String Quartet No. 1 "English Suite"
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Full score, preface with footnotes & YouTube video:
https://blackpoolmusicgroup.blogspot.com/p/string-quartet-no-1-english-suite.html
***
The emerging English Folksong movement
Many young British composers of the outgoing Victorian and the following Edwardian era sought to find liberation from the Germanic roots in which British music had firmly rested during the decades of Charles V Stanford's and Hubert Parry's tenure as professors for composition at the Royal College of Music, when English music sounded very much like Brahms or Wagner.
Thus from the turn of the 20th century, a number of different directions were taken by many upcoming British composers: first Edward Elgar, a pupil of Stanford, who - despite early influences by Richard Strauss - soon found his own voice and, in his more public pieces, became the "official" musical herald of the Edwardian Empire; then Frederic Delius - settling, after some time spent in bohemian Paris, in the rural calm of the French countryside - who turned towards a nature-inspired impressionism. Others focussed their attention on Irish and Celtic themes, such as Joseph Holbrooke or Arnold Bax, who also favoured writing Sibelian-like "Nordic" soundscapes; yet others preferred Greek, oriental or Indian settings, mainly Granville Bantock, Cyril Scott, John Foulds and also Gustav Holst; whereas more traditional composers like Rutland Boughton - remaining a romantic at the bottom of his heart - in contrast turned to the British model of early socialism represented by William Morris' Arts and Crafts movement and by the playwright George Bernard Shaw, in order to create a new festival of English opera.
It were, however, the achievements of two of Parry's and Standford's pupils: Ralph Vaughan Williams - who also briefly studied with Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris - and of Gustav Holst - whose inspiration based on Indian mysticism later helped him create his distinctive, minimalistic style - who, with the help Cecil Sharp and others, travelled across the countryside where they listened to, recorded and put to paper the hitherto only vocal tradition of English Folksong, incorporating it into their own music and preparing its way for the concert hall by moulding it into a new style of art - a new national "English" music, so to speak. Despite being branded by some ill-meaning critics as "cowpat music", their new "pastoral" style is as quintessentially romantic English as are Thomas Hardy's novels or John Constable's paintings.
It is not necessarily the exact quotations of actual English folk tunes which characterises the new style - they rather help to create a special unmistakable sound that became well associated with the English landscape by depicting its still archaic ways of life, forming a distinction from most of the music - artistic or popular - that at the same time was prevalent on the continent.
Soon a great number of young composers were influenced by this new style and readily absorbed it within their own compositions. Some later became well known, amongst them Frank Bridge, Gerald Finzi, John Ireland, E.J. Moeran or Peter Warlock.
Others remain, particularly nowadays, lesser acquainted, like Edgar Bainton, York Bowen, Benjamin Dale, George Dyson, Ernest Farrar, Edward German, Cecil A Gibbs, Ivor Gurney, Julius Harrison, Herbert Howells, Gordon Jacob, John McEwen, Cyril Rotham and many others, including the Irish-born Hamilton Harty and Austrailan-born Percy Grainger. No doubt, George Butterworth would have majorly contributed to the style, had he survived the Great War. Later Benjamin Britten added his own distinctive touch with his sets of rather more modernistic folksong arrangements.
Still even now in the early 21st century there are modern composers carrying on the tradition, and with some success, most notably Arthur Butterworth (no relation to George), whose works are being made available to listeners through CD recordings.
The adaption of English Folksong within large-scale compositions
The new style and sound was both based on and inspired by the folk music of the British isles, which - as we said - differs quite significantly from its continental counterparts by a number of characteristics (and indeed from the melody-building established by composers throughout musical history, culminating for instance in the Lieder by Franz Schubert): a general simplicity of the melodic line; the use of modal scales (often Dorian, Mixolydian and Aeolian) with the omission of the Leitton; irregular phrasing and phrase lengths, irregular meters, with syncopated rhythms and accents shifting in line with the lyrics; and the occasional preference given to 2/4 and 6/8 dance-like meters, inspired by the traditional dances of Scotland and Ireland, like Jigs, Reels and Hornpipes.
By not following any strict rules of melodic progression and the use of intervals, as were implied by the great masters of the Renaissance, and often disregarding the periodicity applied by the masters of the Viennese classic, and despite - or because of - the relative simplicity of the folk tunes, with their free melodic flow uninterrupted by rests and their lack of chromaticism, many allow themselves perfectly to be worked into elaborate contrapuntal structures, sweeping melodies and a muted, often archaic harmonisation, which have all shaped this newly emerging English style so very much.
It need not be necessary to quote any particular folk tune, or parts of it, in order to create the aforementioned effects: by composing music that emphasises on certain melodic - generally modal or diatonic - progressions and combines rhythmic simplicity with frequent syncopations (the Lombard rhythm in particular), and by keeping harmonic relations close together - mainly within subdominant regions and their parallel minors/majors - one can easily emulate and evolve the desired style, even when composing large-scale pieces such as symphonies, concertos, the operas of Vaughan Williams, or - as was popular during the time - orchestral rhapsodies.
The use of English Folksongs in the String Quartet No.1 "English Suite"
Nowadays, the contemporary composer faces a dilemma which was little troubling the composers of the English Folksong movement: can he still, or can he not, simply write straight forward melodic lines underlined by traditional harmonies? After all, a large-scale piece needs some basic melodic and thematic material in order to grow organically, like a plant germinates from a seed, otherwise the piece will probably sound incoherent, even confusing. Whilst the historic developments of atonality, dodecaphony and serialism during the 20th century surely are to be regarded as logic consequences by the post-war avant garde movement, showing the modern composer's needs to evolve and to avoid repetition or, worse, plagiarism, it is the author's firm believe that a modern, i.e. a contemporary, composition should still afford some appeal to the listener, in order to avoid being little more than an intellectual statement, or a "paper exercise".
On the other hand, one should not any longer simply invent new "tunes" in a way it has been done for centuries, whether they are diatonic, chromatic or contain all twelve notes of the chromatic scale. This would simply be an anachronism and rather, in case of the former two, belong to the realm of popular music. Indeed the use of folksongs can deliver a viable solution: many songs provide sufficient motivic and thematic material to construct whole movements out of just a few tunes. They adapt very well to the use of counterpoint, variation and progressive harmony, as will be shown in the following brief analysis.
1st movement - "Prelude"
The musical building materials of the String Quartet No. 1 are almost completely extracted out of the chosen folk songs for each of the movements - one song being allocated to each movement apart from the Rondo finale which uses three. The tunes are elaborated through the traditional use of counterpoint, imitation, sequential treatment, changing harmonisation and thematic transformation as well as developing variation, and the resulting changes in expression and mood.
The only motivic invention originating from the author is the four-part ricercare which opens and closes the 1st movement, in a way of fusion between the old Tudor style polyphony and English folk song which Ralph Vaughan Williams so keenly adapted, not least in his popular "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis".
After the polyphonic opening section the song "All Things Are Quite Silent" appears once completely in a straight forward homophonic part-song setting, before the polyphonic section returns. At the end, the opening line of the song reappears on top in the 1st violin just as the imitations of the lower voices are coming to an end.
2nd movement - "Fantasia"
Over an ostinato in viola and 'cello, the song "The Basket of Eggs" sets the scene for a series of seven variations. A slow, contrasting middle section (variations 3 & 4) and the cyclical nature of the first part and last part of variations (variations 5 - 7) results in the overall ternary form of this rhythmical and playful movement before it - on top of the returning ostinato - phases out in a short codetta of just a few bars.
3rd movement - "Canzona"
The single phrases of the song "The Greenland Whale Fishery" are presented in different contrasting sections of either polyphonic or harmonised settings, before being elaborated through developing variation. The middle section of this ternary movement derives its motivic material from merely a melodic fragment as well as the underlying harmonisation of the theme, before the tune in its original shape (not pitch) appears successively in viola and both violins.
The reprise of the opening section varies through the inversion of its first phrase although the second phrase returns as normal, leading to a final climax, before ending in a wide, plagal cadence. However, the closing phrase and cadence of the folk tune itself never appears in this movement.
4th movement - "Rondo fugato"
As implied in its name, the 'A'-sections of this rondo are all of a contrapuntal setting, with variation given to changes of the entries of the voices or inversions of the theme taken from the song "O Shepherd, O Shepherd". A second theme quoting "Lord Bateman" and a third, lyrically contrasting, sporting variations of "The Banks of Green Willow", frame the central fugue-section which is developing out of the main theme.
The second and third theme appear in reversed order in the reprise, after which "Lord Bateman" - now in major - opens the final coda of the movement in an apotheotic climax of the whole piece before the fugato of the opening theme makes its last, frantically rushing appearance until the end.
The dedication of the String Quartet No. 1 "English Suite" is to the tenor Raimund Gilvan, who first opened up to me not only the world of English music through the symphonies of Vaughan Williams, the exuberant conducting of John Barbirolli (whose rehearsals at Manchester's Free Trade Hall the young Gilvan used to attend) and the recordings of the “Lancashire Caruso” Tom Burke (on 78 rpm shellack discs), but also - somehow unrelated - the passionately elegant piano playing of Samson Francois.
Alexander Kirsch,
Blackpool, in February 2019
Movements:
1. "Prelude" • p. 1
2. "Fantasia" • p. 4
3. "Canzona" • p. 18
4. "Rondo fugato" • p. 31
Duration: approx. 22 minutes
Full score, preface with footnotes & YouTube video:
https://blackpoolmusicgroup.blogspot.com/p/string-quartet-no-1-english-suite.html
***
A preface by the composer
The emerging English Folksong movement
Many young British composers of the outgoing Victorian and the following Edwardian era sought to find liberation from the Germanic roots in which British music had firmly rested during the decades of Charles V Stanford's and Hubert Parry's tenure as professors for composition at the Royal College of Music, when English music sounded very much like Brahms or Wagner.
Thus from the turn of the 20th century, a number of different directions were taken by many upcoming British composers: first Edward Elgar, a pupil of Stanford, who - despite early influences by Richard Strauss - soon found his own voice and, in his more public pieces, became the "official" musical herald of the Edwardian Empire; then Frederic Delius - settling, after some time spent in bohemian Paris, in the rural calm of the French countryside - who turned towards a nature-inspired impressionism. Others focussed their attention on Irish and Celtic themes, such as Joseph Holbrooke or Arnold Bax, who also favoured writing Sibelian-like "Nordic" soundscapes; yet others preferred Greek, oriental or Indian settings, mainly Granville Bantock, Cyril Scott, John Foulds and also Gustav Holst; whereas more traditional composers like Rutland Boughton - remaining a romantic at the bottom of his heart - in contrast turned to the British model of early socialism represented by William Morris' Arts and Crafts movement and by the playwright George Bernard Shaw, in order to create a new festival of English opera.
It were, however, the achievements of two of Parry's and Standford's pupils: Ralph Vaughan Williams - who also briefly studied with Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris - and of Gustav Holst - whose inspiration based on Indian mysticism later helped him create his distinctive, minimalistic style - who, with the help Cecil Sharp and others, travelled across the countryside where they listened to, recorded and put to paper the hitherto only vocal tradition of English Folksong, incorporating it into their own music and preparing its way for the concert hall by moulding it into a new style of art - a new national "English" music, so to speak. Despite being branded by some ill-meaning critics as "cowpat music", their new "pastoral" style is as quintessentially romantic English as are Thomas Hardy's novels or John Constable's paintings.
It is not necessarily the exact quotations of actual English folk tunes which characterises the new style - they rather help to create a special unmistakable sound that became well associated with the English landscape by depicting its still archaic ways of life, forming a distinction from most of the music - artistic or popular - that at the same time was prevalent on the continent.
Soon a great number of young composers were influenced by this new style and readily absorbed it within their own compositions. Some later became well known, amongst them Frank Bridge, Gerald Finzi, John Ireland, E.J. Moeran or Peter Warlock.
Others remain, particularly nowadays, lesser acquainted, like Edgar Bainton, York Bowen, Benjamin Dale, George Dyson, Ernest Farrar, Edward German, Cecil A Gibbs, Ivor Gurney, Julius Harrison, Herbert Howells, Gordon Jacob, John McEwen, Cyril Rotham and many others, including the Irish-born Hamilton Harty and Austrailan-born Percy Grainger. No doubt, George Butterworth would have majorly contributed to the style, had he survived the Great War. Later Benjamin Britten added his own distinctive touch with his sets of rather more modernistic folksong arrangements.
Still even now in the early 21st century there are modern composers carrying on the tradition, and with some success, most notably Arthur Butterworth (no relation to George), whose works are being made available to listeners through CD recordings.
The adaption of English Folksong within large-scale compositions
The new style and sound was both based on and inspired by the folk music of the British isles, which - as we said - differs quite significantly from its continental counterparts by a number of characteristics (and indeed from the melody-building established by composers throughout musical history, culminating for instance in the Lieder by Franz Schubert): a general simplicity of the melodic line; the use of modal scales (often Dorian, Mixolydian and Aeolian) with the omission of the Leitton; irregular phrasing and phrase lengths, irregular meters, with syncopated rhythms and accents shifting in line with the lyrics; and the occasional preference given to 2/4 and 6/8 dance-like meters, inspired by the traditional dances of Scotland and Ireland, like Jigs, Reels and Hornpipes.
By not following any strict rules of melodic progression and the use of intervals, as were implied by the great masters of the Renaissance, and often disregarding the periodicity applied by the masters of the Viennese classic, and despite - or because of - the relative simplicity of the folk tunes, with their free melodic flow uninterrupted by rests and their lack of chromaticism, many allow themselves perfectly to be worked into elaborate contrapuntal structures, sweeping melodies and a muted, often archaic harmonisation, which have all shaped this newly emerging English style so very much.
It need not be necessary to quote any particular folk tune, or parts of it, in order to create the aforementioned effects: by composing music that emphasises on certain melodic - generally modal or diatonic - progressions and combines rhythmic simplicity with frequent syncopations (the Lombard rhythm in particular), and by keeping harmonic relations close together - mainly within subdominant regions and their parallel minors/majors - one can easily emulate and evolve the desired style, even when composing large-scale pieces such as symphonies, concertos, the operas of Vaughan Williams, or - as was popular during the time - orchestral rhapsodies.
The use of English Folksongs in the String Quartet No.1 "English Suite"
Nowadays, the contemporary composer faces a dilemma which was little troubling the composers of the English Folksong movement: can he still, or can he not, simply write straight forward melodic lines underlined by traditional harmonies? After all, a large-scale piece needs some basic melodic and thematic material in order to grow organically, like a plant germinates from a seed, otherwise the piece will probably sound incoherent, even confusing. Whilst the historic developments of atonality, dodecaphony and serialism during the 20th century surely are to be regarded as logic consequences by the post-war avant garde movement, showing the modern composer's needs to evolve and to avoid repetition or, worse, plagiarism, it is the author's firm believe that a modern, i.e. a contemporary, composition should still afford some appeal to the listener, in order to avoid being little more than an intellectual statement, or a "paper exercise".
On the other hand, one should not any longer simply invent new "tunes" in a way it has been done for centuries, whether they are diatonic, chromatic or contain all twelve notes of the chromatic scale. This would simply be an anachronism and rather, in case of the former two, belong to the realm of popular music. Indeed the use of folksongs can deliver a viable solution: many songs provide sufficient motivic and thematic material to construct whole movements out of just a few tunes. They adapt very well to the use of counterpoint, variation and progressive harmony, as will be shown in the following brief analysis.
1st movement - "Prelude"
The musical building materials of the String Quartet No. 1 are almost completely extracted out of the chosen folk songs for each of the movements - one song being allocated to each movement apart from the Rondo finale which uses three. The tunes are elaborated through the traditional use of counterpoint, imitation, sequential treatment, changing harmonisation and thematic transformation as well as developing variation, and the resulting changes in expression and mood.
The only motivic invention originating from the author is the four-part ricercare which opens and closes the 1st movement, in a way of fusion between the old Tudor style polyphony and English folk song which Ralph Vaughan Williams so keenly adapted, not least in his popular "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis".
After the polyphonic opening section the song "All Things Are Quite Silent" appears once completely in a straight forward homophonic part-song setting, before the polyphonic section returns. At the end, the opening line of the song reappears on top in the 1st violin just as the imitations of the lower voices are coming to an end.
2nd movement - "Fantasia"
Over an ostinato in viola and 'cello, the song "The Basket of Eggs" sets the scene for a series of seven variations. A slow, contrasting middle section (variations 3 & 4) and the cyclical nature of the first part and last part of variations (variations 5 - 7) results in the overall ternary form of this rhythmical and playful movement before it - on top of the returning ostinato - phases out in a short codetta of just a few bars.
3rd movement - "Canzona"
The single phrases of the song "The Greenland Whale Fishery" are presented in different contrasting sections of either polyphonic or harmonised settings, before being elaborated through developing variation. The middle section of this ternary movement derives its motivic material from merely a melodic fragment as well as the underlying harmonisation of the theme, before the tune in its original shape (not pitch) appears successively in viola and both violins.
The reprise of the opening section varies through the inversion of its first phrase although the second phrase returns as normal, leading to a final climax, before ending in a wide, plagal cadence. However, the closing phrase and cadence of the folk tune itself never appears in this movement.
4th movement - "Rondo fugato"
As implied in its name, the 'A'-sections of this rondo are all of a contrapuntal setting, with variation given to changes of the entries of the voices or inversions of the theme taken from the song "O Shepherd, O Shepherd". A second theme quoting "Lord Bateman" and a third, lyrically contrasting, sporting variations of "The Banks of Green Willow", frame the central fugue-section which is developing out of the main theme.
The second and third theme appear in reversed order in the reprise, after which "Lord Bateman" - now in major - opens the final coda of the movement in an apotheotic climax of the whole piece before the fugato of the opening theme makes its last, frantically rushing appearance until the end.
The dedication of the String Quartet No. 1 "English Suite" is to the tenor Raimund Gilvan, who first opened up to me not only the world of English music through the symphonies of Vaughan Williams, the exuberant conducting of John Barbirolli (whose rehearsals at Manchester's Free Trade Hall the young Gilvan used to attend) and the recordings of the “Lancashire Caruso” Tom Burke (on 78 rpm shellack discs), but also - somehow unrelated - the passionately elegant piano playing of Samson Francois.
Alexander Kirsch,
Blackpool, in February 2019
Movements:
1. "Prelude" • p. 1
2. "Fantasia" • p. 4
3. "Canzona" • p. 18
4. "Rondo fugato" • p. 31
Duration: approx. 22 minutes
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