Julius Harrison’s Viola Sonata (1946) – an Unknown Treasure Part I

Introduction. There are three fundamental reasons why Julius Harrison’s Sonata for Viola and Piano in C minor is not an established part of the repertoire. Firstly, the composer is British, secondly, he wrote his only surviving Sonata for the viola and not the violin or piano and thirdly, there is only one recording available – and that is published by a society rather than a major CD company. Now, before readers accuse me of sour grapes or special pleading let me expand on the above points. 

In the United Kingdom, indigenous classical music still labours under the axiom that we are a ‘Land without Music.’ A brief glance at the programmes of any major UK orchestra reveals a woeful lack of British repertoire. Even the world renowned BBC Promenade Concerts have a relatively small proportion of home-grown works. Of course, there will always be a place for the major composers and their most popular creations. Elgar’s Cello Concerto will be given a hundred performances to every one of that by E.J. Moeran. And chamber music fares little better. Week by week, recital-goers are given a regular diet of Brahms, Mozart and Beethoven. Relatively rarely are the great music of a York Bowen or a Rebecca Clarke heard in these halls. Now clearly, there is a financial element here. The Kreutzer Sonata will always ‘pull in’ more people than Humphrey Procter-Gregg’s Sonata No.3 in F for Violin & Piano. So we have a classic(al) chicken and egg situation. Concert promoters will not risk an unknown or new piece, when a ‘pot boiler’ will fill the auditorium: people are not given the opportunity to get to know new or revived works – so they can never become popular!

And then there is my second point. Harrison wrote this Sonata for the ‘Viola.’ Now, fans of this instrument will be able to reel off dozens of fine chamber works written for this instrument: but ask the ordinary concertgoer and a different picture emerges. I did. I consulted three very musical friends – and by and large drew a blank. One of them knew the ubiquitous Brahms op.120: no-one had heard of those by Bliss, Bax, Bridge, Clarke et al.

And lastly the CD situation: as noted, there is only one commercial recording of Harrison’s Sonata available.

Brief Biography. Julius Harrison was born at Stourport in Worcestershire on 26 March 1885. After showings signs of considerable musical ability he studied with Granville Bantock at the Birmingham & Midland Institute of Music. His interests at that time were directed towards conducting and he was soon to make an appearance on the European Opera scene. He was sent to Paris by the Covent Garden Syndicate to rehearse Wagner operas with Nikisch and Weingartner. Harrison was to develop as an opera conductor, eventually taking up residence with the British National Opera Company and the Beecham Opera Company.

It was his appointment to the Hastings Municipal Orchestra that finally allowed him to establish his own style of conducting and to raise the standards of that orchestra to the same levels as the neighbouring and much more prestigious one at Bournemouth. With the onset of the Second World War, Hastings Town Council disbanded the orchestra for the ‘duration.’ This loss of his position, coupled with the onset of deafness allowed Julius Harrison to concentrate on composition. It also coincided with a return, in 1940, to his home county: he assumed residence in Great Malvern in a lovely house with views across the plain to the evocative Bredon Hill.

Harrison did not write a deal of music. His most impressive works are the Mass in C on which he worked intermittently for over eleven years and the Requiem (1948-1957) Geoffrey Self (Grove’s Dictionary of Music, online version) calls attention to these “conservative and contrapuntally complex pieces,” and notes the influence of Verdi and Wagner. They remain unheard in our generation.

The remainder of his catalogue contain several interesting works for orchestra, some of which have been revived in the past twenty years. His most approachable composition is Bredon Hill: Rhapsody for solo violin and orchestra (1942). It balances the romantic and classical music of previous generations with an attractive but not overstated English Pastoralism. Few chamber works were written or have survived: there are Two Pieces for violin & piano (1915), Prelude: Music for String Quintet (1922) and a Humoresque: Widdicombe Fair for String Quartet (1916). The remainder of Harrison’s catalogue is made up of numerous ‘characteristic’ piano pieces and a large amount of choral music and solo songs. It is a territory that is largely uncharted and unheard in our day.

In addition to the above-mentioned chamber works there was a Phantasy Trio (1907), presumably written for the William Cobbett competition, the String quartet in D minor (1910-1911) and a Dance Orientale for three bassoons and tambourine! (1908) These works have been lost or were destroyed by the composer.

To be continued…