BRITISH MUSIC

Wairarapa Daily Times, 29 June 1933, Page 3

BRITISH MUSIC

MR KERRY’S LECTURE. In the ■course c-f his lecture on British music this week Mr Kerry said that music began to possess an artistic interest hitherto unknown, there being between the old Diseaut Organuni conception of music and that of the Dunstable school ‘ • much the same difference as there is between the crude axe-hewn architecture of the Saxons and the developed 13th and century 'Gothic, 1 ’ .(Percy Scholes), The progress of music whs for some years in the hands of the Flemings, but it was the English Dunstable who gave them tlieiir tools and taught them their trade. After 60 or 70 years the Flemings led in choiral composition, and then England came to the front again as the chief exponents of choral music (as they are again to-day, both as composers and performers). At first English composers gave their attention largely to church requirements (Tye and Tallis among the greatest). Then came a later generation represented best by Byrd, Morley and 'Gibbons, who wrote not only for the church, but for the jollities of domestic revelry, and for instruments as well. It was about this time that the Roman Mass gave place to the English sendee, and the tendency was towards simplification. The psalm-time came into use, and the Anglican chant began to grow out of harmonised .plainsong. With the men of this period English music reached its high-water mark. The men I have mentioned would be the glory of any country, and their work laid the foundation which made it possible fear Bach and Handel, Haydn and Mozart, and the rest, to build later. It was the musical activity of this time —the folk song and folk dance —that caused England to be called "Merrie England”; and with a hint that was brought from Italy, and seized on by British composers, a new flood of composition, the Madrigals, poured over the country and developed into a truly English school of secular choral composition. ■At this time, too, that the foundation of keyboard music was laid, and this was done by the English Elizabethan composers, Hugh Aston, Byrd, •Gibbons, John Bull, 'Giles Farnaby, and their contemporaries. And in addition, the fame of musical England spread over the continent of Europe, and English musicians were in demand to teach their art to the musicians of other countries.

Then came the rule of the Puritans, when much of the music was suppressed, and on the return to monarchy England became aware of her possession of another great musical genius, Henry Purcell. First a choir-boy, then composing foir the theatre, then organist of Westminster Abbey, and of the Chapel Royal, the church, court and stage were the three great influences in his artistic life, in all of which he did great work. We left our subject last week at the period of its decline. There were plenty of composers of that period, Bishop, Balfe, Wallace, Hatton, Maefacrren, E-oss, Smart, Stainer, Barnby, Dykes, and many others, who gained popularity—in some cases immense popularity —but did nothing whatever for the lasting fame of British music. The one exception was Sterndale-Bennett, who., beginning well—so well, in fact, that Mendelssohn and Schumann prophesied that his name would rank among the world’s greatest composer's, failed to fulfil the promise of his early years. There was of course plenty of music performance during this time, but the music performed was by foreign composers, or else by British composers of an earlier day. The London Philharmonic 'Society would give as many as 15 oir 20 concerts in succession without one single piece by a British composer being included. But towards the end of the 19tli century some of the British composers began, in spite of Teutonic influence, to display national character. There was Parry, a bluff, good-humoured Englishman, with a depth of feeling and a dignity of phrase almost like Milton. He wrote oratorios and cantatas, orchestral and chamber music, and songs and piano pieces, as well as being our last writer of books on music subjects.

There was Mackenzie, the Scot, who has made effective use of Scottish idiom in his works, even though he was brought up largely in 'Germany. There was Sanford, the Irishman, who has been called Tehnysonian, as Panry was Miltonian. He lias a very romantic temperament and is a keen student of Irish folk-song, which has influenced a good deal of his music. His written music of nearly every kind and, like Parry, possessed considerable literary gifts. Parry’s "Airt of Music” and Stanford’s "Composition” are the best books we possess on their respective subjects. But the greatest of this period (end of 19th century) and the real pioneer of the modern movement in England, was Edward Elgar, whose work is fair too important to be merely included in such a long list as we are considering this evening, and we shall conclude this course by devoting a whole evening to him.

But before mentioning the younger men of to-day it may not be inappropriate to include here the name of the great representative of the other English speaking race, Edward Mac Do-w-ell.-j -ell.-j Of worthy British composers of to-day there is no dearth. Ernest Austin, Edgar Bainton, Arthur Bliss, Rutland Bougliton, Frank Bridge. Adam Cairse, Benjamin Dele, Welford Davies, Frederick Delius, Thomas Dunhill, Harry Farjeon, Balfour Gardiner, Edward German, Eugene Goossens, Gustav iHolst, Herbert Howells, John Ireland, John McEwan, Norman O’Neill, Roger Quiltetr, Cyril Rootham, Geoffrey iShand, and his brother. Martin Chand, Ethel ■Smyth, Arthur Somervell, Felix Swinstead, Emest Walker, Gerrard Williams, are only a/ few out of hundreds of names that might be mentioned, nearly all of whom have done original and individual woirk in the larger forms of music, and with the alteration of one word, substituting “England” for “Russia,” Montague-Nathan’s words .have considerable significance afid truth.