Introducing Walter Leigh (1905-1942)

Walter Leigh is one of several composers who were killed fighting for their country during the Second World War. Others included the Austrian Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) who died in Auschwitz, the Frenchman Jehan Alain (1911-1940) and British Michael Heming (1920-42).  All were accomplished musicians or at least showed considerable promise. 

Hubert Foss, (Musical Times, August 1942, p.255) summed up Leigh’s achievement: “This is a grave loss to British music. Walter Leigh was a composer through and through: a serious composer, especially when writing his light music. Composing music was for him a professional man's job, not an aesthetic's languorings or expressionisms. He tackled the job with his own special simplicity of mind and wisdom.”

The present-day listener will find Walter Leigh’s music approachable and often engaging. Whether it is the sub-Elgarian Overture: Agincourt, the abstract Viola Sonata heard at the 1932 Vienna I.S.CM. Festival or the Sullivan-esque operetta Jolly Roger, he is never patronising, deliberately obscure or difficult.

After a brief overview of Leigh’s career, Hubert Foss concludes “Leigh was one of the most charming musicians I have ever met, so absolutely sane and practical and without a single affectation. In losing him in battle, this country has not only lost a fine and lovable man, and a fine composer, but also an idea of music which it can ill afford to lose.”

Brief Biography of Walter Leigh

• Walter Leigh was born on 22 June 1905 in Wimbledon, London
• His earliest musical lessons were from his mother - who was a Prussian pianist - and with Dr Harold Darke. 
• He was educated at University College School, Hampstead.
• In 1922 Leigh won an organ scholarship to Christ’s College, Cambridge.
• He studied at Christ’s College, Cambridge University (1922–1925) with Edward Joseph Dent and Cyril Rootham.
• Between 1927 -1929 he studied with Paul Hindemith in the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin.
• Leigh’s first published work, Three Pieces for Amateur Orchestra, dates from this period.
• In 1930 Leigh declined a teaching job and began to accept commissions from a variety of sources and developed an interest in the theatre.
• From 1931 to 1932 he was Musical Director of the Festival Theatre, Cambridge.
• Two important light operas were composed The Pride of the Regiment (1932) and Jolly Roger (1933)
• In 1934, Leigh composed the score for Basil Wright’s film The Song of Ceylon for the Ceylon Tea Board.
• His most popular concert work, the Concertino for harpsichord and strings appeared in 1936.
• In partnership with Herbert Farjeon, he produced music for the review Nine Sharp (1939) at the Little Theatre and In Town Again at the Criterion in 1940.
• During 1941, Leigh joined the army in World War II serving with Royal Armoured Corps, 4th Queen's Own Hussars.
• Walter Leigh died in action during the Siege of Tobruk, Libya on the 12 June 1942.

Six Essential Works

I have selected six compositions by Walter Leigh. The criteria is that they are currently available on CD, Download or YouTube. In fact, a large proportion of Leigh’s orchestral, chamber, and piano music has been recorded. The operetta Jolly Roger has also been issued in disc.

• Sonatina for Viola and Piano (1930)
• Music for String Orchestra (1931-32)
• Music for Three Pianos (1932)
• Concertino for Harpsichord or Piano and String Orchestra (1934)
• Agincourt Overture (1935)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream - Suite for Small Orchestra (1936) 

Bibliography

Basic information about Walter Leigh can be found in the various editions of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, as well as other reference books, Wikipedia, obituaries and CD liner notes. Fortunately, there is also an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Sadly, there is no biography or musical study dedicated to the composer. Entry level would include a remarkable pen portrait of Leigh written by Roger Wimbush and published in the Monthly Musical Record (June 1938, p.138ff). Two major ‘recent’ essays include David Drew’s “North Sea Crossings. Walter Leigh, Hindemith and English Music” (2008) in Tempo April 2010, pp.44-64) and Thomas Irvine’s “Hindemith’s Disciple in London: Walter Leigh on Modern Music”, in British Music and Modernism, 1895–1960, (ed. Matthew Riley, Routledge, London, 2010)

If you can only hear one CD

In 1985, Lyrita records issued and LP of Walter Leigh’s music (SRCS126). It included the Concertino for Harpsichord and String Orchestra, Music for String Orchestra, A Midsummer Night's Dream - Suite and some incidental music from The Frogs (1936). The London Philharmonic Orchestra was conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite and the harpsichord was played by Trevor Pinnock. In 2014 this was rereleased on CD (SRCD.289) and included the Overture: Agincourt and the Jolly Roger Overture. Thus, most of Leigh’s orchestral works are available to the listener.

Of further interest is the Dutton Epoch disc (CDLX 7143) which features virtually all of Walter Leigh’s chamber music. There is a Lyrita CD of the comic opera Jolly Roger (REAM 2116) and the hard-to-find Walter Leigh: Piano Music and Songs played by Peter Hewitt (and others) on Tremula REM 101-2, published 1992.

Finally, if you wish to hear just one work

It must be the Concertino for Harpsichord and String Orchestra. Hugo Cole has written that it “is one of a number of chamber works of the period [by Leigh]: an elegant and concise work, more French than German in its spare-notes neo-classicism, the keyboard writing showing signs of [Maurice] Ravel’s influence.” It is written in three movements: Allegro, Andante and Allegro Vivace. The work was premiered by Elizabeth Poston in 1934. It is sometimes performed with the harpsichord replaced by piano.