I
first read about Frank Bridge in the mid-1970s in the fascinating, but rather
eccentric, book Contemporary British
Composers, written by Joseph Holbrooke and published in 1925. It was then
considerably out of date and took little account of the generally accepted
stylistic periods of Bridge’s life.
By
this time, Lyrita were just beginning to issue several recordings of his music.
In 1977 the Phantasm: Rhapsody for piano and orchestra (SRCS.91) which explored
‘the twilight world so dear to Bridge…’ (Payne, 1984) was released. Subsequent
albums included Sir Adrian Boult conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra
(SRCS.73) in the Suite for Strings, ‘Cherry Ripe’, ‘Sally in our Alley’, ‘Rosemary’,
‘Roger de Coverley’ and Lament. The most revelatory performance (for me,
certainly) on record was Sir Charles Groves’ rendition of the stunning Enter Spring. This was issued in 1976 on
LP (ASD 3190) coupled with The Sea, Summer, Lament and ‘Cherry Ripe’. Like many listeners, my understanding of
Frank Bridge was greatly increased by a diligent study of these sleeve notes.
Meanwhile,
scholarship was catching up. Clearly, there were many essays, dictionary
entries and reviews published over the years since Bridge became an established
composer. Nevertheless, the past 45 years has seen a relative explosion in
studies and performances of his music.
In
1970, R.M. Keating majored on ‘The Songs of Frank Bridge’ in his dissertation
presented to the University of Texas –this is not quoted in the bibliography of
the present book. It was an important forerunner of current academic attention.
An early popular study of the composer was Frank
Bridge by Anthony Payne, Lewis Foreman and John Bishop which was published
in 1976. This short pamphlet (50 pages)
re-presented Payne’s illustrated account of the music printed in Tempo (September & December 1973).
The catalogue of works by Foreman was helpful in gaining a bird’s eye view of
the composer’s achievement.
Studies
were advanced immeasurably by Paul Hindmarsh’s Frank Bridge: A Thematic Catalogue (1983). Here the composer’s
works were listed chronologically, with details of manuscripts,
instrumentation, first performances, bibliographic references and a commentary
on many of the works. There is a chronology of the composer’s life, a select
bibliography and discography, and indices. It was the first appearance of the
‘H’ (Hindmarsh) numbers to Bridge’s music. A revised version of this seminal
work is due to be published as an eBook in the near future.
The
following year, Anthony Payne published his book Frank Bridge: Radical and Conservative. It was the latest
incarnation of his Tempo articles. In
this volume Payne reassessed the earlier compositions and found them just as
important to the composer’s reputation as the later ‘radical’ works. It was
deemed by Stephen Banfield as a ‘mature critical survey…a rounded accomplishment from the
best man for the job.’ (Musical Times,
April 1986). The book was reissued on 1999.
In 1991 Karen R. Little presented Frank Bridge: A Bio-Bibliography. Some
of this material was concurrent with Hindmarsh’s Catalogue, however there were interesting additions. The succinct
biographical chapter is excellent, the discography is extensive (up to 1991)
and there is a comprehensive bibliography with brief précis of articles and
many reviews. It is a useful adjunct to Hindmarsh’s book.
Other important sources include
Trevor Bray’s Frank Bridge: A Life in
Brief, (2004-13) conveniently published online, Peter Pirie’s early Frank Bridge (1971) and a detailed study
of the early ‘Modern Maritime Pastoral: Wave Deformations in the Music of Frank
Bridge’ by Stephen Downes included in British
Music and Modernism, 1895-1960 (2010).
Exploring Fabian Huss’ bibliography
in this present volume discloses that there are a growing number of
dissertations and theses being addressed to Frank Bridge. This includes studies
of his piano works, his relationship with Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Musical
Modernism, and the Late Works as well Huss’ own examination of the chamber
music (2010).
The introduction to The Music of Frank Bridge notes the key
critical problem in any discussion of his music – the ‘seemingly wide range of
stylistic and aesthetic directions, [employed by the composer] from the Edwardian
romanticism of the early works, through the impressionist transitional period,
to the dissonant, idiosyncratic modernism of much of the later music.’ This is
exacerbated by two contradictory reactions to his work. Firstly, the music most
popular with the listener is derived from the earlier period –The Sea, the tone-poem Summer, the songs and some piano pieces
etc. But, secondly, there has been a tendency by ‘recent commentators…to focus
on the merits of the later works.’ Huss suggests that this may be to ‘establish
suitable modernist credentials –and hence artistic status – for Bridge and his
music.’ Matters are complicated by his
short-lived ‘membership’ of the group of ‘English Musical Renaissance
Composers’ with his ‘impressionistic’ pieces that led him to belong briefly to
the ‘pastoral’ school of composition. There has come to be a hiatus between his
earlier and later styles. The main purpose of the present book is to ‘trace his
development through its various phases, and integrate the different strands of
his compositional activity into a coherent understanding.’
In Huss’ dissertation on the chamber
music, he quotes Bridge, in relation to the difficulty of coming to terms with
modern idioms, saying that ‘a composer’s early work possibly has stepping
stones upon which an understanding may grow.’ This is a key pillar of the
present study (Huss, 2010).
From a personal point of view I have
always regarded the ‘late’ orchestral work Rebus
as being infused with romanticism: he had relaxed his more uncompromising
style. Rebus was composed around the
same time as the much more expressionist Three Divertimenti. So simplistic
stylistic analysis is never going to be straightforward.
The Music of Frank Bridge: Fabian Huss
The Boydell
Press, hardback, 259 pages
IBSN 978-1-78327-059-0
£50.00
To be continued.
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