by Adams, Byron
7. “To Our Readers,” Monthly Musical Record 1, no. 1 (January 1871): 1; “Notes of the Day,” Monthly Musical Record 90, no. 1002 (November-December 1960): 202.
8. “To the Reader,” Musical News 1, no. 1 (6 March 1891): 1.
9. Charles Maclean, “Music in England,” Zeitschrift der internationalen Musikgesellschaft 1, no. 1–2 (September-October 1899): 23.
10. Ibid., 23.
11. “To the Reader,” 1.
12. Hans Richter (1843–1916), Hungarian-born German conductor. A Wagnerian, best known for conducting the first complete Ring cycle at Bayreuth in 1876, he was conductor of the Birmingham Musical Festival between 1885 and 1911, and of the Hallé Orchestra between 1897 and 1911. Richter befriended Elgar when he directed the pre-
13. Emma (after 1925, Dame Emma) Albani (1847–1930), Canadian soprano. Born Emma Lajeunesse in Chambly, near Montreal, she studied at the Catholic Cathedral of Albany, New York, then Paris (under Duprez), then Milan (under Lamperti). She made her debut at Messina in 1870, and her British debut at Covent Garden in 1872, in both cases as Amina in Bellini’s La Sonnambula. In addition to her many operatic roles (including Eva, Desdemona, and Isolde) she sang in English provincial choral festivals for more than twenty years; Gounod’s Mors et Vita was written for her. “Obituary: Dame Emma Albani,” The Musical Times 71 (May 1930): 463; Alexis Chitty and Gilles Potvin, “Albani [Lajeunesse], Dame Emma (Marie Louise Cecile),” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan, 2001), 1:282.
14. Muriel Foster (1877–1937), English mezzo-soprano. Born in Sunderland, she studied under Anna Williams at the Royal College of Music, where, in 1900, she won the Musicians’ Company Medal for the best student in the college. She became closely identified with Elgar’s music after singing (in German) the part of the Guardian Angel at the Düsseldorf performance of Gerontius in May 1902; she also sang in the premieres of both The Apostles and The Kingdom. “Miss Muriel Foster,” The Musical Times 45 (March 1904): 153–55; and “Obituary: Muriel Foster,” The Musical Times 79 (January 1938): 67.
15. John Coates (1865–1941), English tenor. Born in Bradford, he began his career singing baritone in comic opera before changing to tenor. In the early years of the twentieth century he established a reputation as an opera singer in Germany and as a concert singer in Britain; after the First World War he became best known for his solo recitals, which often included unusual repertoire, including contemporary British works. Like Foster he became particularly identified with Elgar’s music; indeed, Gerald Moore has claimed that the turning point in Coates’s career was his performance as Gerontius at the 1902 Three Choirs Festival at Worcester. “Obituary: John Coates,” The Musical Times 82 (September 1941): 351; Gerald Moore, “Coates, John,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., 6:69.
16. Robert Henry Kennerley Rumford (1870–1957), English baritone. He studied with Sbriglia and Bouhy in Paris, and then under George Henschel and Alfred Blume in London, making his debut under Henschel in 1893. In 1900 he married Dame Clara Butt. “Obituary: Robert Henry Kennerley Rumford,” The Musical Times 98 (April 1957): 219. A. Eaglefield-Hull, “Rumford, R. Kennerley, A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians,” ed. A. Eaglefield-Hull (London: Dent, 1924), 427.
17. David Thomas Ffranggon Davies (1856–1918), Welsh baritone. Born in Bethesda, Carnarvonshire, he began his adult life as a Church of England clergyman but switched to singing, studying under Richard Latter, William Shakespeare, and Alberto Randegger. Initially, he worked mostly in America and Germany, but at the turn of the century he returned to Britain, where he established himself as an oratorio singer, notably in the London premiere of Gerontius. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1907. “Obituary: David Thomas Ffranggon Davies,” The Musical Times 59 (May 1918): 214.
18. Andrew Black (1859–1920), Scottish baritone. Born in Glasgow, he studied under Randegger in London and under Scafati in Milan, making his London debut in 1887 and his festival debut at Leeds in 1892 as the Spectre in Dvo . rák’s The Spectre’s Bride. He later emigrated to Australia and died there. “Obituary: Andrew Black,” The Musical Times 61 (December 1920): 837; Jean Mary Allan and Ruzena Wood, “Black, Andrew,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., 3:663.
19. The motif titled “Christ’s Loneliness” first appears two measures before rehearsal number 20.
20. This figure, which bears the label “Christ the Man of Sorrows,” first appears 6–7 measures after rehearsal number 2.
21. Gorton, The Apostles, 10.
22. Richard Whately (1787–1863), Archbishop of Dublin (1831–63). A liberal in both theology and politics—he favored Catholic emancipation and promoted nonsectarian education in Ireland—Whately was one of several nineteenth-Century thinkers who argued that Judas’s actions were motivated by a belief in a physical (rather than a spiritual) enactment of Christ’s kingdom on earth. See Charles Edward McGuire, “Elgar, Judas, and the Theology of Betrayal,” in 19th-C entury Music 23, no. 3 (Spring 2000): 236–72, esp. 247–49.
23. Both quotations are taken from Gorton, The Apostles, 21; the first is quoted in turn from Richard Whately, Lectures on the Character of Our Lord’s Apostles and Especially Their Conduct at the Time of His Apprehension and Trial, 3rd ed. (London: J. W. Parker, 1859), 29–30, part of a lecture titled “Trials of the Apostles.” (I am grateful to Geoffrey Hodgkins for providing me with this information.) Elgar would quote these words of Whately in his interview with The Strand Magazine in 1904. See Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 294.
24. According to Jerrold Northrop Moore, this review (15 October 1903) was by J. A. Fuller-Maitland (1856–1936), the chief music critic of the Times (London), and one of those members of the British musical establishment who was most hostile to Elgar (Elgar: A Creative Life, 417). The passage quoted in Musical News forms the central section of the review.
25. See Jaeger, The Apostles.
26. “Christ the Man of Sorrows” is one motif, not two; “Gospel” first appears one measure before rehearsal number 3.
27. The theme appears three measures after rehearsal number 120.
28. For some reason, the contribution of Andrew Black (Judas) was omitted in this sentence.
29. Charles William Perkins (1855–1927) was the city organist of Birmingham between 1888 and 1923. Prior to his appointment in Birmingham he studied under Arthur Deakin, Charles Swinnerton Heap, and, at Westminster Abbey, Sir Frederick Bridge. Barbara Padjasek, “Organist to the City of Birmingham,” The Musical Times 130 (February 1989): 111.
30. “Obituaries: Mr. Alfred Kalisch,” Times (London), 18 May 1933, 16.
31. Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 481, 244–45, 330, 333; Hughes, Watchmen of Music, 165; Byron Adams, “Elgar’s Later Oratorios: Roman Catholicism, Decadence, and the Wagnerian Dialectic of Shame and Grace,” in The Cambridge Companion to Elgar, ed. Daniel M. Grimley and Julian Rushton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 86.
32. In stating that Judas was not an “Apostle,” the author makes a semantic distinction between disciple (literally “one who learns”) and apostle (literally “one who is sent out”).
33. The oratorio Ein Weihnachtsmysterium (1899) by the German composer, conductor, and musicologist Philipp Wolfrum (1854–1919) made extensive use of both Gregorian chant (notably “Resonet in Laudibus”) and Christmas carols (notably “Joseph Lieber, Joseph Mein”). It received its British premiere at Worcester on December 12, 1901; according to The Musical Times, “the credit of introducing it to England belongs to Dr. Elgar and the Worcestershire Philharmonic Society,” so Baughan’s reference was presumably not accidental. See “Philipp Wolfrum’s Weihnachtsmysterium,” The Musical Times 43 (January 1902): 39.
34. Arthur Nikisch (1855–1922), German conductor. Best remembered as the conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig (1879–89), he performed regularly in Britain between 1895 and 1914, both in London—where his Wagner received particular critical acclaim—and
in the provinces. Alfred Kalisch, “Arthur Nikisch,” The Musical Times 63 (March 1922): 172–74.
35. Felix Weingartner (1863–1942), German conductor and composer. The conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic between 1908 and 1927, he first visited England in 1898, conducted at the 1902 Beethoven Festival in London, and following his 1904 performance of Gerontius with the Sheffield Musical Union at Queen’s Hall became conductor of the Sheffield Festival in 1906. “Obituary: Felix Weingartner,” The Musical Times 83 (June 1942): 192.
36. Agnes Nicholls (1877–1959), English soprano. She studied at the Royal College of Music under Visetti and John Acton, making her London debut in 1895 as Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and her Covent Garden debut in 1901 as the Dew Fairy in Hänsel und Gretel. She later sang under Richter in the first English Ring cycle in 1908 and became established as a leading Wagnerian and Mozartian. She was married to the (Northern) Irish conductor and composer, Sir Hamilton Harty (1879–1941). See C. W., “Obituary,” The Musical Times 100 (November 1959): 618–19; A. Eaglefield-Hull, “Harty, Agnes,” A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, 224.
37. Frederic Austin (1872–1952), English baritone and composer. Born in London, he studied under Charles Lunn and made his London debut in 1902. His career as a singer included opera (Gunther in the 1908 Covent Garden Ring); concert work, notably Delius’s Sea Drift (of which he sang in the English premiere); and oratorio. In 1924 he was appointed artistic director of the British National Opera Company. H. C. Colles, “Austin, Frederic,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan, 1980), 1:706.
38. Louisa Kirkby Lunn (1873–1930), English mezzo-soprano. Born in Manchester, she studied at the Royal College of Music under Visetti. Her career began with the Carl Rosa Company; later she performed at Covent Garden in such roles as Brangäne, Amneris, and Kundry (a role which she was the first to sing in English in the United States). She was also a noted concert and Lieder singer. “Obituary: Louisa Kirkby Lunn,” The Musical Times 71 (March 1930): 271; A. Eaglefield-Hull, “Lunn, Louise Kirkby,” A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, 306.
39. “Obituary: Thomas Lea Southgate,” The Musical Times 58 (March 1917): 116.
40. See rehearsal number 94f. and five measures after rehearsal number 125, respectively.
41. As in Ffranggon Davies.
42. O. I., “Homage to British Composers,” Musical News 26, no. 681 (19 March 1904): 273–74.
43. The three concerts of the festival consisted of The Dream of Gerontius (March 14); The Apostles (March 15); Froissart, selections from Caractacus, the Enigma Variations, In the South, Sea Pictures, Cockaigne, and Pomp and Circumstance Marches nos. 2 and 1 (March 16).
44. Both the date and the piece are wrong here; The Atonement (1903) was a sacred cantata by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912), but it is to The Apostles that this article refers.
45. A. Eaglefield-Hull, “Evans, Edwin, jun.,” A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, 144; H. C. C[olles]. “Evans, Edwin (ii),” Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed. (London: Macmillan, 1954), 2:980–81.
46. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, 33.3–4.
47. Dalton Baker (b. 1879), English baritone. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the Mence Smith scholarship for singing and made his debut at St. James’s Hall in 1902. After a career in the provincial festival circuit, which included the premiere of Bantock’s Omar Khayyám, he emigrated in 1915 to Canada, where he became a member of staff at the Toronto Conservatory of Music. “Miscellaneous,” The Musical Times 56 (January 1915): 50; L[eo] S[mith], “Baker, Dalton,” in A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, 25.
48. Harry Plunket Greene (1865–1936), Irish-born baritone. After periods of study in Dublin, Stuttgart, Florence, and London, he became renowned as one of the leading interpreters of his generation of English and Irish song; according to his obituarist in The Musical Times, “By the beauty of sense and feeling in his utterance, by the frequency and popularity of his recitals, and by the extent of his repertory he did more than any other artist to encourage the new school of song-writing that sprang up in this country during the present century.” Married to Parry’s daughter Maud, he became very much part of the British musical establishment, notably as president of the Incorporated Society of Musicians (1933) and chairman of the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund (1934). His musicological work included Charles Villiers Stanford (London: Arnold, 1935). See “Harry Plunket Greene,” The Musical Times 77 (September 1936): 799–800.
49. (Sir) A(lfred) H(erbert) Brewer (1865–1928), composer and organist. Born in Gloucester, he was a chorister at the cathedral before studying organ in Gloucester (under C. H. Lloyd), Oxford, and the Royal College of Music (under Walter Parratt). After spells at Bristol Cathedral, St. Michael’s, Coventry, and Tonbridge School, he returned to Gloucester as cathedral organist in 1896. His best-known works are his cantatas Emmaus (1901), with which Elgar assisted in the orchestration, and The Holy Innocents (1904). He was knighted in 1926. “Obituary: Alfred Herbert Brewer,” The Musical Times 69 (April 1928): 367–68; “Some of Elgar’s Friends,” The Musical Times 75 (April 1934): 320.
50. See also rehearsal nos. 19 to 20.
51. Parry’s oratorio received its premiere at the festival.
52. Parry’s oratorio Job was premiered in 1892, also at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester.
53. Arthur Fagge (1864–1943), organist and conductor. Born in Kent, but based for most of his life in London, he founded the London Choral Society in 1903 as a vessel through which to perform British works, notably Elgar’s three mature oratorios, and also Walford Davies’s Everyman and Bantock’s Omar Khayyám, both of whose London premieres the Society gave. “Obituary: Arthur Fagge,” The Musical Times 84 (June 1943): 192.
54. Clementina De Vere-Sapio, American soprano, was a regular performer in the provincial festival circuit. She appears not to have performed in Britain any earlier than 1894 or any later than 1911.
55. Marie Brema (1856–1925), English mezzo-soprano, of German-American parentage. Born in Liverpool, she studied under Henschel and Alfred Blume, making her debut at St. James’s Hall in 1891. Although remembered primarily as an operatic performer (particular in Wagner; she was the first English singer to sing at Bayreuth), she was also an accomplished oratorio singer; the Guardian Angel in Gerontius (which she sang at the work’s premiere) was considered one of her finest roles. “Obituary: Marie Brema,” The Musical Times 66 (May 1925): 461; A. Eaglefield-Hull, “Brema, Marie,” A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, 59.
56. (Harry) Gregory Hast (1862–1944), English tenor. A founder of the Meister Glee-Singers in 1890 and a member of the choirs of both Westminster Abbey and the Temple Church (under Walford Davies), he became a noted recitalist following his St. James’s Hall debut in 1898, touring in both America and Europe. He published The Singer’s Art: Letters from a Singing Master (London: Methuen) in 1925. “Obituary: Gregory Hast,” The Musical Times 85 (October 1944): 319.
57. Arthur Francis Braun (1876–1940), English baritone (and Marie Brema’s son), was a regular performer in provincial festivals in the first decade of the twentieth century. The high point of his career appears to have been singing the solo baritone part in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra in Paris under Stanford in January 1906. “The English Concerts in Paris,” The Musical Times 47 (February 1906): 105.
58. Robert J. Buckley, Sir Edward Elgar (London: Jone Lane, 1905), 8.
59. Ibid., 74.
60. Moore’s suggestion appears in Elgar and His Publishers, 1:111. The obituary for Percy Betts can be found in The Musical Times 45 (October 1904): 652; that for J. H. G. Baughan can be found in The Musical Times 69 (February 1928): 173.
Charles Sanford Terry and Elgar’s Violin Concerto
TRANSCRIBED AND INTRODUCED BY ALISON I. SHIEL
Since its first performance on November 10, 1910, much scholarly en
ergy has been expended on certain mysterious aspects of Elgar’s Violin Concerto in B Minor, op. 61. The significance of the dedication and the five dots that follow—Aquí está encerrada el alma de…. (Herein is enshrined the soul of….)—and of Elgar’s particular attention to the grammatical correctness of this Spanish quotation, drawn from Lesage’s picaresque novel L’Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, has called forth pages of speculation by Elgar biographers. Scholars have subjected the concerto itself to detailed analysis, much of it in terms of the gender of its various themes, the implication being that the melodies are meant to represent some romantic entanglement of Elgar’s, past or present. Names of several women have been invoked in these studies, including those of young Elgar’s Worcester girlfriend, Helen Weaver, the mature composer’s American friend Julia “Pippa” Worthington, and, most persistently, Alice Stuart-Wortley, whom the composer once described as the “stepmother” of the score.1
A volume now lodged in the British Library (Add. MS 62000) illuminates the history of the Violin Concerto. The first-proof copy of the full score, given by Elgar to his friend Professor Charles Sanford Terry, is bound with letters from Sir Edward and Lady Elgar to Terry, as well as Terry’s own various notes and observations. Together, these documents provide a fresh approach to our understanding of the work.
Charles Sanford Terry (1864–1936), first lecturer and later professor of history at the University of Aberdeen (1898–1930) was the leading Bach scholar of his day in Britain. A pioneering historian, especially in the field of Scottish history, he had the reputation of being a brilliant lecturer, capable of “marshalling intricate masses of detail into lucid and balanced narrative.”2 Terry applied these formidable skills to his research into the life and music of J. S. Bach. His large number of publications on Bach and the Bach family attest to his industry and scholarly rigor, and several of these studies remain unsurpassed to this day. An able amateur musician—singer, violinist, and conductor, with musical abilities cultivated at both St. Paul’s Cathedral and Cambridge—Terry conducted the Aberdeen University Choral and Orchestral Society (1898–1913), and in 1909 founded the first competitive music festival in Scotland.3 Terry’s activities consistently met with marked success.
