Music
Categorised
Peter Phillips
IN is exactly a year now since the deaths of Sir William Walton and Herbert Howells; it is also, as everyone must 101°,' the 50th anniversaries of the deaths °' Elgar, Delius and Hoist. Does it really seem as though 49 years separates the musicuc; these two groups of composers: 49 higwYl mobile years in the development of musicAa,, language? Walton and Howells already seem to have slipped away into an unfocus ed middle distance in time, where theY Pit!, a whole school of British composers vith°s'", exact dates give little clue to their styles. And this has been true of the Ouls,,Ipc of these islands in past centuries. Can we L'i; very indignant that a leading SPaniuso history of music attributes a motet bY 19th-century composer Samuel William Byrd: or can I blame a Portuguese acquaintance for assuming that Vaught' Williams knew Tallis personally? dines of development has the This tar- Williams a national characteristic in Innshte despite the fact that at different musical WtiensIleesytl reasons for it have seemed to varyfiThltilr;icti it hard for foreigners to take any °` seriously. How did it happen with Walton', Howells, Elgar, Hoist and Delius, just no; so much in evidence, at least in this et)ti try, on record and in concert?
Until lately there have been broadlye categories of composers in Britain:, til_°_sr. who tried to join the 'mainstream r)
manic tradition and those who cuttjvateurly more nationalist style. German music eat rs in the century required of its folle%ic wlaorgrek-sscaanled subsequently and s)1111311■' or anti-tonal techniques. Most musiciansstiaci saenrstahl 01 felt this tradition to be the hard centr.eer achievement in composition. One eUnlit measured up to it or very consciouslY wo`si, into a huddle, usually with one sources crces patriots, to seek hitherto untapPed sclisers of inspiration. Of these English comPo snore Elgar measured up; and he has been I is successful than any other Englishnir,,ble
this category because he found hi able
to communicate English sentiments in an ostensibly German form. He appeals to the English and yet has been able to overcome the prejudice with which English music is so often received abroad. Anyone who attend- ed the Festival Hall recently to hear Yehudi Menuhin conduct Elgar's First Symphony would surely recognise the justice of Hans Richter's remark, made in 1908, that this was 'the greatest symphony of modern times'. Walton followed him up to a point.
The straightforward nationalists have
never made much impact outside this coun- try, though why the world should be riveted by the folk-music of Hungary as seen through the eyes of Kodaly, and not be much concerned with Vaughan Williams, beats me. Apart from Vaughan Williams, the writers in this category have tended towards small-scale forms, in particular song and, in Howells's case, church music. Inspiration has come partly from folk-song, ,Partly from the choral tradition, partly 'tom a deepening understanding of the great English composers of the past, especially Byrd and Purcell. The list of Musicians active in this way is astonishingly solOrtg, which certainly suggests that
mething significant had been achieved
When, around 1920, at last it became accep- table not to have to try to be German, but to relax and cultivate an individual style. Would that it had happened a hundred Years earlier. The essence of the matter is, can one take .a composer seriously who does not set out 10 advance cdure? musical language and pro- All the composers under considera- ton may be judged from this point of view. instance, Walton wrote some successful Pieces in the central, European tradition, especially his First Symphony and Be!- Feast, but they show no concern th exploring new musical forms. His most Moderns work was his String Quartet of
1922, which Alban Berg admired, but hie, Walton later withdrew saying it was
berg' undigested Bartok and tin" Why wasn't he interested in digeg 12‘,artok and Schoenberg? Most composers eu,' the time were. Howells similarly express-
himself in conventional terms, and
beautiful in intimate textures: he wrote some cueeautiful songs and chamber music and was ,,rtainlY the most committed and consis- tent writer for the Anglican church in recent decades. c There is no doubt that in one sense these composers did restrict their achievement by preferring eh ie 'imply to contribute to forms snit already existed, for the most part a 1-scale ones. A certain isolation, a type rtraining, ndag, a certain sense of humour, a this loular approach to creativity has led to same lack of interest in being seminal. Itsteinatters, and it doesn't matter. Some listeners derive great satisfaction from more music, other's feel they are able to r6Heasore it, usually all of it and for the same strongly All these men wrote fluently and g'Y' it would be a pity if it were only possible t textb_ be receptive to artists whom oaks can call 'essential'.
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