope you enjoy it!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E0wt8sUi1J1lIFukyOTx4OydlSWTP_-E/view?usp=sharing

I'm always cautious about saying any music is nationality-specific simply because the danger of that is that it will exclude as many as it includes.  Empathy from performers and listeners is key.  I do think there is British characteristic of passionate understatement - the whole "stiff upper lip" thing (which I hate as an analogy) implies a refusal to embrace emotion but instead I think its about feeling emotion but not externalising it.  The interesting thing with Howells is how different his music was before and after the loss of his young son.  But as ever - the music is the key and as long as it speaks to you that's what counts!

[Oates]

The mention of recent books reminded me that this interesting title had somewhat slipped under the radar...

A New English Music - Composers and Folk Traditions in England's Musical Renaissance from the Late 19th to the Mid–20th Century
by Tim Rayborn

https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/a-new-english-music/

The turn of the 20th century was a time of great change in Britain. The empire saw its global influence waning and its traditional social structures challenged. There was a growing weariness of industrialism and a desire to rediscover tradition and the roots of English heritage. A new interest in English folk song and dance inspired art music, which many believed was seeing a renaissance after a period of stagnation since the 18th century. This book focuses on the lives of seven composers—Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Ernest Moeran, George Butterworth, Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock), Gerald Finzi and Percy Grainger—whose work was influenced by folk songs and early music. Each chapter provides an historical background and tells the fascinating story of a musical life.

[Irons]

Thanks to Dutton and others which now includes CPO for shining a light on an area of British music that I, for one, barely knew of the existence, female composers.



This CD kicks off with the most substantial (in length) work, Suite for Strings by Ethel Smyth a work that doesn't kick down doors, but none the less enjoyed very much. Not mentioned in the notes and as the author is the esteemed Lewis Foreman I'm on thin ice, but I detected a neo-classical, Handelian flavour.

Susan Spain-Dunk (a name to conjure with!) is represented by two works, Suite and Lament for String Orchestra. Well crafted, but found both works underwhelming. This is only an initial impression, perhaps repeated listens will change that judgment.

I have saved the best to last. Not heard of Constance Warren, if Heather Hill for String Orchestra is anything to go by I definitely want to hear more. The feeling of place and time the work brings is palpable. Which is odd as the location of "Heather Hill" is unknown.

The closing work is Gringlemire Garden which is known, being in the Lake District area, by Ruth Gipps. Short but highly evocative with a richness typical of English writing for strings. RVW is a strong presence in this piece.

Notes (in German and English) which include excellent pocket history of each composer also photos of each.

[vandermolen]

Thanks to Dutton and others which now includes CPO for shining a light on an area of British music that I, for one, barely knew of the existence, female composers.



This CD kicks off with the most substantial (in length) work, Suite for Strings by Ethel Smyth a work that doesn't kick down doors, but none the less enjoyed very much. Not mentioned in the notes and as the author is the esteemed Lewis Foreman I'm on thin ice, but I detected a neo-classical, Handelian flavour.

Susan Spain-Dunk (a name to conjure with!) is represented by two works, Suite and Lament for String Orchestra. Well crafted, but found both works underwhelming. This is only an initial impression, perhaps repeated listens will change that judgment.

I have saved the best to last. Not heard of Constance Warren, if Heather Hill for String Orchestra is anything to go by I definitely want to hear more. The feeling of place and time the work brings is palpable. Which is odd as the location of "Heather Hill" is unknown.

The closing work is Gringlemire Garden which is known, being in the Lake District area, by Ruth Gipps. Short but highly evocative with a richness typical of English writing for strings. RVW is a strong presence in this piece.

Notes (in German and English) which include excellent pocket history of each composer also photos of each.

I think that I need to investigate the music of Susan Spain-Dunk simply so that I can drop her name into conversations. 

I had some credit on Amazon so I've ordered the 'Albion's Glory' book although it's currently out of stock.

[Roasted Swan]

I think that I need to investigate the music of Susan Spain-Dunk simply so that I can drop her name into conversations. 

I had some credit on Amazon so I've ordered the 'Albion's Glory' book although it's currently out of stock.

I have some string quartet music by Susan Spain-Dunk.  She's another composer who took part in the Cobbett Chamber Music/Phantasy competitions back in the first few decades of the 20th Century.  I must admit I haven't looked at it for ages but my memory was that it was OK but not great....  As an aside, some chamber group could make a fascinating series of discs/concerts reviving the winners/highly rated entries for that competition - so many genuinely fine works produced because of it.

I listened to the Constance Warren via the YouTube link....  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SduChBHUQVA .  I must admit I thought it was quite nice but just teetering on the edge of being too generically "English Pastoral" - its that compound-time rum-ti-tum rhythm that is so hard to sustain.  A fine work given its 'student composer' status but no great find.  I've recently finished editing/creating performing parts of W. H. Reed's "The Vale of Clwyd" which occupies a very similar aesthetic landscape (pardon the pun!).  I am programming it as part of a concert at this year's Frome Festival in Somerset.  The Reed is deliberately a "miniature" and quite modest in its goals but he does manage some rather delicious harmonic side steps and the actual scoring is very well done.

[Irons]

I have some string quartet music by Susan Spain-Dunk.  She's another composer who took part in the Cobbett Chamber Music/Phantasy competitions back in the first few decades of the 20th Century.  I must admit I haven't looked at it for ages but my memory was that it was OK but not great....  As an aside, some chamber group could make a fascinating series of discs/concerts reviving the winners/highly rated entries for that competition - so many genuinely fine works produced because of it.

I listened to the Constance Warren via the YouTube link....  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SduChBHUQVA .  I must admit I thought it was quite nice but just teetering on the edge of being too generically "English Pastoral" - its that compound-time rum-ti-tum rhythm that is so hard to sustain.  A fine work given its 'student composer' status but no great find.  I've recently finished editing/creating performing parts of W. H. Reed's "The Vale of Clwyd" which occupies a very similar aesthetic landscape (pardon the pun!).  I am programming it as part of a concert at this year's Frome Festival in Somerset.  The Reed is deliberately a "miniature" and quite modest in its goals but he does manage some rather delicious harmonic side steps and the actual scoring is very well done.

Thanks for taking the trouble to listen "Heather Hill". A backstory of the piece and composer you may find of interest.

http://landofllostcontent.blogspot.com/2022/02/constance-warren-and-her-heather-hill.html

[Symphonic Addict]

This disc must bring many good memories to many of you:



I'm listening to The Forsaken Merman and it's a quite evocative and lovely piece of music. A response to Zemlinsky's Die Seejungfrau?

Quite enchanting and wistful to say the least.

[vandermolen]

This disc must bring many good memories to many of you:



I'm listening to The Forsaken Merman and it's a quite evocative and lovely piece of music. A response to Zemlinsky's Die Seejungfrau?

Quite enchanting and wistful to say the least.

Indeed Cesar! The 'Heroic Elegy' and 'English Pastoral Impressions' are fine works. Farrar was the teacher of Finzi, who was devastated when Farrar was killed in the First World War. Like Butterworth he was a great loss to music.

[Symphonic Addict]

Indeed Cesar! The 'Heroic Elegy' and 'English Pastoral Impressions' are fine works. Farrar was the teacher of Finzi, who was devastated when Farrar was killed in the First World War. Like Butterworth he was a great loss to music.

A most poignant story, Jeffrey. I understand the influence of that tragic event on Finzi. It shows in his own creations.

[vandermolen]

A most poignant story, Jeffrey. I understand the influence of that tragic event on Finzi. It shows in his own creations.

Coincidentally I was teaching my History of Art class about Edwin Lutyen's (father of the composer Elizabeth I think) massive 'Thiepval Memorial' to soldiers of the Battle of the Somme who have no known grave when I discovered that George Butterworth is one of the thousands of names commemorated there - I didn't realise that he had no known grave). 'MC' means that he won the Military Cross for bravery in action:

[Symphonic Addict]

Coincidentally I was teaching my History of Art class about Edwin Lutyen's (father of the composer Elizabeth I think) massive 'Thiepval Memorial' to soldiers of the Battle of the Somme who have no known grave when I discovered that George Butterworth is one of the thousands of names commemorated there - I didn't realise that he had no known grave). 'MC' means that he won the Military Cross for bravery in action:

The inclusion of Butterworth makes this homage even more heartfelt. Thanks for sharing this interesting info, Jeffrey.

[Irons]

Coincidentally I was teaching my History of Art class about Edwin Lutyen's (father of the composer Elizabeth I think) massive 'Thiepval Memorial' to soldiers of the Battle of the Somme who have no known grave when I discovered that George Butterworth is one of the thousands of names commemorated there - I didn't realise that he had no known grave). 'MC' means that he won the Military Cross for bravery in action:

Thanks for that, Jeffrey. I did not realise either that Butterworth had no known grave. Millions perished in the WW1 trenches but I find his death particularly poignant. Repeating myself but worth repeating I think as it gives an insight to his character. None of his associates in the army had any idea he was a composer and shocked to discover he was after his death. By the same score (pun unintended) his friends in the world of music were oblivious to the fact he was commissioned officer in the army.

To think a few short years from this   https://youtu.be/X7UZ4WXI9sc  to death from a sniper's bullet.

[vandermolen]

Thanks for that, Jeffrey. I did not realise either that Butterworth had no known grave. Millions perished in the WW1 trenches but I find his death particularly poignant. Repeating myself but worth repeating I think as it gives an insight to his character. None of his associates in the army had any idea he was a composer and shocked to discover he was after his death. By the same score (pun unintended) his friends in the world of music were oblivious to the fact he was commissioned officer in the army.

To think a few short years from this   https://youtu.be/X7UZ4WXI9sc  to death from a sniper's bullet.

Extraordinary film of Butterworth dancing. Thanks Lol and Cesar. He was such a great loss to music (as was Farrar).

[vandermolen]

I received the 'Albion's Glory' book yesterday and started browsing through it and reading the sections on Robin Milford and Patrick Hadley. Some of the material was familiar to me but not all of it  - Patrick Hadley, (the composer of the beautiful, sensitive and eloquent 'The Trees So High'), for example, when in a bad mood, telling his students to '**** OFF'. The book is over 600 pages long and I'm very happy to have it. The book is Anglo centric, so no discussion of Daniel Jones, Mathias, Hoddinott etc. Stanford is the only exception.

[Irons]

I received the 'Albion's Glory' book yesterday and started browsing through it and reading the sections on Robin Milford and Patrick Hadley. Some of the material was familiar to me but not all of it  - Patrick Hadley, (the composer of the beautiful, sensitive and eloquent 'The Trees So High'), for example, when in a bad mood, telling his students to '**** OFF'. The book is over 600 pages long and I'm very happy to have it. The book is Anglo centric, so no discussion of Daniel Jones, Mathias, Hoddinott etc. Stanford is the only exception.

Thanks for your initial impressions Jeffrey, duly noted.

I don't mind at all that Hadley told his students to go forth and multiply. In fact he has gone up another notch in my estimation. 

[Roasted Swan]

Thanks for your initial impressions Jeffrey, duly noted.

I don't mind at all that Hadley told his students to go forth and multiply. In fact he has gone up another notch in my estimation.

There was a book dedicated to Hadley published by Thames back in the day.  He had a leg amputated as the result of a wound in WW1 and was in continuous pain for the rest of his life.  A reliance on alcohol to lessen that was the result..... another victim of war.....

[vandermolen]

Thanks for your initial impressions Jeffrey, duly noted.

I don't mind at all that Hadley told his students to go forth and multiply. In fact he has gone up another notch in my estimation.

Yes, mine too Lol!

[vandermolen]

There was a book dedicated to Hadley published by Thames back in the day.  He had a leg amputated as the result of a wound in WW1 and was in continuous pain for the rest of his life.  A reliance on alcohol to lessen that was the result..... another victim of war.....

I'd be interested to read a biography of Hadley. It was to him that the dying Rootham dictated the ending of his very moving Second Symphony. Hadley was clearly quite eccentric, contacting his housekeeper, via the police, in the middle of the night to get her to come and turn his pillow over when he was perfectly capable of doing it himself.