“Men and Music”

“Men And Music” by Dr. Erik Chisholm Lectures given at University of Cape Town Summer School, February 1964 Published by The Erik Chisholm Trust June 2014 www.erikchisholm.com Copyright Notice The material contained herein is attributed to The Erik Chisholm Trust and may not be cop- ied or reproduced without the prior permission of the Trust. All enquiries regarding copyright should be sent to the Trust at [email protected] © 2014 The Erik Chisholm Trust 2 Dr. Erik Chisholm (1904—1965) 3 Credits Fonts: Text - Calibri Headings - Segro Script Compiled in Microsoft Publisher 2013 4 Introduction by the Editor In 1964 Chisholm gave a series of lectures on Men and Music, illustrated with music and slides, at the UCT Summer School. In his own words Men and Music wasn’t “going to be a serious business. It will consist mainly of light hearted reminiscences about some important figures in 20th Century music, from which it will be possible to gain insight into their characters and personalities.” Many distinguished composers came to Glasgow in the 1930’s to give concerts of their works for the Active Society for the Propagation of Contemporary Music (a bit of a mouthful, known colloquially as The Active Society). The 18 composers he talks about are William Walton, Cyril Scott, Percy Grainger, Eugene Goosens, Bela Bartok, Donald Tovey, Florent Schmitt, John Ireland, Yvonne Arnaud, Frederick Lamond, Adolph Busch, Alfredo Casella, Arnold Bax, Paul Hindemith, Dmitri Shostakovich (Chisholm cheated here- Shostakovich didn’t actually appear but they were friends and the Active Society “played quite a lot of his music”), Kai- koshru Sorabji, Bernard van Dieren and Medtner. It is clear Chisholm planned to publish the lectures but he ran out of time, out of life. They are fun to read; several serious musicians have found them hard to put down once started, and have read them into the small hours of the night. What follows is a modern presentation of those lectures given by Dr, Erik Chisholm at the University of Cape Town Summer School, where he was the Resident Professor of Music in February 1964, just over a year before he died. I have taken a few minor liberties with the text but it is basically just as he presented it, some of the original slides are now lost so I have substituted other images where appropriate. Whilst researching this material I came across some previously un-seen pictures and I have used this opportunity to include a few that are relevant to the text, such as the one on the next page. For obvious reasons I have not been able to include the music Erik played in the lectures but I have preserved their presence in the text by marking them in green, with a description where possible. 5 On the Erik Chisholm Trust’s website www.erikchisholm.com/menandmusic there is an HTML version of these lectures which includes the music Erik used in these lectures. On the website you will find a wealth of other material relating to Erik, his life and his music. Next year (2015) is the 50th anniversary of Erik’s death and the Trust are planning some special events to mark the occasion. Please see the website for further announcements. Finally, if you were present at the original lectures the Trust would like to here from you, please contact them via the website. Tony Hudson Shorwell, Isle of Wight July 2014 College of Music - undated but certainly from the early 1960’s, Erik is seated in the centre first row. (restored Image) 6 CONTENTS Portrait of Erik Chisholm …………………………. Page 3 Introduction by the Editor………………………... Page 5 Lecture Introduction ……………………………….. Page 8 William Walton ……………………………………….. Page 13 Cyril Scott ………………………………………………... Page 22 Eugene Goosens ……………………………………… Page 28 Bela Bartok ……………………………………………... Page 30 Karol Szymanowski .…………………………………. Page 45 Donald F Tovey ……………………………………….. Page 49 Florent Schmitt ……………………………………….. Page 55 John Ireland …………………………………………….. Page 59 Adolf Busch …………………………………………….. Page 65 Yvonne Arnaud ……………………………………….. Page 68 Tatiana Makushina …………………………………. Page 71 Frederic Lamond ……………………………………... Page 73 Egon Petri ……………………………………………….. Page 74 Alfredo Casella ….…………………………………….. Page 75 Arnold Bax ………………………………………………. Page 82 Paul Hindemith ……………………………………….. Page 92 Kaikhosru Sorabji …………………………………….. Page 103 Bernard van Dieren …………………………………. Page 115 Dmitri Shostakovich ………………………………... Page 119 Nikolai Medtner ………………………………………. Page 123 Additional Pictures ………………………………….. Page 132 7 INTRODUCTION You mustn't think that this course "Men and Music" is going to be a serious business. It will consist mainly of light-hearted reminiscences about some important figures in 20th century music, from which it is possible you may gain an insight into their characters and personalities. You will, moreover, hear many interesting examples of their music, in most instances played by the composers themselves: this is always revealing. If the creators of music are also competent performers, then it should follow that their inter- pretations of their own music must be authentic. Whereas painters, sculptors and writers (except play- wrights) create their works of art once and for all, (and who dare meddle with them is a villain, and does so at his peril,) musicians on the other hand depend on others to perform, to recreate the music, a set of circumstances, which is ,at one and the same time, the attraction and despair of the art. Until only very recently, it was accepted as quite normal that any composer could take up the work of another composer and re-work and re-write the "Mona Lisa" the way he would like it to be done-resolving the famous enig- matic smile into, say, a direct leer at the Beatles or if Somerset Maugham re-wrote Shakespeare sonnets in Bow-bells cockney with some Joyceian comments of his own. Among performing musicians there is a growing sense of responsibility towards the great masters: a desire to make their performances as authentic and as near the original as possible. There is, too, such a gulf between serialism and electronic music and the classics, that to combine the two in a single composition is really unthinkable. I am told that anyone offering a programme, nowadays to the B.B.C. which includes transcriptions will find they are now no longer acceptable. Anyway, if the future of music lies in electronics, this will kill not only the tran- scriber, but also eliminate the performer. At this year’s summer school I will give a series of talks on noted composers who gave concerts of their works at the Glasgow Active Society for the Propagation of Contemporary Music, it might be just as well to tell you, at the start, how the Society came into existence, something about the people who ran it, how it came about that some of the greatest composers of our time were patrons, and gave performances to the Society, in a relatively insignificant town like Glasgow (insignificant, artistically speaking). In 1928 I settled again in Scotland, after two years in Canada, and was appointed organist and choirmas- ter of a Presbyterian Church in the centre of Glasgow. In the church there was a very fine 3-manual organ, and on it I gave a number of organ recitals: respectable works like Bach Preludes & Fugues and Choral Preludes, Karg-Elert’s big Op. 66, (which occupied three evenings) and transcriptions I had made (for I knew no better!) of Stravinsky’s, "Sacre du Printemps”, Strauss’ "Don Quixote", Elgar's “Falstaff" and other orchestral works which had not yet found a place in the programmes of the Scottish Orchestra. I got a bright young student friend of mine, Patrick Shannon, to assist me in these orchestral transcriptions, to 8 the extent of placing himself inside the organ case, and banging cymbals, side drums, triangles, castanets and so on, at appropriate places in the score. Of course, nobody knew he was there, and I didn't fail to make a flowery gesture with hand or foot to show the audience it was all my own work. The music-liking Glaswegians (it would be an exaggeration ever to call them music-lovers) began to sit up and take notice at Chisholm and his unique orchestral organ. The upshot was that Pat Shannon and I became confirmed partners in musical crime, and one extravagance led to another. Pat was a gifted and versatile young musician, playing piano for a sketchy living (in bioscope, cafe, pub and music hall): he was also a fine organist, played all percussion instruments, and - given a week's notice - was prepared to tackle any string, wood-wind or brass instrument ever invented. He had administrative ability, could write good press copy: also “elecute” or recite with no mean ability. He lived with his sister and widowed mother at 116, Nithsdale Road, Pollokshields, and his mother adored her brilliant, harum- scarum and altogether lovable son. Mrs Shannon was a kindly little Irish woman with a warm enchanting brogue, who played both violin and viola, and later became a most valuable member of our various Active Society ensembles. Pat and I were inseparable buddies. What fun we had together. We next launched a series of what we called “National Musical Recitals” - again in the Kirk - roping in some singer friends of ours, using the church choir and gradually building up a performing unit of keen, talented and adven- turous young musicians. With Pat playing the orchestral parts on the organ, and I the solo piano parts, we performed the Delius concerto "Nights in a Garden in Spain", Medtner's second concerto, Bartok's first, the Franck’s "Symphonic Variations" and ‘Les Djinns’. To keep up the reputation of the organ itself we had, of course, to find a new recruit to play percussion in the organ case.

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