Edmund Rubbra (1901-1986)

[calyptorhynchus]

If Rubbra has a persistent weakness, it's his endings. All too often it sounds as though his wife has just called him to dinner, or he's run out of manuscript paper.

I think that a constant musical inspiration for Rubbra were the hymns of his Congregationalist upbringing. Many o his pieces sound as if they are based on hymns, extended by means of a counter melodies in the fashion of a chorale prelude, with a soaring descant emerging over the melody in the final section. And then it just ends! The Cello Sonata is a case in point.

[Irons]

If Rubbra has a persistent weakness, it's his endings. All too often it sounds as though his wife has just called him to dinner, or he's run out of manuscript paper.

He makes up for any perceived weakness in endings with beginnings. The opening of Rubbra's 6th Symphony is as good an opening of a symphony as any.