Donald
Brook wrote a series of books presenting short studies or pen-portraits of a wide
variety of musicians and authors. Clearly he had met these people and had a
chance to speak to them about their achievements and interests. Sir Granville
Bantock endorsed Composer’ Gallery by insisting that it ‘will be welcomed by
music lovers and the larger public throughout the civilised world.
On
a personal note, this was one of the earliest second hand books about music that
I bought in the days before the internet, it served as my introduction to a
wide range of composers and their music. Back,
then, in 1972, it seemed unlikely that I would have the opportunity to hear many
of the works alluded in the text. Fortunately, in the case of York Bowen, the listener
has been blessed by a wide range of recordings examining the orchestral,
chamber and piano music achievement by this once-forgotten composer. I present Brook’s pen-portrait without comment or commentary.
The
late Sir Henry Wood used to say that York Bowen was one of the British composers
who have never taken the position they deserve. I am not going to suggest any reasons
for this, because I have insufficient space here to indulge in musical controversies,
and besides, the recognition of contemporary British composers is likely to remain
a painful subject until as a nation we finally rid ourselves of our shop-keeping
reputation. As a pianist, however, York Bowen's brilliance is generally acknowledged,
and if we don't hear him often enough in the concert hall or on the radio, the
explanation is that he is engrossed in his work as a professor at the Royal Academy
of Music.
He
was born at Crouch Hill, London, on February 22nd 1884, and gave his first public
performance at the age of eight and a half when he played a Dussek piano concerto
at Camden. He certainly had remarkable ability as a child, but he is profoundly
thankful that his parents did not exploit him as an infant prodigy; and instead,
encouraged him to make a thorough study of music before attempting any more public
work.
From
the Blackheath Conservatoire he went to the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied
for seven years, gaining two scholarships for the piano, and several prizes for
performance and composition. He attributes much of his success to the superb
teaching of Tobias Matthay, and he is proud that all his musical education was gained
in this country.
He
gave his first recital as an adult at the Wigmore Hall, and was still in his ‘teens’
when Sir Henry Wood invited him to play his own first piano concerto at a Promenade
Concert. Thus before he reached manhood he succeeded in establishing himself both
as a composer and a pianist. His second piano concerto had been completed but a
little while when the Royal Philharmonic Society invited him to play it at one of
their concerts; then Richter became interested in his Symphonie Fantasia and in
1906 performed it in London and Manchester. Two years later Bowen conducted his
third concerto at the Queen's Hall.
It was at about this time that he wrote
his Symphony in E minor, a work that was particularly well received when Sir Landon
Ronald performed it at the Queen's Hall in 1912, but which is rarely heard to-day.
Then
he married Miss Sylvia Dalton, daughter of the Rev. J. P. Dalton, Rector of Creech
St. Michael, Somerset. His wife at that time was making a reputation as a singer,
so they started giving recitals together and continued to do so for twenty years.
Although
he has frequently directed his own works, Bowen admits that his skill as a conductor
is not great. When he took the Queen's Hall Orchestra through a rehearsal for the
first performance of his Violin Concerto in 1914 he discovered that he was moving
his arms in yards when inches would have been far more appropriate. Sir Henry
Wood, who had been listening, put him right on many points before the concert.
One
of his happiest memories is of the occasion when Camille Saint-Saens attended a
performance of one of his piano concertos at the Queen's Hall and sent him a
personal message expressing his appreciation of it.
During
the Great War, York Bowen served in the Scots' Guards. His first thirteen weeks
‘on the square’ brought on a serious illness of which the outcome was his transference
to the regimental band to play the horn and the viola. The balance of the string
ensemble was not all that one could desire: he was the only viola in it!
During
the past twenty-five years he has given recitals in all parts of the country and
on several occasions has played abroad. In more recent times he has been associated
with Harry Isaacs in the performance of works for two pianos.
Like
one or two other composers of his type, Bowen's lesser works are far more popular
than his major compositions. He has, for instance, written a considerable number
of pleasant little works for the piano which are original, beautiful and soundly
constructed. These are all popular, but they do not form an adequate basis for an
assessment of his ability as a composer.
He
objects strongly to modern compositions which throw all the laws of music to the
winds, and he dislikes the ‘extravagant nonsense’ that frequently enjoys ephemeral
popularity during a whim of musical fashion.
‘Some
of the things we are expected to digest to-day are audacious insults’ he says, ‘they
may be clever, but these effusions which have no sense of key, melodic line or shape
of any kind, cannot be regarded as music. I have always tried to compose modern
music that is still music.’
‘Throughout
my career I have endeavoured to appreciate the beauty of other people's music all
the more because I am a composer myself, and I have no use for the arguments of
people who try to excuse ugly music on the grounds that it expresses the ugly
age in which we are living at the present time. If modern life is ugly, then there
is all the more reason why music should bring beauty into it.’
York
Bowen believes that much of the cacophonous music we hear to-day is unworthy of
serious attention, and that it does definite harm because it takes the place of
more wholesome music.
More
often than not it is promoted by irresponsible coteries of silly people who delude
themselves with the notion that they are being ultra-fashionable and progressive.
Bowen's
best-known works are undoubtedly his many excellent compositions for the piano,
but up to the present time he has written no less than four concertos for piano
and orchestra, and one each for violin, viola and 'cello. His sonatas include
four for piano, two for viola, and one each for 'cello, horn, clarinet and violin.
The last-named was completed quite recently.
He
has written two symphonies and several shorter orchestral works of fine craftsmanship,
and among his other compositions we also find some unusual chamber music, of which
his two quintets for horn and strings, and the two for bass clarinet and strings
are the most notable.
Apart
from being a composer and pianist, York Bowen is an accomplished horn player, and
has also a ‘working knowledge’ of the viola and organ. He has never regretted the
time spent on these instruments, because he believes that it is desirable for a
composer to have a fair knowledge of the instruments he intends to use in his works.
Donald Brook: Composer’s Gallery, Rockcliff, London,
1946
No comments:
Post a Comment