Arthur Bliss May-Zeeh: Valse for piano solo (1910)

The earliest surviving work by Sir Arthur Bliss is the miniature May-Zeeh – a Valse for piano solo. It was written in 1910 and was the composer’s first work to be published. The work carries a youthfully romantic inscription: “Composée et Dediée à son amie MW”.  It is not possible to know who this lady was. It is assumed that she was called Maisie. In the same year Bliss entered Pembroke College, Cambridge to study music. 

Other early works written around this time include the Quartet for piano, clarinet, cello and timpani (1904) an arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers (1907) a Trio for piano, clarinet and cello (1907), and Valse Mélancolique (1910) for piano solo. None have survived.

The liner notes for the premiere (and only) recording of May-Zeeh describe it as “an attractive salon-type waltz.”  It certainly nods in the direction of that ubiquitous genre which was prevalent in the years before the Great War. The notes explain that “its musical and technical demands place it on a somewhat higher plane than such a categorisation suggests.” It was published by Gould & Co, London in 1910. According to Lewis Foreman’s Catalogue of the composer music, Bliss withdrew the work. The manuscript is no longer extant. Clearly, he did not shred the published sheet music.

There is little in May-Zeeh to prefigure the composer’s future direction as firstly the bad boy of English music, subsequent elder statesman and Master of the Queen’s Musick. It is an attractive piece, that is well written. There are a few subtleties with just a hint of “coquettishness” that would infuse much of Bliss’s later works.

May-Zeeh was included on Volume 1 of Mark Bebbington’s survey of Bliss’s Complete Piano Music (SOMMCD 0111, 2012). It has been uploaded to YouTube.