Cyril Scott (1879-1970) was an English composer, writer, and poet who, at the beginning of the 20th century, was considered a pioneering figure in modern British music. He was part of the "Frankfurt Group," a circle of composers who studied at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany.
Scott's music is often
characterized by its lyrical qualities, innovative harmonies, and
impressionistic textures. He incorporated elements of Romanticism with more
modern sounds, creating a unique and individual style that set him apart from
the prevailing Germanic influences of the time. While he composed a wide range
of works, including symphonies, concertos, operas, and chamber music, he is
perhaps best known for his shorter piano pieces, such as the exotic and
atmospheric Lotus Land.
Beyond his significant musical
output (around four hundred compositions), Scott was also a prolific writer and
poet, with interests in occultism, alternative medicine, and philosophy.
Although his popularity as a composer waned later in his life, his work has
seen a resurgence of interest in recent years, recognizing his important
contribution to British music history and his forward-thinking approach to
composition.
Watson Lyle was a British music
critic active in the early 20th century. He contributed to The Musical
Quarterly, and other contemporary periodicals. Lyle's work reflected a keen
analytical approach to music criticism, balancing admiration for technical
mastery with thoughtful commentary on artistic interpretation
The present “conversation” with
Cyril Scott was written in 1933 and published in The Bookman during
November of that year. The composer would have been 54 years old at that time.
While I knew from
"Grove," and the catalogues of music publishers, that Cyril Scott
had composed several works of symphonic proportions, besides certain charming
songs and pianoforte pieces familiar to most concert-goers, I confess to a
feeling of surprise upon discovering that the numbers of his opera approached a
hundred; and I imagine that this information will surprise most folks. Also,
the fact that it is fifty-four years since this youthful looking man, with hair
still unsilvered, was born. By the age of seven he had learnt the rudiments of
music and began to write it, and at twelve left his home in Cheshire (Oxton)
[1] to seriously pursue his art at the Hoch Conservatoire,
Frankfort-on-the-Maine, fellow students there being Percy Grainger, Norman
O'Neill and Roger Quilter. [2]
To the general public Cyril Scott is known as the composer of Lotus Land, Danse Nègre, Blackbird's Song, and that other exquisite miniature for voice and pianoforte, Lullaby. That this same public is ignorant of his symphonic works (although we owe the production of his Second Symphony to Sir Henry J. Wood at a Prom. of 1903) and his opera, The Alchemist (1926) and has but a nodding acquaintance with his chamber music and his pianoforte concerto, must be set down to lack of enterprise in our concert organisations, for it is by these large works that he is best known on the Continent. True, we have enjoyed occasionally broadcasts of his smaller works (such as the broadcast of his songs on August 9th, with the composer at the piano), but while they bear the imprint of his poetic fusion of tone-colour and rhythm, they naturally give the impression of an artist of lesser stature than is known to the German musical public.
There may be two explanations for this state of affairs. Either those including Scott's works in their programmes, and publishing lists, believe in giving the public more of the particular kind of his music for which it has shown a decided preference; or else the unobtrusive personality of the composer has not insisted upon what might be termed his three-dimensional importance in music - indeed in art. Naturally it is with Cyril Scott the composer we are here primarily concerned, but in passing reference must be made to his other works in poetry and prose. If one's cheeks flare now and then at home truths while reading Childishness: A Study in Adult Conduct, [3] one can laugh forgivingly at its piquant, sarcastic wit. Despite its ruthless commentary upon our times and our foibles, the book has a pervading humanity linking it spiritually to the repose in the second subject of the slow movement of his piano sonata, op. 66, as well as to the strength of endeavour dominating the first movement. Animating the book is an objective analysis of cause and effect, mental processes which, directed into musical channels, may explain his subtle command of tone-colour. It is thus, one feels, he chooses sensitively effective, though often unusual, notation to express himself musically.
Watson Lyle Modern Composers XII-CYRIL SCOTT The Bookman, November 1933, p.115ff
Notes [1] Cyril Scott was born at “The Laurels,” Oxton, Birkenhead, on 27 September 1879. It is commemorated with a Blue Plaque.
[2] The other member of the Frankfurt Group or Gang was H. Balfour Gardiner. They studied composition under the German composer and music teacher, Iwan Knorr (1853-1916).
[3] The Cyril Scott Net explains that Childishness: A Study in Adult Conduct (1930) explores the ways in which immature behaviour manifests in adulthood, examining its ethical and psychological implications.
To be continued…
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