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Home , Michael Tippett, William Walton

May 1983 Marxism Today 39

SIR Malcolm Barry

The death of Sir William Turner Walton in March gives rise to one certainty — and are now the Grand Old Men of British music. Yet Tippett remains one of the most eternally youthful in looks and preoccupations while Bush's perpetual search for renewals, in both music and personal senses, are a model to younger musicians. Walton, it seems, was the reverse — middle aged throughout his career, a span which embraced a childhood in and a graceful autumnal existence on a Mediterranean island. Like Gracie Fields, another Lancastrian who 'made it big', Walton's career demonstrates the power of accommodation — the enfant terrible or popular entertainer gradually becoming an establishment figure and, in the process, losing the bite and vitality of earlier offerings. In the 1920s Walton's association with the Sitwells and his comparatively strait­ ened financial circumstancecs made him eclectic and modernistically inclined. Whether orchestrating for a band or composing Facade, Walton demonstrated at once the desire to 'ape the bourgeoisie', so characteristic of the 1920s, and the 40 May 1983 Marxism Today

essentially phoney nature of the revolt. the distinguished figure. But by this time it Facade (1922) is clever, the conception of is questionable as to whether he was really short snappy jazzy pieces illustrating the interested in his own musical development. clever wordage of 's poetry. It He had married an Argentinian woman of is amusing but ultimately represents its title considerable means, which enabled him to all too well. move to the Mediterranean. His music Similarly with the other great work of the after 1945 is a curious mixture of autumnal 1920s, the (1929). The feeling and occasional lurches after the viola is not well represented in the concerto recapture of a lost youth — a Second repertoire, the more brilliant violin occupy­ Symphony (1960) and two operas, ing the limelight, but the examples of and Cressida (1954) and (1967). and , player All were received politely and turned aside and composer respectively, did much to lift from. For by this time new stars were in the the neglected instrument from its obscurity ascendancy, particularly Britten and during the 1920s. Walton's Concerto makes Tippett. a contribution to this, too, but there is a Walton's remaining years produced a distinct tension in the work between the series of works, crafted well enough in an of the language and Walton's English sort of manner (ie, provincial in mixed convictions about such modernism. terms of European art music) but somehow The result is a hybrid work. drifting further away into isolation. It is Walton was always destined to be a significant that University Press, 'public' composer: the scandal surrounding his publishers, actively promoted his Facade caught general attention. The earlier music in his 80th year: his more 1930s saw him move easily into this role recent output was honoured more in the with two works that confirmed him as one breach than in the observance. of Britain's leading composers. First, In no sense could Walton be called an Belshazzar's Feast (1931). This is an heroic figure in the manner of Britten or , in the English choral tradition of Tippett or even Vaughan Williams. His Elgar's Dream of Gerontius and countless natural predilections emerged in the 1920s 19th century works of lesser distinction. The episode clearly supports Hugh and found their perfect counterpart in the Belshazzar's Feast, however, sounds pagan: Ottoway's opinion (in the new edition of clever, amusing but ultimately vacuous its occasionally hard modernisms did not Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians) ethos of the Sitwells and their friends. He, commend it to the guardians of that that Walton was a 'reluctant' composer, not and Facade, stand as a perfect commentary tradition but the advocacy of Malcolm in the sense of putting notes to paper but of the avant-garde of the 1920s. His most Sargent, who conducted the first perform­ rather in the final release of a finished work enduring work, Belshazzar's Feast stands at ance, ensured that it secured a place in the and consequent public commitment. right angles to the tradition it furthered repertoire. With this work, mixing a By this time Walton was making money and, in that, is of interest. Other than that, self-conscious modernism and an English — big money — out of film scores. His he stands as the epitome of a shooting star tradition, Walton had really arrived. music for the Olivier Shakespeare canon, in the world of music and a reputation as But a composer was not a composer who filmed to stir morale in the Second World much deserving of sympathy as of criti­ had not written a symphony and Walton's War, stands as an excellent example of the cism. Except that the current Gramophone second major work of the 1930s was in that mixture between craft and commerce. With Classical Catalogue has more than two form. This was written in 1935. His this music, in which traces of the abrasive columns of recordings of his music. Tippett hesitations over it and his changes of mind sounds derived from Hindemith can still be rates just over one column and Alan Bush over placing of movements have been heard, Walton became very much the one single entry. So this emptiness must documented in issues of the Musical Times. British composer, the rallier of the troops, suit some tastes. . .