Robert Farnon: Mr Punch – from Three More Impressions for Orchestra.

I have always had a soft spot for Mr Punch, ever since I watched a show on the seafront at Fleetwood. I was certainly old enough to realise that these characters were puppets operated by a man in the red and white striped tent, but I was curious as to why he was billed as a Professor. I guess I wondered why he was running a show on the Prom and not teaching 'Astro-physics’ or ‘Pure Mathematics’ at Oxford University. Perhaps he had been ‘defrocked’ or whatever they do to ‘naughty’ professors? My father assured me that it was simply an honorary title that Punch and Judy men and women have adopted over the years. I was content to watch the rest of the show. Many years later, I discovered the wonderful music ballet by Richard Arnell Punch and the Child on an old recording by Sir Thomas Beecham. This music has recently been recorded by Dutton Epoch as a part of their survey of Arnell’s music.
However, it was the short but attractive piece by Robert Farnon that recently caught my eye, so to speak. Mr. Punch was the first of a group of three pieces called Three More Impressions written in 1959. The other two were The First Waltz and the Dominion Day March.
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Mr Punch is an excellent example of how a piece of light music ought to be written: it should be a technically competent work that is tuneful, enjoyable and if possible evoking a response to the title. This work scores on all accounts.
The work opens with a cheeky flourish that soon leads into the main tune. This is repeated, before a brassy variation leads to a fine pizzicato central section that is complemented by the celesta. The opening theme returns in a slightly more a more romantic mood, which is certainly no commentary on Mr. Punch’s relationship with his wife! Then it is all downhill to the coda, complete with suggestive little counter melodies and a final flourish which suggests Mr. Punch sticking out his tongue at the audience.
Even a cursory hearing reveals a subtle and incisive orchestration that makes good use of the percussion in a quiet way and balances strong brass writing with the effective pizzicato string passages. It is really a little gem.
I do not know if this particular Mr. Punch is very wicked – the general mood of the music would perhaps suggests he was an enfant méchant rather than anything more delinquent. The music certainly has no suggestion of  his propensity to beat his wife or murder his child!

Three More Impressions can be heard on Dutton Vocalion The Queen’s Hall light Orchestra Volume 4 CDLK 4274

Alice Verne-Bredt: A Brief Review in The Music Student

Mrs Alice Verne-Bredt has written three Phantasies-works in one movement of the order revived by the Cobbett Competitions. What appears to be the earliest of the three is for pianoforte quartet: it is written in an easy, flowing style - a style that is familiar and a little out of date, as much out of date, perhaps ,as Goring Thomas; but natural, and what one of our great authorities would probably describe by his favourite adjective, ‘nice’. It shows the composer's familiarity with the best models of pianoforte writing, and a musical thought that is not beyond the means of expression at her command. There is a certain nobility in the chief (minor) theme which makes one impatient of the banalité of the accompaniment ­devices to which she has had recourse.
A published Phantasy for Pianoforte Trio shows an advance in workmanship. There is greater freedom of rhythm already evinced by the first subject being cast in 5/4 time. This is a form of emancipation which always seems a little artificial in composers of Western Europe, but in the present case it is interesting as show­ing a widening of the imagination. That the second subject should relapse into 6/8, with a rather obvious arpeggio accompaniment, must be regarded not merely as inability on the composer's part to sustain the more complicated rhythm, but as a commendable feeling for contrast. Good use is made of the 5/4 theme as a link between the second subject and an Adagio section; and its employment as Coda is thoroughly musical, and gives a feeling of unity to the work. Will chamber music players who have a library subscription kindly note that this work is published by Schott, and make its acquaintance at first hand.
A Quintet (MS.) for piano and strings naturally makes more demand upon the composer’s experience and it cannot be said that Mrs. Bredt has been altogether successful in this combination. The layout is scrappy. No instrument, not even the piano, has a rich part and there are long silences for one or other voice which have a leaden rather than a golden suggestion. There is perhaps more attempt to free the strings than in the other two compositions but the effects are often thin and the construction halting. In its suaver passages the work reminds one of the style of Edward Schutt's charming Walzer-Märchen. Trio, but one feels that the work as a whole is not the composer’s favourite child- not that much love was lost in the writing.

The Music Student Chamber music supplement July 1914 pp.97-8 [with minor edits]

The Phantasy Trio can be heard on English Romantic Piano Trios by the Summerhayes Trio

Montague Phillips: In Old Verona

In my younger days the piano stool at home was full of pieces of music that had descriptive titles – often referring to romantic-sounding places. I am not quite sure if many of them actually fulfilled the expectation of their various titles – but often they were pleasant to play and enjoyable to listen to. It gave a little bit of warm inspiration when outside the freezing fog was curling round the corner of the gasometer. In Old Verona is a good example of one of these pieces – albeit conceived for the orchestra. It is actually an attractive ‘serenade for strings’ that had the soubriquet attached by the composer for its publication in 1950. Now I am not sure if ‘Verona’ immediately springs to mind with this particular dance tune. There is little here to remind me of the glorious Ponte Pietra, Juliet’s Balcony or the Roman amphitheatre. But that is not the point. The work is actually an accomplished essay in writing for strings that is effective and way beyond the limited scope of a salon piece.

The short movement opens with a good tune supported by a pizzicato base. It is quite a stately dance. However the mood does change in the central section. Things become a little more passionate – perhaps reflecting the Shakespearian connection? There is quite a nice rounded climax, before the music sinks back to the opening measures. It finishes quietly with a violin solo.

This is exactly the kind of music that does a sterling service for ‘light music.’ Here is nothing complicated or profound: it is not even a tone poem. What it does reveal is a composer who was able to provide a well crafted, tuneful and enjoyable miniature.

Montague Phillips's In Old Verona can be heard on Dutton CDLX 7158

W.W. Cobbett writing on Frank Bridge

Walter Wilson Cobbett was the best known musical amateur of his day: he was a chamber music enthusiast par excellence. What he did for chamber music and almost especially the stringed instruments by means of his famous and well supported competition is almost too great to be estimated. Composers as diverse as Frank Bridge, Elizabeth Maconchy and Benjamin Britten have entered and/or won these competitions.

FRANK BRIDGE has done more than any British composer to bring about consciously or unconsciously, my projected revival of the old English Fancies. The three Phantasies found in the catalogue, which are the outcome of certain of my competitions, are modern Fancies in one movement. The Quartet for piano and strings is memorable for the thrilling climax contained in its concluding bars, and the Trio Phantasy for its wealth of thematic material. All are short works, styled by Sir Charles Stanford in his work on composition, tabloid sonatas.

Other short works by Frank Bridge are still more in the nature of Fancies than those I have mentioned, for example the Londonderry Air, in which some florid passages form an embroidery round the central theme, and Sally in our Alley And Cherry Ripe, which are true folksong Phantasies, though not so styled.

The Miniature Trios for children I hope you all know. The children of today are lucky little people. Their literature, their music, even their toys interest grown-ups as much as the little ones themselves. The reputation, however, of Frank Bridge rests mainly upon his delightful Idylls and the Noveletten, and still more upon his works composed in full sonata form, some of which have yet to be published, notably the Piano Quintet and Sextet. The two full Quartets in the catalogue are of a high grade of excellence. The first, in E minor, contains many features worthy of mention. The lovely second subject of the opening movement always haunts me for days after I have played it, and I find the Adagio as full of deep feeling as anything Tchaikovsky wrote.

The second Quartet, in G, won one of my prizes, and is an altogether bigger work, appealing perhaps to musicians more than anything this composer has written. He has chosen subjects less for their melodic curve than for their rhythmic nature and capacity for musical treatment. I stipulated that the two violins should be of equal importance, and this has led to a richness of effect not surpassed by Brahms himself. In his management of string he is unequalled by any British composer.
The Music Student November 1918 p.98ff [minor edits]

Promenade Concerts 1959: Novelties

Looking up the listing in David Cox’s invaluable book, The Henry Wood Proms, I note the following British (or Commonwealth) works were given at the 1959 Promenade Concerts. It is interesting to note that out of some eleven ‘novelties’, six of them are currently available on CD.
Hopefully in the fullness of time, the Leighton will appear in the Chandos series. Perhaps Graham Whettam is a composer that deserves to be rediscovered in the near future?

William Alwyn: Symphony No.4 (Premiere)
Richard Arnell: Suite from the Ballet, Harlequin in April (First Concert Performance)
Lennox Berkeley: Symphony No.2 (First London Performance)
York Bowen: Piano Concerto No.4 in A minor (First Concert Performance)
Daniel Jones: Symphony No.5
Kenneth Leighton: Burlesque (First Concert Performance)
Elizabeth Maconchy: Concerto for Oboe Bassoon and Strings (First Concert Performance)
Humphrey Searle: Symphony No. 2
Michael Tippett: Ritual Dances from The Midsummer Marriage
Graham Whettam: Dance Concertante for Two Pianofortes (three hands) and Orchestra (First London Performance)
Malcolm Williamson: Piano Concerto (First London Performance)

Malcolm Arnold: Concert Piece for Percussion and Piano

I was always taught that it was Bombardier Billy Wells who strikes the gong at the start of Rank Organisation films. I was right and I was wrong. Wells was filmed hitting the gong but the actual sound recording was made by the one-time famous percussionist Jimmy Blades.
Britten composed a Timpani Piece for Jimmy in 1955 and was followed by Malcolm Arnold’s Concert Piece for Percussion in 1958. The work was originally written for a BBC Television production, however the exact time and date of the first performance has not been traced. The original scoring was for three percussionists -and a pianist. A massive array of instruments was used, including timpani, side-drum, bass drum, cymbal, tambourine, tam-tam, wood-block, triangle, xylophone, glockenspiel, whip maracas and bongos. In 1984 Blades produced a version for single percussionist and piano. Both versions have been published by Faber music in that year.

The Concert Piece came at a time that Arnold was writing film music. That year he composed two of his most impressive scores, including The Inn of the Sixth Happiness and the Roots of Heaven. There were only three other ‘concert’ works that year – the Sinfonietta No.2 for chamber Orchestra, the United Nations March and possibly a little piece called Katherine, Walking & Running for two violins. However the Concert Piece is typical of Arnold and allows him to give full reign to both his skill at instrumentation and, perhaps more vitally it is a vehicle for his wit.

Recently I let a friend hear this piece and they suggested to me that it reminded them of the film music for St. Trinians. The first tow films in this series were written before this Concert Piece.

To my knowledge there is only one recording of this work presently on CD – the recent Maestro Sound & Vision MSV0214CD with Sarah Stuart, Siona Watson and Sarah Gage playing percussion and the pianist Peter Noke.

The version given here is for some reason shorter than Stewart Craggs's catalogue suggests of 4½ minutes – it is just under 3. So there is a little bit of a mystery here.

Liza Lehmann: A Brief Biography by Arthur Elson & Everett E. Truette

Of the long list of song composers, but few have produced anything of marked artistic value. Fore most among these at present is Liza Lehmann, who has recently become famous through her song cycle, In a Persian Garden. She came of a gifted family, for her father, Rudolph, was an excellent artist, and her mother a composer of songs, which were modestly published over the initials "A. L."

Her grandfather was Robert Chambers, famed by his Encyclopaedia. Born in London, she studied singing with Randegger, and composition afterward with Freudenberg, of Wiesbaden, and the Scottish composer, MacCunn. She expected to make a career as a singer, but found herself so extremely nervous whenever appearing that she was forced to abandon the idea. She persevered awhile, however, and has been frequently heard in Great Britain and Germany. In 1894 she retired and married Mr. Herbert Bedford. Only then did she begin those efforts in composition that have since met with such great success. She has published a number of songs and some piano and violin pieces, but is always thought of in connection with her cyclic setting of the Persian poet, Omar Khayyam. When she composed this, she was little known, and fortune as well as fame was a stranger to her. Oddly enough, all the London publishers refused this work, which has since then charmed two continents.

Finally it was sung at her house by a gathering of musical friends, the performers being Ben Davies, Albani, Hilda Wilson, and David Bispham. They were so delighted with it that they brought it out at the 'Monday Pops,' and after that its success was assured. There are other song cycles by this composer, notably In Memoriam, but none equal the Persian Garden. It is full of rich passages of exquisite beauty, moving pathos, and strong expression.
Woman’s Work In Music 1903 (1931) p146f

Jack Strachey: Top of the Bill

It is fair to say that Jack Strachey’s (1894-1972) best known songs are the ubiquitous These Foolish Things and A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. These are tunes that have been heard in many incarnations – from Frank Sinatra through to Reginald Dixon on the Tower Ballroom at Blackpool. Yet his most popular piece of light music is undoubtedly the catchy In Party Mood which was to be the signature tune for the BBC Radio Programme Housewife’s Choice and is a tune one still hears people whistle in the street.
Strachey has written a number of pieces associated with the theatre – Theatre Land, Up with the Curtain and Top of the Bill. All these evoke a time when the theatre had much more variety than is common nowadays. Naturally one tends to think of London in this context, yet this piece evokes memories of provincial theatres as well as the West End.
Top of the Bill is a fine march which nods towards a dancing quickstep. From opening bars it is a work that could easily have come from the pen of Eric Coates. Strachey is able to create an atmosphere that is redolent of the smoke-filled theatres of a previous generation. It is easy to imagine the audience arriving outside the theatre on a dark winter’s night and settling down in the auditorium to a night of variety at the Palladium or the Carlton Theatre where some big-named star would follow a feast of dancing, songs, acrobatics and comedy. There is a feeling of excitement and expectation from the first bar to the last.
The piece opens with a short fanfare-like introduction that leads by way of a bridge passage to the main theme. This is really a march tune that is jaunty and has an open-air feel to it. The music swings along with one or two oblique modulations which add variety. There is a short link to the second theme which is really a quick-step. This music is repeated a number of times before the march return, this time a little less exuberant. Yet this mood is to held long, the March tune reappears with bouncy and exuberance before the work concludes all too soon with a little coda. As the piece heads towards its short coda a number of counter melodies can be heard.
The piece was probably composed in the late nineteen-forties, although the present recording was made in 1950.

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Jack Strachey’s Top of the Bill can be heard on Dutton Vocalion The Queen’s Hall Light Orchestra Volume 2 CDEA 6061

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford: A Short Appreciation by Herbert Howells

Corner any Stanford pupil you like, and ask him to confess the sins he most hated being discovered in by his master. He will tell you ‘slovenliness’ and ‘vulgarity’. When these went into the teacher's room they came out, badly damaged. Against compromise with dubious material or workmanship Stanford stubbornly set his face.

None of us lived in the easy atmosphere of neutrality when we took lessons with him. Mastery of subject carried with it, in him, a very definite sense of where he stood; and that definition ill accorded with vagueness of attitude in others. By methods in which long practice taught him to believe he brought his pupils themselves to know where, and for what, they stood. Whatever else one might have become under his shrewd guidance, it never could have been a wobbler, a neutral, a befogged practitioner. It was often his way to make a student fight hard in defence of a point of view, an expression, or a mere chord. Failure in this was apt to bring trouble upon the pupil. But that the defence generally prevailed, and brought self-reliance-as Stanford, in his wisdom, always hoped it would or ought to be clear to anyone who observes the remarkable degree to which most of his pupils have established their own particular identities in composition.

Howells, Herbert, Music & Letters, vol. 5 no.3 (July 1924) p. 199 [minor edits]

John Ireland: Elegiac Meditation (arranged by Geoffrey Bush)

Elegiac Meditation is a transcription by Geoffrey Bush of a piece that was written for the organ in 1958 and was originally titled Meditation on John Keble’s Rogationtide Hymn.
The work was in fact a commission from a New York publisher. Fiona Richards quotes the composer as writing “[I] would have refused the commission but was implored for something by the H.W Gray Co. of N. York and they are paying a reasonable sum for the job.” Muriel V. Searle notes that Ireland informed his amanuensis Charles Markes that he had ‘concocted a piece for the organ.” She relates how the piece was written with great difficulty due to the composer’s failing eyesight. The work brought Ireland’s career full circle. Searle suggest that the Meditation ended as his first major work had begun, with “the soft, mystic, beautiful chords introducing The Forgotten Rite.”
Of course this begs the question as to whether it was a deliberate self quotation whether it was subconscious. But the fact is that it these chords were the very last notes the composer ever wrote. The manuscript is dated J.I. 29 May 1958.

The Hymn
Lord, in Thy Name Thy servants plead,
And Thou hast sworn to hear;

Thine is the harvest, Thine the seed,

The fresh and fading year.
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Our hope, when autumn winds blew wild,

We trusted, Lord, with Thee:

And still, now spring has on us smiled,

We wait on Thy decree.
gg

The former and the latter rain,

The summer sun and air,

The green ear and the golden grain,

All Thine, are ours by prayer.
g

Thine too by right and ours by grace,

The wondrous growth unseen,

The hopes that soothe, the fears that brace,

The love that shines serene.
g

So grant the precious things brought forth

By sun and moon below,

That Thee in Thy new heav’n and earth

We never may forgo.
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Rogationtide is a festival that has a tendency to drift back to its pagan roots where the crops and the flock were blessed. It also involved the beating of the bounds with particular attention being paid to sacred wells and stones.
The piece was the very last to be composed by Ireland. Robert Gower has noted that most of the composer’s organ works were, in fact, written between 1902-1911, the last work can be seen as a kind of musical autobiography. Ireland seems to be looking back over his life and ‘meditating’ on some of his great works – including the slow movement of the Piano Concerto and The Forgotten Rite.
The Meditation is in itself relatively straight forward. It is written in ternary form with a six bar coda that presents a quotation from The Forgotten Rite. Gower concludes his thoughs by suggesting that this is appropriate – because Ireland’s heart was never far from the organ loft.

Geoffrey Bush transcribed this work for strings in 1982. He headed the score with a quotation from J.B Priestley’s play The Linden Tree:-
"Listen –he’s remembering the earlier themes now…and saying goodbye to them. Wandering through the darkening house of life – touching all the things he loved – crying Farewell – for ever – for ever”

In many ways I am reminded of Gerald Finzi by this music. However, this is not so much in style as in substance. There is a definite valedictory feel to this Elegiac Mediation –a mood that suffuses much of Finzi’s music. Robert Gower sums the work up well. He writes that “Behind the quiet unassuming exterior lies great inner strength; the deeply felt, personal character of writing is obvious. In the Mediation we see a musical affirmation of faith from a devout man nearing the end of his life.” (Musical Times August 1979 p683)
It is a mood and a character the Geoffrey Bush has maintained and even amplified in this beautiful transcription.
The Elegiac Mediation is available on Chandos 8390

Susan Spain-Dunk: A Note in The Music Student

In Miss Susan Spain-Dunk [Mrs Henry Gibson] we have a composer of real promise, and one who ought to count for something in the progress of women chamber music writers. In her Violin Sonata, her Phantasy for Pianoforte Trio, and her String Quartet in the usual four-movement form, we have music which is the direct result of an impulse toward expression. One feels that something is being expressed-not merely that a structure of notes has been laboriously compiled. The Trio would appear to be the earliest opus, and this astonishes one with the amount of ideas which it contains. There is no question of paucity of material-no flogging of a dead horse, no dressing up of lifeless dummies. Real vital subjects spring into sound and clothe themselves in appropriate technical vesture without appearance of effort. The Violin Sonata is perhaps a little commonplace, a little monotonous in subject; but here again one is glad to notice the nice musical instinct which makes an idea develop naturally, which keeps the music alive and growing. The String Quartet is undoubtedly the best work of the three. Each of the four parts has an individuality, and there is a significance in all the phrases which marks a great advance in musical thought. Points of imitation are made, not because they are "something for the instruments to do," but because they contribute to the musical argument; and other effective details, such as some special treatment of the 'cello or viola, occur, not haphazard, but at the bidding of a refined musical sense. The imagination has been at work all through, and, marvellous to say, the Scherzo shows a sense of humour!
By Marion M Scott - originally published in The Music Student Chamber music supplement July 1914 pp.97-8 [with minor edits]

British Piano Pieces: Some Forgotten Works

I recently found an advert at the back of an old copy of The Musical Times in the Royal College of Music. There are some 37 pieces or sets of pieces by thirteen composers. Apart from the recordings of music by Frank Bridge and John Ireland and a little known CD of Roger Quilter’s piano works, virtually all of these composers and their music are not represented in the CD catalogues. This is perhaps most surprising in the case of Samuel Coleridge Taylor and the considerable amount of piano music that he wrote. Perhaps the titles of the works listed here (Six Negro Melodies etc.) would be deemed insensitive and therefore will be ignored? This is a pity as I have perused the score of these pieces and believe that they are deserving of interest. Maybe someone, someday will republish the score with a revised title.
For my taste the key desideratum from this advert would be Alec Rowley (anything in this list, but especially the North Sea Fantasies) and the Joseph Speaight’s Tone Pictures. However, I would be interested in and delighted to hear the lot!

And finally before someone writes to tell me, I do realise that Ethelbert Nevin – of Narcissus fame – was an American. One or two of the others I am not so sure about.

Alec Rowley:-
A Flower Suite
A Lantern Suite
A Chinese Suite
From the Fairy Hills
North Sea Fantasies
Miniature Dance Suite
Kew Gardens Suite

Anthony Bernard:-
On Merivale Green

Charles Vincent:-
Venetian Sketches
The Garden of Allah
The Garden of Sweet Perfumes
Atmospheric Sketches
Three Short Poems
The Bride’s Bouquet
Six Miniatures

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor:-
Scenes from an Imaginary Ballet
Six Negro Melodies
Second Book of Six Negro Melodies

Ernest Fowles:-
Hook Norton Suite

Ethelbert Nevin:-
Four Songs without Word

Frank Bridge:-
Three Sketches
Four Characteristic Pieces
Three Improvisations (for left hand)
Three Miniature Pastorals

John Heath:-
Six Inventions

John Ireland:-
Rhapsody
Four Preludes
Leaves from a Childs Sketchbook

Joseph Speaight:-
Tone Pictures

Leo Livens:-
The Moorlands

Norman Peterkin:-
Dreamer’s Tales

Roger Quilter:-
Dance in Twilight
Summer Evening
At a Country Fair
Lanterns
In a Gondola
Three Studies

Hubert Parry: Choral Masterpieces from Manchester

I began by pointing out that “this CD is a perfect introduction to the choral music of Charles Hubert Hastings Parry. The repertoire covers his three most popular choral works alongside three great works that are typically known to Parry enthusiasts and those who inhabit the organ loft or choir stalls: the two groups are not mutually exclusive. I did a little survey: I asked five people (not British Music fans) to name a piece of music by Parry. Only one was able to suggest Jerusalem, but added that it might have been by Elgar ... The other four, unsurprisingly, had heard of this great hymn, but the composer remained a blank spot.

I felt that the work that most impressed me on this CD is Hear my words, ye people. It is a compendium of texts taken from the Old Testament books of Job, Isaiah and the Psalms. The work was originally composed for the 1894 Festival of the Salisbury Diocesan Choral Association. Unbelievably, it was conceived for 2000 singers with a semi-chorus of some 400! There was an organ accompaniment and brass band present at the first performance. The choral music part was kept relatively simple, as there was little time for rehearsal. The more complex music was given to the soprano and baritone soloists. In this recording the baritone part is sung by Mark Rowlinson: the other solo parts are taken by groups of choristers. The work concludes with the well-known hymn O Praise ye the Lord, which was a paraphrase of Psalm 150 by Sir Henry Baker. Something tells me that this 'pared-down' version is actually more effective and satisfying than the original. It is a truly gorgeous work that ought to have a secure place in the repertoire.
This present recording is a fine monument to a great musical and ecclesiastical tradition. It will be an essential addition to many collections
Please read my full review on MusicWeb International

Eric Coates: Calling All Workers

Calling all Workers is one of the most recognizable of all of Eric Coates marches. This work, which was composed in 1940 was used as the signature tune for the once ubiquitous radio programme Music While you Work, which ran from 1940 to 1967.
The tune for this programme had been carefully chosen from a wide variety of pieces and was designed to cheer people up in the war factories and no doubt to increase the output by suggesting that the speed of the music ought to match their production! Philip Scowcroft reminds us that many people heard this March four times a day for five days a week!

Coates himself has written about this piece and suggested that during 1940 he had struck a ‘blank patch’ which lasted for some months. It had been a couple of years since he had composed the Enchanted Garden Ballet and the Footlights Concert Valse. He wrote in his Autobiography that it was his wife Phyllis who 'came to the rescue with the suggestion that I should write something especially for the Red Cross Depot whither she went daily to treadle her way with a sewing machine through miles of hospital supplies.' Coates told how the March was born - 'I sat me down at my desk in the window, looking far away across London to the twin-towers of the Crystal Palace…and wrote what Phyl still calls her signature tune.' Interestingly, they had some difficulty in coming up with a suitable title, and after a 'number of abortive efforts to find one, a gangster film with G-men tapping out the usual ‘calling all cars’ supplied the solution, and Calling all Workers it was. The March was dedicated ‘to all workers’ and carries the inscription “To go to one’s work with a glad heart and to do that work with earnestness and goodwill”'. The Manchester Guardian noted that the composer had ‘just finished’ the work in mid August.

Geoffrey Self wrote that the composer was so impressed with the title that 'unheard of security precautions were enforced, lest someone else use it.' The original score was engraved without a title: it was added at the very last moment.

Calling all Workers is  an example of a typical march in the style made famous by Elgar, Walton and Coates himself, although it is not of the ‘ceremonial’ genre and is generally a ‘light’ piece. After a short fanfare of C major chords, the opening march theme bursts on the scene at a foot tapping rate, but soon the slightly slower ‘trio’ theme in F major launches itself before the customary repeat. The march them returns at the exact halfway point and is preceded by another little fanfare. Of course there is a final reprise of the ‘big tune, this time played expansively in the tonic key and taken at a much slower pace. A reprise of the fanfare music as a part of the coda concludes the work.

The first broadcast of the work was by the B.B.C Theatre Orchestra conducted by Stanford Robinson from their wartime base in Cheltenham. In the autumn of 1940. Coates recalls that he and his wife “kept their fingers crossed” that an air-raid would not curtail the broadcast”.

The March was quickly recorded by Columbia (DB1945) with the Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer and was coupled with By a Sleepy Lagoon.

Herbert Howells: String Quartet In Gloucestershire

Herbert Howells was exceedingly unlucky. On two occasions he lost manuscripts whilst travelling by rail. The score of Missa Sabrinensis was in a briefcase thrown out of a train window by a thief. This was later recovered from the line-side. However he was not so lucky with the String Quartet In Gloucestershire. It is understood that the composer had completed the work in 1916. Travelling on a local train between Gloucester and Lydney he left the score on the train and it has never been seen since. However three years later he began to remember themes and progressions from the original work and decided to rewrite the entire composition. The outcome was a completely new quartet, with some of the themes from the original and many new tunes for good measure. There were a couple of other revisions in 1920 and later in the 1930s. Palmer points out that the 'textual history' of this quartet is exceptionally fraught and suggests that there is much work to be done unravelling the revisions. As the notes were written in 1984, perhaps this detective work has been done?

There is no way that this quartet, Howells's third, can be epitomised as 'pastoral' music in the sense of a 'cow leaning over a fence.' It is, instead, a reflection on the emotions generated as a response to a very particular landscape, perceived perhaps with very special people in mind. There is a hill just outside of Gloucester that is called Chosen or Churchdown Hill that commanded a fine view of the Malverns and the Severn Valley. This hill was beloved by Howells and was haunted by his friends, including Ivor Gurney and Gerald Finzi; it is the inspiration for much of Howells' music and certainly forms a backdrop to the present piece.
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The Great War had been killing 'doomed youth' for two years when Howells first set pen to paper. Due to ill health he was unable to enlist in the army and this led him to considerable feelings of guilt. His rewriting and revisions were carried out in the aftermath of the war. He had seen what it had done to his friends - especially the poet and composer Ivor Gurney. The same poet, recalling his explorations with Howells remarked that the scherzo sounded like 'a great spring wind blowing the hair of the exultant traveller wandering without purpose save to find beauty and be comrade with the wind.'
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Yet this work is not all depression. It is a response to the landscape, in many ways a celebration of Howells' native heath. It is work of many moods. The first movement feels like a summer's day in the Cotswolds. The slow movement is a personal statement by Howells. This is the heart of the work; elegiac by design and deeply felt. The third is a breath of fresh air as Gurney pointed out in the quotation above. The last is almost dance-like.

mmm

In Gloucestershire can be heard on EMI . Unfortunately there only appears to be one recording of this work at present

Erik Chisholm: Music for Piano, Volume 5

I have already given a thumbnail sketch of Erik Chisholm’s life and works in my review of the first four volumes of this cycle on MusicWeb International. Furthermore there is great deal of biographical information in the Chisholm Webpages. However, three things as the kirk minister once said, are useful to bear in mind. Firstly, Erik William Chisholm (1904-1965) is one of a group of British composers who have been unjustly neglected: he is often known as Scotland’s Forgotten Composer. Much of his music is inspired and informed by the Scottish folk-music heritage. Secondly his output of music was considerable, with a huge emphasis on the piano repertoire. And lastly, in spite of the fact of his nickname MacBartok, his music is original and quite often groundbreaking, without being novel or eccentric for its own sake.

This CD has to be explored slowly and methodically. There is far too much of interest to just play it from the first track to the last. I would suggest that a good place to begin is with the fine Harris Dance. Like much of Erik Chisholm’s music this piece is based on one of the North Highland Airs from A Collection of Highland Vocal Airs which were published by Patrick MacDonald in 1784.  It is a fine example of the composer’s skill at absorbing the ethos of Highland music but not allowing it to descend into pastiche or parody. This is an intricate and completely pianistic work that transforms a simple tune into a virtuosic piece. It can be seen as a key to understanding much of what Chisholm composed.

The Tango is very different to the general run of music on this disc. It is a kind of Ravelian distortion of the dance that vacillates between the dance-hall and the recital room. Much of the piece is straightforward, but towards the middle of the work, the harmonic structure transcends the downright popular. A wistful mood closes this lovely piece that would do well as an encore.

Another candidate for an encore is the ‘over the top’ Sonata Electra. This piece has all the hallmarks of a latter-day Liszt or Thalberg. It is certainly one of those works that is hardly subtle but is great fun. It is not a long piece, lasting under five minutes but it is certainly seriously demanding for the soloist. The sleeve notes remind the listener that Chisholm ‘might well have become a virtuoso pianist’ and certainly this piece would tax the best of them.

The last of the miscellaneous pieces is the Dance Bacchanal which surely nods towards the more percussive works of Bartok or the complexities of Sorabji. It is a confident and complex piece that is volcanic in its energy. However there are a few moments when the tension eases, but they never last for long. Chisholm had planned an orchestral version of this piece.

After listening to these short pieces the listener could move on to a study of the two Sonatinas The Fifth Sonatina opens with a short minuet that is based on a traditional love song composed by Conrad Paumnan in the fifteenth-century.  Yet even here, this music is subjected to the twists and turns of Chisholm’s Scottish interests. The Berceuse is hardly a restful lullaby; certainly no child could sleep through this strong, intense music based on an even earlier dance tune. Yet the closing bars have a certain serenity denied to most of this Sonatina. The last movement is The Jew’s Dance. This is a whirling, circular piece that explores a number of artificial ‘scales and modes.’

The Sixth Sonatina mines musical material from Davison and Apel’s Historical Anthology of Music. The first movement, a Basse Danse opens with an almost literal transcription of the sixteenth-century tune, but almost immediately Chisholm works his magic and more complex harmonies and contrapuntal constructions emerge. The Aria is very slow and deliberate evoking the courtship dance of peacocks –at least according to the sleeve notes. The final Burlesque is exactly that. It most certainly pushes the music towards parody and gross exaggeration. This is technically complex music is largely polytonal and quite deliberately confuses key relationships.

In the previous volumes of Chisholm’s music the listener was able to hear thirteen of the Piobaireachd for solo piano. As I understand it, the present CD includes the remaining numbers that are still extant. These are largely based on bagpipe tunes that are reworked or even recreated by Chisholm. The particular interest in these pieces lies in the fact that the composer has used the tune and some of its attributes such as the drone as the basis for his own invention. His approach to this music is less one of transformation or variation, than of commentary. One of the principles of Piobaireachd is that originally it was a set of variations. Chisholm understands this process and does nothing to destroy the power of the original, yet the sum is greater that the parts. I would rather listen to these piano pieces than the original tunes for the bagpipe! For me there is so much of interest and variety of expression and emotion. The present series of Piobaireachd have a number of sources of inspiration including a Lament for King George, the Bells of Perth, a Harp Tree, based on the Celtic Harp and a lovely title called Squinting Patrick’s Flame of Wrath.  I suggest that these are listened to as a group of pieces. Interesting and technically impressive as these pieces are, eight is quite sufficient for one sitting. The programme notes are essential for understanding and appreciating these Piobaireachd.

The Cameos are superb.  After the complexities of some of Chisholm’s more acerbic and harmonically challenging pieces, these come as a definite moment of relaxation. The fourth volume presented eight of these Cameos and here we have a further twelve: there are five still to come in a future release. These pieces are defined as “a series of early brief studies of impressive variety”. The titles of these Cameos seem to be like thoughts that flitted across the composer’s mind or were reactions to a poem or page of literature. For example, one of them is called Cargoes and is a robust but extremely short meditation on one aspect of Masefield’s great poem – the “jewels in a stately Spanish galleon". The Wagoner is even shorter and alludes to Edmund Blunden’s poem of the same title and specifically to the line “On a dulled earth the night droops down”. John Purser notes that the last Cameo is called The Rainbow, based on some lines from Walter de la Mare’s poem. He suggests that these words may well sum up the entire series:-

“In bright-ringed solitude

The showery foliage shone

One lovely moment

And the bow was gone.”

This piece is not only convincingly evocative of these words, it is downright ravishing: it is a pity it lasts less than one minute.

Perhaps the most important work on this CD is the Sonatine Ecossaise. In spite of its diminutive title this is a major work. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that it holds its own against those Sonatinas by John Ireland and Maurice Ravel. However, it is essential to recall that Chisholm wrote this work from his own point of view: he effectively creates a new form. Typically a Sonatina would follow, at least loosely’ the classical model. However Chisholm has abolished this form: he has not attempted to write any movement in abbreviated Sonata form. Chisholm utilises the concept of ‘building up a set’ of contrasting tunes which are not subject to development. It is more difficult to achieve this than may at first appear. It is not a medley of songs such as we used to hear at the end of the pier – A Selection from The Gondoliers. It is a careful balancing act designed to present a number of melodies that both contrast and complement each other. Repetition is allowed, although always with decoration. Yet this is not classical or baroque ornamentation but is what Chisholm has referred to a ‘cuttings’.  The composer wrote, in connection with Indian music that “Grace [notes?] is not just some additions to a melody...but is an integral and inseparable part of the whole”. This is a good definition of the musical theory behind this work. However, the order of the tunes and the repetitions (although often changed) of each tune give cohesion. The Sonatine Ecossaise is in three movements. The work was originally composed in 1929 but was revised in 1951. Please listen to this work as a separate entity. It well deserves and rewards study and attention.

It is  impossible to fault this fifth volume of an ongoing series of Erik Chisholm’s piano music. In my review of the first four discs I noted the huge commitment made by the pianist Murray McLachlan. It is always a momentous task to record a cycle of piano works. It is even more onerous when the works are typically not in the public domain. This has to be definitive. It is unlikely that there will be a subsequent recording of the ‘complete’ works for many years, if ever. Fortunately McLachlan has risen to the challenge. He is ably assisted by the fine acoustic of the Whiteley Hall at that great Mancunian institution, Chetham’s School of Music. Apart from one of two clicks during the Harris Dance, I have found the recording to be excellent. John Purser’s programme notes are superb and are both helpful and informative. I look forward to reading John Purser’s book which arrived a couple of days ago on my desk for review. The presentation of the CD is rather good, with a nice photograph of ‘pleasure boats on Loch Lomond’.  It is altogether a fine production and essential for anyone who is an enthusiast of British piano music. In fact, I believe that Erik Chisholm is so important that his music ought to have International status rather than just a local interest. I repeat my assertion that this series of CDs showcase one of the most important “musical discoveries and revelations of the Twenty-First Century”. 

Track Listings:

Erik CHISHOLM (1904-1965) Music for Piano - Volume 5 Piobaireachd for solo piano (undated)Sonatina No.5 (undated) Sonatina No.6 (1946) Cameos (1926) Sonatina Ecossaise (1929 rev. 1951) Harris Dance (undated) Tango (1926) Sonata Electra (undated) Dance Bacchanal (1924)
Murray McLachlan (piano) DIVINE ART DIVERSIONS DDV 24140

Bluebell Klean: Composer, Concert Pianist [and Angler?]

Recently, whilst browsing the 1906 volume of The Musical Times in the Royal College of Music Library, I came across the name Bluebell Klean in connection with a Piano Quintet. Her name is but a small glimmer of light in the great mass of the history of British and European music. Certainly there is no society dedicated to the performance of her works or the keeping alive of her memory. There is no entry in Grove. I cannot find a photograph. Here and there I have found a few references but no substantial information. I have even checked the 1901 census records and have found no trace of her. For all one knows her name may be a pseudonym. I present here all that I have been able to find in the Musical Press and the Newspapers.

“Miss Bluebell Klean, a native of London, who gave her first chamber concert on 13 November [1906] at the Bechstein Hall, claims special attention, as the programme consisted almost entirely of her own compositions. The most important of these was a Quintet in C minor for pianoforte and strings, which proved a pleasing and genial work based on melodious themes, which are tersely and clearly developed with admirable perception of effectiveness and contrast. Six songs from the same pen, and some short and bright pianoforte pieces, show considerable originality in their harmonic scheme and avoidance of conventionality, while the songs, severally named Open the door, Come to me and The Water-Sprite, should find publishers. They were charmingly sung by Miss Esther Palliser, and the pianoforte pieces were expressively played by Miss Johanna Heymann. The Quintet was excellently rendered by the Hans Wessely Quartet with the composer at the pianoforte”.
The Musical Times 1 December 1906

Some eight years later, The Musical Times reported a concert held at the Bechstein Hall on 15th June 1914. Klean’s Piano Quintet was performed along with a selection of her songs performed by Miss Ada Crossley and Miss Xena Beaver.

The report of this concert was elaborated by Marion Scott and Katharine Eggar writing in The Music Student:-
"A Quintet for the usual allotment of strings and piano, and of more than usual merit, is that by Bluebell Klean. This work has already been heard several times in London, and is both vigorous and agreeable. The first movement opens in virile manner, and its themes are handled with great freedom of style. The second movement, Air Varié, is slightly ‘ordi­nary’ in its conception, but the extremely vivacious Scherzo is a brilliant movement, very well laid out for all the instruments. The Finale, though of very good ‘finalé’ character at its start, suffers a little from diffuseness, .and from disconnectedness in its very relationships; but the whole quintet is spontaneous, thoroughly musical, and, again to use that unsatisfactory word, most "effective."
The Music Student Chamber Music Supplement July 1914 p.97 [with minor edits]

The Observer newspaper also picked up on this concert and a short review stated that “In offering her compositions for criticism Miss Bluebell Klean at her concert in the Bechstein Hall on Monday evening obviously claimed only the consideration that is necessary to a refined type of drawing-room music. The composer has heard much music of a similar kind, had an assimilative disposition, and is capable of reproducing her acquisitions in an emulative spirit that permits an occasional fresh look on her material”.
June 21 1914 Observer

I found a reference to a concert given on 13 December 1917 at Bournemouth under the baton of Sir Dan Godfrey. The concert included the Prospero Overture by Frederick Corder and the Mendelssohn’s ‘Scotch’ Symphony. But the novelty was Bluebell Klean’s Pianoforte Concerto in E minor. This work was ‘very capably played by the composer and proved to be a work of merit’.

However, one of the strangest notices I found was also in The Observer newspaper. A report on the Hastings Angling Festival noted that a certain Miss Bluebell Klean took the greatest number of sizeable fish. This was out of a field of 300 competitors, including a ‘number’ of women. I wonder if it is the same lady? [October 5 1924 The Observer ]

Unfortunately there appears to be only two published works-
A Fancy from Fontenelle words by A. Dobson, (London : Weekes & Co), 1907
Humoresque for the Pianoforte (London : Weekes & Co), 1907

Patrick Hadley: The Music

Patrick Hadley was influenced by the music of Frederick Delius and also to a certain extent folk music. But there were other non-musical influences in his life too - Ireland and Norfolk gave him a profound sense of landscape and location.
His output was limited. He found the business of composing quite exhausting. Most people think of Hadley as composer of one or two church anthems - I Sing of a Maiden and the mildly erotic My Beloved spake. The catalogue shows a wide variety of musical forms - from a Symphonic Ballad to incidental music for the Twelfth Night. However, there are no cycles of symphonies, concerti or string quartets.

He maintained throughout his a career a sense of the lyrical. Not for him was the experimental music of the Second Vienna School. He had an exceptional understanding of how to set words to music. Much of his music is meditative and quite inward looking. One is left wishing he had written more music for chamber and orchestral forces. Much of Patrick Hadley's music seems to evoke the English and the Irish landscape. This is sometimes overt and sometimes intangible. However it is always done in a very subtle and beautiful way.

One of Hadley's undoubted masterpieces is the Symphonic Ballad - The Trees so High. This is a large-scale setting of the folk song of that name for baritone, chorus and full orchestra. The work is in four movements and it is only in the last, that Hadley deploys the chorus and soloist. It is in this movement that Hadley quotes the folk-song in its entirety.
The Hills was completed in 1944 and is perhaps the finest of Hadley’s cantatas. The others two being Fen and Flood and Connemara. It has strong personal links with the composer’s life, dealing with the meeting, courtship and marriage of his parents. The landscape described is Derbyshire and this is well reflected in the music. One is reminded, perhaps of Delius’ Mass of Life.

Perhaps the gentlest introduction to Hadley is his short orchestral work – One Morning in Spring, which was composed to celebrate Ralph Vaughan Williams 70th birthday. It is a fine example of an English tone poem.
Perhaps the desideratum is the early orchestral sketch ‘Kinder Scout.’ However this is still in manuscript and will take an adventurous record company to produce it.

Although Hadley was best of friends with Ralph Vaughan Williams, he never truly bought into the so-called folk song revival. Much of his music has folk characteristics, however not for him the old adage of Constant Lambert - all you can do with a folk tune is to repeat it -louder! Hadley's use of the folk idiom was subtle.
Much of the composer's output was connected with the Caius Choir. He did a number of arrangements of works in many different genres - from Verdi's Stabat Mater to Waltzing Matilda.
Patrick ‘Paddy’ Hadley’s music will never be widely popular. However, he will appeal greatly to those interested in British music. If he had only composed the Symphonic Ballad – The Trees So High and nothing else, he would be respected as a fine composer. As it is all his works exhibit a great degree of skill, craftsmanship and sheer musicality.

Originally Published on MusicWeb International.

Herbert Howells: Music from Hereford Cathedral

I recently had the pleasure of reviewing this excellent CD of music by Herbert Howells. I confessed that I have always loved Hereford - both the Cathedral and the town. It seems to me to be the most unspoilt of the Three Choirs venues. Although I do concede that many people would question my judgement!

I believe that this “is an essential CD for all Howells enthusiasts as well as being a fine introduction to listeners who are not familiar with the composer's liturgical music”.
For most listeners, the main event on this CD is the three sets of Canticles for Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester. Few readers will be unaware of the importance of the great Three Choirs Festival in the lives of countless musicians - both from the local area and without. Howells had a long association with the Festival, from the time that he was studying with Herbert Brewer at Gloucester Cathedral, through the revelatory premiere of Ralph Vaughan Williams Tallis Fantasia down to the performance of Howells's own masterpieces Hymnus Paradisi and Missa Sabrinensis. It is hardly surprising that he chose to compose three of his finest settings of the 'Mag. and Nunc Dim' for 'his' cathedrals. All three of these works reveal a mature composer who was able to synthesise the traditions of Anglican choral music with his own personal impressionistic language.

Please read my full review at MusicWeb International

Angela Morley: Rotten Row – A miniature for orchestra.

I was walking across Park Lane into Hyde Park the other day in the summer sunshine (such as we have had this year) and headed towards the Serpentine. As I passed the bandstand I could see a number of horsemen riding along Rotten Row. Unusually, they were not cavalrymen, but seemed to be members of the public. I wondered where they stabled their horses in Central London?
It is not the place to speculate on the name of this bridleway, save to say that I was always told that is was the Route de Roi – but I shall leave that to the local historians and philologists. As a musician my mind thought of the attractive miniature by Angela Morley, Rotten Row. This is surely one of the most attractive pieces of light music in the repertoire. It is strange that only a single recording of this work is currently available.

It is a little confusing when considering any piece by Angela Morley as she changed name and sex in the early ‘seventies – until that time she was known as Wally Stott. However, although Rotten Row was composed in 1960 it is assigned to the composer’s latter name. Morley is best known for her scores to the films Watership Down and The Slipper and the Rose. She also wrote the music for the Goons and for Hancock’s Half Hour. She died in January of this year.
The piece opens with an upward harp glissando before the main theme establishes itself. This is totally untroubled music that makes you feel good. The clip-clop, the harness bells and jogging-along imagery are maintained throughout most of the piece. However the orchestra passes the theme and its variants between sections – with the horns having a marginally reflective moment. The orchestration is typically delicate and is well varied. The piece ends with a little pizzicato figure and a downward glissando from the harp – taking the miniature a full circle.
Rob Barnett on MusicWeb has described this piece as a “frilly and flouncy piece of pink ‘fifties fluff. It is suggestive of debonair horsey folk taking the air- elegant and superficial.” This seems as little harsh on both the horse-riding fraternity and the music – I do not think that Morley was trying to be particularly profound, pink is not the colour that suggests itself to me and horsey folk are not always superficial!
The reviewer in Gramophone “enjoyed [this piece] clip-clopping along like Leroy Anderson.
I like this piece: it is in same mould as Benjamin Frankel’s Horse and Pair. However, what impressed me most was the subtle orchestration, which is really rather good. And finally, it is a fine impression of an era that has all but disappeared. It is only with a little imagination that I could feel my way back to 1960, far less an earlier period, with the roar of traffic on Park Lane and the mass of the Hilton Hotel behind me and roller-bladers in backward- baseball caps swerving to avoid me on the path.

Angela Morley’s Rotten Row is recorded on White Line CD WHL 2138