West Chester University Digital Commons @ West Chester University

Music Theory, History & Composition College of Visual & Performing Arts

12-2014 Hamilton Harty: Musical Polymath, by Jeremy Dibble (review) Julian Onderdonk West Chester University of Pennsylvania, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/musichtc_facpub Part of the Musicology Commons

Recommended Citation Onderdonk, J. (2014). Hamilton Harty: Musical Polymath, by Jeremy Dibble (review). Notes, 71(2), 292-295. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/musichtc_facpub/31

This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Visual & Performing Arts at Digital Commons @ West Chester University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Music Theory, History & Composition by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ West Chester University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 292 Notes, December 2014 state, resonance assumed the utmost impor- moving set of performances, at once playful tance for Mompou’s musical expression, and profound. There are other recordings being for him the point of transformation of the complete works, by Mompou himself between sound and silence, like bells heard late in his life and Pla’s colleague at from a distance, when one could still sense ESMUC Jordi Masó, but Pla’s interpreta- the vibrations after the sound had ceased. tions are distinctive and welcome additions. Pla points out that the piano, with its The book and CD-set are well worth hav- unique harmonics, is the only instrument ing in larger music libraries as well as that could produce the resonance Mom- smaller institutions where the Spanish (or pou perceived in silence, and thus his nar- Catalan) would not be an obstacle for pa- row compositional focus on the instrument. trons. German and English translations are As Mompou moved to greater brevity of being planned and could be ready during expression, the music’s meaning resided in 2015. The recordings alone would be a wel- the sonority itself, sound that could stand come addition to any library. Pianists and alone without the need for complex devel- adventurous listeners who are looking for a opment or dramatic climaxes. Stephen “Fresh Start” would do well to add both Hough captures the significance of book and CDs to their personal library. Mompou’s bell sounds in saying they “are Writing about sensuous experience is not so much a call to prayer, as a prayer never a substitute for the direct experience, itself—an abstract orison celebrating a but words can guide us and lead us back to sacredness in the very quiver of the metal” the experience. El eterno recomenzar is a com- (notes to Piano Music by Federico Mompou, pelling and joyful invitation into Mompou’s Hyperion CDA 66963 [1997], CD). And in sonorous world, and the recordings make it the prologue to El eterno recomenzar, pianist easy to travel back and forth, from thinking Arcadi Volodos commented that he felt mind to open heart, from sound and back that more than being heard, Mompou to silence. We can be grateful to Pla for wanted to become one with the listener pointing out that Mompou was a very holy through the “sounding silence” (p. 16; si- man, and that through his music we, too, lencio sonoro). can rediscover the essence he sought. It takes a special state of mind in both Lance W. Brunner performers and listeners to contact the University of Kentucky transcendent consciousness Mompou as- pired to express in his music. Early in his life he evoked the world of magic, as heard Hamilton Harty: Musical Polymath. By in two important sets of pieces: Cants mágics Jeremy Dibble. (Music in Britain, (1917) and Charmes (1920–21). The inspira- 1600–2000.) Woodbridge, Suffolk, tion for these and other early pieces came Eng.: Boydell Press, 2013. [xiv, 365 p. primarily from images and memories of ISBN 9781843838586. $80.] Music childhood, from the ordinary magic of di- examples, illustrations, bibliography, rect perception, unclouded by the stress appendices, index. and complications of the adult life. His are not “childish” works, as are some of Satie’s Composer, conductor, and piano accom- impish essays, but express the wisdom of a panist extraordinaire, Herbert Hamilton wide-eyed connection with the phenome- Harty (1879–1941) was a central figure of nal world. As Hough commented, “without the early-twentieth-century British music a spirit of childhood in the listener Mom - scene. Born in County Down in the north pou’s ‘kingdom’ is closed and some of his of Ireland, Harty was the son of a promi- music can seem almost infantile” (notes to nent church organist and music teacher. Piano Music). Prodigiously gifted, he obtained church Pla’s CD-set of the complete piano music posts in Belfast and Dublin before embark- is a treasure and a valuable complement to ing for London, at age twenty-one, to work the book. This is not the space for an in- as a freelance accompanist. Expert sight- depth review, but suffice it to say that Pla’s reading skills and an ability to transpose on formidable technique and longstanding the spot catapulted him into the foremost connection with Mompou and his music music circles of the capitol, where he ac- have produced an authoritative and deeply companied some of the best-known artists Book Reviews 293 of the period, including Harry Plunket Bax and William Walton, and loudly Greene, John McCormack, Fritz Kreisler, protested what he saw as the “discourage- Joseph Szigeti, and Agnes Nicholls (whom ment of English music” (the title of a 1928 Harty married in 1904). Orchestral con- lecture) by society at large. Perhaps his ducting was an inevitable next step, and by greatest fame as a composer came from his 1914 Harty was appearing regularly before orchestral transcriptions of George Frideric the chief English orchestras. His celebrated Handel’s Water Music and Music for the conductorship, from 1920 to 1933, of the Royal Fireworks, works with a “national Hallé Orchestra produced some of the best following” (p. xiii) that were a staple of orchestral playing of the era and resulted English concert programming until the in the British premieres of major works by 1970s. Gustav Mahler and Dmitrii Shostakovich as Clearly, Harty’s story is complex and well as landmark performances of Hector many-sided, and Jeremy Dibble, who has Berlioz’s large-scale works, for which he published biographies of Hubert Parry, had a special affinity. A pioneer in the Charles Villiers Stanford, and John Stainer, studio, Harty collaborated with Columbia, brings considerable experience to the Decca, and HMV on nearly 200 audio tricky work of untangling its various recordings (listed in an appendix). strands. Drawing on a large number of pub- Working freelance after 1933, he enjoyed lished and unpublished sources—letters considerable acclaim in Australia and in and private papers, contemporary mem- the U.S.A. (where he was dubbed the “Irish oirs, minute books, and published histories Toscanini”) before he was cut down by can- of the Hallé and other British orchestras, cer at age sixty-one. above all a huge array of contemporaneous Harty was also a composer of distinction. newspaper articles and reviews—Dibble Though he was formally untrained, his pi- neatly clarifies the facts outlined above anistic abilities and experience as an ac- while touching on a wide range of other companist translated well to the writing of topics. These include Harty’s Royal Navy solo songs and chamber music, which from service during World War I (he worked on the first possessed striking maturity. His submarine detection), his rancorous con- earliest orchestral works—An Irish Symphony tract negotiations with various orchestra (1904) and A Comedy Overture (1907)—date boards, his poor opinions of opera and from his efforts to establish himself as a jazz, his conducting technique and rapport conductor and were likewise well received. with his players, his conservative concert Success on the podium severely curtailed programming, and his often pugnacious this early creative work, but he never en- views on English musical life. Dibble also tirely ceased to compose, as the later songs, vigorously discusses Harty’s modest compo- the Piano Concerto (1922), assorted suites, sitional oeuvre. Providing detailed and occasional pieces, and a late tone overviews of nearly every work and consis- poem based on Irish mythology (The tently singling out the telling melodic, Children of Lir [1938]), attest. rhythmic, and harmonic detail—twenty-one This last work reminds us of the impor- musical illustrations accompany the text— tance Harty placed on his Irish heritage. he makes a strong case for the technical as- He regularly attended the Feis Ceoil (the surance of this music, its surface elegance, annual Irish music festival) in Dublin, typi- and secure craftsmanship. These qualities cally drew on Irish poets in selecting his derive from Harty’s intimate knowledge of texts, and brought to his own melodic writ- the standard nineteenth-century continen- ing the flexible rhythms and ornamental tal repertory—the Austro-German classics, turns of the sean-nós folk-singing tradition. Berlioz and other French masters, and And yet, because of his Protestant upbring- “mainstream” nationalists like Peter Ilich ing, this passion for Ireland did not include Tchaikovsky and Antonín Dvorˇák, whose a commitment to Irish independence or an characteristic mixing of ethnic expression embrace of the political goals of the Gaelic with traditional forms provided a strong revival. Declaring himself to be a “British model for Harty’s own Irish-tinged yet basi- musician with an Irish accent” (p. 148), he cally continental idiom. This was the same pointedly championed English music, pre- repertory (and the same composers) that miering important symphonies by Arnold Harty regularly conducted, of course, and 294 Notes, December 2014 there is an obvious parallel between his un- life—his estrangement from Nicholls, his apologetic romanticism and his lack of sym- likely romantic involvement with the singer pathy, as composer and conductor, for Elsie Swinton, and his late-in-life affair modern music. He had no time for Arnold (probably of the heart only) with Lorie Schoenberg and Aleksandr Scriabin and Bolland, a married Australian woman his appreciation for Igor Stravinsky stopped whom he met aboard ship—are largely with Petrushka. Still, he had room in his shrouded in mystery. Dibble fleshes out pantheon for Jean Sibelius and Walton, two these episodes as best he can but lack of modernists whose music retained strong ro- solid information soon obliges him to re- mantic and expressive features. As Dibble turn to Harty’s compositions and perfor- points out, their fundamentally emotional mances, the default subjects of this study. approach to composition, different from But there are other aspects of Harty’s per- the “academic” and “cerebral” orientation sonality that might have received greater of much ultramodern music from the pe- scrutiny or, better put, more sustained pon- riod, resonated personally with Harty, an dering. Outwardly self-confident, subject to autodidact whose lack of formal training black depressions, gregarious, deeply stimulated faith in “intuitive” and “instinc- lonely, generous, vengeful, gracious, tive” processes. touchy in the extreme, bullying and author- The core narrative is wonderfully supple- itarian, inspiring loyalty in his players, an mented by interesting sidelights on ne- advocate of British music, a harsh critic of glected, but still crucial, aspects of the British music—he was a walking paradox, British music scene. Thus we are treated to even by the standards of most artists. a glimpse of the recondite world of piano Dibble duly notes all these contradictions accompanists, and the practical and philo- and bluntly acknowledges the complexity sophical issues facing this special breed of of the man. But by discussing the contradic- musician. We also obtain a vivid picture of tions in isolation and refraining from hy- the difficulties facing young and impecu- pothesizing an overall pattern that might nious musicians trying to piece together a possibly account for them—and also by living in Edwardian London. Perhaps most strangely muting critical moments, like intriguing is the discussion of the politics of Harty’s reaction to his father’s death, about British orchestras: the exigencies of the which (to judge by the text) detailed infor- balance sheet and its effect on concert pro- mation appears to be available—the por- gramming, and the conflicts inevitably aris- tion of the narrative devoted to Harty’s life ing between the ambitious “star conductor” and personality fits uncertainly with the and the orchestra board working to secure rest of the book. his loyalty. (Harty’s termination by the Possibly no larger pattern is discoverable. Hallé followed directly on his long-term Harty took great pains to maintain his pri- engagement by the London Symphony vacy, and given the lack of information Orchestra.) The disruptions to British or- about his formative years, Dibble can be chestral life caused by the formation of the commended for refraining from the worst BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1930 (which kind of psychobiography. (Indeed, he led to a radical reshuffling of players from seems determined to take the high road, one ensemble to another) make for fasci- and rightly dismisses unproven reports of nating reading. Harty’s long-term affair with Olive Baguley, Excellent though the discussion is and his private secretary.) Even so, the habit of despite the breadth of topics it covers, one caution, of shying away from synthesis, thing is missing from the book: Harty him- seems to inform other areas in the book, self. He never completely comes to life as a notably the assertion about Harty’s “conser- person. This is not necessarily Dibble’s vative” concert programming. Dibble ap- fault since (as he acknowledges) very little pears to be of two minds about this, estab- early correspondence remains, while that lishing the truth of his claim even as he which does survive, especially after 1914, is shows how the conductor, partly in re- largely of a professional nature. Radio sponse to outside criticism, broadened his broadcasts and published memoirs by peo- repertory and quickened his receptivity to ple who knew him are likewise scant on de- new works. In the end, we are left a little tails. Thus the big events of his personal uncertain as to just where on the spectrum, Book Reviews 295 from conservative to progressive, Harty ac- position in which Irish Protestants found tually lies. It would have been useful to look themselves in revolutionary Ireland, per- systematically at the programming of other mits him to break through one of the most British conductors from the period—the puzzling features of Harty’s secretive per- American musicologist Jenny Doctor has sonality. With this book, Jeremy Dibble has been writing about this for some years—in opened up a conversation about possibly order to place him more precisely among the most important “forgotten player” of his peers. the early-twentieth-century British music In other areas, though, notably his dis- scene. For this we owe him a loud vote of cussion of Harty’s music and its stylistic in- thanks. fluences, Dibble’s “synthesis” cannot be bettered. And his grasp of context, in this Julian Onderdonk case the ambiguous political and cultural West Chester University

HIPNESS, JAZZ Living the Hiplife: Celebrity and Entrepreneurship in Ghanaian Popular Music. By Jesse Weaver Shipley. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013. [xiii, 329 p. ISBN 9780822353669. $25.] Music examples, illustra- tions, notes, bibliography, index.

Living the Hiplife is a well-balanced ethno- and Eric Charry ed., Hip Hop Africa: New graphic account of the current popular African Music in a Globalizing World [Bloom - music scene in Ghana. This work is part of ington: Indiana University Press, 2012]). a series of publications that provide an up- Although its title might indicate that it dated perspective on Ghanaian highlife was written for ethnomusicologists, Shipley music since the seminal work of John is actually an anthropologist, and his book Collins in the 1990s (Highlife Time [Accra, rather presents an ethnographic account of Ghana: Anansesem Publications, 1996]). popular music in contemporary Ghana, Nathan Plageman’s recent book, Highlife through the eyes of its stars, groups, and Saturday Night, for example, looks at the producers. Thus, instead of transcriptions emergence of highlife music in the 1940s and music analysis, the author takes an and 1950s within the context of the cre- artist-centered approach through the use ation of urban middle class life, ideals, and of interviews and anecdotes that highlight aesthetics during the late colonial period in contemporary issues in Ghanaian popular Ghana (Highlife Saturday Night: Popular music, such as transculturation, gender, dig- Music and Social Change in Urban Ghana ital media, popular culture, and urbaniza- [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, tion. The author also analyzes several song 2012]). The present work looks at the most texts to uncover the use of parody and hu- recent evolution of highlife music, hiplife, mor to make oblique political and social which the author Jesse Weaver Shipley dis- commentaries. Shipley presents hiplife as tinguishes as a “popular music genre that being simultaneously global—incorporating fuses hip-hop sampling, beatmaking, and a the latest fashions in international hip-hop rap lyrical flow with older forms of highlife music and culture—and local, through its music, Akan story telling, and proverbial use of Twi and pidgin English, both lingua oratory” (p. 4). In examining this new style francas in southern Ghana and among of hip-hop music in Ghana, Living the Ghanaian immigrant communities. This Hiplife is also an important addition to the last feature distinguishes hiplife sonically emerging body of scholarship on African from similar-sounding musics coming out forms of hip-hop, and it is among the first of the African diaspora. group of monographs dedicated to a partic- The first two chapters outline the emer- ular African hip-hop tradition (see Brad gence of hiplife music from earlier forms of Weiss, Street Dreams and Hip Hop Barbershops: highlife during the 1990s within the con- Global Fantasy in Urban Tanzania [Bloom- text of a period of extensive rural–urban ington: Indiana University Press, 2009]; migration in Ghana, when young people