Introduction
Much
has been written about the relative unapproachability of Elisabeth Lutyens’
music. I have often told the story of how hearing a performance of her O saisons, O châteaux! (1946) put me off her work
for nearly thirty years. I felt that it was the most appalling piece I had
heard up to that time. However, a few years ago I got a surprise: I bought a
DVD of British Transport Films. One of these attractive pieces of ephemera from
the nineteen-fifties was an advertising ‘featurette’ for the Midlands entitled The Heart of England (1954). It was not
until watching the film and being impressed with the ‘score’ that I wound back
the disc and discovered that the music was by ‘Twelve-Tone Lizzie.’ Now all artists
have to make a living: Lutyens used the medium of films to augment her income.
Yet, whilst watching this ‘bucolic’ film, it was hard not to imagine that the ‘lady
doth protest too much’ with her condemnation of the ‘cow-pat’ school of music.
Any of that happy band of ‘clod-hoppers’ would have been delighted to have
penned this attractive and picturesque commentary on one of many beautiful
haunts in England.
Elisabeth
Lutyens tended to repudiate her ‘light music.’ Nevertheless, there are over a
hundred film scores, many of which feature ‘traditional and approachable’ music
rather than dodecaphonic explorations. Furthermore, there are sundry examples
of ‘light music’ dotted throughout her catalogue.
In
2007, Lyrita Records gave listeners a surprise. They released an excellent
sampler of ‘bon-bons’ with the John Masefield-inspired title of A Box of Delights. This featured works
by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Granville Bantock, Phyllis Tate and Samuel Coleridge
Taylor. Amongst these delicious gems was short suite called En Voyage by Elisabeth Lutyens.
Composition &Content
The
years 1943/5 called forth a number of disparate works from Lutyens’ pen,
however the style of much of that period’s production was, in her terms
‘tonal.’ There were the film scores for Jungle Mariners and Bustle for WAAFs. She wrote
a suite entitled Proud City in honour
of London, which had ‘come through’ the Blitz.
Art music included the Petite
Suite and the Divertissement for percussion and strings. Lutyens also completed the important Chamber
Concerto III for bassoon, strings and percussion –which is a serial work.
En Voyage was composed in
1944 as an orchestral suite; however, it appeared to languish before the
composer ‘re-discovered’ it. Some years later, it metamorphosed into a Divertissement for double wind
quintet. Meirion and Susie Harries in
their A Pilgrim Soul: the Life and Work
of Elisabeth Lutyens (1989) have suggested that ‘Liz was pleased with it [En voyage] or at least felt that it was serviceable’
The
work was meant to be a musical picture of a journey from London to Paris via
Dieppe. In those days, there was no tunnel and all passengers had to cross the
English Channel on board one of the many ferries. There are four short movements in this suite –
‘Overture: Golden Arrow’, ‘Channel Crossing’, ‘Yvette: la Dieppoise’ and ‘Paris
Soir: City Lights’. According to Harries
& Harries (1989) Lutyens proposed a fifth movement which would have been entitled
‘Flanders Fields’. However, this would have implied ‘a devious route between
London and Paris’. This ‘sentimental’ section was never composed.
The
first movement, ‘Overture: Golden Arrow’ has a softly dissonant introduction,
which suggests the train beginning its journey from Platform 2 at London’s
Victoria Station. However, this is not developed. Soon, a largely ‘mock-Tudor’
mood is introduced. Lutyens makes clever use of woodwind tone-colour in this
section. This part of the movement is certainly not a description of the train
journey but reflects more on the rural aspect of the countryside through which
the Golden Arrow is speeding.
Pleasant ‘songs and snatches’ topple over each other: delightful ‘pastoral’
flute and oboe melodies are characteristically supported by strings. Then the
composer recalls the subtitle of this ‘Overture’ – there is a short section
that nearly approaches ‘rhythm on the rails’ before a recapitulation of the ‘landscape’
themes. The movement closes with a reference to the opening ‘train noise’
passage and, after a short codetta, Lutyens brings the train to a halt at Dover
Maritime Station buffer stops.
The
‘Channel Crossing’ is hardly a major seascape in musical terms: this is not
Debussy’s La Mer or Frank Bridge’s The Sea. It actually represents a rather
‘calm and prosperous’ voyage across La Manche: maybe there is the odd ‘squall.’
The music begins with a few bars of softly dissonant, brassy music. This is followed
by a rumble in the bass. Then a catchy melody, almost nautical in character,
takes over in the strings leading to a short climax before the music subsides.
A bassoon is heard muttering a short phrase in the depths. Lutyens presents a lovely string tune tune,
however the brass is always threatening in the background. There follows an
interlude with another ‘jaunty’ melody, before the movement nearly comes to a
complete halt. There is then a recapitulation of foregoing themes including the
‘jazzy’ opening and the carefree sailor’s tune.
I
am not sure what is being depicted with ‘Yvette: la Dieppoise’. This is the
most rustic movement in the suite – complete with pipe, drum and tambourine. There
is a succession of attractive tunes for a variety of woodwind instruments, and
then a reflective moment before the main dance theme is recapitulated. This is
quite serious music, however the sense of wistfulness
soon returns and the movement concludes in the same mood as it began. It
certainly seems to conjure up an era long before the Golden Arrow began running the London to Paris cross-channel service.
Dieppe was subject of considerable military activity during the Second World
War including the ill-fated attack by the 2nd Canadian Infantry
Division who suffered many casualties and failed to gain all their objectives. Undoubtedly,
Yvette is a ‘type’ of a lady who had enjoyed happier times.
The
last movement is the most impressive: certainly, it is the most dramatic. After
a romantic opening, worthy of a contemporary film-score, the music moves up a
gear to reflect the Café life of Paris. However, the mood is sometimes challenged
by more profound phrases in the brass section. This is not all about ‘gaîté’ and ‘joie
de vivre’. At the mid-point of the movement, Lutyens lets down her hair. This
is the Paris of Jacques Offenbach – complete with ‘can-can’ dancers. Even so,
there is still time for the lovers to stroll down the Champs Elysses. The
movement concludes with a reflective glance back across the years to less-frivolous
history.
The
score of En Voyage was published
circa 1965 by Mills Music, London. This
was a photocopy of the composer’s manuscript.
Performance & Reception
En Voyage was first heard
at the BBC’s Light Music Festival Concerts on 2 July 1960. This was one of a series of five weekly
concerts given at the Royal Festival Hall between 4 June and 2 July. It was played by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted
by Vilem Tausky. Lutyens’ suite featured in an ‘all-British’ night alongside works
performed by the Max Jaffa Trio, Owen Brannagan and Osian Ellis. Lutyens was not pleased with the BBC for
including music that she felt was untypical of her output. At this time the Corporation was consistently
rejecting her ‘serious’ chamber music as being ‘unacceptable for broadcasting.’
To a certain extent, one can have
sympathy for the composer. Other music given first performances during the
Festival included Sidney Torch’s Duel for
Drummers, John Gardner’s Suite of
Five Rhythms, Peter Yorke’s Suite for Brass Band and Brian Boydell’s Shielmartin Suite.
I
feel that Harries & Harries (1989) are a little unfair in their evaluation
of En Voyage. They begin by suggesting
that this is ‘red-herring music’: it is ‘traditional pictorial music slightly
on the skew.’ The reasons that they
advance for this ‘skew’ are in my opinion features of the work that add to its
charm. For example, they suggest that the music is ‘constantly missing beats,
or allowing ‘the bottom to drop out of the harmony.’ They consider that the work
is both ‘poignant and unsatisfactory’ and accuse it ‘of building towards grand
climaxes which never arrive, always hitting the nail slightly off centre and
driving it in at an angle.’ Surely, these idiosyncrasies make this a first-rate
piece of ‘light music’ and not one that simply utilises a number of tried and
tested clichés.
There
has been little critical comment about En
Voyage: I was unable to find any reviews in contemporary newspapers or
journals.
However,
there have been a number of favourable remarks made about the Lyrita recording.
Andrew Achenbach wrote in The Gramophone
for August 2007 that ‘En voyage [was]
a tuneful and deftly scored four-movement suite...’ Jonathan Woolf writing for MusicWeb
International
noted that ‘Lutyens summons up some evocative nature painting for a Channel
squall vibrant gaiety as the train approaches the bright lights of Paris and a
generous winding down.’ Rob Barnet, reviewing the same CD has
given a more detailed account. He suggests that the first movement ‘Overture’
is reminiscent of Ronald Binge’s Elizabethan
Serenade – ‘a sort of mock Tudor’ that is also found in Vaughan William’s The England of Elizabeth. He records a number of allusions in the
second movement, ‘Channel Crossing’: some of this music has ‘jazzy disruption[s]
whilst there is the ‘stamping terpsichore’ of Constant Lambert...’ Finally, his description of the final
movement is interesting. He suggests that ‘Paris Soir’ has a surprisingly
desolate’ beginning. However, this soon develops into a ‘carousel of Parisian
street-life.’ Barnett concludes by noting
that in the last part of this movement, ‘Lutyens suddenly forgets the Parisian
locale and comes away with a sighingly lovely and yearning grandeur looking out
across the Seine’.
Perhaps
this last gesture echoes the fact that the Second World War was moving into its
final stage. Paris was not liberated until August 1944 so this ‘epilogue’ could
be a vision of hope or a reflection on the sadness of days passed.
Bibliography and Discography
Meirion Harries, Sussie Harries, A Pilgrim Soul: the Life and Work of Elisabeth Lutyens, Joseph, 1989
Box of Delights - British Light
Music Gems LYRITA
SRCD.214
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