As a pendant to my post on Raymond
Premru’s Music for Harter Fell, I found
a letter in the January 1980 edition of The Gramophone. Mr. Derek Forss of Dorking
Surrey wrote to the editor:
‘At last somebody has written a
piece of music inspired by the English Lake District, which is all the more
surprising since this delectable area of England has attracted poets and
writers over the years, but not composers. I am referring, of course, to the
Argo record (ZRG906, reviewed last November), which contains the piece of music
by Raymond Premru Music from Harter Fell.
I have enjoyed this piece enormously which seems to evoke something of the
mystery of the area, but then I am biased towards anything written about the
Lake District.
However, one thing puzzles me.
The Lake District abounds in name duplications and, you've guessed it, there
are two Harter Fells. The most popular Harter Fell is in Eskdale and overlooks
the Hardknott Roman Fort, but there is another Harter Fell near Haweswater
which is higher in altitude and I feel that Raymond Premru's composition evokes
the character of this area more than the Eskdale Harter Fell. Perhaps Mr Premru
would care to comment further on his inspiration for composition since the
sleeve-note is not forthcoming on this point.’
The editor of The Gramophone was able to reply: ‘A nice
prompt response from Decca…says that Mr Premru has been contacted and advises
that it is the Eskdale Harter Fell which he knows and which inspired the
composition.’ I agree with the author of
the letter that the Haweswater Harter Fell seems nearer the mark to the mood of
the music,
Perhaps the editor should have brought
some of the following pieces to Mr Forss’s attention. Arthur Butterworth
composed a set of piano pieces entitled Lakeland
Summer Nights, op.10 in 1949. There is a fugitive chamber work by Cyril
Rootham entitled In the Lake Country
for violin (viola or cello) and piano (1924).
My personal favourite evocation of the Lake District is Maurice
Johnstone’s impressionistic tone poem, Cumbrian
Rhapsody: Tarn Hows (1951) Fortunately, a recording of this work was
released in 1999 by ASV Whiteline label on CDWHL 2116. One of the great ‘Lakes-inspired
pieces is John McCabe’s Cloudcatcher
Fells for brass band: this is a masterpiece of Lake District landscape
‘tone-painting.’ Finally, there was Cecil Armstrong Gibbs’ Symphony No. 3 in
B-Flat Major, Op. 104, ‘Westmorland’, composed in 1944.
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