Misplaced Pages

#160839

101-529: The company is divided into two sections. The Dutton Laboratories label came first in 1993. It initially gained recognition for its highly acclaimed series of CDs of historic classical music performances that originally appeared on 78-rpm shellac discs. The Dutton Epoch series was established in 1999 and champions the unrecorded music of twentieth century British classical composers such as Arnold Bax , York Bowen , Arthur Butterworth , William Hurlstone and Granville Bantock in modern digital recordings. Vocalion

202-412: A Coronation Ode for Edward VII in 1901, and writing an anthem for the anniversary of Queen Victoria's death in 1909. Parratt's own official compositions included a contribution to a collection of choral songs by various composers in honour of Queen Victoria and a Confortare for the coronation service of Edward VII. After Parratt's death in 1924, there was a body of opinion that the position of Master

303-566: A Celtic idiom. In 1908 he began a cycle of tone poems called Eire , described by his biographer Lewis Foreman as the beginning of the composer's truly mature style. The first of these pieces, Into the Twilight , was premiered by Thomas Beecham and the New Symphony Orchestra in April 1909, and the following year, at Elgar's instigation, Henry Wood , commissioned the second in the cycle, In

404-792: A Celtic setting. During the war Bax began an affair with the pianist Harriet Cohen , for whom he left his wife and children. Musically, she was his muse for the rest of his life; he wrote numerous pieces for her, and she was the dedicatee of eighteen of his works. He took a flat in Swiss Cottage , London, where he lived until the start of the Second World War. He sketched many of his mature works there, often taking them in short score to his favoured rural retreats, Glencolmcille in Ulster , Ireland, and then from 1928 onwards Morar in Scotland, to work on

505-603: A Nordic tradition, being inspired by the Norwegian poet Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Icelandic sagas. Bax's Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra (1917) is seen by the musicologist Julian Herbage as the turning-point from the Celtic to the Nordic in Bax's oeuvre; Herbage views it as a further indication of the shift that Winter Legends , composed thirteen years later, has a Nordic rather than

606-406: A Royal Commission to regulate unlicensed minstrelsy and in 1469 Edward IV granted the royal minstrels a Guild charter. According to the charter, "no Minstrel of our Kingdom ... shall henceforth in any way practise or publicly exercise the art or occupation within our Kingdom aforesaid, unless he belong to the said Brotherhood or Guild". This led to legal difficulties between the royal minstrels and

707-553: A cloud-cuckoo dream to become an actuality". He added "Happily, it never has!", but he left a complete piano sketch, which was orchestrated in 2012–13 by Martin Yates , and recorded for the Dutton Vocalion label; it lasts for 77 minutes. The four-movement work, more conventional in structure than his completed symphonies, shows a strong Russian influence in its material. Bax wrote his seven completed symphonies between 1921 and 1939. In

808-584: A full-scale conventional concerto. It calls for a smaller orchestra than he customarily employed, with no trombones or tuba, and no percussion apart from timpani. Foreman points to many subtleties of scoring, but notes that it has never ranked high among the composer's mature works. The Violin Concerto (1937–38) is, like the last symphony, in a more relaxed vein than most of Bax's earlier music. Cardus singled it out as "unusually fine", although Heifetz may have felt it not virtuosic enough. The composer described it as in

909-527: A genuine nobilmente theme in the best Elgarian tradition". Bax's third and last cinema score was for a ten-minute short film Journey into History in 1952. Other orchestral works include Overture, Elegy and Rondo (1927) – a lightweight piece, according to Grove . The Overture to a Picaresque Comedy (1930), was for a time one of his most popular works. It was described by the composer as "Straussian pastiche" and by The Times as "gay and impudent, and with that tendency to vulgarity which so easily besets

1010-698: A grocer". Among his compositions from the period was the Violin Concerto (1938). Although not written to commission, he had composed it with the violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz in mind. Heifetz never played it, and it was premiered in 1942 by Eda Kersey with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Wood. After the death of the Master of the King's Music , Sir Walford Davies , in 1941, Bax was appointed to succeed him. The choice surprised many. Bax, despite his knighthood,

1111-568: A jubilee cantata, "Grant the Queen a Long Life" (1887). The last Master appointed in the 19th century was Sir Walter Parratt , organist of St George's Chapel, Windsor . His tenure lasted thirty-one years from 1893, under the reigns of three monarchs – Queen Victoria , Edward VII and George V . In Duck's view, Parratt's role was chiefly that of musical adviser to the Crown. Among his actions in that capacity were inviting Elgar to set A. C. Benson 's verses as

SECTION 10

#1732892061161

1212-569: A large-scale composition. He wrote in 1952, "I doubt whether I shall write anything else   … I have said all I have to say and it is of no use to repeat myself." Celebrations were planned by the Hallé Orchestra and others to celebrate Bax's seventieth birthday in November 1953. The celebrations became memorials: while visiting Cork in October 1953 Bax died suddenly of heart failure aged 69. He

1313-423: A lifelong association with the pianist Harriet Cohen – at first an affair, then a friendship, and always a close professional relationship. In the 1920s he began the series of seven symphonies which form the heart of his orchestral output. In 1942 Bax was appointed Master of the King's Music , but composed little in that capacity. In his last years he found his music regarded as old-fashioned, and after his death it

1414-461: A musician of limited ability, although his court music cannot be assessed, having mostly been lost. He is believed to be the first professional musician to have been knighted in Britain, although it was said that the honour was more for "the score of his merits than because of the merits of his scores". Parsons held the post of Master until 1817, when he was succeeded by William Shield , best known as

1515-476: A national opera company, the correct version of the national anthem to be broadcast by the BBC, and the musical events at which members of the royal family should be present. Elgar died in 1934. He was succeeded by Sir Walford Davies , organist of St George's Chapel, Windsor, who had been rumoured to be in the running for the post in 1924. In a 1966 retrospective of the various Masters, Charles Cudworth wrote that Davies

1616-573: A nationwide exploration of the state of music education in order to create pieces that will be useful for schoolchildren and amateur musicians. However, Weir has composed several works for state events, including The True Light for the First World War centenary in 2018, By Wisdom for the Platinum Jubilee and Like as the hart for the Queen's state funeral . In 2024, Errollyn Wallen CBE

1717-505: A playwright and essayist. Alfred Bax was a barrister of the Middle Temple , but having a private income he did not practise. In 1896 the family moved to a mansion in Hampstead . Bax later wrote that although it would have been good to be raised in the country, the large gardens of the family house were the next best thing. He was a musical child: "I cannot remember the long-lost day when I

1818-534: A second short film, Journey into History (1952). His other works from the period include the short Morning Song for piano and orchestra, and the Left-Hand Concertante (1949), both written for Cohen. Bax and the Poet Laureate , John Masefield , worked on a pageant, The Play of Saint George in 1947, but the project was not completed. In his last years, Bax maintained a contented retirement for much of

1919-575: A simpler, sparer style. The composer and musicologist Anthony Payne considered that Bax's best works date from the period between 1910 and 1925: he instances The Garden of Fand , Tintagel , November Woods , the Second Piano Sonata, Viola Sonata, and first two symphonies. By the 1930s Bax's music ceased to be regarded as new and difficult, and towards the end of that decade it was attracting less attention than before. The conductor Vernon Handley , long associated with Bax's music, commented that

2020-405: A study of the seven, David Cox wrote in 1967 that they were "often dismissed as amorphous by those who imagine that Bax consists only of Celtic mistiness and 'atmosphere'. In fact they have considerable strength and frequent astringence; and formally the thematic material is presented with consistency and purpose." In Herbage's view, the cycle can be seen to fall into two groups – the first three and

2121-538: A substantial number of choral works, mostly secular but some religious. He was a nominal member of the Church of England , but in the view of the critic Paul Spicer, "None of Bax's choral music can be described as devotional or even suitable for church use   … Here is a secular composer writing voluptuous music." The choral works with religious texts include his largest-scale unaccompanied vocal piece, Mater ora Filium (1921), inspired by William Byrd 's Five Part Mass ; it

SECTION 20

#1732892061161

2222-491: A theatre composer: he composed or arranged music for at least thirty-six operas and seven pantomimes and ballets. Shield's tenure is most notable for the abandonment of the traditional provision of court odes. By custom, the Poet Laureate of the day wrote the words for the odes, a task that the then holder, Robert Southey , found uncongenial. After the death of George III in 1820 the odes were discontinued. The post of Master of

2323-585: A variety of styles and have varied sharply in their popularity. His impressionistic tone poem In the Faëry Hills is described by Grove as "a succinct and attractive piece". It was modestly successful, but Spring Fire (1913) is instanced by Foreman as a difficult work; it was not performed in Bax's lifetime. During the First World War Bax wrote three tone poems, two of which – The Garden of Fand (1913–16) and November Woods (1917) – have remained on

2424-516: A well-to-do suburb of Dublin. They had two children, Dermot (1912–1976) and Maeve Astrid (1913–1987). Bax became known in Dublin literary circles under the pseudonym "Dermot O'Byrne"; he mixed with the writer George William Russell and his associates, and published stories, verses and a play. Reviewing a selection of the prose and poetry reissued in 1980, Stephen Banfield found most of Bax's earlier poems "like his early music, over-written, cluttered with

2525-585: A young Ukrainian whom he had met in London – one of several women with whom he fell in love over the years. The visit eventually proved a failure from the romantic point of view but musically enriched him. In Saint Petersburg he discovered and immediately loved ballet; he absorbed Russian musical influences that inspired material for the First Piano Sonata, the piano pieces, "May Night in the Ukraine" and "Gopak", and

2626-481: Is a setting of a medieval carol from a manuscript held by Balliol College, Oxford . The composer Patrick Hadley considered it "an unsurpassed example of modern unaccompanied vocal writing". Bax's other choral works include settings of words by Shelley ( Enchanted Summer , 1910), Henry Vaughan ( The Morning Watch , 1935), Masefield ( To Russia , 1944), and Spenser ( Epithalamium , 1947). In his overview of Bax's earlier chamber works, Evans identifies as among

2727-441: Is given to people eminent in the field of classical music; they have almost always been composers. Duties are not clearly stated, though it is generally expected the holder of the post will write music to commemorate important royal events, such as coronations, birthdays, anniversaries, marriages and deaths, and to accompany other ceremonial occasions. The individual may also act as the sovereign's adviser in musical matters. Since 2004

2828-484: Is seen throughout the composer's work. For piano duo Bax composed two tone poems, Moy Mell (1917) and Red Autumn (1931). His shorter piano pieces include picturesque miniatures such as In a Vodka Shop (1915), A Hill Tune (1920) and Water Music (1929). In his later years Bax's music fell into neglect. Sir John Barbirolli wrote, "I think he felt keenly that his richly wrought and masterly scores were no longer 'fashionable' to-day, but nothing could deter him from

2929-479: Is still a great deal which is wholly individual". The Musical Times praised "a mystic glamour that could not fail to be felt by the listener" although the coherence of the piece "was not instantly discernible". A third work in the cycle, Roscatha , was not performed in the composer's lifetime. Bax's private means enabled him to travel to the Russian Empire in 1910. He was in pursuit of Natalia Skarginska ,

3030-469: Is to say, there is no direct unfolding of an individual state of mind or soul as we find in Elgar or Gustav Mahler. Yet there is no mistaking the Bax physiognomy or psychology: always through the gloom and thickets of the symphonies the warm rays of an approachable, lovable man and nature may be felt. York Bowen thought it regrettable that Bax's orchestral works frequently call for exceptionally large forces: "When

3131-513: The Duchess of York and her two daughters. He used his influence as Master to track down the original instruments of Edward VII 's band, to ensure the royal music library was well ordered, and to secure recognition for other musicians, including a knighthood for Granville Bantock and the Companion of Honour for Delius . As musical aide to the king he gave advice about such topics as the foundation of

Dutton Vocalion - Misplaced Pages Continue

3232-667: The Fifth and Sixth . The Fifth is, for Herbage, "the greatest tour-de-force "; the Sixth stands out for its "magnificent final movement", which the critic Peter J. Pirie said "tears the earth up by its roots"; and the Seventh , in the view of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , has an elegiac tone, its simplicity far removed from the discursive and complex music of Bax's earlier years. Bax's first work for solo instrument and orchestra

3333-495: The Irish republican cause, and the government censor prohibited their publication. At the beginning of the war Bax returned to England. A heart complaint, from which he suffered intermittently throughout his life, made him unfit for military service; he acted as a special constable for a period. At a time when fellow composers including Vaughan Williams, Arthur Bliss , George Butterworth and Ivor Gurney were serving overseas, Bax

3434-425: The coronation of Elizabeth II . Bax died in 1953; many expected his successor to be Sir William Walton , but to Walton's own relief the post went to Sir Arthur Bliss . In The Times , the critic Frank Howes commented, "The duties of a Master of the Queen's Music are what he chooses to make of them, but they include the composition of ceremonial and occasional music". Bliss, who composed quickly and with facility,

3535-408: The coronation of the king later in the same month. Boyce died in 1779, and was succeeded as Master by another former pupil of Greene, John Stanley , who held the post until he died in 1786. He composed fifteen birthday and New Year odes, but none of them have survived. The last Master appointed in the 18th century was Sir William Parsons . He was viewed by his contemporaries as an affable man but

3636-547: The City Company under the patronage of the City of London , chartered by James I in 1604 to perform in the City and three miles outside it. The King's Minstrels requested and received a charter from Charles I in 1635 to "have the survey, scrutinie, correction and government of all and singular the musicians within the kingdome of England". The first appointed Master of the King's Musick

3737-399: The Faëry Hills . The work received mixed notices. The Manchester Guardian ' s reviewer wrote, "Mr Bax has happily suggested the appropriate atmosphere of mystery"; The Observer found the piece "very undeterminate and unsatisfying, but not difficult to follow". The Times commented on the "rather second-hand language" at some points, derivative of Wagner and Debussy, although "there

3838-587: The First Violin Sonata, dedicated to Skarginska. Foreman describes him in this period as "a musical magpie, celebrating his latest discoveries in new compositions"; Foreman adds that Bax's own musical personality was strong enough for him to assimilate his influences and make them into his own. Russian music continued to influence him until the First World War. An unfinished ballet Tamara , "a little-Russian fairy tale in action and dance", provided material

3939-449: The Irish language and steeped myself in its history and saga, folk-tale and fairy-lore. ... Under this domination, my musical style became strengthened ... I began to write Irishly, using figures and melodies of a definitely Celtic curve. Bax in his memoirs, 1943 Musically, Bax veered away from the influence of Wagner and Strauss, and deliberately adopted what he conceived of as

4040-456: The King's Musick continued because George IV maintained the traditional small orchestra, which Shield's successor, Christian Kramer , directed. That remained the chief function of the Master through the tenures of Franz Cramer (Master 1834–48), George Frederick Anderson (Master 1848–70), and Sir William Cusins (Master 1870–93). The last of these produced a few works for royal occasions, including

4141-469: The King's Musick, and later in the Chapel Royal appointment. It was probably in the latter capacity rather than the former that Boyce provided what Grove calls "an imposing and deeply felt orchestral anthem" for the funeral of George II on 11 November 1760, "a splendid setting of 'The King shall rejoice"' for the wedding of King George III and Princess Charlotte on 8 September 1761, and eight anthems for

Dutton Vocalion - Misplaced Pages Continue

4242-413: The Queen's Medal for Music . After the end of Maxwell Davies' term, Judith Weir was appointed in 2014, again for a ten-year term. Reporting the appointment, The Guardian said that rather than only writing pieces for royal occasions, Weir would concentrate on supporting and speaking up for her composer colleagues, challenging the function that contemporary music fulfils in society, and embarking on

4343-532: The Westminster musicians' guild fell into decline, coming to an end after 1697. Neither Grabu nor his successor Nicholas Staggins , who served from 1674 to 1700, was a talented composer; they turned to established composers such as Henry Purcell to supply music for important occasions. Staggins was succeeded by John Eccles , who was appointed by William III in June 1700. Eccles was the longest-serving Master, holding

4444-518: The White Horse Hotel, Storrington , where he lived for the rest of his life. He abandoned composition and completed a book of memoirs about his early years, Farewell, My Youth . The Times found it at times waspish, at times reticent, surprising in parts, and regrettably short. Later in the war Bax was persuaded to contribute incidental music for a short film, Malta G. C. ; he subsequently wrote music for David Lean 's Oliver Twist (1948) and

4545-534: The academy. Although Bax won a Macfarren Scholarship for composition and other important prizes, and was known for his exceptional ability to read complex modern scores on sight, he attracted less recognition than his contemporaries Benjamin Dale and York Bowen . His keyboard technique was formidable, but he had no desire for a career as a soloist. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he had private means that made him free to pursue his musical career as he chose, without

4646-478: The appointment has been for a fixed term of ten years rather than for life, as previously. In the 14th century professional music-making in England was theoretically regulated by the Crown. Musicians known as the " King's Minstrels " or the "King's Musick" wore the royal livery and exercised some control of other musicians, although the musicologist Leonard Duck describes that control as "nominal". Henry VI appointed

4747-566: The appointment to the need for "cementing the cracks in the Commonwealth". Williamson held the post from 1975 until his death in 2003, composing works including Lament in Memory of Lord Mountbatten of Burma (1980), Ode for Queen Elizabeth (1980), and Songs for a Royal Baby (1985). Sir Peter Maxwell Davies was appointed to the Mastership in 2004 in succession to Williamson. For the first time

4848-461: The appointment was for a fixed, ten-year, term rather than for life, with the aim of making the post more attractive to composers. Maxwell Davies' work as Master included a Christmas carol for the Queen which was recorded by the Chapels Royal, and a work to accompany a poem by the Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion , to mark the Queen's eightieth birthday in 2006. He played a key role in the creation of

4949-617: The coming of spring. Master of the King%27s Music Master of the King's Music (or Master of the Queen's Music , or earlier Master of the King's Musick ) is a post in the Royal Household of the United Kingdom . The holder of the post originally served the monarch of England , directing the court orchestra and composing or commissioning music as required. The post is broadly comparable to that of poet laureate . It

5050-576: The composer reused in post-war works. Having given up his pursuit of Skarginska, Bax returned to England; in January 1911 he married the pianist Elsita Luisa Sobrino (b. 1885 or 1886), daughter of the teacher and pianist, Carlos Sobrino, and his wife, Luise, née Schmitz, a singer. Bax and his wife lived first in Chester Terrace, Regent's Park , London, and then moved to Ireland, taking a house in Rathgar ,

5151-477: The composer's influences include Rachmaninoff and Sibelius as well as Richard Strauss and Wagner: "He was aware of jazz and many more composers on the European scene than we are now. That finds its way into a person's psyche and personality and into his technique as a musician." The critic Neville Cardus wrote of Bax's music: The paradox is that Bax's methods, his idiom and tonal atmosphere are impersonal: that

SECTION 50

#1732892061161

5252-404: The composer's most popular works. In the mid-1920s, while his affair with Cohen continued, Bax met the twenty-three-year-old Mary Gleaves, and for more than two decades he maintained relationships with both women. His affair with Cohen ripened into warm friendship and continuing musical partnership. Gleaves became his companion from the later 1920s until his death. In the 1930s, Bax composed

5353-399: The fringes of the modern repertoire, and a third – Tintagel (1917–19) – which in the decade after his death was the only work by which Bax was known to the public. Grove characterises all three as musical evocations of nature, with little expression of subjective personal response. The orchestral piece that was neglected longest was In memoriam (1917), a lament for Patrick Pearse , who

5454-588: The full score at leisure. In a study of Bax in 1919 his friend and confidante, the critic Edwin Evans, commented on the waning of the Celtic influence in the composer's music and the emergence of "a more austere, abstract art". From the 1920s onwards Bax seldom turned to poetic legend for inspiration. In Foreman's view, in the post-war years Bax was recognised for the first time as an important, though isolated, figure in British music. The many substantial works he wrote during

5555-497: The influences on the young Bax was the Irish poet W. B. Yeats ; Bax's brother Clifford introduced him to Yeats's poetry and to Ireland. Influenced by Yeats's The Wanderings of Oisin , Bax visited the west coast of Ireland in 1902, and found that "in a moment the Celt within me stood revealed". His first composition to be performed – at an academy concert in 1902 – was an Irish dialect song called "The Grand Match". I worked very hard at

5656-549: The instinctively refined composer determined to let himself go", Cardus thought the work so appealing that to live up to the overture the putative comedy would have to be "written by Hofmannsthal and Shaw in collaboration. Not often is English music so free and audacious as this, so gay and winning." The critic Peter Latham remarked that he was surprised that Bax had never set any of Yeats's poems to music. Bax replied, "What, I? I should never dare!". Latham added that Bax's sensitiveness to poetic values made him "painfully aware of

5757-408: The last four of his seven symphonies. Other works from the decade include the popular Overture to a Picaresque Comedy (1930), several works for chamber groups, including a nonet (1930), a string quintet (1933), an octet for horn, piano, and strings (1934) and his third and last string quartet (1936). The Cello Concerto (1932) was commissioned by and dedicated to Gaspar Cassadó , who quickly dropped

5858-589: The last three – with the Fourth Symphony as "an extrovert interlude between these largely introspective works". Handley agreed that the first three could be grouped together; Foreman sees a Celtic influence in all three, with Bax's emotions about the Easter rising and its aftermath discernible. The Fourth is generally regarded as a more optimistic work than its predecessors and successors. Handley calls it "festive", but comments that its ideas developed into darker mood in

5959-525: The late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Parry , Stanford , Vaughan Williams and Holst ; Sullivan and Elgar stood aloof, as did Bax, who later put into general circulation the saying, "You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk-dancing." In 1900 Bax moved on to the Royal Academy of Music , where he remained until 1905, studying composition with Frederick Corder and piano with Tobias Matthay . Corder

6060-506: The martyrs fell. From Bax's poem "A Dublin Ballad", 1916. During his time in Dublin, Bax had made many republican friends. The Easter rising in April 1916 and the subsequent execution of the ringleaders shocked him deeply. He expressed his feelings in some of his music such as the orchestral In Memoriam and the "Elegiac Trio" for flute, viola, and harp (1916), as well as in his poetry. In addition to his Irish influences, Bax also drew on

6161-652: The most successful the Phantasy for viola, the Trio for piano, violin, and viola and "a String Quintet of such difficulty that an adequate performance has seldom if ever been possible". He rates the Second Violin Sonata (1915) as the composer's most individual work to that date. For Evans, the culminating point of Bax's early chamber music was the Piano Quintet, a work "of such richness of invention that it would be an ornament to

SECTION 60

#1732892061161

6262-646: The musical literature of any country or period". Foreman makes particular mention of the First String Quartet (1918 – "a classical clarity of texture and form to its Celtic inspiration", and the "grittier" Second Quartet (1925), the Viola Sonata (1922), the Phantasy Sonata for viola and harp (1927) and the Sonata for Flute and Harp (1928). The composer and musical scholar Christopher Palmer points out that Bax

6363-540: The necessity of earning an income. The Times considered that Bax's independence and disinclination to heed his teachers ultimately damaged his art, because he did not develop the discipline to express his imagination to the greatest effect. After leaving the Academy Bax visited Dresden, where he saw the original production of Strauss's Salome , and first heard the music of Mahler , which he found "eccentric, long-winded, muddle-headed, and yet always interesting". Among

6464-594: The path of complete honesty and sincerity in his musical thought." The neglect became more complete after the composer's death. He had always sustained a Romantic outlook, distancing himself from musical modernism and especially Arnold Schoenberg 's serialism , of which Bax wrote in 1951: I believe that there is little probability that the twelve-note scale will ever produce anything more than morbid or entirely cerebral growths. It might deal successfully with neuroses of various kinds, but I cannot imagine it associated with any healthy and happy concept such as young love or

6565-648: The poet William Sharp ). Among the post-war songs, Hold considers Bax's "In the Morning" (1926) to be one of the best of all settings of Housman's works, "and it makes you wish that Bax had made further explorations into the Shropshire landscape." Hold classes that song, together with "Across the Door" (1921), "Rann of Exile" (1922) and "Watching the Needleboats" (1932), as "truly modern, 20th-century masterpieces of song". Bax wrote

6666-526: The post for 35 years; he is also the only one to have served under four monarchs (William III, Anne , George I and George II ). He was already a well-known composer before his appointment, described by Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians as "undoubtedly the greatest of the Restoration theatre composers" after Purcell. He nevertheless continued his predecessors' practice of commissioning works from other composers; George Frideric Handel in particular

6767-479: The romantic tradition of Joachim Raff . Among the minor concertante works is Variations on the Name Gabriel Fauré (1949) for harp and strings, in a style more neoclassical than most of Bax's music. Bax's last concertante piece was a short work for piano and orchestra (1947) written in his capacity as Master of the King's Music, marking Princess Elizabeth 's twenty-first birthday. Bax's tone poems are in

6868-631: The score demands such luxuries as triple or quadruple woodwind, six horns, three or four trumpets, extra percussion and perhaps organ, it is undoubtedly throwing extra difficulties in the way of performance." The composer Eric Coates commented that Bax's music appealed greatly to orchestral players: "whichever instrument he wrote for, it was as if he played that instrument himself, so well did he seem to write for it". While in Dresden in 1907 Bax began work on what he later called "a colossal symphony which would have occupied quite an hour in performance, were such

6969-439: The secondhand lumber of early Yeats, though the weakness is one of loosely chosen language rather than complexity." Banfield had better things to say of the later poems, where Bax "focuses matters, whether laconically and colloquially upon the grim futility of the 1916 Easter Uprising  ... or pungently upon his recurrent disillusionment about love." Some of Bax's writings as O'Byrne were regarded as subversively sympathetic to

7070-444: The simpler "The White Peace" (1907), one of his most popular songs. The musical analyst Trevor Hold writes that the piano "goes berserk" in "Glamour" (1920). Among the poets whose verses Bax set were his brother Clifford, Burns , Chaucer , Hardy , Housman , Joyce , Synge and Tennyson . The composer himself singled out for mention in his Who's Who article "A Celtic Song-Cycle" (1904) to words by "Fiona Macleod" (a pen name of

7171-445: The time. Walton commented, "an important cricket match at Lord's would bring him hurrying up to town from his pub at Storrington with much greater excitement than a performance of one of his works". In 1950, after hearing his Third Symphony played at Bournemouth , he said, "I ought perhaps to be thinking of an eighth", but by this time he had begun to drink quite heavily, which aged him rapidly and impaired his ability to concentrate on

7272-580: The view that "if the post is to go to the most eminent musician it would hardly be possible to go beyond Elgar." Elgar's appointment was announced in May 1924; The Times commented, "it is entirely fitting that in the changed condition of the office he should be made Master of the King's Musick and the Musician Laureate of the British people." Elgar was not required to write any official music in his new capacity, but in 1931, he dedicated his Nursery Suite to

7373-725: The vinyl LP golden era of the 1950s to the late 1970s. The '2 LPs on 1 CD' CDLK series was launched in 2000, alongside later Vocalion series such as CDLF and CDSML, and feature recordings of a diverse array of artistes. These range from orchestra leaders such as Robert Farnon , Mantovani and Stanley Black to singers including Lita Roza and Anthony Newley, and from 1950s/60s rock 'n' roll stars Lord Rockingham and Terry Dene right through to modern British jazz musicians and composers like Michael Garrick , John Surman and Alan Skidmore . Vocalion have also started issuing surround sound recordings on hybrid SACD . The CDSA series, home to Vocalion's critically acclaimed modern digital recordings,

7474-453: The violence that even the best musical setting must do to a poem". Eventually this feeling caused him to give up song-writing completely. At the start of his composing career, songs, together with piano music, formed the core of Bax's work. Some of the songs, mainly the early ones, are conspicuous for the virtuosity of their piano parts, which tend to overwhelm the voice. Grove contrasts the virtuoso accompaniment of "The Fairies" (1905) with

7575-435: The war years were heard in public, and he started writing symphonies. Few English composers had so far written symphonies that occupied a secure place in the repertoire, the best known being Elgar ( A ♭ and E ♭ symphonies) and Vaughan Williams ( Sea , London and Pastoral symphonies). During the 1920s and into the 1930s Bax was seen by many as the leading British symphonist. Bax's First Symphony

7676-456: The work from his repertoire. Although Beatrice Harrison championed the concerto in the 1930s and 40s, Bax said, "The fact that nobody has ever taken up this work has been one of the major disappointments of my musical life". Bax was knighted in 1937; he had neither expected nor sought the honour, and was more surprised than delighted to receive it. As the decade progressed, he became less prolific; he commented that he wanted to "retire, like

7777-515: The years before the First World War he lived in Ireland and became a member of Dublin literary circles, writing fiction and verse under the pseudonym Dermot O'Byrne . Later, he developed an affinity with Nordic culture, which for a time superseded his Celtic influences in the years after the First World War. Between 1910 and 1920 Bax wrote a large amount of music, including the symphonic poem Tintagel , his best-known work. During this period he formed

7878-407: Was "a fine musician, a good composer, and was even better-known as one of the world's first great broadcasters, so the appointment was popular." When Davies died in 1941, Sir Arnold Bax replaced him, to the surprise of many in the musical world, given his strong affinities with Ireland , and no record of writing occasional music. Bax did write a few pieces for royal occasions, including a march for

7979-448: Was "a fount of music", whose "spontaneous and inexhaustible outpourings", unique among his contemporaries, were comparable to those of Schubert and Dvořák . Evans has suggested that Bax's music paradoxically combines robustness and wistfulness, a view that later commentators including Herbage have endorsed. The early music is often instrumentally difficult or orchestrally and harmonically complex; from about 1913 onwards he moved towards

8080-478: Was a devotee of the works of Wagner , whose music was Bax's principal inspiration in his early years. He later observed, "For a dozen years of my youth I wallowed in Wagner's music to the almost total exclusion – until I became aware of Richard Strauss – of any other". Bax also discovered and privately studied the works of Debussy , whose music, like that of Strauss, was frowned on by the largely conservative faculty of

8181-542: Was able to discharge the calls on him as Master, providing music as required for state occasions, from the birth of a child to the Queen, and the funeral of Winston Churchill , to the investiture of the Prince of Wales . When Bliss died in 1975, Walton and others lobbied for the appointment of Malcolm Arnold . There was some surprise that Bliss's actual successor was the Australian composer Malcolm Williamson ; Walton attributed

8282-473: Was able to produce a large body of music, finding, in Foreman's phrase, "his technical and artistic maturity" in his early thirties. Among his better-known works from the period are the orchestral tone poems November Woods (1916) and Tintagel (1917–19). And when the devil's made us wise Each in his own peculiar hell With desert hearts and drunken eyes We're free to sentimentalise By corners where

8383-401: Was an English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music , chamber pieces , and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral music. In addition to a series of symphonic poems , he wrote seven symphonies and was for a time widely regarded as the leading British symphonist. Bax was born in the London suburb of Streatham to a prosperous family. He

8484-403: Was an anachronism, with neither a royal band to direct nor regular royal odes to compose. Elgar, who was well regarded by the royal family, pressed the case for retaining the post. According to the music writer Nicholas Kenyon , he also "lobbied shamelessly" for his own candidacy for it. Other names, including that of Ralph Vaughan Williams had been suggested, but George V and his advisers took

8585-453: Was dissolved in 1901 by Edward VII . The position lapsed during the period of military rule following the Civil War , but on the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 Lanier returned from exile to resume the revived post. After Lanier's death in 1666, Charles II appointed a French violinist, Louis Grabu , to the post. Grabu was primarily concerned with organising the music for the court, and

8686-436: Was encouraged by his parents to pursue a career in music, and his private income enabled him to follow his own path as a composer without regard for fashion or orthodoxy. Consequently, he came to be regarded in musical circles as an important but isolated figure. While still a student at the Royal Academy of Music Bax became fascinated with Ireland and Celtic culture, which became a strong influence on his early development. In

8787-406: Was established in 1997 and is for CDs of light music, big bands/dance bands, jazz, easy listening, vocalists and 1950s/60s pop. Vocalion first made its name with a celebrated and ongoing series of CDs featuring the recordings of famous 1930s and 40s British dance bands, including those led by Ambrose , Geraldo , Oscar Rabin and Maurice Winnick . Vocalion later expanded into re-issuing music from

8888-557: Was filled by Maurice Greene , who already held the posts of organist of St Paul's Cathedral and organist and composer of the Chapel Royal . He held the post for twenty years, but his health was never robust, and he frequently called upon his former pupil William Boyce to compose music for the birthday and New Year odes written by the Poet Laureate in honour of the king. After Greene died in December 1755, Boyce succeeded him as Master of

8989-528: Was generally neglected. From the 1960s onwards, mainly through a growing number of commercial recordings, his music was gradually rediscovered, although little of it is regularly heard in the concert hall. Bax was born on 8 November 1883 in the London suburb of Streatham , Surrey, to a prosperous Victorian family. He was the eldest son of Alfred Ridley Bax (1844–1918) and his wife, Charlotte Ellen (1860–1940), daughter of Rev. William Knibb Lea, of Amoy , China. The couple's youngest son, Clifford Lea Bax , became

9090-602: Was given multiple commissions, including the Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (1713) and the coronation anthems for the coronation of George II in 1727. Duck comments that Handel's eminence as a composer "evidently did not qualify him as a suitable candidate for the honour of Master of the King's Music – the Hanoverian kings clearly played safe by choosing musicians of unimpeachable native breeding". After Eccles's death in 1735, his post

9191-551: Was interred in St. Finbarr's Cemetery , Cork. Bax's music is never simply rhapsodic or formless ... but the tendency to be diffuse, to a point where the listener's attention insists on wandering, the love of picaresque construction and the absence of clear outlines—these faults account for the general apathy towards music that is intrinsically noble, humane, and capable of a certain melancholy grandeur. The Record Guide , 1955 Bax's fellow composer Arthur Benjamin wrote that Bax

9292-513: Was not an Establishment figure; he himself had expressed a disinclination to "shuffle around in knee-breeches". In the opinion of The Times the appointment was not a good one: "Bax was not cut out for official duties and found their performance irksome". Nonetheless, Bax wrote a handful of occasional pieces for royal events, including a march for the Coronation in 1953. After the Second World War began, Bax moved to Sussex, taking up residence at

9393-424: Was originally planned as a large-scale piano sonata in E ♭ (1921); the manuscript score of the latter came to light in the early 1980s and was performed for the first time in 1983. Bax's own virtuosity as a pianist is reflected in the demands of many of his piano pieces. Palmer cites Chopin and Liszt as major influences on Bax's piano style as well as Balakirev and the other Russians whose influence

9494-517: Was sardonic. The Manchester Guardian noted the severity of the work, but declared it "a truly great English symphony". The work was a box-office attraction at the Proms for several years after the premiere. In Foreman's view, Bax was at his musical peak for a fairly short time, and his reputation was overtaken by those of Vaughan Williams and William Walton . The Third Symphony was completed in 1929 and, championed by Wood, remained for some time among

9595-494: Was shot for his part in the Easter rising; the work was not played until 1998. Bax reused the main melody for his incidental music to Oliver Twist (1948). Oliver Twist was the second of Bax's film scores. The first was for a short wartime propaganda film, Malta, G. C. . A four-movement suite was published after the release of the latter, containing what The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music calls "a notable March with

9696-535: Was started in 2000. The artistes are among the UK's brightest talents in the fields of orchestral light music and jazz. They include John Wilson and His Orchestra , singers Gary Williams and Lance Ellington , the big band of drummer Pete Cater, and the Best of British Jazz, which includes in its ranks the late trombonist Don Lusher . Arnold Bax Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax KCVO (8 November 1883 – 3 October 1953)

9797-504: Was the 50-minute Symphonic Variations in E ♭ (1919), written for Harriet Cohen. The Times considered it "like one of those deeds of recklessness which in the Army may be followed either by a Court-martial or a V.C. We incline to favour the Court-martial, and to award the V.C. to Miss Harriet Cohen for her part in the enterprise." The Cello Concerto (1932) was Bax's first attempt at

9898-405: Was the only one seriously to attempt to rule all the musicians in the kingdom as a guild. This was Nicholas Lanier , appointed by Charles I in 1626 as Master of the King's Musick (the spelling was changed to "Music" in the 20th century, during Sir Edward Elgar 's tenure). At that time the holder of the post took charge of the monarch's private band, a responsibility which continued until the band

9999-522: Was unable to play the piano – inaccurately". After a preparatory school in Balham , Bax attended the Hampstead Conservatoire during the 1890s. The establishment was run – "with considerable personal pomp", according to Bax – by Cecil Sharp , whose passion for English folk-song and folk-dance excited no response in his pupil. An enthusiasm for folk music was widespread among British composers of

10100-459: Was unusual among British composers in composing a substantial oeuvre for solo piano. Bax published four piano sonatas (1910–32), which are, in Palmer's view, as central to the composer's piano music as the symphonies are to the orchestral output. The first two sonatas are each in a single movement, of about twenty minutes; the third and fourth are in conventional three-movement form. The First Symphony

10201-411: Was written in 1921–22, and when first given it was a great success, despite its ferocity of tone. The critics found the work dark and severe. The Daily News commented, "It is full of arrogant, almost blatant, virility. Its prevailing tone colour is dark, very dark – thick clouds with only here and there a ray of sunlight." The Daily Telegraph suggested that if there was any humour in the piece, it

#160839