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BBC Homepage Wales Home Peter Warlock more from this section Last updated: 29 June 2006 Arts In December 2005,a festival Aber's Floating Lanterns celebrating the life of Add An Artist Andrew Lamont Gallery composer Peter Warlock was Beyond Pattern held in Montgomery in Powys. Celf O Gwmpas BBC Local Festival founder Dr Rhian Ceramics Festival 09 - In Pictures Mid Wales Davies has been delving into Coleg Ceredigion Things to do Cyrff Ystwyth the composer's Mid Wales David Gepp People & Places connections. Della Bufton Nature & Outdoors El Sueño Existe festival 2009 History Imaging The Bible Written by Dr Rhian Davies In Focus Religion & Ethics India Dance Wales Arts & Culture "Montgomery Civic Society is holding a Festival to mark the Interventions 2009 Music 75th anniversary of the death of Peter Warlock (Philip Jeremy Moore TV & Radio Lake Vyrnwy Sculpture Park Heseltine, 1894-1930) on 17 December 2005. Lion Art Local BBC Sites Llanfyllin Workhouse Gallery News Widely regarded as the composer of some of the finest Llwyn yr Eos seats Sport British songs and choral music of the twentieth century, Local Exhibitions Machinations Weather Warlock is also remembered for his famous friendships (D. H. Margaret Dorothy Jones Travel Lawrence, W. B. Yeats and Aleister Crowley) and eccentric Moira Hay hobbies (keeping rare breeds of cat, Cossack dancing on Nozstock Festival Neighbouring Sites railway stations, and motor-biking in the nude). On the edge of the forest North East Wales Oriel Elenydd Gallery North West Wales Penglais pupils' mural South East Wales Although Warlock was born in London's Savoy Hotel, he had Powys Sheep Project close family links with mid Wales. His mother Edith, née Quilt Association South West Wales Covernton, grew up in Knighton, Radnorshire, and settled in RE:drawing Related BBC Sites Llandyssil, Montgomeryshire, following her second marriage Rachel's Reviews Wales Richard Dean to Walter Buckley Jones, squire of Cefnbryntalch Hall, in Sculpture in Powys- Making a difference Cymru 1903. Warlock loved the Mid Wales countryside, taught Sleep Furiously Canolbarth himself Welsh and other Celtic languages, and completed Space much of his most significant music and musical scholarship Sue Purcell Taitograph slideshow while living more or less permanently at the Hall between Take a Seat 1921 and 1924 and again in 1928. Teifi Valley Art Trail The Bus Stop Béla Bartók, the distinguished Hungarian composer and The Crucible - A reflection The Picturemakers at Soar y Mynydd pianist, visited Warlock at Cefnbryntalch in 1922 after giving The Smiling Bridge a recital at Aberystwyth University which Professor Walford Theatr Hafren - Open Art Davies was overheard to describe as 'baffling'! Tony Hall Vision Quest Warlock sometimes deputised for George Wroughton, the Why I Paint Murals Workhouse Green Fayre organist of Llandyssil Church, and was a regular visitor to Montgomery. He once holed up and polished off a case of related www links whisky with the notoriously bibulous local G. P., Dr Richard Peter Warlock Society Website Game Phillips, who practised from the Governor's residence at the former County Gaol. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites Emerging several days later for a breath of air on Castle Rock, Warlock broke his leg in the misguided belief that he could fly from the battlements. A letter written by the composer in April 1924 confirms the unfortunate consequence of his 'too too Dionysian prance down the steep slopes of Montgomery Castle'.
This flamboyant episode aside, Warlock's period of residence in Montgomeryshire was characterised by disciplined hard work and sustained productivity. Edith Buckley Jones severed her son's allowance in lieu of board and lodging and permitted him to work at the grand piano when she had no need of her drawing-room for tea-parties. Some of Warlock's finest and most famous works were written at Cefnbryntalch, including The curlew, Sleep and Autumn twilight, the Serenade for strings, the Delius biography and 300 transcriptions of Elizabethan and Jacobean airs.
Warlock's correspondence is also remarkable for its lyrical descriptions of 'all the wild loveliness of mid Wales': Montgomeryshire's mists and snows, her hills, moors, twilights, birds and blossom. He knew mid Wales intimately, exploring its remote moorland places on foot and a series of increasingly untrustworthy motor-cycles.
Warlock thought nothing of hiking 50 or 60 miles a day, dossing down overnight as he went, from Aran Fawddwy and Lake Vyrnwy in the north to Lampeter, Abbey Cwmhir and the Golden Valley in the south. Among his favourite places were the waterfall Ffrwd Fawr and the lake Bugeilyn, both situated near the abandoned mining village of Dylife, east of Machynlleth."
Written by Dr. Rhian Davies
More about the Peter Warlock Festival...
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Lee in Llandyssil PW deputised for our local church organist George Wroughton, of St. Tyssil's Church, Llandyssil in the 1920's. We are acknowledging him this September 12th 2009 at our annual fund raising 'Dragonfest' which celebrates our national emblem of Wales, the dragon - with a day of local village & county tradition. Check out Llandyssil - home of dragonfest' website. Mon Aug 24 09:21:11 2009
Darryl Bradley, USA To Ian Woodward: there is a Peter Warlock Society with a website. I don't know the address offhand but you can google it. You will find a wealth of information there. Thu Nov 23 09:44:52 2006
Ian Woodward, Maryland USA I have just now discovered this person and I am already overwhelmed by him. I have only heard 1 song from the Capriol Suite, and I took down his name to look him up. His life is a very strage parallel of my own in ways I cannot even describe. Please, if anyone sees this and is willing to share more information on him I would greatly appreciate it. I am doing research of my own, and plan on buying some of the books I've seen as well as any CDs of his music I can get my greedy little hands on. Wed Nov 1 09:09:16 2006
Malcolm Highfield, Northampton I was introduced to PW's music in 1970 by my school music teacher in Sheffield. He arranged the second movement of the Capriol Suite for our brass ensemble. Whilst my musical passion is the music of Vaughan Williams, PW's music has a facinating charm - especially when placed in the context of his life. As I type I'm listening to the 'Delius Serenade.' One day I might succeed in unravelling 'the Curlew.' You may be interested to know that in the final novel of the 'Salterton' trilogy the Canadian author Robertson Davies based one of the main characters on PW. Tue Sep 5 12:53:09 2006
Pete Lopeman, Cradley Heath I know a bit of PW's music (as an aside to my love of EJ Moeran's music). But I find his life fascinating. His devilish escapades with Moeran and co. in Eynsham are very entertaining to read about. I have visited Cefnbryntalch a few of years ago (not inside, just around the area) as well as Kington (Moeran's patch). Two 'minor' composers but two great men! Tue Dec 13 15:09:34 2005
Dr Keith Davies Jones from Winnipeg, Canada Yes, I am very familiar with the life and music of PW. I too grew up in mid-Wales, which I explored on bicycle, foot and by motor-cycle, and am familiar with all the places that Dr Rhian Davies has mentioned in her article. I wish that I were able to attend the Festival later this month. Fri Dec 2 00:41:56 2005
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BBC Homepage Wales Home Peter Warlock Festival more from this section Last updated: 11 April 2006 Arts Music historian Dr Rhian Aber's Floating Lanterns Davies has founded a festival Add An Artist Andrew Lamont Gallery in Mid Wales to celebrate the Beyond Pattern life and work of little known Celf O Gwmpas BBC Local Montgomeryshire composer, Ceramics Festival 09 - In Pictures Mid Wales Peter Warlock. Here she writes Coleg Ceredigion Things to do Cyrff Ystwyth about the 2005 festival which David Gepp People & Places was held 16-18 December Della Bufton Nature & Outdoors 2005. El Sueño Existe festival 2009 History Imaging The Bible In Focus Religion & Ethics More about Peter Warlock's life... India Dance Wales Arts & Culture Interventions 2009 Music Written by Dr Rhian Davies Jeremy Moore TV & Radio Lake Vyrnwy Sculpture Park Lion Art Local BBC Sites "The triennial Gwyl Peter Warlock Festival was founded at Llanfyllin Workhouse Gallery News Llandyssil, Montgomeryshire, in 2002. I organised the first Llwyn yr Eos seats Sport Festival on behalf of the Peter Warlock Society and am Local Exhibitions Machinations Weather directing the second in partnership with Montgomery Civic Margaret Dorothy Jones Travel Society. Moira Hay Nozstock Festival Neighbouring Sites I work as a music historian and my area of special interest On the edge of the forest North East Wales Oriel Elenydd Gallery North West Wales is 20th-century British musicians and their Welsh Penglais pupils' mural South East Wales connections. I believe in the practical application of Powys Sheep Project musicology and have devised and presented programmes in Quilt Association South West Wales the UK, USA, Canada and Australia to highlight the music of RE:drawing Related BBC Sites composers including Joseph Parry, Frederick Kelly and Rachel's Reviews Wales Richard Dean Morfydd Owen. Sculpture in Powys- Making a difference Cymru Sleep Furiously Canolbarth I grew up in Newtown, ten miles from Montgomery, and Space have known of Peter Warlock's connections with the area Sue Purcell Taitograph slideshow since childhood. I am preparing an illustrated life of Warlock Take a Seat for publication and was invited by Montgomery Civic Society Teifi Valley Art Trail to give their annual Christmas lecture on the subject of the The Bus Stop composer. The Crucible - A reflection The Picturemakers at Soar y Mynydd The Smiling Bridge Looking for a suitable date, I realised that the 75th Theatr Hafren - Open Art anniversary of Warlock's death - 17 December 2005 - fell Tony Hall the week-end before Christmas, and so the idea for the Vision Quest second Festival was born. Those who attended the first Why I Paint Murals Workhouse Green Fayre Festival, including many visitors from London and one from as far away as New York State, had also been asking me to organise another as they so enjoyed the special atmosphere and serenity of Montgomeryshire.
This year's events take place in historic buildings which the composer himself would have known. The Festival will open with an illustrated lecture on Peter Warlock in Montgomeryshire (Friday, 16 December, 7.30pm), outlining latest research discoveries as well as rare photographs to be published in the Illustrated Life of the composer.
Saturday begins with a walking tour of Warlockian sites (9.30am) and the official opening of the Festival exhibition in the Old Bell Museum (10.30am). Then, at 11.30am - 75 years exactly after Warlock was pronounced dead on 17 December 1930 - the crime writer and retired Home Office pathologist, Professor Bernard Knight CBE, will re-examine the evidence surrounding the discovery of the composer's body in his gas-filled Chelsea flat (Peter Warlock's death: a mystery or not?).
Also on Saturday, Professor M. Wynn Thomas of Swansea University discusses the creative writing of Warlock's son (Nigel Heseltine: forgotten border writer, 2pm), and Dr Brian Collins considers the composer's Christmas music (4pm).
The Saturday evening concert (7.30pm) will be given by the outstanding young British tenor Andrew Kennedy, making his first major appearance in Wales since winning the Rosenblatt Recital Prize at this year's BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.
Andrew is a truly exciting artist destined for a meteoric international career and the Festival is fortunate indeed that he and his accompanist Simon Crawford-Phillips are free to perform on the day of the 75th anniversary itself. We are also delighted to announce that this recital will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Sunday, 18 December includes a reconstruction of one of the choral services at which Warlock 'presided at the grand organ' in 1921, led by Quindici and Tim Mills (organ) (Llandyssil Church, 9.30am), and a workshop for young singers directed by Michael Pilkington (back in Montgomery, 11.30am).
John Worthen, Emeritus Professor of D. H. Lawrence Studies at the University of Nottingham, considers the composer as the model for Halliday in Lawrence's Women in Love (D. H. Lawrence, Philip Heseltine and the 'inner life', 2.30pm), and the Festival finishes with A Wreath of Carols for Peter Warlock (4.30pm), a programme of Christmas music performed by Guilsfield Singers (Suzanne Edwards, director), with up-and-coming soloists Zoë Challenor (soprano), Paul Carey Jones (baritone) and Seth Williams (piano).
Tickets are available from Paul and Louise Hodgson, telephone 01686 668838; e-mail: [email protected], with information updates on www.oldbellmuseum.org.uk The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites
Early booking is strongly advised for these unique events."
Written by Dr Rhian Davies Peter Warlock Festival Dates... More about Peter Warlock's life...