Arnold Bax: Donald Brook’s Pen-Portrait from 'Composer's Gallery' Part I

Donald Brook wrote a series of books presenting attractive short studies or pen-portraits of a wide variety of musicians and authors. Clearly, he had met these people and had a chance to speak to them about their achievements and interests. Sir Granville Bantock endorsed Composer’ Gallery (London, Rockliff, 1946) by insisting that it ‘will be welcomed by music lovers and the larger public throughout the civilised world.’

On a personal note, this was one of the earliest second-hand books about music that I bought in the days before the internet: it served as my introduction to a wide range of composers and their music.  I include several footnotes to Brook’s pen-portrait of ‘Arnold Bax.’

'SIR ARNOLD BAX, Master of the King's Music, was born in 1883 at Streatham, [1] which at that time was rather less of a London suburb than it is to-day. His great love of Ireland, which

is reflected in so much of his work, once caused a journalist to presume that he was born in that country, and using a little of the imagination to which certain parts of Fleet Street are apt to resort when cold facts are not available, the literary gentleman rushed into print with a statement that Bax was born on an island in the middle of a bog-lake in County Mayo. There is, of course, a good deal of Irish blood in Sir Arnold's veins, and nothing would have pleased him more than if the journalist's statement had been true.

As a child he showed amazing ability at the piano: he seemed to be able to read music instinctively at sight. His first acquaintance with orchestral music was made when his father began taking him to the Crystal Palace Saturday Concerts, and it is not surprising to learn that within a week or so he was making insistent demands to learn to play the violin as well. He made rapid progress on both instruments, and when the family moved to Hampstead in 1896, [2] he took lessons from an Italian ex-bandmaster. [3]

He wrote his first sonata at the age of twelve, and in the ensuing years composed with such ardour that when he was fourteen his father, slightly bewildered at his son's musical effusions, took from to Westminster to consult Sir Frederick Bridge upon the advisability of his adopting music as a career.

‘Do you assure me, Sir Frederick, that my son really has this musical taint in his system?’

‘I fear that I cannot hide it from you, sir, that such is indeed the case. That will be three guineas, thank you, and mind the step.’

So Bax went to an institution known as the Hampstead Conservatoire [4] to study the piano, harmony and composition under a local organist, but in 1900 proceeded to the Royal Academy of Music, where his fellow students were Stanley Marchant (now the Principal) [5], B[enjamin] Dale, Adam Carse, Eric Coates, Harry Farjeon, W. H. Read and York Bowen. Myra Hess and Irene Scharrer [pianists] were also there at that time, and in his autobiography, Bax says that he remembers them as ‘very small and eternally giggling girls.’

Bax was undoubtedly one of the most brilliant students the Academy had ever known. He could play an orchestral score at sight on the piano with an ease that staggered his professors, and it is thought that this has always made it difficult for him to appreciate the complexity of much of his own work. Tobias Matthay took him for the piano, and Frederick Corder for composition.

Unlike most composers, Sir Arnold steadfastly refuses to conduct his own works. The origin of this attitude may be traced back to his student days when he won the Charles Lucas Medal with a set of symphonic variations. [6] Frederick Corder arranged for these to be performed at a concert to be held at the Royal College of Music and allowed C. V. Stanford to persuade Bax to conduct them. He acquiesced, although he knew nothing of the art of conducting. At the end of the performance he resolved never again to take up the baton.

By the time he left the Royal Academy of Music in 1905 he had written a substantial number of works, but most of them had to be revised or withdrawn in later years because the elaborations of their texture were excessive.

Bax became a very fine pianist, but rarely, if ever, played in public. He travelled for years not only in Germany, where every young musician tried to make his musical pilgrimages, but also in Russia, a country which impressed him sufficiently to leave its mark upon several of his works. His experiences there produced three short works: ‘May Night in the Ukraine’, ‘Gopak’ and ‘In a Vodka Shop. [7]

For many years Arnold Bax was engaged in a long struggle for recognition. He was of course fortunate in possessing private means, so that he was never under any obligation to earn money, or indeed, to consider the financial aspect of his various musical activities. There is no doubt that he could have demanded high fees as a pianist had he been inclined to perform in public, but he never sought musical appointments of any kind, believing that they should be left for those who were obliged to seek a livelihood in music.'

Notes:

[1] Arnold Bax was born on Thursday, 8 November 1883 at ‘Heath Villa’ Angles Road, Streatham. Since Bax’s birth, the address has been renumbered and renamed to 13 Pendennis Road, London, SW16. The house is marked with a Blue Plaque.

[2] After several moves in the south London area, the Bax family moved to Ivy Bank, in Haverstock Hill, Hampstead Heath, London NW3.

[3] Signor Masi was a master at Heath Mount School attended by Bax between 1896 and 1898.  Little is known about him and he is not mentioned in the main Bax reference books and biographies.

[4] The Hampstead Conservatoire was a private college of music and the arts. Located at 64 Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, by the time Arnold Bax enrolled in 1898, the building had been reconstructed. The principal at that time was Cecil Sharp.  Bax was to study piano, theory and counterpoint with Dr Arthur James Greenish. In 1928, the Conservatoire was converted into the Embassy Theatre.  In turn, when this closed in 1956 it became the premises of Royal Central School of Speech & Drama.

[5] Stanley Marchant (1883-1949) was an English church musician, composer and teacher. In 1914 Marchant was appointed a professor at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1936 he became Principal of that institution, a post he held until 1949, when he was succeeded by Sir Reginald Thatcher.

[6] The ‘symphonic variations’ are actually the Variations for orchestra (Improvisations) which was completed on 10 June 1904. Despite winning the Charles Lucas Prize, this work was rejected for potential performance at the fourth Patron’s Fund Concert held on 29 June 1905. As implied in Brook’s text Bax’s less-than-convincing attempt at conducting may have been partly to blame. The Variations have been released on Dutton Epoch CDLX7326. This work is not to be confused with the Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra composed during 1918 and premiered on 23 November 1920 at the Wigmore Hall.

[7] ‘Nocturne-May Night in the Ukraine’, and ‘Gopak’ were originally written for the piano in 1912. ‘In a Vodka Shop’, also for piano, followed in 1915. Two of the numbers were arranged for orchestra by Bax, with the Nocturne having been orchestrated by Graham Parlett. It was issued as the Russian Suite during 1988 and was recorded by Chandos. (CHAN 8669).