The New Reasoner Spring 1959 number 8

BERNARD STEVENS Bernard Stevens : 75 Rutland Boughton

The intellect of man is forced to choose Perfection of the life, or of the work, And if it take the second must refuse A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark. W. B. Yeats. During the past year a number of performances of Boughton's works have taken place in honour of his eightieth birthday on January the twenty-third, 1958. The Rutland Boughton Trust, formed by a group of his friends and admirers, arranged six stage productions of his choral drama Bethlehem in Aylesbury (his birth- place), (the scene of most of his important activity), and . The Midland Region of the B.B.C. gave a programme of excerpts from his from Birmingham (where his early pro- fessional life was spent). The Trust has other plans for the promo- tion of Boughton's works and there is to be a revival of his most famous at Sadlers Wells Theatre, Lon- don. The occasion is therefore appropriate for a study of his life and work; it is to be hoped that this article may be considered as a preliminary survey for such a study. Moreover, the issues of socialism in relation to aesthetics, integrity and morality, which are today of such crucial importance, arise vividly and dramatically in the career of Rutland Boughton. Even before he left school at fourteen, Boughton had already decided to be a composer. His father, lacking the money with which to launch him on a comprehensive academic course of study, took the surprising but wise step of apprenticing him to a leading Lon- On leaving the R.C.M. he became an orchestral musician in don concert agent. Boughton was thus brought face to face with the various London theatres (like his fellow-student Hoist), which careerism and intrigues of the musical world at the outset of his helped to canalise his creative thinking into the operatic form and career and was thus spared later disillusionment; this experience to give him that indefinable sense of the theatre that his later stage led him later to seek new forms of patronage, untainted by com- works possess. So far, most of his ambitious works were for mercialism. Although quite untaught at this time in theoretical orchestra but an invitation from Bantock to join the staff of the principles he nevertheless composed with facility and self-confi- Birmingham School of as a teacher of choral singing was of dence acquired from making the most of his opportunities to hear great importance to his development both musically and in ideas; the best music in London. Stanford, then the principal teacher of he was brought into contact with the rich English choral tradition composition at the (he taught Hoist and and with the human aspects of organising musical activity. At the Vaughan Williams among others), discerned the melodic gift in same time his intellectual sympathies widened to include Morris, these early pieces and arranged for him to study at the R.C.M Blatchford, Carpenter and Shaw (who was later to become one of Economic difficulties, in addition to his already characteristic his staunchest friends and admirers). His setting of part of Car- impatience, caused him to leave the R.C.M. after only one year, penter's Towards Democracy in his cantata Midnight, produced but it was a valuable year in that it gave him access to the most with great success at the Birmingham Festival of 1909, showed for vital movement in English music at that time and established his the first time what was to remain his outstanding musical quality life-long friendship with Vaughan Williams, then a fellow-student. V vivid and masterly choral writing. 76 The New Reasoner Bernard Stevens : Rutland Boughton 77 The two dominant trends in British music at the beginning of the Twentieth Century stemmed from Wagner and Brahms. The former appeal directly to the emotions rather than by intellectual argu- won the adherence of progressive musicians for his advanced musi- ment. The music dramas of the future, in Boughton's view, must cal language as well as for the revolutionary content of his dramas. embody the real experience of men but in a more direct and imme- Brahms was the model for the academics because he retained diate way than in the generalised symbolism of Wagner. The classical forms and denied sociological implications in his music. chorus must be given a much more active and dramatic role, as in To-day, the similarities between Wagner and Brahms are much Greek drama, and the musical language must be deeply rooted in more obvious than their differences and it is difficult for us to folk-song. appreciate the violence of the enmity between the two camps. There Like Wagner, he considered national folk-legends to be the most is no doubt, however, that Wagner's role, historically, was more appropriate setting for the exposition of his philosophy as they progressive in his contribution towards the liberation of musical were already well-known and would thus avoid the necessity of forms and the deepening of the expressive powers of the musical narrative (a constant source of difficulty in opera), leaving the com- language. In the early 1900s the negative aspects of Wagner's poser free to develop and deepen the emotional implications (as influence, particularly in regard to German heaviness and rhythmi- Morris had done already, poetically, in his The Defence of cal restriction, had not yet revealed themselves. Guenevere). Bernard Shaw's musical and ideological attitudes led him Boughton embarked on a series of music dramas based on the inevitably into the Wagnerian camp and Boughton was soon to Arthurian legends and after having completed the first, The Birth follow, in the company of Holbrooke, but not that of Vaughan of Arthur in 1909, moved to Glastonbury in order that the people Williams (who remained loyal to his Brahmsian teachers, Parry of this traditionally Arthurian district could become closely asso- and Stanford). Holbrooke was alive to the possibilities of Wagner's ciated with their production. With Regnald Buckley as librettist dramatic ideas in relation to British music but only Boughton and Christina Walshe as producer he laid the plans, in 1913, for the grasped their full sociological and philosophical implications. In Glastonbury Festival Theatre and obtained the support of such the years immediately preceding the First World War, in lectures, leading personalities as Elgar, Shaw and, later, Beecham and Barry pamphlets, such as The Music Drama of the Future, and, above all, Jackson. Rather than wait until all the necessary conditions existed in his biography of J. S. Bach, he formulated his views on the for the launching of the Arthurian cycle, he decided, in 1914, to social basis and function of music. These views were not new in produce first the less demanding The Immortal Hour. The impact their general character (they had already been expressed by Morris was overwhelming, thanks to the skilful but simple production, the and Wagner), but they made a powerful impact through the pre- sense of unity of purpose shown by the combined amateur and pro- cision and vividness of Boughton's historical sense, the exciting fessional cast (which included famous as well as then quite new possibilities for British music he envisaged, but most of all unknown singers), but above all through the almost hypnotic power through the vital and romantic personality of Boughton himself. of the music. Many of his contemporaries bear witness to the extraordinary The outbreak of the First World War terminated the activities scenes of enthusiasm at Boughton's lectures and rehearsals, com- of the new company as a professional group but Boughton con- parable with those of the great Nineteenth Century evangelical tinued his project with exclusively local amateur talent. The choral preachers. drama Bethlehem, based on the Coventry Carol, was composed for Boughton's view that the language of European music had them and, in spite of its simplicity, remains one of his most evolved from folk-song, through medieval polyphony and so-called endearing works, largely on account of its melodic beauty and ' Classical' harmony, to be finally liberated in Nineteenth Century superb choral writing. This and the second of the Arthurian cycle, ' tone-colour', led him to the conclusion, already hinted at by The Round Table, as well as other works that conformed in part Wagner, that the period of so-called ' pure' or ' abstract' music to Boughton's ideas, such as Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Gluck's was over and that henceforth music would have meaning only in Iphigenia and Oithone by Boughton's fellow-student, Edgar Bain- relation to the other arts; music drama was the form in which this ton, were all performed by this group during the war years. relationship was most likely to be fully realised. Like Wagner he After the war the Glastonbury project moved forward with every held the function of these music dramas to be not merely to pro- sign of becoming permanent. The first two of the Arthurian cycle vide esthetic pleasure (although they should certainly do this), but we reproduced in 1920, Boughton's setting of 's to present a comprehensive philosophy of life that would make its translation of Alkestis of in 1922 and that of Hardy's The Queen of Cornwall in 1924. Meanwhile Boughton's work was 78 The New Reasoner Bernard Stevens : Rutland Boughton 79 making its impact on London. Barry Jackson's production of The Government and Party on aesthetic questions; he considers Immortal Hour in 1922 and that of Alkestis at in Zhdanov's speeches of 1948 to be in accord with his own long- 1924 established Boughton as Britain's leading opera composer. held principles. But the Soviet invasion of Hungary convinced him The Immortal Hour with its many subsequent revivals had by far that the Soviet leaders feared the workers' strength as much as did the longest run of any British opera before or since. Alkestis had the British Labour Party and Trade Union leaders in 1926. Still many performances and would have become a standard work of more, when the British Communist Party leaders showed the the repertory if the finances of Covent Garden had been more stable same fear he no longer acknowledged the right of that party to and if there had existed a real policy for national opera. Bethlehem claim leadership of the workers and so withdrew from its ranks. too was being performed by innumerable amateur choral societies This action is a testimony to Boughton's mental and spiritual throughout the country. resilience at the age of seventy-eight, as also is his recent letter to The failure of the Glastonbury Festival Theatre after 1924 is The New Statesman in which he praises the author of Doctor attributable to many factors, not least Boughton's clear and uncom- Zhivago for his truthful portrayal of a man brought to degradation promising advocacy of his socialist principles and his refusal to by the inhumanity that surrounded him. In a profile on his eightieth modify them in order to win over would-be patrons. In 1927, in birthday, the Daily Worker quoted him as saying ' Any politics the face of increasing financial difficulties, he became a small- based on lies will sooner or later suffer, however well meaning farmer in Gloucestershire, where he has remained to this day. But politicians may be, because lies undermine the whole foundations there was no diminution of his musical and political activities. He of human relationships. A liar is not believed and a liar cannot was a forceful advocate in the Labour Party of greater musical believe in the honesty of other people. Those who support evil in activity by working-people and, with the support of Herbert other countries will be prepared to execute it in their own.' The Morrison, established the London Labour Choral Union which anonymous writer of the Profile commented on this ' It may be that remained the most vital element in working-class music until the this dictum involves a conception of absolute truth that does not Labour Party itself killed it by its fear and hatred of militant exist but it exemplifies the man.' It certainly does exemplify the socialism and drove Boughton into the ranks of the Communist man but that it also exemplifies millions of honest working-people Party. Recently I was shown a copy of the Daily Herald, dated as well seems to be beyond the grasp of the present Communist December 24, 1928, in which the whole of the back page was Party leaders. devoted to Boughton's Lullaby of a working mother, a simple, Boughton is today a legendary figure that derives from recollec- poignant work of art and a vivid reminder of the high cultural and tions of his phenomenal success in the 1920s (which survives only political level once reached by that paper before it began to ape in his ever-popular Foery Song from The Immortal Hour), the its rivals. During this period Boughton was also active with Shaw romantic atmosphere of the Glastonbury Festivals and an almost and Frederick Austin in the successful campaign for the improve- complete ignorance of his major works. The reality of Boughton ment of copyright conditions for authors and composers. will be known only when the Arthurian cycle, The Queen of Corn- Boughton continued to draw upon the Arthurian legends in wall and Alkestis have received productions worthy of their con- much of his later work, in spite of the failure of the Glastonbury tent. An experienced musician can assimilate much of a symphony project. In 1934 his The Lily Maid, to his own libretto based on from study of the score but this is quite impossible with an opera the story of Elaine and Lancelot, was produced at Stroud in where so much of its meaning is contained in the production itself. Gloucestershire and later in London. His last three operas Galahad, The whole history of opera from Monteverdi's Orfeo to Berg's Avalon and The Ever-Young, completed in 1946, have not yet been Wozzek is proof of this. It is certain that Wagner's Ring, denied produced. its realisation at Bayreuth would have failed to make its impact. Boughton joined the Communist Party rather in protest against Boughton's historical importance in the history of British opera the betrayal of socialism by the Labour Party than through accep- is acknowledged by all authorities, notably E. J. Dent. The present tance of the theory of dialectical materialism. He says today that high level of British operatic achievement in such works as Brit- his socialism has always been that of Morris and Blatchford rather ten's Peter Grimes, Walton's Troilus and Cressida and Tippett's than that of Marx arid Engels. But this in no way prevented his Midsummer Marriage would have been impossible without Bough- giving full loyalty to the Party, as the only one pledged to bring ton's pioneering work. The skilful use of amateur resources in the working-class to power, and to the Soviet Union, as the first Britten's recent Noyes Flodde stems from Boughton's experiments workers' republic. He is still in general agreement with the Soviet at Glastonbury. 80 The New Reasoner Bernard Stevens : Rutland Boughton 81 Spontaneous melodic invention for the human voice is one of view of the completely decadent character of Twentieth Century his outstanding gifts. In this respect he is more endowed than West European art (subsequently re-affirmed in the Soviet attitude Vaughan Williams, whose melodic style became restricted as he jn the 1930s), and led him to adopt an attitude of resistance to the developed in other respects. The continuous fertilisation from influence of his contemporaries, an influence that might well have English folk-song and his vivid insight into human states of mind enriched his harmonic and rhythmical style without in any way and feeling enriched Boughton's invention so that, as in the love- deflecting him from his course. duet from The Queen of Cornwall, it often reaches great heights The contrast with Vaughan Williams springs to mind. of lyrical eloquence. He is sometimes accused of lack of technical Vaughan Williams' early work, such as the Sea Symphony command; this is certainly untrue of his choral writing which is (a setting of Walt Whitman), has much in common with unsurpassed in mastery by any of his contemporaries. In other res- Boughton's, namely a melodic style originating in folk-song pects, such as his use of the orchestra and in the structures of his (but, as already mentioned, less spontaneous than Boughton's), a operas his technical problems were closely involved with the mastery of choral sonorities, a harmonic style of mainly late Nine- originality of his conceptions and the degree of his success cannot teenth Century German romanticism. After his study with Ravel be assessed without reference to adequate performances, so con- in Paris, however, and after he had made a close study of Sixteenth spicuously absent in his case. Century polyphony, Vaughan Williams' range widens and deepens The extraordinary success of The Immortal Hour distracted without his becoming French or pseudo-archaic. His greatest work, attention from the more full-blooded character of his best work. the Fourth Symphony, shows clear signs of the influence of Hinde- E. J. Dent has called The Immortal Hour the English Peleas and mith and his late choral music that of the Stravinski of the Sym- Melisande and so contributed to the picture of Boughton as more phony of Psalms, but his utterance remains very English and concerned with impressionism and remoteness than with the reality personal. of human experience. Alkestis, perhaps Boughton's finest work, is Boughton, more naturally gifted than Vaughan Williams, has rich in wonder and magic but there is always a firm human basis. even more strength of musical personality with which to resist any The harmonic and rhythmical resources of Boughton's music do, possible over-powering by such influences and his means of expres- however, in my opinion, reveal limitations that prevent the full sion would have become more fully adequate for the realisation of realisation of his aims. The revolutionary character of Wagner's his objectives had he allowed these influences to be felt. As it is, dramatic conception is matched by a corresponding revolution in his music remains in the period of while his great musical language. Boughton's language, however, except in regard soul reaches forward. Here lies the only negative aspect of the to melody, makes little advance on that of Wagner, in spite of the moral and spiritual courage and independence that Vaughan great originality of his dramatic conception. This discrepancy stems Williams admired in Boughton to the end of his life and gives some in large measure from Boughton's aesthetic and political philo- answer to the question why the rich personality of the man is not sophy. He is uncompromising in his hostility to ' modernism', by fully present in the music. Boughton places human loyalties above which he means all music that is identified with West European artistic considerations; art, for him, is forever at the service of bourgeois society. He refuses to accept the possibility that such humanity. In this he is greater as a man but less as an artist, in composers as Stravinski, Bartok, Hindemith and Schonberg have ironic contrast to his beloved Wagner, for whom no intrigue or contributed anything that can be of value to a socialist composer. dishonesty was too mean with which to serve his artistic ends. Here This attitude reflects an uncritical acceptance of the theory we are brought face to face with the central problem of the moral of cultural growth and decay as exemplified in Flinders Petrie's responsibility of the artist. Neither Wagner nor Boughton, from Revolutions of Civilisations (1911), a work that Boughton admits their opposed positions, would admit there is any problem at all. as a decisive influence on his thought. Petrie was a remarkable Wagner achieved his Bayreuth, Boughton did not but might well archaeologist and his theory might well have provided a useful have done so if he had had some of Wagner's cunning and oppor- hypothesis for a study of aesthetic movements but, as he formu- tunism. Which is the more deserving of our admiration? lated it, it is too mechanistic and is by no means borne out by sub- For myself, as a member of a younger generation of composers, sequent archaeological discoveries. Its influence on Boughton would Boughton is a constant challenge to my artistic and moral prin- have been less decisive had he qualified it by reference to the ciples and by the warmth of his personality and his unshaken social and economic forces that influence art and which Petrie belief in the possibility of human happiness an ever-renewing almost completely ignores. In the event, the theory confirmed his source of courage and hope.