RECENTLY, THREE NEW ALBUMS OF HIS
PIECES have been published: Four Poems and Coloured Leaves (both
by Augener) and Silverpoints, with Elkin’s who are also publishing a new
set of four pieces containing an “Angelus” (the loveliest of all). [1]
Baines’s imagination takes fire
from the glory of colour, the rhythm of sunsets, the glow of flowers and the
stories of Poe. Paradise Gardens was written in the summer of 1919, as a
result of a few moments’ inspiration derived from a reverie in the gardens near
the city walls in York. [2] A glorious sunset drew forth like a magnet all the
colour and essence from the flowers, the distant domes [and spires] in the city
glittered like oriental palaces.
The Four Poems are a
poem-fragment, a delicate little dance movement, in miniature rondo form, with
a sylph-like refrain, usually played much too fast; ‘Elves,’ a playful sketch
on the upper part of the keyboard; a ‘Nocturne’ which is very characteristic of
Baines in harmonic reveries; and a leonine ‘Appassionata.’ The Coloured
Leaves book consists of a ‘Prelude,’ capable of many interpretations, all
good; an intriguing little ‘Waltz,’ avowedly written for children; ‘Still Day,’
a lento full of rich colouring; and a moorland sketch ‘Purple Heights.’
The Silverpoints album has
Labyrinth, a water study in a deep-sea cave, Water Pearls, an exquisite piece
of tone-painting over a standing tonic throughout; The Burning Joss-Stick in
the Chinese devotional manner, and the purely decorative Floralia – all highly
representative pieces.
The composer’s exquisite tastes
is shown in the titles of his pieces quite as much as in the contents. He would
have likes to call his new set Vistas had he not been forestalled by
Cyril Scott.
I can think of no better way of
ending this little sketch than by quoting the close of my British Music
Bulletin pamphlet:
“Well, sirs, you need not take
your hats off yet; but I would fain have you in the mood for doing so.”
P.S. Just after I had finished this article, the following appreciation which I had asked Mr Frederick Dawson to write for The Bookman, came:
It is a great joy to an artist to
find work so individual in idea and expression as the music of William Baines.
Like all the best writers for the pianoforte, Baines owes much to Chopin (who
himself derived from John Field) and indubitably he has been considerably
influenced by the revolution in modern harmonic thought, but he is in no sense
a copyist, he has created for himself a wholly personal and original medium
(his pianoforte technique is often that of a daring virtuoso). His outlook is
entirely modern; still very young his youth and enthusiasm are apparent in all
his work., but nowhere is there any trace of immaturity. On the contrary, his
subtle appreciation of tone values and his skill on securing an exact
atmosphere everywhere proclaim the master of his means; strikingly remarkable
are his wonderful endings, which at first hearing may sound unexpected, perhaps
even startling, but prove in closer acquaintance to be the only satisfying, the
inevitable, conclusions.
“He possesses an inexhaustible
fancy and the enviable gift of translating into terms of sound his love of
Nature and his joy in the beautiful.”
[1] Angelus was included in an album of Three Pieces. The other titles were Ave! Imperator and Milestones: A Walking Tune. It was published by Elkin & Co. in 1922.
[2] The gardens referred to, were the policies of the Station Hotel. Once idyllic, they have been largely sacrificed to the god automobile. Fortunately, there is sufficient remaining to give a clue to the impact on William Baines.
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