Arnold Bax’s What the Minstrel Told Us. An Explanation – of sorts!

The facts about Arnold Bax’s What the Minstrel Told Us (Ballad) for pianoforte are straightforward. It was composed in the aftermath of the Great War and was dedicated ‘To Harriet Cohen’. Bax finished it after he had made a return visit to Ireland in 1919. He was troubled by the political tensions there, especially in the aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising. At the time of Bax’s residence, the Irish War of Independence was about to get under way. 

Aesthetically, What the Minstrel Told Us is conceived as a rhapsody. Structurally, the music can be construed as modified ternary form or perhaps a set of variations on two tunes. The outer sections presents an opening ‘call to attention’ followed the Celtic folk tune, initially in innocence but when it is reprised at the piece’s conclusion it has become funereal, keening. The middle section is presented in two parts: ‘first a typical passage of restless dreaming soon superseded by relentless and aggressive writing, [with] Bax almost shaking a fist at heaven’ (Lewis Foreman, Naxos Liner Note). Harriet Cohen gave the first performance at the Wigmore Hall on 15 June 1920.  (Parlett, 1999, p.143)

The work is subtitled a ‘Ballad’, hence the connection to the Irish Minstrel. But what was the story he related?

The Scotsman (19 October 1944, p.4) reported on a lunchtime recital by the pianist Harold Craxton (1885-1971), given the previous day at the Royal Scottish Academy Galleries in Edinburgh. The reviewer explained that Bax’s What the Minstrel Told Us ‘had its meaning made more explicit by a few characteristic and pleasantly informal remarks made by Mr Craxton.’  He subsequently played it ‘with fine feeling for its Celtic embroideries.’

Other works performed at this recital included Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata, and Chopin’s ‘Barcarolle’, the Nocturne in F major and an unspecified Mazurka. The concert opened with some Old English piano pieces by William Boyce, Henry Purcell and Thomas Arne. Clearly, the critic enjoyed the recital, but was keen to point out that ‘one does not look for any display of virtuosity for its own sake in Mt Craxton’s playing; it is the playing rather of a musician who feels himself at home in front of a keyboard than of a pianist who imposes his will on both instrument and audience.’  This was borne out by his ‘gentler approach’ to the Beethoven, which ‘had much to yield’ to the listener. 

In the same issue of The Scotsman, (op.cit. p.6) an unsigned wit presented the following (extravagant and sexist) revelation about this piano piece: “He should not have told them, that minstrel (Craxton?). He was just putting ideas into their heads. It was at the lunch hour concert that some of us heard the Ballad [What the Minstrel Told Us] for the first time, as set so witchingly to music by Sir Arnold Bax. In case you do not know, the story is in three stages, the same tune expressing varying moods. Two sisters walk peacefully by the riverside. That is stage one. At stage two they discover that they are both in love with the same man. There is a certain terseness about stage three. One sister just pushes the other into the water, whereafter the music reverts to its former even flow.

“Now why didn’t I think of that?” Impossible to tell by watching the faces of the listeners through how many minds that thought may be crossing. The women there represented were either too gentle, to wise, or were just lacking in initiative? One or two looked as if they might enjoy settling that tiresome sister out of hand. But not – just as they were on the point of giving her that little push that meant so much, a sense of humour stopped them. The smile that started on their eyes had spread and the tension was over. But it just shows how careful Minstrels ought to be.”

Some 77 years on, it is impossible to discover if this explanation was Craxton’s or whether it was the journalist’s vivid imagination.

The fact remains that it is impossible to recover exactly what the ‘minstrel told us’, any more than to discover the Tale the Pine Trees Knew. The most likely explanation of this piano piece is presented by Colin Scott Sutherland (1970):

‘The substance of the tale is divulged only by its emotions. Like all true heroic ballads, it is sad, beautiful and virtuosic…The strange sad song of the melody is given out unaccompanied, in heroic fashion, then deliciously coloured in chromatic harmony, recalling some ancient rune, a race-memory half forgotten…’

That said, both ‘Love’ and ‘Heroism’ were on Bax’s mind at the time of the composition of What the Minstrel Told Us. The first emotion being engendered by the start his stormy relationship with Harriet Cohen, and the second with the deteriorating situation in Ireland. In the latter, Bax’s ‘otherworld’ was slowly being shattered. The Minstrels of old were seemingly falling silent.

Bibliography:
Parlett, Graham, A Catalogue of the Works of Sir Arnold Bax (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1999)
Scott-Sutherland, Colin, Arnold Bax (London, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1973)
Files of The Scotsman.