| Contents |
Volume 1. Introduction: Havergal Brian, journalist / Malcolm MacDonald -- The spirit of England. Corder, Warlock, Dowland and English Music (1932) ; The continuity of British Music (1934) ; The spirit of England (1935) ; The fire at the Crystal Palace (1937) -- The older generation. Sir Frederic Cowen (1934-1935) ; Edward German (1936) ; Sir John McEwen (1936) ; Parry and the RCM (1933) ; Stanford and the 'Londonderry Air' (1935) ; Arthur Sullivan (1939) -- Elgar. Enigma at the Hallé (1905) ; The Apostles in Hanley (1905) ; 'The Elgar Manifesto' (1931) ; Sheldon's Elgar (1932) ; 'Land of hope and glory' (1932) ; An Elgar biography (1933) ; Edward Elgar 1857-1934 ; Elgar and the British public (1934) ; The Elgar manuscripts (1934) ; Elgar and the Third Symphony (1935) ; The enigma of Elgar (1936) -- Delius. The art of Frederick Delius (1924) ; The Delius festival (1929) ; Delius' personality (1929) ; The passing of Delius (1934) ; Delius in decline (1936) ; Delius: the last phase (1936) -- Bantock. Prof. Granville Bantock: a sketch (1909) ; The songs of Granville Bantock (1923) ; Bantock, the viola, the atom, and Macbeth (1927) ; Bantock's Pilgrim's Progress (1929) ; Atalanta in America (1935) ; Bantock and his Pagan Symphony (1936) ; The Fire Worshippers (1939) ; Granville Bantock (1946) -- British music in performance. The Birmingham Triennial Festival (1906) ; Two English novelties (1907) ; The promenades (1927) ; The BBC concerts of British music (1934) ; Leith Hill Music Festival (1937) ; Modern music (1938) -- Nationalism, leagues and competitions. The music problem in Manchester (1907) ; The British spirit (1924) ; Fifty years of progress? (1932) ; BMS and BBC (1933) ; National music and the Proms (1935) ; British music and its patrons (1935) ; Leagues: English and German (1936) ; The composer's desolation (1936) ; Nationalism in music (1937) -- Near-contemporaries. Bax. The First Symphony of Arnold Bax (1922) ; Bax's Third String Quartet (1941) ; Albert Coates. Pickwick (1936) ; Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Memories of Coleridge-Taylor (1934) ; Walford Davies. A Feast of Good Things (1905) ; Dyson. Talker, teacher, composer (1931) ; The Canterbury Pilgrims (1939) ; Quo Vadis (1939) ; Foulds. The BBC performance of Dynamic Triptych (1933) ; The death of John Foulds (1939) ; Balfour Gardiner (1928) ; Grainger (1935) ; Holbrooke. Byron and the Third Sextet (1905, 1907) ; Holbrooke as composer-conductor (1923) ; The neglect of Holbrooke (1937) ; Josef Holbrooke, English composer (1939) ; Holst. The passing of Gustav Holst (1934) ; Gustav Holst: an English composer (1940) ; Hurlstone. Genius in Abeyance (1937) ; Scott. The art of Cyril Scott (1923) ; Sorabji. Opus Clavicembalisticum (1932) ; Vaughan Williams. Vaughan Williams in rehearsal (1935) ; The music of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1940) ; Haydn Wood (1937) -- Younger composers. Old days and young composers (1923) ; Britten. Ballade of heroes (1939) ; Arnold Cooke (1936) ; Goossens. The art of Eugene Goossens (1924) ; Mayerl. Billy Mayerl: pianist (1932) ; Walton. Belshazzar's Feast (1931) ; William Walton (1936) ; Walton's Violin Concerto (1941) ; Warlock. Death of Peter Warlock (1931) ; British women composers (1936) -- Orchestras, choirs, bands and the B.B.C. -- Orchestras. The Halford Orchestra: an appreciation (1905) ; The orchestral crisis in England (1909) ; The BBC orchestra (1930) ; Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and concert halls in general (1936) ; The orchestra in London (1939) -- Choirs. Retrogression in the Hallé Choir (1905) ; Tournament of song (1909) ; Provincial choral societies (1937) ; The North Staffordshire District Choral Society (1938) ; English choral singing (1938) -- Brass bands. The brass band and the National Band Festival (1923) ; The world of brass (1932) -- The BBC. The New Broadcasting House (1932) ; The huge machine (1934) ; The BBC and its programmes (1937). |
| Abstract |
The author is best known as a prolific composer of symphonies, among them the enormous Gothic, who is gradually becoming recognised as an important and individual voice in 20th-century British music. It is far less widely realised that for a period of nearly 45 years (1904-1949) Brian was a comparably productive musical journalist. His articles, reviews, editorials, personality profiles, and columns of comment on contemporary events, sometimes pseudonymous, often unsigned, appeared in a variety of journals, most notably Musical Opinion, of which he was Assistant Editor from 1927 to 1940. They reveal him as a highly perceptive if sometimes idiosyncratic observer with a startling breadth of interest and a fund of personal reminiscence, many of whose insights were well in advance of his time. The editor has been investigating the author's vast journalistic output, using his letters and other evidence to trace many of his unsigned contributions, and has selected enough material to fill a projected series of six volumes, each grouped around a common theme. In this first volume of selections he has brought together many of the author's principal writings on the composers and events of the British Musical Renaissance, from polemical articles written when actively campaigning for his fellow-composers in the Midlands before World War I, to more considered appraisals of the inter-war period. The author's heroes Elgar and Delius and his close friend Granville Bantock are generously represented, but we also find him discussing figures as diverse as Bax, Britten, Foulds, Goossens, Holbrooke, Holst, Billy Mayerl, Cyril Scott, and Vaughan Williams; reviewing the 1906 Birmingham Triennial Festival, adjudicating at the 1923 National Brass Band Championships at the Crystal Palace (and watching the Palace burn down in 1936), proposing schemes for the encouragement of orchestral music in Britain, and casting a critical eye on the burgeoning power and influence of the BBC. In a substantial introduction, the editor outlines the author's journalistic career; and he has annotated the articles to elucidate the author's copious contemporary references. The result is both a work of scholarship and an important historical source for an understanding of the British music of the early 20th century. |
