Rutland Boughton: Love Duet from The Immortal Hour

There are many ways to approach a composer. In my case, I came to the music of Rutland Boughton by way of the superb Symphony No.3 in B minor (1937) which I heard broadcast on Radio Three some four decades ago. It is a work that I immediately fell in love with and still regard as one of my favourite British Symphonies. However, I imagine that many people will have first heard of the composer through his wonderful opera, The Immortal Hour. 

The composer and (maverick) music critic Josef Holbrooke was a little ambivalent to Boughton’s music. Writing in 1925 he suggested that “his Female Suffrage songs and his Labour ditties did not prognosticate such an ethereal morsel and spiritual entertainment as the music-drama, The Immortal Hour.” A paragraph later Holbrooke is proposing that “Uncouth is much of Boughton...,” yet a few words later he suggests that “the gods came to him in the songs...” in this work.

The history of the opera can be briefly noted. The libretto was adapted from a verse-drama by Fiona Macleod, who was the literary pseudonym of William Sharp. It is based on a legendary Irish story relating the loves of Etain, who is a girl of the Faery Folk, and Eochaidh, the King. Etain is summoned by Midir, prince of faery to the Land of Heart’s Desire. Behind the thoughts and deeds of all the characters lurks Dalua, ‘the Shadow that lies behind life.’ Holbrooke defines the relationship of words and music – “The poems...are of the slightest and most ethereal. Nothing in music is more refined and delicate than the orchestral score of the Immortal Hour.”  It is well said.

The opera was first performed on 26 August 1914 during the Summer Festival of the Glastonbury Festival School. It was conducted by Charles Kennedy Scott, however, at that event there was only a piano accompaniment. The composer sang the role of Dalua, the shadow God, due to one of the singers being indisposed. It has been revived a number of times since –most notably in London in 1922/23 and on New York in 1926. A recording of the opera was made in 1984 and is currently available on Hyperion CDD22040.

The music of the Love Duet begins just before fig.121 in the vocal score and is part of Scene 2. It is at the point that Manus and Maive are discussing a stranger who has visited them and given them three pieces of silver –one piece for Etain, who is also in the house, one for any stranger who may visit and one piece for their silence. Etain laments the beauty of her Faery world. A horn is heard and Eochaidh enters the hut. He sees Etain. Together they sing their love. The whole sequence of the music is haunted by the lovely phrase below:  

Surely this is one of the loveliest tunes written by any Englishman. It is reminiscent of Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Boughton has not transcribed the whole passage: he omits some of the music supporting recitative. The climax comes shortly before the point where the couple sing the words ‘The years, the bitter years of all the world are now no more.’ The extract continues with the lovely music accompanying the words, ‘Dear Lord, sit here, I am weary.’ Finally, the music closes with ‘a strange faraway look coming into Etain’s eyes and Eochaidh quietly singing Etain, dear love!

The Love Duet was arranged by the composer and was duly published by Stainer & Bell in 1923. It was also available in a version for piano solo.

"Love Duet" (From THE IMMORTAL HOUR) arr. by the composer for orchestra Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, cond. Ronald Corp (Dan Godfrey Encores: Dutton Epoch CDLX7276) www.duttonvocalion.co.uk