Introducing Iain Hamilton (1922-2000)

Introduction

Once regarded alongside Peter Racine Fricker and Humphrey Searle as the bright the future of contemporary British music, Iain Hamilton commemorates the centenary of his birth this year (2022). He was one of one of Scotland’s most remarkable 20th century composers.

Sadly, Hamilton has disappeared from the stage, concert hall and recital room. Part of this neglect may be his exodus from Glasgow at an early age, and his subsequent sojourn in the United States. Notwithstanding this exile, Hamilton retained a deep love for Scotland and formerly had performances of his music especially during the 1950s and 1960s. Today’s listener has a small number of recordings on CD and YouTube to begin to approach Hamilton’s legacy.

It is to be hoped that more material will become available, and his music may even be heard in the concert hall once again.

In overview, Iain Hamiton’s music works in four stylistic trajectories: Romanticism, Serialism, Avant Garde and Light. These streams are not always mutually exclusive. There is a huge stylistic gap between the big-band infused Jazz Concerto for trumpet and orchestra (1958) and the Sinfonia for two orchestras premiered the following year.

Brief Biography of Iain Hamilton

• Scottish composer Iain Hamilton was born at 22 Woodburn Road, Newlands, Glasgow, on 6 June 1922.
• Family moved to London during 1929.
• After attending Mill Hill School, Hamilton was apprenticed as an engineer to Handley Page. He studied music in his spare time.
• Won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in 1946. His teachers were William Alwyn, composition and Harold Craxton for piano. He graduated in 1951.
• After receiving his BMus from London University, he worked as a teacher, as director of numerous musical organisations and a composer.
• Completed his first major score, the Variations for string orchestra (1948). It was premiered in 1952.
• The Symphony No.1 was completed in 1948.
• An important appointment was at Morley College, London between 1951 and 1960.
• The controversial Sinfonia for two orchestras was premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 1959. It celebrated the 200th anniversary of Scottish poet Robert Burns’s birth.
• In 1961 Hamilton moved to the United States. He was Professor of Music at Duke University, North Carolina and at the City University of New York. The following year he was the Resident Composer at Tanglewood.
• Received an Honorary Degree from Glasgow University, 1970
• Hamilton’s operatic masterpiece, The Cataline Conspiracy was first heard in Stirling on 16 March 1974.
• Returned to London in 1981.
• Over his career, Hamilton received sundry awards including the Dove Prize from the Royal Academy of Music (1950), the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize for his Clarinet Concerto (1951), the Koussevitzky Foundation Award for his 2nd Symphony (1951), the Edwin Evans Prize (1951), the Arnold Bax Gold Medal (1957), and the Vaughan Williams Award (1974).
• The Symphony No..4 was premiered in Edinburgh on 21 January 1983.
• The Wild Garden for clarinet and piano and the London: A Kaleidoscope for Piano and Orchestra, were amongst his last works, written in 2000.
• Iain Hamilton died in London on 21 July 2000, aged 78 years.

Ten Essential Works

Iain Hamilton’s catalogue is considerable. Stage works include twelve operas, dramatic narratives and lyric comedies. There are four symphonies, nine concertos, and a wealth of orchestral music. Hamilton made a major contribution to chamber and instrumental music. There are also several choral pieces and many songs. Some have only received a handful of performances over the past 70 years. Unfortunately, only a tiny portion of the catalogue is recorded. This gives a skewed impression of Hamilton’s achievement. I have chosen six works that can be heard on record or CD. Various works have been uploaded to YouTube, usually from radio broadcasts. This includes the cycle of Symphonies and selected concertos, organ pieces and the opera, The Cataline Conspiracy.

1. Piano Sonata, op. 13 (1951, rev.1971)
2. Violin Concerto, op. 15 (1952)
3. The Bermudas, for baritone, chorus & orchestra op.33 (1956/7)
4. Scottish Dances for orchestra, op.32 (1956)
5. Jazz Concerto for trumpet and orchestra, op.37 (1958)
6. Sinfonia for two orchestras (1959)
7. Piano Concerto No.1 (1959/60 rev.1967)
8. Cantos For Horn, Tuba, Harp and Orchestra (1964)
9. Voyage for horn and orchestra (1970)
10. Epitaph for this World and Time for three choirs and three organs (1970)

Bibliography

Sadly, there is no biography or monograph devoted to the life and music of Iain Hamilton. The interested listener must pick through various dictionary entries, obituaries, reviews, short discussions in music studies and many articles. There is a single thesis, which discusses the composer’s contribution to the clarinet repertoire. The most helpful introductory essay is by Paul Conway and is freely available on MusicWeb International. These are really the basis of all studies of the composer.

If you can only hear one CD...

To my knowledge there is currently only a single CD devoted entirely to Iain Hamilton’s work. In 2016 Lyrita Recorded Editions released an album (REAM.1126) containing three important and diverse works. This includes The Bermudas for baritone, chorus and orchestra op.33 (1956), the Piano Concerto No.1 (1959/60 rev.1967) and Cantos for horn, tuba, harp and orchestra (1964). It is a compilation of BBC broadcasts featuring several performers and orchestras. The Bermudas is an effective setting of Andrew Marvell’s eponymous poem and texts by the composer and Sylvester Jourdain (1610). This is a major work that sits on the cusp of Hamilton’s stylistic metamorphism between romanticism, serialism and lighter more approachable music. The same cannot be said about the Piano Concerto No.1. On this CD it is heard in its original incantation. It has been characterised as being challengingly spiky and intricately plotted. Certainly, this is a difficult piece to assimilate on a first (even second and third) hearing. Margaret Kitchin gives a remarkable performance. Cantos, which was a Proms commission, is much more lyrical. There are some wonderful solo contributions from Douglas Moore, (horn), John Fletcher (tuba) and Sidonie Goossens (harp). This is an elegiac piece, which is not afraid to embrace post Webernism in its “colourfully pointillistic” scoring. All the recordings date from the 1960s and 1970s.

Finally, if you wish to hear just one work…

This must be the Sinfonia for two orchestras which bamboozled the great and good at the Edinburgh Festival in 1959. The work was commissioned by the Burns Federation to commemorate the poet’s bicentenary. The audience at the work’s premiere were expecting a piece along lines of Hamilton’s smoochy, smoke filled Scottish Dances (1956). Or at the very least, a ‘Rhapsody’ of Scottish tunes. What they heard was an uncompromising serial work which was deemed to be tough and acerbic. Most of the audience were shocked, and made their feelings known to the composer and to the conductor Alexander Gibson. The president of the Burns Federation declared that the work was “ghastly and tuneless.” Sixty-two years on, many listeners will still find the Sinfonia unmusical and unapproachable. Yet, what Hamiton did was to use the then-contemporary musical techniques prevalent in the United Kingdom, Europe and America to create what some would regard as a masterpiece. What he did not do, is take his admiration for Robert Burns and wrap it up in Tartan.

The Sinfonia for two orchestras can be heard on EMI Classics Label (5 86189 2). It is coupled with Hamilton’s Violin Concerto, op.15 and Alexander Goehr’s Violin Concerto, op.13. The soloist is Manoug Parikan. Alexander Gibson conducts the Scottish National Orchestra (Hamilton) and Norman Del Mar the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Goehr). The Sinfonia has been uploaded to YouTube.