Francis George Scott: Complete Piano Music

A few biographical details of Francis George Scott may be of interest. He was born in the Scottish Border town of Hawick on 25 January 1880. After education at the town’s Academy, Scott studied English at Edinburgh University and latterly at Durham University. He later taught this subject in secondary schools in Dunoon, Langholm and Glasgow. One of his pupils at Langholm was the legendary Christopher Grieve, later known as Hugh MacDiarmid. From MacDiarmid, Scott later became acquainted with Scots Language verse.

Scott studied music with the French musician Jean Roger-Ducasse and initially developed a cosmopolitan style. He later chose to research Scottish folksong (including pibroch, loosely, a theme with variations for bagpipe)) and applied the results to his compositions. This deep interest resulted in six volumes of Scottish Songs published between 1921 and 1945.

For many years Scott was a lecturer in music at Jordanhill Training College for Teachers in Glasgow. After his retirement in 1946, he published Thirty-Five Scottish Lyrics and Other Poems (1949).

Many of Scott’s settings were of poems by Robert Burns, William Dunbar and Hugh MacDiarmid Other works included a Renaissance Overtire for orchestra and a ballet based on the William Dunbar’s The Seven Deidly Sinnis which may deserve revival.

As The Times (8 November 1958) obituarist put it, Scott was “a Scottish Nationalist composer whose music never invaded England.” Unfortunately, it did not receive a great deal of recognition in Scotland (common to most Scottish composers). A few people were enthusiastic about his achievement, including the musician Ronald Stevenson, the poet Hugh MacDiarmid and the music critic and author Maurice Lindsay.

Musically, Scott’s style is a subtle fusion of Scottish speech rhythm, folksong and pibroch as well as an infusion of European developments initiated by his study of Bartók and Schoenberg.

Francis George Scott died in Glasgow on 6 November 1948.

The only major study is Francis George Scott and the Scottish Renaissance (1980) written by the larger-than-life critic, broadcaster and poet, Maurice Lindsay.

One point needs to be summarised. The Scottish Renaissance refers to an artistic movement prominent between the First and Second World Wars but extending back and forward in time. This was mainly a literary revival promulgated by writers such as Hugh MacDiarmid, Edwin Muir and William Soutar.  However, the movement’s influence was also found in music, art and politics. It was also important in the rise of Scottish Nationalism (but by no means restricted to it).  Often, the resulting artistic works were influenced by contemporary philosophy and modernism but synthesised with Scottish culture and tradition. Composers within the ambit of this movement included Erik Chisholm, Ronald Center, William Beaton Moonie and Francis George Scott. Ronald Stevenson was a late adherent.

The present CD divides into three sections. The opening work on this CD is Eight Songs of Francis George Scott transcribed by Ronald Stevenson. This is followed by the first recording (and probably first complete performance) of Intuitions, which presents 57 fugitive miniatures. The last element consists of four interspersed, miscellaneous piano pieces.

I began with the early Minuet and Trio dating from around 1903. This is Scott’s earliest surviving piano work. It is commonplace, like so much music composed at that time. This is followed by the short, undated, gavotte, La Joie which was penned when he was at teaching Langholm School between 1903 and 1912. Once again, it is proficient, tuneful and in the gift of an amateur pianist. When I first read the track listing, I wondered if April Skies might be a John Ireland-esque character piece with a Scottish accent. A little disappointment ensued. It is an attractive but “lengthy waltz sequence…imitating the Viennese style”. It was written about 1912.  The most promising of these short numbers is Urlar. This title is a noun describing a “basic theme of a piece of bagpipe music”. It is a beautiful modal number in ternary form. The liner notes indicate that the middle section imitates the clarsach (Celtic harp) whilst the opening and closing sections are thoughtful and “gently lilting.”

Eight Songs of Francis George Scott transcribed by Ronald Stevenson are a masterly re-creation. I think that the best way of approaching them, is to see them in a trajectory from Franz Liszt’s adaptations of Schubert’s lieder.  Here Stevenson takes Scott’s songs and reworks them for piano solo. Kaikhosru Sorabji has written that these songs are “not just des mélodies, des chansons with a piano accompaniment, with the pianist a bad (and more than slightly ignominious) poor relation, but they are conceived as duos for voice and piano in which neither is in any way subordinated to the other.”  In other words, the songs in their original incarnation, have the vocal and piano parts integrated, not just a melody supported by a vamped piano accompaniment. This lends itself to “the idiom of the solo piano.” In Stevenson’s transcriptions, there is a clever juxtaposition of Scott’s melodies with various harmonic and accompaniment styles.

The eight songs transcribed are: No.1 Since all thy vows, false maid, are blown to air. No.2 Wha is that at my bower-door? No.3 O were my love yon lilac fair. No.4 Wee Willy Gray. No.5 Milk-Wort and Bog-Cotton. No.6 Crowdieknowe. No.7 Ay Waukin, O and No.8 There's news, lasses, news.

The liner notes give an incredibly detailed analysis and examines the technique used by Ronald Stevenson to re-imagine them. Colin Scott-Sutherland (BMS Newsletter, Jun 1997, p.58) as insisted that “these transcriptions belong to Scotland and to the whole world.” Would that they did.

The Intuitions present several problems to the listener. Firstly, this is a work made up of 57 very short fragments (plus one variant). The longest being 2 minute 10 seconds and the shortest lasting a mere 12 seconds. Most are under a minute in length. Some have evocative titles, many just an indication of dynamics and several only a number.  They were composed over a ten-year period, 1943 to 1953.

How do we approach them? I guess one way is to see them as being “Moments in Time.”  I baulk at using this phrase: my English teacher “Noddy” Robertson, once told me that it was a tautology - all moments are in time. But this is, perhaps, the very point this music.

What is the mood of these Intuitions? The liner notes suggest that they “animate a very improper sense of the eldritch and eerie, moonlit worlds of liminality and transformation. They never rest complacently – irony keeps them sharp and the humour is sometimes merciless…”  But there is another side to this series of miniatures: “a sense of tenderness, a poised sensitivity to the vulnerabilities of childhood and old age which counterpoints the vigorous expressions of force and power.”

Furthermore, the notes states that “Each one of these pieces gently discloses balances of depth, speed and the highly sensitised character of what one might call intimation. They touch on tragedy sometimes, and sometimes flirt and fleetly run with high comical spirit.”

For me, Intuitions remind me of two contradictory composers: Fibich and Webern. The latter is noted for concentrating his musical material to the barest minimum, and the former’s Moods, Impressions and Souvenirs, where each one was designed to capture a single impression of an intimate moment.

The reader will be delighted that I am not going to comment on/describe/analyse each Intuition. This is done on some detail in the liner notes. A few examples will suffice.  No.51 is entitled Evening on the Loch. It is not descriptive of any highland scene. Just evocative of mood: a single idea lasting less than a minute. Yet somehow it captures a whole world of emotion. No.3, Lonely Tune is written in in four-part harmony, with a few chromatic twists and a wide-ranging melody. All in 48 seconds. The following Running Tune hints briefly at a half-remembered Scottish Reel.  Schumann can be heard in the Border Riding-Rhythm (No.12). Even this horseman has gone before he can be apprehended. The Deil’s Dance (No.14) looks to Khachaturian with its “urgent, savage rhythmic drive.” The longest is a ballad. For a few moments No.15, An Seanachaidh (The Bard), tells his ancient tale. What it was about we do not know. Finally, many of these Intuitions do not have titles. Take No.21 for example. Just a few enigmatic bars, “ending with a question mark”. So, the only way to listen to them is to take them slowly, use the liner notes to pick out something of interest and enjoy, imagine and dream. The more I have listened to them, the more I get out of them. They are little gems.

I cannot fault the sound quality of this CD. Christopher Guild’s recital of this music is engaging and always convincing. There is no element of condescension when he is playing the “easier” numbers and the unsophisticated early works.

The liner notes are superb. There is an introductory essay by the poet and academic Alan Riach, providing a good appreciation of Francis George Scott. This provides biography, context within the Scottish Renaissance and some well-judged pointers to the appreciation of the music. It is followed by Christopher Guild’s indispensable dissertation exploring the repertoire on this CD in considerable detail. There are numerous quotations from music and literary critics. Non- technical details of each piece are incorporated.  The usual particulars about the soloist, Christopher Guild are included. The text is complimented by photos of Scott, Stevenson and MacDiarmid.

There is apparently no more of Scott’s piano music left to record. But what is a desideratum is a complete cycle of the (more than 300) songs: it would be a massive project. And maybe the Renaissance Overture for orchestra. Of equal importance is an easily available printed edition of the sheet music for Intuitions. There is much in these pages that does not require a virtuosic technique that would be of considerable interest to many pianists of all abilities.

As a Scot, born and bred in Glasgow, it never ceases to amaze me how little interest we show in our native classical music. It is good to have such a dedicated and committed advocate for “our” music as Moray-born Christopher Guild. I eagerly look forward to many more explorations of forgotten repertoire from him.

Track Listing:
Francis George SCOTT (1880-1958)
Eight Songs of Francis George Scott (transcribed by Ronald STEVENSON (1928-2015)) (1963-82?)
Urlar (1948)
April Skies (?1912) 
Intuitions (1943-53) 
The Two Neighbours (Campbell Hay) – alternative setting (1952) 
Minuet and Trio (1903) 
La Joie (c. 1910)
Christopher Guild (piano)
Rec. 24 February 2019 in the Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton
TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC 0547
With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was first published.