Glastonbury Festival School Appeal Author(s): Rutland Boughton, P. Napier Miles and Roger Clark Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 61, No. 932 (Oct. 1, 1920), p. 700 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/908157 Accessed: 30-11-2015 08:50 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Musical Times Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Musical Times. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 84.88.136.149 on Mon, 30 Nov 2015 08:50:32 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 700 THE MUSICAL TIMES-OCTOBER I 1920 safe. You do not require to be connected with an GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL SCHOOL APPEAL educationalinstitution, but you will have to do withoat an audience. SIR,-In responseto the appeal containedin the letterof As to your practices, the only way to Sir Edward and Sir avoid mistakenfor an audience for Elgar Henry Hadow, we beg to being paying admission announce that over towardsthe minimumthen is forthe practisersto stop theirears withred tape or some Ji1,Ioo requiredhas been receivedor promisedsince the public other suitable material. There is no escape otherwisefor held at their meeting Glastonburyon August18. Thus a further subscriptions.-Yours,&c., sum of only ?1,400 is now required for the current GEORGE M. COTTON. expenses and theatrefund. This sum must be raised by September29 if the Festival is to be saved. We shouldlike to take this opportunityof sayingthat a 'OPERA IN ENGLAND' GlastonburyFestival Association has been formedfor Great Britain,the Dominions,and the United States of America, SIR,-Mr. FrancisE. Barrett,writing in yourJuly issue witha minimumannual subscription of 5s. Associateswill on 'Opera in England,' states that the failureof opera' in receive all free literature,and early intimationof events England is due to thefact that up to the presenttime such connected with the work. Full particulars of this operas containnothing that marksthem as being British, Associationmay be obtainedfrom Miss Edith Percy,High and thatit is Britishflavour that is wanted. Street,Glastonbury. May it be pointedout that there is in existencea work We earnestlyask the publicto come forwardand help us writtenby the firstcomposer of our timeswith all theBritish by raisingthe smallsum of ?1,400 to save the Glastonbury flavourthat can be desiredboth in storyand in music? I FestivalSchool. Unless this is done it must come to an referto 'Caractacus,' by Sir Edward Elgar. With a very end thisautumn. few changes in the text so as to improvethe action this Subscriptionsfor the two fundsshould be sent to the workcould be madeinto one ofthe most successful of operas. treasurer,Mr. Roger Clark, Street, Somerset,and marked It containssome of the finestmusic fromthe composer's 'School' or 'Theatre' Fund accordingto the intentionof pen, and successfulas it has been in concertform, I feel the giver.-Yours, &c., surethat on the operaticstage it wouldbe still moreso. I RUTLAND BOUGHTON, Director. hope that one of the numerousopera companieswill give P. NAPIER MILES, CChairman of thismatter serious consideration. -Yours, &c., the Executive Committee. ROGER CLARK, Hon. Treasurer. New York, July16, 1920. H. W. GRAY. Glastonbury,Somerset. September 5, 1920. [Althoughthis letter appears a fewdays afterthe date on THE ARTISTIC VALUES OF OPERA whichthe fundis apparentlyto be closed-September 29- we insertit in the that it still be of benefitto his courteousremarks with hope may SIR,-In referenceto my thisdeserving cause.-Ed., AL.T.] article,Mr. A. Keay has wandereda littlefrom my subject. He asserts while 'Instruments charm that, may the senses,' A PROGRAMME FOR RACHMANINOV'S the human voice touches listenersfar more profoundly. 'PRELUDE' Yet I do not think many musicians would rank the symphonylower than the opera or oratorio,as a means of SIR,-Referringto your reply to correspondent' W. Smith' touchingsomething more than the senses. I do not forget in Septembernumber regarding Rachmaninov's Prelude in that the religioussignificance of oratoriohas its own very C sharpminor, I have an edition of this compositionwith profoundappeal to many; yet thisis somethingquite apart an introductorynote. It readsas follows: from'artistic values' and exploresanother field. Mr. Keay 'The scene is Moscow, the proud, the vanquished, says that'Uncertainty as to a composer'sintention may or in the midstof its illimitablesnow-clad plains, in the may not be an advantage.' I quite agree; it does not firstdepressing gloom of the long winternight; its greatlymatter; whatmatters is the hearer's interpretation. desolate streets resoundingto the stern tread of He saysfurther that the 'Message of vocal music is not in Napoleon's victorioustroops: Moscow,suddenly ablaze doubt.' That surelyis its limitation. And whatwill he in every part, the torchapplied by the hands of its say of songsor operas whose words are worthless? Must fiercelysullen inhabitants;its costlypalaces, its cosy the musicnecessarily be worthlessalso? With regard to homes, its vast accumulationof militarystores con- Wagner,do we chieflythink of thatcomposer as a writerof sumingto ashes, and Napoleon'slong cherished,all but vocal music? Is it not his orchestration,mainly, that fulfilledhope of safetyand comfortfor his vast army preserveshim ? throughthe long winter,on whichhe has stakedhis all, Mr. Keay suggeststhat I must be 'an instrumentalist.' going up in smoke before his eyes and leaving four May I withoutoffence suggest that he is a devotee df hundredthousand Frenchmenwithout food or ' invading 'programmemusic ?-Yours, &c., shelter in the heart of a frozendesert; while the ARTHUR L. SALMON. ponderousdeep-throated bell of the Kremlin,sounding the alarm, booms on above the rush and roar of the flames,the crashof fallingbuildings, the shrieksof the wounded, burned alive in the hospitals, and all the SHALL WE RETAIN THE BAR? confusedterror of frenzyand destruction.'-Yours,&c., 295, Wells Road, Bristol. CHARLES H. BISHOP. SIR,-With regard to retainingthe bar I think Mr. September 6, 1920. A. L. Salmon in his admirablearticle has omitted one considerationof value. There can be littledoubt that past CHRONOLOGY OF THE RISING SEVENTH composershave used the bar in completeconsciousness of am anxious to establish all that it in SIR,-I particularly the implies accent and rhythm; and they had of two progressionsin which a 7th beliefthat those would chronology is implications controlinterpretation. allowed to rise, viz.: (I.) on the subdominant(major or The bar was thus 7 a sort of anchoragefor the composer's minor) on on the and trustin the effectshis work resolving 7 supertonic; (2.) on the would produce; but a barless supertonicresolving on 6 on the leadingnote, as : methodwould be morelike shiftingsand, whichwould lend itself,by its lack of restriction,to the wildestinterpretation, whilst shieldinginept performance.At the best it wohld allow musicwritten with definiteaim to becomeall things to all men,if thatis an but it would secure no 5-- C advantage; --- safe-conductfor a composer'smessage from himself to his ::- audience. -Yours, &c., F. C. TILNEY. 7 7 6 September 9, 1920. 5 5 5 This content downloaded from 84.88.136.149 on Mon, 30 Nov 2015 08:50:32 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions.