SRCD.265 STEREO ADD Elisabeth Lutyens ELISABETH LUTYENS (1906-1983) Quincunx, after Sir Thomas Browne Op.4 4 (1960) * (24’14”) Quincunx for baritone, soprano and orchestra , Josephine Nendick, John Shirley-Quirk 1 Tutti 1 (2’46”) 2 Soli 1 woodwind (2’02”) 3 Tutti 2 (2’09”) 4 Soli 2 strings (1’39”) BBC Symphony Orchestra, Norman Del Mar 5 Intro : baritone (1’36”) 6 Tutti 3 : soprano (4’11”) 7 Soli 3 percussion (0’54”) 8 Tutti 4 (2’21”) 9 Soli 4 brass (2’03”) 10 Tutti 5 coda-finale (4’33”) And Suddenly it’s Evening Members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra And Suddenly it ’s Evening Op. 66 (1966) ** (23’52”) for tenor and chamber ensemble , words by Salvatore Quasimodo Herbert Handt 11 I On the Willow Boughs (5’15”) 12 II In the Just Human Time (5’22”) 13 III Almost a Madrigal (7’58”) 14 IV And Suddenly it ’s Evening (5’17”) DAVID BEDFORD (b. 1937) David Bedford Music for Albion Moonlight (1965) *** (29’10”) for soprano, flute, clarinet, melodica, piano, violin, cello , words by 15 I So it ends (9’01”) 16 II If we are to know where we live (7’33”) Music for Albion Moonlight 17 III Lament for the makers of songs (5’35”) 18 IV Fall of the evening star (7’02”) Jane Manning (77’25”) Members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, John Carewe

* Josephine Nendick , soprano ** Herbert Handt, *** Jane Manning, soprano John Shirley-Quirk, baritone tenor/director Members of the BBC BBC Symphony Orchestra Members of the Symphony Orchestra conducted by Norman Del Mar BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Carewe

The above individual timings will normally each include two pauses. One before the beginning of each movement or work, and one after the end. * ൿ 1969 ** *** ൿ 1970 The copyright in these sound recordings is owned by Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. This compilation and the digital remastering ൿ 2008 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. © 2008 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. Lyrita is a registered trade mark. Made in the UK LYRITA RECORDED EDITION. Produced under an exclusive license from Lyrita by Wyastone Estate Ltd, PO Box 87, Monmouth, NP25 3WX, UK www.lyrita.co.uk Notes © 2008 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England

Cover: Photograph: istockphoto.com

The original analogue master recordings were made in association with the BRITISH COUNCIL. Quincunx was first released in 1969 on Argo ZRG 622 . And Suddenly it ’s Evening & Music for Albion Moonlight were first released in 1970 on Argo ZRG 638

Digital Remastering Engineer: Simon Gibson

Other works by ELISABETH LUTYENS available on Lyrita: EnVoyage, suite for full orchestra Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Joly ………………………………………SRCD. 214

WARNING Copyright subsists in all Lyrita Recordings. Any unauthorised broadcasting. public performance, copying, rental or re-recording thereof in any manner whatsoever will constitute an infringement of such copyright. In the United Kingdom licences for the use of recordings for public performance may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd., 1 Upper James Street, London, W1F 9DE 15 Elisabeth Lutyens : Quincunx Op.44 Agnes Elisabeth Lutyens was born in London on 6 July 1906, the fourth of distinguished architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and Lady Emily Lytton ’s five children. After musical education at the École Normale, she entered the Royal College of Music in 1922, studying composition and the viola. Early works, subsequently withdrawn, were performed at the McNaughten-Lemare Concerts, which Lutyens co-founded. In 1932, her ballet The Birthday of the Infanta was premièred by her friend Constant Lambert, but the intensely chromatic Second String Quartet (1938) and String Trio (1939) were the first works she regarded as significant. An interest in Purcell ’s part writing and experiencing the first performance of Anton von Webern ’s cantata Das Augenlicht in London in 1938 led her to a personal brand of serialism first seen in the Chamber Concerto No.1 for Nine Instruments (1939), an innovatory British work of the period. Key post-war pieces include O saisons, o châteux! (1946), for soprano, mandolin, guitar, harp, solo violin and strings, the Sixth String Quartet (1952), the motet after Wittgenstein, Excerpta tractatus- logico philosophici (1952) and the first of four works entitled Music for Orchestra (1955), all of which display her characteristic textural economy and organisational rigour. Many of her finest compositions date from the 1960s, including Symphonies for piano, wind and percussion (1961), The Valley of Hatsu-se for soprano and instrumental ensemble (1965), the opera The Numbered (1967), Novenaria for orchestra (1967) and Essence of our Happiness for chorus and orchestra (1968). During this period she also worked on radio, documentary films and especially feature films, including Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (1960) and Paranoiac (1962) for Hammer and The Earth Dies Screaming (1964) for Lippert Films. In the early years of the Amicus film company, she was their ‘house ’ composer: her budget-friendly gift for creating distinctive, exotic textures with reduced forces greatly enhanced the mood of Dr. Terror ’s House of Horrors (1964), The Skull (1965), The Psychopath (1966) and The Terrornauts (1967), for example. In her last years, whilst most of her income came from television repeats of these horror

14 3 and fantasy films, she produced a steady flow of scores, notably the intense To the loss of his spirit, his reason, his world. Requiescat for soprano and string trio, in memory of Stravinsky (1971), Driving The beasts are loose, inside. out the Death for oboe quartet (1971), Rondel for orchestra (1976) and Music for Our killdom ’s crime Orchestra IV (1981). She completed Triolet I and II , epigrammatic collections of Man ’s will be done. miniatures just before her death in 1983. As he was in the beginning So shall he end, in slime. Elisabeth Lutyens was a pioneer in British music, both as a woman composer and O what is there to sing! as a serialist. Her exceptional prolificacy was achieved largely whilst raising four Man conquered everything. children and supporting her mostly unemployed husband. She is habitually Hate stares out of every face. described as a ‘miniaturist ’, but, concise though many of her works are, and The final victory is near frequently involving chamber forces, she also handled a large orchestra expertly And the baaing of the doomed as they toe and wrote effectively on a substantial scale, as evidenced by the masterly Their righteous marks in the butchers ’ race Quincunx , written between October 1959 and February 1960. Is the only sound I hear. A ‘quincunx ’ is an arrangement of five objects – four occupying the corners of a IV Fall of the evening star square and a fifth the centre. The core of Lutyens ’ design is the extended middle Speak softly sun going down movement, an intensely elegiac setting of a passage by Sir Thomas Browne from Out of sight. The Gardens of Cyrus for unaccompanied baritone voice, wordless soprano and Come near me now. full orchestra, surrounded by four other sections for orchestra. These five tutti Dear dying fall of wings as birds sections enclose four segments for single instrumental groups – woodwind, strings, Complain against the gathering dark Exaggerate the green blood in grass; percussion and brass in turn. The music of leaves scraping space; In a structure combining great strength and delicacy, Lutyens derives a rich, Multiply the stillness by one sound; luxuriant tone and a chamber-music clarity and precision from large forces. She By one syllable of your name draws the listener in to the piece with its potent emotional expressiveness and And all that is little is soon giant, satisfyingly varied textures as the melodic line passes fluently from one group of All that is rare grows in common beauty instruments to another, developing intuitively, this last quality especially apparent To rest with my mouth on your mouth As somewhere a star falls in the atmospheric coda-finale. In its tender romanticism and often pointillist, And the earth takes it softly in natural love gossamer textures, including piquant use of mandolin and guitar, Quincunx is as Exactly as we take each other and go to sleep. much a spiritual successor to the nocturnal central movements of Mahler ’s Seventh Symphony, as to Schoenberg and Webern ’s orchestral pieces. First Words printed by kind permission of Universal Edition (London) Limited performed at the Cheltenham Festival on 12 July 1962, it was critically acclaimed to a degree rarely achieved by her works. 4 13 II If we are to know where we live Elisabeth Lutyens : And Suddenly it’s Evening Op.66 I came to the house: One of Elisabeth Lutyens ’ most celebrated pieces, And Suddenly It ’s Evening It was dark. (1966) was composed for the inaugural concert of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in It was hell standing there. 1967, the most prestigious commission she had received to date. Planned as a No one answered my knock. choral work, she thought initially in terms of Monteverdi ’s madrigals, then What are they doing in my house? canzonas of Gabrielli, with their alternating, divided of voices and brass, I tapped on the window. and interspersed her vocal line with contrasting blocks of sound for four brass I banged on the door. instruments and a double bass. For further contrast, she added two more They pulled the shades. They threw the heavy bolt. instrumental groups – one of harp, celesta and percussion, the other of violin, horn But I knew what they wanted and cello. Upon completion, the had been replaced by the more intense And I saw what I was not to see medium of a solo tenor singing four poems by the Sicilian Salvatore Quasimodo, And I heard what I was not to hear whose literary tone appealed to her. They wanted to murder the thing within the house. The piece is woven together by constant ritornelli , ‘ returnings ’ of the various I saw my own face with the knives above it. instrumental groups (in the manner of Monteverdi), with the brass/double bass I heard my own screams as they tortured me. And I was everyone. also commenting on the other performers ’ interplay. In her use of the We all stood there. instrumental groups both introducing and rounding off the four poems, Lutyens defines the work ’s sectional structure. The line from which she took her title may III Lament for the makers of songs suggest a reflection on life after turbulent years of marriage to her late husband, Now the singers leave the darkened garden. Edward Clark: ‘Everyone is alone on the heart of the earth pierced by a ray of sun: The rash and the holy are still, without light, and suddenly it ’s evening ’. In this poignant last section, both ritornelli groups Hands, now slack as rags they once held love . together present and bid farewell to the unaccompanied tenor, whilst the final Their instruments fall, and they rot on the ground. statement belongs to the brass chorus. Fools of God, they go. The flowery tree is dead. And Suddenly It ’s Evening is one of Lutyens ’ most sensual and directly appealing The cry of the bitter snow and works, its relative simplicity of texture and form creating a unique poetic The giggling of pimps in a hangman ’s bed immediacy. Block chordal writing for brass generates resonant harmonies Are the only songs I know. echoing the valedictory quality of Quasimodo ’s poems (in an English translation The sun goes down on the reddening tide. by Jack Bevan). In addition, the extensive but discerningly applied percussion Chains rattle on a bloody rock section conjures up a luminous, hallucinatory world enshrining all four poems, This is the cross which man has made; transforming the piece into one continuous song of considerable clarity and And this, the wheel and the murder, the hunger the fear, and impact. Its refined symmetry and sonic allure won the composer a standing the pain which man has moulded 12 5 ovation at its first performance, given by Herbert Handt and the BBC Symphony IV And suddenly it’s evening Orchestra Chamber Ensemble at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 3 March 1967. Everyone is alone on the heart of the earth pierced by a ray of sun: David Bedford : Music for Albion Moonlight and suddenly it ’s evening. David Bedford, born in London in 1937, studied at the Royal Academy of Music Words printed by kind permission of Penguin Books Limited with . In 1961 an R.A.M. grant enabled him to study with in Venice. In the late 1960s he played keyboards with ’ cult band The Whole World , followed by numerous collaborations with rock musicians, David Bedford notably in arrangements for ( The Orchestral ). He Music for Albion Moonlight orchestrated films such as The Killing Fields and Orlando , was Choral Co- words by Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972) ordinator for The Mission and wrote original music for the Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense television series. I So it ends What are these very desolate ones His first significant work was Piece for Mo (1963), which already displays a Going to darling? fastidious and lyrical sense of harmony and texture, and a strongly individual Oh branches black musical character. An acute sensitivity to language and atmosphere is further Hooves sklitter across the moon evidenced in the Patchen poetry setting That White and Radiant Legend for Jesus those things down there are nearly all soprano, instrumental ensemble and reader (1966), The Tentacles of the Dark Mad and life is going to die Nebula , for tenor and strings (1969), and Star Clusters, Nebulae and Places in Cities blackened and still the black awful waters churning in over everything Devon , for two eight-part choirs and orchestra or brass (1971). Bedford ’s prolific All the thinking beautiful and varied output includes orchestral works such as Star ’s End (1974) and Twelve Flesh blown to hell Hours of Sunset (1976) (one of four BBC Proms commissions), Fridiof’s Saga Oh where can (1980), a children’s opera trilogy based on Scandinavian legends, A Charm of We take the music of summer and light Grace (1995) for the BBC singers ’ 70 th birthday season and the operas The The touch the scent the color of Being alive on this earth where Prostitutes’ Padre (1998) and My Mother My Sister and I (1999). The body of a loved woman the sight of a deer An important and innovative aspect of Bedford ’s craft, dating back to creative With first star of evening through its horns and work with schoolchildren in the early 1960s, is composing for educational My God the feel of human lips on your face purposes, leading to Seascapes (1986) and Frameworks (1989), in which students All life is going to die are encouraged to create their own music in the context of a public concert with a The terrible hooves blotting out everything professional orchestra. His major educational piece is Stories from the O my God the touch of human lips on my face. Dreamtime , (1991) for 40 hearing impaired children and symphony orchestra. Recent projects include Over the Wine-Dark Sea (2005), a commission from 6 11 ardours and delight. ‘Sounds New ’ for young adults with special needs from the Orpheus centre, a Beauty deluded us, vanishing group of deaf children and chamber orchestra, first performed in October 2005 at of every memory and form, Canterbury Festival, and Gods, Goddesses and Magical Creatures (2007), the first the lapse and slide revealed to feelings ever commission for an orchestra of deaf children. mirroring the inner splendours. But from the deeps of your blood with no Music for Albion Moonlight (1965), written for soprano and flute, clarinet, violin, pain, in the just human time cello, alto-melodica and piano, consists of vivid, intense settings of words by we shall be born again. Kenneth Patchen separated by three short instrumental interludes. Albion Moonlight is the hero of one of Patchen ’s novels, but the four texts featured in III Almost a madrigal David Bedford ’s work are taken from various poetry collections. Bedford has been The sunflower bends to the west inspired by Patchen regularly ever since: one of his most recent pieces, The Soft and day precipitates in its ruined Stars that Shine at Night for choir and orchestra, first performed in 2007, includes eye and summer ’s air three Patchen settings. thickens, curls already the leaves and smoke of the builders ’ yards. The last trick of the skies The musical material of Music for Albion Moonlight is based entirely on a series fades with the dry glide of clouds and lightning ’s creak. of chords, used in a number of ways to produce varied material, for example, Once more, love, as in other years we are held contracted into a small span, giving rise to cluster-type chords, or presented in by the changing trees clustered inside the encircling succession, providing melodic material for the voice. The soprano, who prevails canals. But the day is ours still. over the ensemble with a wide-ranging line, intensifies the effect of her words with It is still that sun that takes its leave several different sorts of delivery: whispering, humming, speaking, shouting, and with the thread of its friendly beam. toneless or dead-toned singing as well as the usual vibrato. Instrumental I have no memories, no wish to remember; interludes separate the four poems, acting both as postludes to the previous poem memory springs from death; life has no end. Each day and, by gradually or abruptly changing character, as preludes to the next poem. is ours. One day will stop forever Bedford was teaching part-time in a school at the time of writing the piece and was and you, with me, when our time seems to grow late. very taken with the alto melodica, really a school instrument, and its ability to play Here on the canal bank, like children clusters and to execute dramatically quick changes of volume, hence its inclusion with feet swinging, we watch the water, in the score. the first branches in its darkening green. The settings cover a wide emotional range, from eruptions of brutality and And the man approaching in silence hides no knife in his hand, aggression (during the first poem the soprano is required to scream the word ‘hell ’ but a geranium flower. into the open piano, with a petrifying downward glissando , amplified by the resonance of the piano-strings), to the passive tranquillity of the last setting, where

10 7 delicate instrumental interpolations underpin a hushed, somnolent vocal line. The Elisabeth Lutyens second poem, paving the way for the expressionistic second interlude, has an Quincunx, after Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) abundance of unconventional sounds, for example the episode where the players are requested to produce, staccato and triple forte , ‘ what they consider to be the But the Quincunx of Heaven runs low, and ‘tis time to close the fire ports of ugliest noise possible on their instrument ’. A variety of sonorities are drawn from Knowledge ; we are unwilling to spin out our waking thoughts into the phantasms of the piano, using its keyboard, pedals, wood and strings, even by other instruments sleep ; which often continueth praecogitations : making Cables of Cobwebbes, and Wildernesses of handsome Groves. playing into it. A T-shaped, wooden, rubber-edged ‘cluster stick ’, devised by the composer, is occasionally applied directly on the piano-strings, deadening their Elisabeth Lutyens tone. And Suddenly it’s Evening The mixture of pain, anger, longing and resignation driving Kenneth Patchen ’s words by Salvatore Quasimodo (1901-1968) poetry elicits imaginative and compelling responses from Bedford. A measure of translated by Jack Bevan interpretative and practical freedom is afforded the performers, as in the first I On the willow boughs poem, where all the players are asked to render the imaginary word ‘Sklitter ’ And we, how could we sing , without any notational assistance and in the second poem, where the extremely with a foreign foot in our heart, slow violin glissando can start ‘on any very high note ’. Despite such chance among dead abandoned in the squares, elements, the work is meticulously composed, as in the judicious, closely regulated on the grass hard with ice, application of sustained chords and contrasting, fragile staccato groups. David to the lamb bleat of children, Bedford submitted the piece to the Society for the Promotion of New Music, who the black howl of the mother programmed it at the 1965 Cheltenham Festival with soloist Josephine Nendick going towards her son and English Chamber Orchestra players conducted by John Carewe. At SPNM crucified on a pole? concerts at this time, a ‘first speaker ’ regularly got up and commented on the On the willow boughs as an offering pieces and, on this occasion, the composer Wilfred Josephs described Music for even our lyres were hung Albion Moonlight as the best new piece he had heard for 10 years. and swayed light in the sad wind.

PAUL CONWAY II In the just human time In the wind of deep light she lies, my loved one of the time of doves. Alone among the living, love, you talk of waters, leaves and me, and your voice consoles the naked night with shining

8 9 LUTYENS : QUINCUNX / AND SUDDENLY IT’S EVENNEINNGDICK/SHIRLEY-QUIRK/MANNING LYRITA BEDFORD : MUSIC FOR ALBION MOONLIGHT BBCSO/DEL MAR/HANDT/CAREWE SRCD.265 D D ) ) ) ) ) ”) ”) ”) ”) ”) A ”) 2” 7” 3” 2” 5 end. 39 02 11 21 33 5 .26 e w 10”) 52”) 14” ’2 ’1 ’3 ’0 C ’2 rano 1’ 2’ 4’ 2’ 4’ the ( ( ( (5 (5 (7 (7 ( ( B EO stra CD n (29’ (23’ (24’ B e (77 sop Care after R ve e he li n S ne th TER tc o ing, f g Orch oh S J we o Pa in and y b rs y on th ar e er d ven Mann ork, Time h be st w E ne ph te e w c s or m ’ it du n a J Ken Sy Mem UK con Human know by *** evening . the movement to e n i h Just t and each Suddenly e ar ings e 1937) gl ds wor f soprano of 1983) (1906- , o d th : coda-finale En * tra str woodwind . (b g Quasimodo n Made ita we llo 3 4 5 all 2 1 In A by f i i i 0) I F e r yr L t t t NS li li innin ce rk. e dt, o ches r o o , eg RD ned th b ma ut T II S S IV II IV ut T ut T 196 Edition, an om r ( lin Or f e lvat d ow H of th 4 2 4 6 8 FO 10 12 14 16 18 t ** vio is y n irecto Sa r rs trade o E UTY e /d h UK b be L by license e befor de ecor ED Op.4 ed r or R m 01”) 35”) ne mp B *** dings or piano, O Her (1966) y ten (9’ (5’ 3WX, S ds or Me TH , lusive (1’36”) (2’09”) (2’46”) (0’54”) (2’03”) ec r egiste r ** a yrita L w ID ses. ’15”) ’58”) 66 ca, gs a , exc au (5 (7 str p 1965) NP25 is owne Br ( lodi BBC o an 2008 son ABE Op. sound tw V A D mble me ൿ of se IS che or yrita L t, under rs d e the ense e include EL ne in ed an r Mar Thomas Monmouth, rano stering stra l ari ach Evening o l be ir e mak Moonlight gal n ight c Boughs 87, s S England. sop ’ De a , bariton ema r , dri it oduc Pr he n pr t ham ion ow Orche Box ute o l copyr c l fter sion Ma il s f normally irk, or ma nly O s a d ll f , ngland. ON. ds Alb a one digital P W ndick Edition, E t wi The Qu an ne d nt en y hon st ass Nor DITI or Ne o ano, the ari he cu er r t f t Ltd, E t i ings i b e p b ley- by 1970 : Sudde 2 1 lmo o ic tim opr 3 4 de cor ymp and enor l ncunx, i i Edition, On A Lame S s bar s t o i i i t t hir d ൿ S ed r state ua Re d * S n RDED E e * ephin tion * I ut T Mu Int ut T III for A for for III Qu Sol I Sol ivid n ita CO ila ** nduct s o J ind d cor BBC 1 3 5 7 9 yr L 11 13 15 17 RE oh J stone * co ve Re 969 08 comp bo 1 a a Wya it 20 is A RIT e ൿ Th yr L * © Th by Y L

LUTYENS : QUINCUNX / AND SUDDENLY IT’S EVENNEINNGDICK/SHIRLEY-QUIRK/MANNING LYRITA BEDFORD : MUSIC FOR ALBION MOONLIGHT BBCSO/DEL MAR/HANDT/CAREWE SRCD.265