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A Shropshire Lad in British Music Since 1940: Decline and Renewal

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A Shropshire Lad in British Music Since 1940: Decline and Renewal A SHROPSHIRE LAD IN BRITISH MUSIC SINCE 1940: DECLINE AND RENEWAL by KEVIN ROBERT WHITTINGHAM submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY in the subject MUSICOLOGY at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: PROFESSOR DANIEL G. GELDENHUYS LOCAL CO-PROMOTER: PROFESSOR E. DAVID GREGORY JANUARY 2008 A Shropshire Lad in British Music Since 1940: Decline and Renewal Contents Contents Abstract and Key Terms i Acknowledgements iii Introduction 1 Part I: Preliminaries 1. Objectives, Musicological Considerations and Research Methodology 10 Objectives 10 Limits 10 Assumptions about Text and Music 11 Musicological Characteristics of the Thesis 13 The Wider Musicological Context 15 Research Methodology 18 2. A. E. Housman and A Shropshire Lad 29 A. E. Housman 29 A Shropshire Lad’s Appeal 33 The Formalist Approach to Literature 34 B. J. Leggett’s Formalist Approach to A Shropshire Lad 34 3. The Flourishing (to c.1940) 42 A Shropshire Lad in the Twentieth-Century English Musical Renaissance 42 First Settings and the Appeal of the Poems for Composers 46 Stephen Banfield’s Art Song Subphases in the Flourishing 51 The Drawing Room Ballad Tradition 54 Experimental Song for Solo Voice 56 The Monologue 59 Solo Voice and One Orchestral Instrumental 59 Solo Voice and Chamber Ensemble 60 Solo Voice and Orchestra 61 Choral and Partsong Settings 62 Unison Settings 63 Non-Vocal Works 64 Women Composers 66 Conclusion 68 Part II: A Survey of Settings Since c.1940 4. The Decline (c.1940 to c.1980) 83 Numerical Evidence for the Decline 85 The Emerging Mainstream 85 Atonality Comes to A Shropshire Lad 87 Ultra-Conservatism in the Decline 90 The Diversity of the Mainstream 91 A Shropshire Lad in Multi-Poet Anthologies 93 Prolificacy in the Decline 95 Choral Settings 97 Changes in Accompaniments 98 Non-Vocal Works 100 Conclusion 102 A Shropshire Lad in British Music Since 1940: Decline and Renewal Contents 5. The Renewal (from c.1980) 118 1: Evidence, Reasons and Constraints 119 Evidence for the Renewal 119 Possible Reasons for the Renewal 120 Constraints to Enlarging the Canon 122 2: The Three Streams, Newer Techniques and Revived Genres 123 Ultra-Conservatism in the Renewal 123 Atonality in the Renewal 124 The Mainstream in the Renewal 128 Further Techniques of Textual Exposition in the Renewal 131 Popular Styles 137 Arrangements 140 Non-Vocal Settings 142 Multi-Poet Anthologies 143 3: A Shropshire Lad Throughout Recent British Musical Life 144 Composers’ Career Categories 144 Women Composers 151 Conclusion 152 Part III: Literary-Musical Analyses 6. The Developmental Song Cycles for Voice and Piano 176 The Background 177 The All-Shropshire Lad Cycles Since 1940 178 The Developmental and Thematic Divisions 179 Al Summers’s A Shropshire Lad (1976–c. 1984, rev. 2004) 181 Gordon Lawson’s A Shropshire Lad (1957) 189 Mervyn Horder’s A Shropshire Lad (1980) 194 Geoffrey Allen’s Bredon Hill (1966) 199 Conclusion 208 7. The Thematic Song Cycles for Voice and Piano 223 Paul Adrian Rooke’s When I Was in Love with You (1999) 223 Robin Field’s When I Was One-and-Twenty (1959–60, rev. 1976) 229 Alan Moore’s Chill Heart of England (1985–86) 237 Conclusion: The Developmental and Thematic Cycles 248 8. Collaborative Concept Albums in Popular Styles 265 John Williams’s Jacqui Dankworth and New Perspectives 266 Polly Bolton’s Loveliest of Trees 274 The Two Albums in Relation to the Post-1940 Streams of Development 284 Conclusion 285 9. John Raynor’s Evolving Understanding of ‘Loveliest of trees’ 299 Raynor’s Life and Music 300 The First Setting (1947) 302 The Second Setting (1953) 304 The Third Setting (1960) 305 The Fourth Setting (1965) 307 Conclusion 310 A Shropshire Lad in British Music Since 1940: Decline and Renewal Contents 10. Multi-Voice Settings 323 Mixed Voices 324 Women’s Voices 329 Children’s Voices 331 A Round 331 Two Solo Voices 332 Arrangements 333 Conservatism, Atonality and the Mainstream 334 Conclusion 335 11. Out of Simplicity and Complexity: Settings by Howard Skempton and Michael Finnissy 360 Howard Skempton’s ‘Into my heart an air that kills’ (1996) 361 Michael Finnissy’s ‘In my own shire, if I was sad’ (1993) 366 Summary 372 Postscript 373 Summary and Conclusions 392 The Flourishing (to c.1940) 392 The Decline (c.1940 to c.1980) 394 The Renewal (from c.1980) 395 The later All-Shropshire Lad Cycles 399 Venues 400 Further Research 401 Catalogue 1. Settings Listed by Period and Genre 403 Catalogue 2. Settings Listed by Poem 418 Catalogue 3. Settings Listed by Composer 431 Composer Bibliographies 473 Appendix: Towards a Discography 491 Works Cited 500 A Shropshire Lad in British Music Since 1940: Decline and Renewal Abstract and Key Terms Abstract and Key Terms This thesis surveys all the found British settings of A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad (1896) but concentrates on the period after 1940, which, the author believes, has not previously received critical attention. A new study is timely especially because of a renewed interest among composers in the poet’s highly influential lyric collection. The author found about 110 British composers with about 340 settings of individual poems not listed in previous Shropshire Lad catalogues. This number adds more than fifty per cent to the known repertoire. The search was not restricted to art song; it found, in addition, multi-voice settings, settings in popular styles and non-vocal music. Largely because of the work of broadly trained musicians, there is now a much wider range of medium, style and compositional technique applied to A Shropshire Lad. There are also new ways in which words and music relate. Different catalogues in the thesis list settings according to period, genre, poem and composer. The author hopes to broaden the British canon of Shropshire Lad music, which, despite recent commissions and competitions, is still mostly limited to the major composers of the English musical renaissance (the early decades of the twentieth century). Accordingly, the catalogues let performers know how to obtain the settings. In preliminary chapters, the thesis attempts a literary examination of A Shropshire Lad and reviews the already-researched pre-Second World War settings. It then divides the post-1940 period into two parts—a Decline (to c.1980) and a Renewal (since c.1980)—and surveys them. The compositions of this period are placed in three tonal-stylistic streams of development: a mainstream tonal with ultra- conservative and atonal tributaries. Then follow detailed literary-musical analyses of i A Shropshire Lad in British Music Since 1940: Decline and Renewal Abstract and Key Terms post-1940 songs, song cycles, collaborative sets, and multi-voice settings. A final summary draws together the conclusions of the individual chapters, summarizes and evaluates the achievement of the post-1940 composers, and suggests how further research might be carried out. Key Terms: A. E. Housman; arrangement; art song; A Shropshire Lad; choral music; collaborative music; concept album; English song; Experimentalism; folk music; hybrid music; monologue; music and place; New Complexity; partsong; song cycle; third stream; twentieth-century British music; twentieth-century English renaissance; words and music. ii A Shropshire Lad in British Music Since 1940: Decline and Renewal Acknowledgements Acknowledgements More than 250 people contributed to this thesis, and I thank them all. Two scholars were involved chapter by chapter. Professor Daniel G. Geldenhuys, my promoter in Pretoria, South Africa, was always cordial, helpful and supportive in our extended, email-based relationship. He guided me through academic, presentational and regulatory matters. Professor David Gregory, my local co-promoter and long-time supervisor at Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada, first suggested the topic and set aside time for face-to-face consultations. The following composers, relatives and friends of composers, performers, researchers and writers, media people, academics and administrators contributed in many different ways: Geoffrey Allen, David Arditti, Raewyn Bailey, Professor Stephen Banfield, Margaret Barrell, Frank Bayford, Ned Bigham, Polly Bolton, Bryan Boulter, Nicholas Braithwaite, Sir Rodric Braithwaite, Harvey Brough, James Brown (dec.), Iain Burnside, Martin Bussey, Professor Edwin Calloway, Professor Helen Callus, Will Carnell, Gordon Carr, Dr. Morag Chisholm, Humphrey Clucas, Robert Cockshott, Christopher Collingwood, Ronald Corp, David Crocker, Neil Crossland, Peter Crump, Michael Csanyi-Wills, Brian Blyth Daubney, Geoffrey T. W. Davies, Dr. Rhian Davies, Chris Dench, Professor Jeremy Dibble, Peter Downes, David Drew, Steve Dunachie, Gordon Dyson, Leslie East, Michael Easton (dec.), Ken Edensor, Charles Evans, Anthony Everitt, Anni Fentiman, Barry Ferguson, Robin Field, Professor Michael Finnissy, Lewis Foreman, Roland Freeman, Mollie Gerrard, Christopher Gibbs, Professor Joscelyn Godwin, David Golightly, Jenny Gould, Patrick Gowers, Ro Hancock-Child, Geoffrey Hanson, Frank Harvey, Desmond Hayes-Lynge, Dr. Derek Healey, Dr. Linda Hirst, Dr. Ludger Hofmann-Engl, Dr. Trevor Hold (dec.), Professor Robin Holloway, Dr. Derek Holman, Dr. Tim Howell, iii A Shropshire Lad in British Music Since 1940: Decline and Renewal Acknowledgements Laurence Armstrong Hughes, Professor Keith Davies Jones, John Jordan, Jeffrey Joseph, Geoffrey Kimpton, Matthew King, Dr. Valerie Langfield, Jo Leighton, William Lewis, William Lyne, Nicholas Marshall, Collin Matthews, David Matthews, Andrew
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