The Music of Hamish Maccunn (1868-1916): a Critical Study
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Durham E-Theses The music of Hamish MacCunn (1868-1916): a critical study Jamieson, Alasdair How to cite: Jamieson, Alasdair (2007) The music of Hamish MacCunn (1868-1916): a critical study, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2456/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 The Music of Hamish MacCunn (1868-1916): A Critical Study Alasdair Jamieson The copyright of this thesis rests with the author or the university to which it was submitted. No quotation from it, or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author or university, and any information derived from it should be acknowledged. A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Music Department Durham University 2007 Volume 1 of2 - 4 JUN 2007 (J) The Music of Hamish MacCunn (1868-1916) A Critical Study Alasdair Jamieson Ph.D. thesis, University of Durham, 2006 ABSTRACT Apart from a single study of Jeanie Deans, MacCunn's music has, to date, never received a detailed examination. This thesis aims to provide a contextual basis for, and a stylistic analysis of, his major works, and so establish informed criteria by which a truer assessment ofMacCunn's significance may be made, challenging the sovereignty of Land ofthe Mountain and the Flood in the public's reckoning of his compositions and hence revealing it to be not an isolated peak but one summit among many. Hamish MacCunn ( 1868-1916) grew up in Greenock on the west coast of Scotland before removing to London at the tender age of 15 to further his musical studies at the Royal College of Music. His assimilation of a robust orchestral technique was rapid and before he reached his twentieth birthday he had already tasted the pleasures of public approbation. Thereafter, a sequence of orchestral works, cantatas, songs and two grand operas with a pronounced Scottish character appeared in the late eighties and nineties. It is this period which is the focus of the study, but later works dating from MacCunn' s time conducting West End shows are also discussed. Through a generic survey of his output, the thesis locates the composer's works within a historical and biographical framework, isolating characteristic traits both novel and derived from the earlier Nineteenth Century inheritance, and evaluating his position as a composer of his time and afterwards. In particular his strengths and penchants as a composer have been identified with special emphasis on the composer's bias for dramatic or narrative music, amply demonstrated in his overtures, cantatas and, above all, his two operas Jeanie Deans and Diarmid. To complement the chapters on MacCunn's musical works, an opening biographical chapter, a comprehensive catalogue, a family tree, iconography and bibliography have been provided. Throughout the thesis, reference has been made to primary sources held in Glasgow and other libraries throughout Britain and the United States, in an attempt to arrive at as complete a picture of MacCunn as possible. Contents Volume 1 Declaration 11 Statement of Copyright 11 Acknowledgements lll Abbreviations and Library Sigla IV Introduction v Plate X Chapter 1: A Life 1 Chapter 2: Orchestral W arks 37 Chapter 3: Choral Works I 76 Chapter 4: Choral Works II 110 Chapter 5: Opera I: Jeanie Deans 154 Chapter 6: Opera II: Diarmid 210 Chapter 7: The Songs 252 Afterword 296 Volume 2 Appendix 1: Selective Family Tree 299 Appendix 2: Iconography 300 Appendix 3: A Catalogue of Works by Hamish MacCmm 302 Appendix 4: Discography 372 Bibliography 375 Declaration I confirm that no part of the material offered has been submitted by me for a degree in this or in any other university. If material has been generated through joint work, my independent contribution has been clearly indicated. In all other cases material from the work of others has been acknowledged and quotations and paraphrases suitably indicated. Statement of Copyright The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published in any format, including electronic and the Internet, without the author's prior written consent. All information derived from this thesis must be acknowledged appropriately. 11 Acknowledgements I should like to thank various people for their help while carrying out research. This thesis could not have been written without the courteous support of librarians across the country, in particular: Lesley Couperwhite and Betty Hendrie at the Watt Library in Greenock, Dr. Peter Horton and Paul Collen at the Royal College of Music, Bridget Palmer at the Royal Academy of Music, Muriel Chamberlain at Wakefield Library, the staff at the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh Central Library, the British Library at St. Pancras and Boston Spa and the Theatre Museum, London. The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York and the Chapel Hill Music Library in North Carolina were expeditious in sending copies of important documents. I wish to register my gratitude to everyone who has replied to countless queries about MacCunn. It has been reassuring and edifying to be able to communicate with two other MacCunn scholars, Dr. Jennifer Oates in New York and Jane Mallinson in Glasgow. Though suffering frail health, Mrs. June MacCunn (married to the composer's grandson Robin) has offered encouragement and has filled in some gaps in my knowledge. One of the more memorable days I spent was at the house of Dr. John Purser on Skye; his evangelising zeal for the cause of Scottish music and his collection of documents and books were inspirational (as were his home-produced bog myrtle beer and fresh crab from the loch!). My largest debt is to my supervisor, Professor Jeremy Dibble. Without his extensive knowledge of British Music, his obvious enthusiasm to impart this knowledge and his unerring judgement, this thesis would be a very different being. His supervisions were very positive experiences and always left one feeling spurred on to do better. 111 Abbreviations and Library sigla. General VS - Vocal Score MS - manuscript p- page s- system b-bar MT- The Musical Times Library sigla GB-Gu Glasgow University Library GB-En National Library of Scotland GB-Lbm British Library, St. Pancras GB-Lcm Royal College of Music GB-Lam Royal Academy of Music GB-LEbc University of Leeds, Brotherton Collection GB-DRu University of Durham Library US-NYpm New York, Pierpont Morgan Library US-CHH Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Music Library US-Eu Evanston, Northwestern University, Music Library lV INTRODUCTION As a single light shining brightly obscures other objects of equal or greater worth from sight, such is the fate of so-called 'one-work' composers whose popular favourite keeps other contenders firmly in the shadows. To the casual observer Hamish MacCunn (1868-1916) would seem to fall into this category. Like many other people, I came to MacCunn through his one well-known piece, Land of the Mountain and the Flood, which, as a boy growing up in Co linton, Edinburgh, I thought of as the perfect musical corollary to hill-walking in the nearby Pentlands. It exactly expressed the exhilaration one felt in the landscape, and, by extension, the unique pride taken in one's native country. It appeared regularly in the programmes of the Scottish National Orchestra (as it then was) at the Usher Hall, but nothing else by MacCunn did. Scottish Opera neglected to stage his operas and choral societies rarely explored his cantatas. His countrymen's attitude to him is still a benignly patronising one, putting him unthinkingly on the same level as William MacGonagall because of his 'quaint' name. What has emerged from further research is a composer whose inexhaustible gift for memorable melody, whose harmonic daring, whose musico-dramatic savvy deserve to be brought from the shadows, studied and celebrated. The curve of MacCunn' s life may be considered typical of an early developer. Having experienced fame as a composer in the full tide of youth - when it could present opportunities and elicit commissions - he chose not to reinvent himself musically but was content to polish, refine and, to some extent, repeat those traits which had served him well. If ever a composer were defined by the forms in which he wrote, then it is MacCunn; all his compositions come about as responses to external, non-musical stimuli, virtually always v words. There was no place for abstract works after his student exercises at the Royal College of Music and he seems to have been little affected by that institution's bias towards symphonicism. Consequently his work-list contains orchestral ballads and character pieces, cantatas, operas and songs; there are also several chamber and piano pieces all of which are descriptive in intent. MacCunn saw this descriptive/ dramatic manner as the way forward for music, 1 and the structures he creates are in keeping with his vision. He avoided sonata form movements, preferring non-developmental, closed forms; in this regard he shared a similar outlook to his compatriot MacKenzie.