This short article was published in The Musical Standard October 13,
1917. It was written at a time when Arnold Bax was beginning to establish a
reputation for himself. However it was before the composer had declared himself
as a symphonist. The article needs little commentary, however I have provided a
handful of footnotes. I have also provided new musical examples.
Arnold Bax is a front bencher in our English Musical Constitution. In
that Constitution he represents the Celtic West. He is to our music what W. B.
Yeats is to our literature.
There are two elements at work in Bax- the classic and the Celtic. The
former is seen in an honest love of fact, scholarship, fidelity to Nature; the
latter stands revealed in love of colour, emotion, sentiment, quickness of
perception, a pressing onward towards the impalpable, the ideal. The classic
stream and the Celtic current met in his person; skill and scholarship are
carried away into the mysterious atmosphere of Celtic mythology. Nearly all his
orchestral works, as he himself states, are ‘based upon aspects and moods of
external nature and their relation to human emotion’ [1]-the very essence of
Celtism.
Bax's quick feeling for what is noble and distinguished, his abhorrence
of the commonplace, gives his music style -not an acquired manner or mannerism,
not a conscious eccentricity, but a full pressure of personal force. There is
life behind it, the life of the mind. His personality gives it passion. His
sensibility, his soul, gives it fairy
charm and magic. Youthfulness is on his side, not the youthfulness of
immaturity, but the youthfulness of a spirit that has strengthened itself in
the joy of the earth and all its immeasurable liberations. No mere journeyman,
he breaks away from the bondage of existing formulae. His music breathes
freedom. There is space in it, and height, and depth. It contains within it the sense of enlargement
and enfranchisement and' 'escape.
Bax was born in 1883. In 1900 he entered the R.A.M. where for five
years he worked at composition under that distinguished professor-Frederick
Corder. As early as 1903 [2] he made his debut as a composer. Since that date a
‘Celtic Song Cycle,’ an orchestral work, Spring
Fire, a Piano Quintet, a most exquisite orchestral poem, ‘The Garden of Fand’,
and many other works of rare merit have fallen from his prolific pen.
Amongst pianists his popularity is largely assured by four solos [3]- ‘In a
Vodka. Shop,’ ‘The Princess's Rose Garden,’ ‘Sleepy Head’ and ‘Apple-blossom
time,’ These four pianistic productions reveal Bax at his best. ‘In a Vodka
Shop’ breaks away from the old ideas of rhythmic outline; its time signature is
free, containing sometimes six, generally seven, and rarely eight crotchets to
the bar. A coarse roughness is intended throughout, as seen in the following
quotation, fairly representative of the whole.
This element of unhewn bareness and rude simplicity gains in strength
and character by being sandwiched between passages of lighter and more delicate
texture, There is a certain recklessness of speed and movement throughout it,
but everything is safe and so its general effectiveness is delightfully fresh
and stimulating.
There is natural magic about the second number-‘The Princess's Rose
Garden.’ The spirit and ecstasy of the movement are captured and ‘photographed’
in a wonderfully near and vivid way. Magic is the one word for it- the magic of
Nature; not mere realism so typical of the German school, nor a laboured beauty
of Nature so much in evidence in much of modern French creative art; but the
intimate life of Nature, her weird power and captivating charm. It is large in
idea and in treatment, full of big beautiful melody, growing from elaborate details
which conveys the richly coloured blooms of a soft June landscape; while overall
hangs a veil of mystery and melancholy, suggesting that the latter pages in the
book of summer have been reached and that the season of death and decay is fast
approaching. ,
A soft twilight pervades ‘Sleepy-head.’ There is just light enough to
make the trees magic and the pavements shine like silver, and darkness enough
to make shadows velvety, purple, and full of errant fancies. In the language of
the Lotos-eaters [4]:
‘There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass…
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies.’
Here are the opening bars:-
"Apple-blossom-time"
is interesting, playful, very direct, in short, almost choppy phrases, with a quiet
section for variety set in the middle. There is, perhaps, something crude in
its vigour; but tenderness there is too, deep and lovely, as at the end
where the music dies down after the exuberant climax of the central section:
These four pieces should be far more widely played than they are. All
advanced pianists should know them. As studies of modern art they are of extreme
value; as pieces of music they are magnificent.
[1] This quotation seems to be derived from the earliest article published
about Arnold Bax in the Monthly Musical Record 1 November 1915.
[2] Bax’s first composition was ‘Butterflies all White’ for voice and
piano, composed in 1896.
[3] The four piano pieces discussed were composed as follows: ‘In a
Vodka Shop’ (Jan 22nd 1915) dedicated ‘To Tania’ –Harriet Cohen. Although the
printed score is inscribed ‘To Miss Myra Hess.’ It was subsequently
orchestrated in 1919 as a part of the 'Russian Suite'. ‘The Princess’s Rose Garden’ was dated Jan 9th
-13th 1915 on the manuscript. It was
dedicated 'To Tania'. ‘Sleepy Head’ was
the only piece that Bax dedicated to his wife, Elsita. It was written
c.1915 (May 24th 1915 on the printed score) 'Apple-Blossom Time' was dedicated
to the composer/artist S.H. Braithwaite. The printed score carries the date May 1915.
[4] Alfred, Lord Tennyson, ‘The Song of the Lotos-eaters’, 1833.
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