A Happy and Prosperous New Year To All Readers of The Land of Lost ContentComposer Anniversaries for 2013Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) Centenary of BirthGeorge Lloyd (1913-1998) Centenary of BirthCedric Thorpe Davie (1913-1983) Centenary of BirthSome Important Works that are Celebrating Significant Anniversaries include:-100 years Ago:-Arnold Bax: Scherzo for Orchestra [piano version: scored for orchestra 1933] Spring Fire for Orchestra [Composed fp. 1914]Frank Bridge: Dance Poem for orchestra [Composed]George Butterworth: Banks Of Green...
Thursday, December 27, 2012
I recently came across this ‘interview’ in an old copy of the venerable Punch magazine. The humour may not be what we expect some 110 years later, however there are some witty lines and a good balance between ‘fact’ and ‘fantasy.’ A broad understanding of musical allusion is required from the reader. Parry, aged 55, was at this time the Director of the Royal College of Music. The ‘interview’ is correct in stating that he gained a Bachelor...
Monday, December 24, 2012
A Very Happy Christmas to all readers of'The Land of Lost Content'The True Christmas by Henry Vaughan (1621-1695) So stick up ivy and the bays,And then restore the heathen ways.Green will remind you of the spring,Though this great day denies the thing.And mortifies the earth and allBut your wild revels, and loose hall.Could you wear flowers, and roses strowBlushing upon your breasts' warm snow,That very dress your lightness willRebuke,...
Saturday, December 22, 2012
I recently came across this short account by Charles Burney (1726-1814) the English music historian, of the earliest known performances of music by Johann Sebastian Bach. The passage is taken from an essay on ‘Infant Prodigies’ in the musical world which was issued in 1779. Burney refers to events some thirty years previously. However, it is known that Johann Gottfried Wilhelm Palschau (pictured) gave recitals in London in 1754 – some four...
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Winter Pastoral which dates from 1925 is written in Bridge’s ‘later’ chromatic style. In this case it is not a virtuosic piece; it can be played by any good pianist. However, its ‘chilly’ language and subtle balance of dissonance and traditional harmonies are difficult to ‘pull off’ well. Compared to some of Bridge's more romantic sounding piano music it has a very spare texture. The work is played ‘andante molto moderato’ throughout –...
Monday, December 17, 2012
In 1916 Herbert Howells had been diagnosed with Graves’s disease and was given only a short time to live. Radium injections, which were then an advanced medical procedure, were largely successful in providing a cure; however it left the composer in a weakened state. His first major appointment as sub-organist at Salisbury Cathedral was cut-short due to the stress of travel and this treatment. During his long convalescence between 1917 and 1920,...
Friday, December 14, 2012
Piano Music of John Ireland Volume 4 John Ireland (1879-1962)The Towing Path (1918) Three Pastels: A Grecian Lad, The Boy Bishop, Puck’s Birthday (1941) Summer Evening (1919) Soliloquy (1922) ‘Spring Will Not Wait’ (1926-7) In Those Days: Daydream, Meridian (1895) Merry Andrew (1918) Leaves from a Child’s Sketchbook: By the Mere, In the Meadow, The Hunt’s Up (1918) Meine Seele (1931) Epic March (1942) Pastoral (1896) Month’s Mind (1933) On a Birthday...
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Charles Wilfred Orr (1893-1976)Five Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’: With rue my heart is laden, This time of year, Oh, when I was in love with you, Is my team ploughing?, On your midnight pallet lying (1924-6) Plucking the rushes (1921) Four Songs: Bahnhofstrasse; Requiem, The time of roses, Since thou, O fondest and truest, (1932-57) Hymn before sleep (1953) While summer on is sleeping (1953) The lads in their hundreds (1936) The Isle of Portland...
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