Edmund Rubbra
Encyclopedia
Edmund Rubbra was a British
composer. He composed both instrumental and vocal works for soloists, chamber groups and full choruses and orchestras. He was greatly esteemed by fellow musicians and was at the peak of his fame in the mid-20th century. The most famous of his pieces are his eleven symphonies. Although he was active at a time when many people wrote twelve-tone music
, he decided not to write in this idiom himself. Instead he devised his own distinctive style. His later works were not as popular with the concert-going public as his previous ones had been, although he never lost the respect of his colleagues. Therefore his output as a whole is less celebrated today than would have been expected from its sheer merit and from his early popularity. Yet his compositions are full of drama, with often enough an improvisatory element.
. His parents encouraged him in his music, but they were not professional musicians, though his mother had a good voice and sang in the church choir, and his father played the piano a little, by ear. Rubbra's artistic and sensitive nature were apparent from early on. He remembered waking one winter's morning when he was about three or four years old, and noticing something different about the light in his bedroom; there was light where there was usually shadow, and vice versa. When his father came into the room, Edmund asked him why this was. His father explained that there had been a fall of snow during the night, and so the sunlight was reflecting off the snow and entering Edmund's bedroom from below, instead of above, thus reversing the patterns of light and shade. When Rubbra was much older he came to realize that this 'topsy-turveydom', as he called it, had caused him to often use short pieces of melody
which would sound good, both in their original form and when inverted
(so that when the original melody goes up a certain amount, the inverted one goes down the same amount). He then set these two melodies together, but slightly offset from one another, so that the listener hears the melody going up, say, then an echo where it goes down instead.
Another childhood memory which Rubbra identified as later affecting his music, took place when he was nine or ten. He was out walking with his father on a hot summer Sunday. As they rested by a gate, looking down at Northampton, he heard distant bells, ‘whose music seemed suspended in the still air’, as he put it. He was lost in the magic of the moment, losing all sense of the scenery round about him, just being aware of "downward drifting sounds that seemed isolated from everything else around". He traces the ‘downward scales that constantly act as focal points in [his] texture
s’ to this experience.
Rubbra took piano lessons from a local lady with a good reputation and a piano with discoloured ivory keys. This instrument contrasted starkly with the piano on which Rubbra practised, which was a new demonstration upright piano, lent to his family by his uncle by marriage. This uncle owned a piano and music shop, and prospective buyers would come to Rubbra's house, where he would demonstrate the quality of the piano by playing Mozart
's Sonata in C to them. If the
sale went through, the Rubbra family was given commission, and a new demonstration piano took the place of the sold one.
In 1912, Rubbra and his family moved a little more than quarter of a mile away to 1 Balfour Road, Kingsthorpe, Northampton, moving again four years later so that his father could start his own business selling and repairing clocks and watches. At this house, above the shop, Edmund had the back bedroom for his work, but the stairs were not wide enough to allow the piano to be brought up, so the window frame of his room had to be removed in order to get the piano in from outside.
Rubbra started composing while he was still at school. One of his masters, Mr. Grant, asked him to compose a school hymn
. He would have been very familiar with hymn tune
s, as he attended a Congregational church and played the piano for the Sunday School
. He also worked as an errand boy whilst he was still at school, giving some of his earnings to his parents to help with their finances.
At the age of 14, he left school and started work in the office of Crockett and Jones, one of Northampton's many boot and shoe manufacturers. Edmund was delighted to be able to accrue a number of stamps from parcels and letters sent to this factory, as stamp-collecting was one of his hobbies. Later, he was invited by an uncle, who owned another boot and shoe factory, to come and work for him. The idea was that he would work up from the bottom of the company, with a view to ownership when his uncle, who had no sons of his own, died. Edmund, influenced by his mother's lack of enthusiasm for the idea, decided to decline. Instead, he took a job as a correspondence clerk in a railway station. In his last year at school he had learned shorthand
, which was an ideal qualification for this post. He also continued to study harmony
, counterpoint
, piano and organ, working at these things daily, before and after his clerk's job.
Rubbra's early forays into chamber music composition included a violin and piano sonata for himself and his friend, Bertram Ablethorpe, and a piece for an excellent local string quartet. He used to meet with the keen, young composer, William Alwyn
, who was also from Northampton, to compare notes.
Rubbra was deeply affected by a sermon he heard given by a Chinese Christian missionary, Kuanglin Pao. He was inspired to write Chinese Impressions — a set of piano pieces, which he dedicated to the preacher. This was the beginning of a lifelong interest in things eastern.
At the age of 17, Rubbra decided to give a whole concert of Cyril Scott
's music in the Carnegie Hall, in Northampton Library. This proved to be a very important decision, which would change his life. The minister from Rubbra's church attended the concert, and secretly sent a copy of the programme to Cyril Scott. The upshot of this was that Scott took Rubbra on as a pupil. Working in the railway office was fortunate, because one of the perks of the job was cheap rail travel, so Rubbra was able to get to Scott's house by train, paying only a quarter of the usual fare. After a year or so, Rubbra gained a scholarship to University College, Reading
. Gustav Holst
became one of his teachers here. Both Scott and Holst had an interest in eastern philosophy and religion, inspiring further interest in the subject from Edmund.
Holst also taught at the Royal College of Music
and advised Rubbra to apply for an open scholarship
there. His advice was followed and the place was secured. Before Rubbra's last term at the Royal College, he was unexpectedly invited to play the piano for the Arts League of Service Travelling Theatre on a six-week tour of Yorkshire
, since their usual pianist had been taken ill. He accepted this offer despite it meaning he missed his last term. This provided him with invaluable experience in playing and composing theatre music, that he never regretted and stood him in good stead for his later dramatic work. In the mid-1920s Rubbra used to earn money playing for dancers from the Diaghilev Ballet
. At around this time he became firm friends with Gerald Finzi
.
In 1933 Rubbra married Antoinette Chaplin, a French violinist. They toured Italy together, as well as giving recitals in Paris and radio broadcasts. They had two sons, Francis and Benedict, with the marriage lasting into the late 1950s. Later, Rubbra married Colette Yardley, with whom he had one son called Adrian.
During the Second World War
, in 1941, Rubbra was called up for army service. After 18 months he was given an office post, again on account of his knowledge of shorthand. While he was here, he ran a small orchestra assisted by a double-bass player from the BBC
orchestra. The War Office
asked him to form a piano trio to play serious music to the troops. Rubbra was happy to oblige, and the trio, "The Army Classical Music Group", was formed (however, an overzealous corporal thought he would get a better audience by printing the posters "Ed Rub & his Band"). Rubbra, playing the piano, was joined by William Pleeth
(cello) and Joshua Glazier (violin). They travelled all over England
and Scotland
and then to Germany
, with their own grand piano which, with its legs removed for transport, became a seat for them in the back of the transport lorry.
After the war, in about 1947, Rubbra became a Roman Catholic, writing a special mass
in celebration. Also at this time, the University of Oxford
were forming a faculty
of music. They invited Rubbra to be a lecturer there. After much thought, he accepted the post. The army trio kept meeting, playing at clubs and broadcasting, for a number of years, but eventually Rubbra was too busy to continue with it.
It is a measure of the high esteem in which Rubbra was held in the 1940s, that his Sinfonia Concertante and his song Morning Watch were played alongside such works as Elgar
's The Dream of Gerontius
, Kodály
's Missa Brevis and Vaughan Williams
's Job, at the 1948 Three Choirs Festival
.
When Vaughan Williams heard that the University of Durham
was going to confer an Honorary D.Mus on Rubbra in 1949, he wrote him a very short letter. ‘I am delighted to hear of the honour which Durham University is conferring on itself’.
Another sign of Rubbra's significance is evident in his receiving a request from the BBC to write something for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The result was Ode to the Queen, a piece for voice and orchestra, to Elizabethan words. In connection with the same celebration, he was invited by Benjamin Britten
to contribute to a collaborative work
, a set of Variations on an Elizabethan Theme
. He initially accepted, but later withdrew; Britten then asked Arthur Oldham
and Humphrey Searle
to take his place.
On Rubbra's retirement from Oxford, in 1968, he did not stop working; he merely took up more teaching at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
where his students included Michael Garrett
. Neither did he stop composing. Indeed, he kept up this activity right until the end of his life. He had, in fact, started a 12th Symphony in March 1985, less than a year before his death. He died in Gerrards Cross
on 14 February 1986.
Ronald Stevenson
summed up the style of Rubbra's work rather succinctly when he wrote, "In an age of fragmentation, Rubbra stands (with a few others) as a composer of a music of oneness".
Sir Adrian Boult
commended Rubbra's work by saying "He ... has never made any effort to popularize anything he has done, but he goes on creating masterpieces”.
lines in his music, than in the chord
s, and this makes his music have a vocal feel. He found his method of composition, working from a single melodic idea and letting the music grow from that, to be very exciting.
His 5th Symphony was started in August 1947. Enough time had elapsed since the 4th Symphony to allow this new symphony to be unrelated, as indeed it is. Grover recognises a "sense of relaxation engendered by a greater flexibility in the handling of materials" which sets this work apart from earlier symphonies. The 6th and
7th symphonies followed in 1954 and 1957.
Rubbra's last four symphonies again show a change of approach. Rubbra himself identified this when he said, "in much of my later music a particular musical interval
rather than a key
underlies the building of the structure". These symphonies were composed between 1968 and 1979. All are available on CD. Richard Hickox
recorded the complete cycle of symphonies on Chandos Records
.
works have religious
or philosophical
texts, in keeping with his interest in these subjects. His first choral work was his Op. 3, written in 1924, and his last was Op. 164, written in 1984, only two years before his death. He wrote for children's voices and madrigal
s, as well as producing masses and motet
s, including the Nine Tenebrae Motets, Op. 72, setting the Responsories for Maundy Thursday
in an intensely dramatic manner. In 1948, he composed Missa Sancti Dominici, Op. 66, to celebrate his conversion to Roman Catholicism. The reason for this particular title is that he was received into the church on the Feast of St. Dominic
, 4 August. His Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in A flat is still performed in Anglican cathedrals and larger parish churches.
Rubbra's songs are not well known, but, again they spanned his whole composing lifetime: Rosa Mundi, Op. 2, was the first published, in 1921; Fly Envious Time, Op. 148, was the last, in 1974, being inscribed "in Memoriam Gerald Finzi
". Less than half of them have the piano specified for their accompaniment
s, though only one is unaccompanied. The others have string quartet
, string orchestra
or harp
as their chosen accompaniments, except for the three songs published as Ode to the Queen, which have full orchestral accompaniment.
, throughout his career. He considered that his Violin Sonata, Op. 31, which he wrote in 1932, was the first of his compositions to be taken seriously in the musical world. His First String Quartet was composed only a year later. For a long time Rubbra was not satisfied with this piece, although Ralph Vaughan Williams
was very interested in it. Finally he thoroughly revised it, and published it in 1946, with an inscription to Vaughan Williams, and destroyed the original finale. Three other string quartets followed at widely spaced intervals. The last was written in 1977 in memory of Bennett Tarshish, a young American admirer of Rubbra's work, who died in his thirties. This piece shows the same method of reliance on a certain interval or intervals (here the 7th) instead of a particular key, which is also evident in Rubbra's later symphonies.
The Cello Sonata of 1946 was dedicated to William Pleeth
(the cellist in The Army Classical Music Group) and his wife. It was sometimes performed by Jacqueline du Pré
, who was a pupil of William Pleeth. Rubbra's 2nd Piano Trio, Op. 138, was first performed by the members of The Army Classical Music Group, who got together again especially for this performance in 1970, though Glazier had now been replaced by Gruenberg.
The repertoire for recorder
was both augmented and enhanced by several works by Rubbra. Foreman considers that these pieces are "significant for their demonstration of an idiomatic recorder style which successfully places the instrument as an equal with other instruments". This recorder music was written for Carl Dolmetsch, son of Arnold Dolmetsch
, and almost every piece makes reference to 16th-century music, for example, Passacaglia sopra ‘Plusieurs Regrets’ for treble recorder and harpsichord
.
Other chamber works in Rubbra's oeuvre include those for oboe
, cor anglais
and viola
.
The Quartets have all appeared on the Dutton Epoch label.
for several plays formed a small but significant part of Rubbra's output. The longest of these is the unpublished score for Macbeth
. In 1933, he wrote a one-act opera
, still in manuscript
, which he originally called Bee-bee-bei, but re-named The Shadow. It reflects his interest in the East, as it is set in Kashmir
.
All three of his works for brass instruments were commissioned. One of them, Variations on "The Shining River", was a test piece for the Brass Band Championships of Great Britain, 1958, held in the Royal Albert Hall
.
Rubbra's last work was his Sinfonietta for large string orchestra, Op. 163, which was commissioned by the Albany Symphony Orchestra
of New York
, for performance in 1986, as part of the tricentennial celebrations of the founding of New York. This work was dedicated to Rubbra's sons, Adrian and Julian, and received excellent press reviews .
Rubbra is also well known for his 1938 orchestration of Johannes Brahms
's piano work Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel
.
Two Sonnets by William Alabaster, Op. 87
No Swan So Fine, Op. 91
Cantata Pastorale, Op. 92
The Jade Mountain, Op. 116
Salve Regina, Op. 119
Fly Envious Time, Op. 148
, Constant Lambert
, John Ireland
, Paul Hindemith
, Ralph Vaughan Williams
, Gustav Holst
, Benjamin Britten
, Johann Sebastian Bach
, Alexander Scriabin
, Béla Bartók
and Dmitri Shostakovich
. In the middle of the twentieth century he wrote "Gramaphone Notes" for The Month, a Catholic magazine published in England. He also made several speech recordings for the BBC.
Grover, Ralph Scott. The Music of Edmund Rubbra. Aldershot: Scolar Press: 1993. ISBN 0-85967-910-1. Includes a worklist.
Edmund Rubbra Symphonist" by Leo Black. Black, a pupil of Rubbra in the 1950s, presents a full-scale study of his symphonies (the first for fifteen years). A biographical sketch throws light on legends about the BBC and Rubbra and his later mysticism; there are full programme notes on each symphony, with accounts of important non-symphonic works.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
composer. He composed both instrumental and vocal works for soloists, chamber groups and full choruses and orchestras. He was greatly esteemed by fellow musicians and was at the peak of his fame in the mid-20th century. The most famous of his pieces are his eleven symphonies. Although he was active at a time when many people wrote twelve-tone music
Twelve-tone technique
Twelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg...
, he decided not to write in this idiom himself. Instead he devised his own distinctive style. His later works were not as popular with the concert-going public as his previous ones had been, although he never lost the respect of his colleagues. Therefore his output as a whole is less celebrated today than would have been expected from its sheer merit and from his early popularity. Yet his compositions are full of drama, with often enough an improvisatory element.
Biography
Charles Edmund Duncan-Rubbra was born at 21 Arnold Road, Semilong, NorthamptonNorthampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
. His parents encouraged him in his music, but they were not professional musicians, though his mother had a good voice and sang in the church choir, and his father played the piano a little, by ear. Rubbra's artistic and sensitive nature were apparent from early on. He remembered waking one winter's morning when he was about three or four years old, and noticing something different about the light in his bedroom; there was light where there was usually shadow, and vice versa. When his father came into the room, Edmund asked him why this was. His father explained that there had been a fall of snow during the night, and so the sunlight was reflecting off the snow and entering Edmund's bedroom from below, instead of above, thus reversing the patterns of light and shade. When Rubbra was much older he came to realize that this 'topsy-turveydom', as he called it, had caused him to often use short pieces of melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
which would sound good, both in their original form and when inverted
Inversion (music)
In music theory, the word inversion has several meanings. There are inverted chords, inverted melodies, inverted intervals, and inverted voices...
(so that when the original melody goes up a certain amount, the inverted one goes down the same amount). He then set these two melodies together, but slightly offset from one another, so that the listener hears the melody going up, say, then an echo where it goes down instead.
Another childhood memory which Rubbra identified as later affecting his music, took place when he was nine or ten. He was out walking with his father on a hot summer Sunday. As they rested by a gate, looking down at Northampton, he heard distant bells, ‘whose music seemed suspended in the still air’, as he put it. He was lost in the magic of the moment, losing all sense of the scenery round about him, just being aware of "downward drifting sounds that seemed isolated from everything else around". He traces the ‘downward scales that constantly act as focal points in [his] texture
Texture (music)
In music, texture is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition , thus determining the overall quality of sound of a piece...
s’ to this experience.
Rubbra took piano lessons from a local lady with a good reputation and a piano with discoloured ivory keys. This instrument contrasted starkly with the piano on which Rubbra practised, which was a new demonstration upright piano, lent to his family by his uncle by marriage. This uncle owned a piano and music shop, and prospective buyers would come to Rubbra's house, where he would demonstrate the quality of the piano by playing Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Sonata in C to them. If the
sale went through, the Rubbra family was given commission, and a new demonstration piano took the place of the sold one.
In 1912, Rubbra and his family moved a little more than quarter of a mile away to 1 Balfour Road, Kingsthorpe, Northampton, moving again four years later so that his father could start his own business selling and repairing clocks and watches. At this house, above the shop, Edmund had the back bedroom for his work, but the stairs were not wide enough to allow the piano to be brought up, so the window frame of his room had to be removed in order to get the piano in from outside.
Rubbra started composing while he was still at school. One of his masters, Mr. Grant, asked him to compose a school hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
. He would have been very familiar with hymn tune
Hymn tune
A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm , and no refrain or chorus....
s, as he attended a Congregational church and played the piano for the Sunday School
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
. He also worked as an errand boy whilst he was still at school, giving some of his earnings to his parents to help with their finances.
At the age of 14, he left school and started work in the office of Crockett and Jones, one of Northampton's many boot and shoe manufacturers. Edmund was delighted to be able to accrue a number of stamps from parcels and letters sent to this factory, as stamp-collecting was one of his hobbies. Later, he was invited by an uncle, who owned another boot and shoe factory, to come and work for him. The idea was that he would work up from the bottom of the company, with a view to ownership when his uncle, who had no sons of his own, died. Edmund, influenced by his mother's lack of enthusiasm for the idea, decided to decline. Instead, he took a job as a correspondence clerk in a railway station. In his last year at school he had learned shorthand
Shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed or brevity of writing as compared to a normal method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek stenos and graphē or graphie...
, which was an ideal qualification for this post. He also continued to study harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
, counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
, piano and organ, working at these things daily, before and after his clerk's job.
Rubbra's early forays into chamber music composition included a violin and piano sonata for himself and his friend, Bertram Ablethorpe, and a piece for an excellent local string quartet. He used to meet with the keen, young composer, William Alwyn
William Alwyn
William Alwyn, CBE, born William Alwyn Smith was an English composer, conductor, and music teacher.-Life and music:...
, who was also from Northampton, to compare notes.
Rubbra was deeply affected by a sermon he heard given by a Chinese Christian missionary, Kuanglin Pao. He was inspired to write Chinese Impressions — a set of piano pieces, which he dedicated to the preacher. This was the beginning of a lifelong interest in things eastern.
At the age of 17, Rubbra decided to give a whole concert of Cyril Scott
Cyril Scott
Cyril Meir Scott was an English composer, writer, and poet.-Biography:Scott was born in Oxton, England to a shipper and scholar of Greek and Hebrew, and Mary Scott , an amateur pianist. He showed a talent for music from an early age and was sent to the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany to...
's music in the Carnegie Hall, in Northampton Library. This proved to be a very important decision, which would change his life. The minister from Rubbra's church attended the concert, and secretly sent a copy of the programme to Cyril Scott. The upshot of this was that Scott took Rubbra on as a pupil. Working in the railway office was fortunate, because one of the perks of the job was cheap rail travel, so Rubbra was able to get to Scott's house by train, paying only a quarter of the usual fare. After a year or so, Rubbra gained a scholarship to University College, Reading
University of Reading
The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...
. Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
became one of his teachers here. Both Scott and Holst had an interest in eastern philosophy and religion, inspiring further interest in the subject from Edmund.
Holst also taught at the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
and advised Rubbra to apply for an open scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
there. His advice was followed and the place was secured. Before Rubbra's last term at the Royal College, he was unexpectedly invited to play the piano for the Arts League of Service Travelling Theatre on a six-week tour of Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, since their usual pianist had been taken ill. He accepted this offer despite it meaning he missed his last term. This provided him with invaluable experience in playing and composing theatre music, that he never regretted and stood him in good stead for his later dramatic work. In the mid-1920s Rubbra used to earn money playing for dancers from the Diaghilev Ballet
Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev , usually referred to outside of Russia as Serge, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, from which many famous dancers and choreographers would arise.-Early life and career:...
. At around this time he became firm friends with Gerald Finzi
Gerald Finzi
Gerald Raphael Finzi was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a song-writer, but also wrote in other genres...
.
In 1933 Rubbra married Antoinette Chaplin, a French violinist. They toured Italy together, as well as giving recitals in Paris and radio broadcasts. They had two sons, Francis and Benedict, with the marriage lasting into the late 1950s. Later, Rubbra married Colette Yardley, with whom he had one son called Adrian.
During the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, in 1941, Rubbra was called up for army service. After 18 months he was given an office post, again on account of his knowledge of shorthand. While he was here, he ran a small orchestra assisted by a double-bass player from the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
orchestra. The War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
asked him to form a piano trio to play serious music to the troops. Rubbra was happy to oblige, and the trio, "The Army Classical Music Group", was formed (however, an overzealous corporal thought he would get a better audience by printing the posters "Ed Rub & his Band"). Rubbra, playing the piano, was joined by William Pleeth
William Pleeth
William Pleeth OBE was a well-known British cellist and an eminent teacher, who became widely known as the teacher of Jacqueline du Pré.- Early years :...
(cello) and Joshua Glazier (violin). They travelled all over England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and then to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, with their own grand piano which, with its legs removed for transport, became a seat for them in the back of the transport lorry.
After the war, in about 1947, Rubbra became a Roman Catholic, writing a special mass
Mass (music)
The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
in celebration. Also at this time, the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
were forming a faculty
Faculty (university)
A faculty is a division within a university comprising one subject area, or a number of related subject areas...
of music. They invited Rubbra to be a lecturer there. After much thought, he accepted the post. The army trio kept meeting, playing at clubs and broadcasting, for a number of years, but eventually Rubbra was too busy to continue with it.
It is a measure of the high esteem in which Rubbra was held in the 1940s, that his Sinfonia Concertante and his song Morning Watch were played alongside such works as Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
's The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius, popularly called just Gerontius, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory...
, Kodály
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
's Missa Brevis and Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
's Job, at the 1948 Three Choirs Festival
Three Choirs Festival
The Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held each August alternately at the cathedrals of the Three Counties and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme...
.
When Vaughan Williams heard that the University of Durham
Durham University
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...
was going to confer an Honorary D.Mus on Rubbra in 1949, he wrote him a very short letter. ‘I am delighted to hear of the honour which Durham University is conferring on itself’.
Another sign of Rubbra's significance is evident in his receiving a request from the BBC to write something for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The result was Ode to the Queen, a piece for voice and orchestra, to Elizabethan words. In connection with the same celebration, he was invited by Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
to contribute to a collaborative work
Classical music written in collaboration
In classical music, it is relatively rare for a work to be written in collaboration by multiple composers. This contrasts with popular music, where it is common for more than one person to contribute to the music for a song...
, a set of Variations on an Elizabethan Theme
Variations on an Elizabethan Theme
Variations on an Elizabethan Theme is a set of variations for string orchestra, written collaboratively in 1952 by six English composers: Lennox Berkeley, Benjamin Britten, Arthur Oldham, Humphrey Searle, Michael Tippett and William Walton...
. He initially accepted, but later withdrew; Britten then asked Arthur Oldham
Arthur Oldham
Arthur William Oldham was an English composer and choirmaster. He founded the Edinburgh Festival Chorus in 1965, the Chorus of the Orchestre de Paris in 1975, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra Chorus in Amsterdam in 1979. He also worked with the Scottish Opera Chorus 1966-74 and directed the...
and Humphrey Searle
Humphrey Searle
Humphrey Searle was a British composer.-Biography:He was born in Oxford where he was a classics scholar before studying — somewhat hesitantly — with John Ireland at the Royal College of Music in London, after which he went to Vienna on a six month scholarship to become a private pupil of Anton...
to take his place.
On Rubbra's retirement from Oxford, in 1968, he did not stop working; he merely took up more teaching at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
where his students included Michael Garrett
Michael Garrett (composer)
Michael Garrett is a British composer. He was born in Leicestershire, England in 1944. He has been composing and performing for more than fifty years. His many works extend across a wide range of styles. He has written many symphonic, chamber and instrumental works as well as vocal music and has...
. Neither did he stop composing. Indeed, he kept up this activity right until the end of his life. He had, in fact, started a 12th Symphony in March 1985, less than a year before his death. He died in Gerrards Cross
Gerrards Cross
Gerrards Cross is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the south of the county, near the border with Greater London, south of Chalfont St Peter. Gerrards Cross is also a civil parish within South Bucks district, which was known as the Beaconsfield district from 1974 to 1980...
on 14 February 1986.
Ronald Stevenson
Ronald Stevenson
Ronald Stevenson is a British composer, pianist, and writer about music.-Biography:The son of a Scottish father and English mother, Stevenson studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music , studying composition with Richard Hall and piano with Iso Elinson, graduating with distinction...
summed up the style of Rubbra's work rather succinctly when he wrote, "In an age of fragmentation, Rubbra stands (with a few others) as a composer of a music of oneness".
Sir Adrian Boult
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...
commended Rubbra's work by saying "He ... has never made any effort to popularize anything he has done, but he goes on creating masterpieces”.
Compositions
Rubbra did not base his composition on formal rules, preferring to work from an initial idea and discover the music as he composed. His style is more concerned with the melodicMelody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
lines in his music, than in the chord
Chord (music)
A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
s, and this makes his music have a vocal feel. He found his method of composition, working from a single melodic idea and letting the music grow from that, to be very exciting.
Symphonies
It was not until 1937 that Rubbra's first symphony was completed and, having composed this, symphonies 2, 3 and 4 followed in quick succession, the fourth being completed in March 1942. He described them as being ‘different facets of one thought’, since each was a reaction to the last.His 5th Symphony was started in August 1947. Enough time had elapsed since the 4th Symphony to allow this new symphony to be unrelated, as indeed it is. Grover recognises a "sense of relaxation engendered by a greater flexibility in the handling of materials" which sets this work apart from earlier symphonies. The 6th and
7th symphonies followed in 1954 and 1957.
Rubbra's last four symphonies again show a change of approach. Rubbra himself identified this when he said, "in much of my later music a particular musical interval
Interval (music)
In music theory, an interval is a combination of two notes, or the ratio between their frequencies. Two-note combinations are also called dyads...
rather than a key
Key (music)
In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a specific key, such as in the key of C major or in the key of F-sharp. Sometimes the terms "major" or "minor" are appended, as in the key of A minor or in the...
underlies the building of the structure". These symphonies were composed between 1968 and 1979. All are available on CD. Richard Hickox
Richard Hickox
Richard Sidney Hickox CBE was an English conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic music.-Early life:Hickox was born in Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire into a musical family...
recorded the complete cycle of symphonies on Chandos Records
Chandos Records
Chandos Records is an independent classical music recording company based in Colchester, Essex, in the United Kingdom, founded in 1979 by Brian Couzens.- Background :...
.
Vocal music
The vast majority (42 of 59 works) of Rubbra's choralChoir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
works have religious
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
or philosophical
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
texts, in keeping with his interest in these subjects. His first choral work was his Op. 3, written in 1924, and his last was Op. 164, written in 1984, only two years before his death. He wrote for children's voices and madrigal
Madrigal (music)
A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition, usually a partsong, of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Traditionally, polyphonic madrigals are unaccompanied; the number of voices varies from two to eight, and most frequently from three to six....
s, as well as producing masses and motet
Motet
In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...
s, including the Nine Tenebrae Motets, Op. 72, setting the Responsories for Maundy Thursday
Maundy Thursday
Maundy Thursday, also known as Holy Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Great & Holy Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries, is the Christian feast or holy day falling on the Thursday before Easter that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles as described in the Canonical gospels...
in an intensely dramatic manner. In 1948, he composed Missa Sancti Dominici, Op. 66, to celebrate his conversion to Roman Catholicism. The reason for this particular title is that he was received into the church on the Feast of St. Dominic
Saint Dominic
Saint Dominic , also known as Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo Félix de Guzmán was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominicans or Order of Preachers , a Catholic religious order...
, 4 August. His Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in A flat is still performed in Anglican cathedrals and larger parish churches.
Rubbra's songs are not well known, but, again they spanned his whole composing lifetime: Rosa Mundi, Op. 2, was the first published, in 1921; Fly Envious Time, Op. 148, was the last, in 1974, being inscribed "in Memoriam Gerald Finzi
Gerald Finzi
Gerald Raphael Finzi was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a song-writer, but also wrote in other genres...
". Less than half of them have the piano specified for their accompaniment
Accompaniment
In music, accompaniment is the art of playing along with an instrumental or vocal soloist or ensemble, often known as the lead, in a supporting manner...
s, though only one is unaccompanied. The others have string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
, string orchestra
String orchestra
A string orchestra is an orchestra composed solely or primarily of instruments from the string family. These instruments are the violin, the viola, the cello, the double bass , the piano, the harp, and sometimes percussion...
or harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
as their chosen accompaniments, except for the three songs published as Ode to the Queen, which have full orchestral accompaniment.
Chamber music
Although Rubbra was a fine pianist, he wrote very little music for the piano. He did, however, write a great diversity of chamber musicChamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
, throughout his career. He considered that his Violin Sonata, Op. 31, which he wrote in 1932, was the first of his compositions to be taken seriously in the musical world. His First String Quartet was composed only a year later. For a long time Rubbra was not satisfied with this piece, although Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
was very interested in it. Finally he thoroughly revised it, and published it in 1946, with an inscription to Vaughan Williams, and destroyed the original finale. Three other string quartets followed at widely spaced intervals. The last was written in 1977 in memory of Bennett Tarshish, a young American admirer of Rubbra's work, who died in his thirties. This piece shows the same method of reliance on a certain interval or intervals (here the 7th) instead of a particular key, which is also evident in Rubbra's later symphonies.
The Cello Sonata of 1946 was dedicated to William Pleeth
William Pleeth
William Pleeth OBE was a well-known British cellist and an eminent teacher, who became widely known as the teacher of Jacqueline du Pré.- Early years :...
(the cellist in The Army Classical Music Group) and his wife. It was sometimes performed by Jacqueline du Pré
Jacqueline du Pré
Jacqueline Mary du Pré OBE was a British cellist. She is particularly associated with Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor; her interpretation has been described as "definitive" and "legendary." Her career was cut short by multiple sclerosis, which forced her to stop performing at 28 and led to her...
, who was a pupil of William Pleeth. Rubbra's 2nd Piano Trio, Op. 138, was first performed by the members of The Army Classical Music Group, who got together again especially for this performance in 1970, though Glazier had now been replaced by Gruenberg.
The repertoire for recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
was both augmented and enhanced by several works by Rubbra. Foreman considers that these pieces are "significant for their demonstration of an idiomatic recorder style which successfully places the instrument as an equal with other instruments". This recorder music was written for Carl Dolmetsch, son of Arnold Dolmetsch
Arnold Dolmetsch
Arnold Dolmetsch , was a French-born musician and instrument maker who spent much of his working life in England and established an instrument-making workshop in Haslemere, Surrey...
, and almost every piece makes reference to 16th-century music, for example, Passacaglia sopra ‘Plusieurs Regrets’ for treble recorder and harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
.
Other chamber works in Rubbra's oeuvre include those for oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
, cor anglais
Cor anglais
The cor anglais , or English horn , is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family....
and viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
.
The Quartets have all appeared on the Dutton Epoch label.
Other works
Incidental musicIncidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....
for several plays formed a small but significant part of Rubbra's output. The longest of these is the unpublished score for Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
. In 1933, he wrote a one-act opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, still in manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
, which he originally called Bee-bee-bei, but re-named The Shadow. It reflects his interest in the East, as it is set in Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
.
All three of his works for brass instruments were commissioned. One of them, Variations on "The Shining River", was a test piece for the Brass Band Championships of Great Britain, 1958, held in the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
.
Rubbra's last work was his Sinfonietta for large string orchestra, Op. 163, which was commissioned by the Albany Symphony Orchestra
Albany Symphony Orchestra
The Albany Symphony Orchestra is a professional symphony orchestra based in Albany, New York. The upcoming season will mark the orchestra's 78th....
of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, for performance in 1986, as part of the tricentennial celebrations of the founding of New York. This work was dedicated to Rubbra's sons, Adrian and Julian, and received excellent press reviews .
Rubbra is also well known for his 1938 orchestration of Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
's piano work Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel
The Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, is a work for solo piano written by Johannes Brahms in 1861. It consists of a set of twenty-five variations and a concluding fugue, all based on a theme from George Frideric Handel's Harpsichord Suite No...
.
Orchestral
- Symphonies
- Symphony No. 1, Op. 44
- Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 45
- Symphony No. 3, Op. 49
- Symphony No. 4, Op. 53
- Symphony No. 5 in B-flat, Op. 63
- Symphony No. 6, Op. 80
- Symphony No. 7 in C, Op. 88 (dedicated to the City of Birmingham Symphony OrchestraCity of Birmingham Symphony OrchestraThe City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. The Orchestra's current chief executive, appointed in 1999, is Stephen Maddock...
and premiered by them with Andrzej PanufnikAndrzej PanufnikSir Andrzej Panufnik was a Polish composer, pianist, conductor and pedagogue. He became established as one of the leading Polish composers, and as a conductor he was instrumental in the re-establishment of the Warsaw Philharmonic orchestra after World War II...
conducting) - Symphony No. 8, Op. 132, Hommage à Teilhard de ChardinPierre Teilhard de ChardinPierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere...
- Symphony No. 9, Op. 140, Resurrection (also known as Sinfonia Sacra) (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/mar00/rubbra9.htm)
- Symphony No. 10, Op. 145, da Camera
- Symphony No. 11, Op. 153, à Colette
- Sinfonietta for large string orchestra, Op.163
- Improvisations on Virginal Pieces by Giles FarnabyGiles FarnabyGiles Farnaby was an English composer and virginalist of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.-Life:Giles Farnaby was born about 1563, perhaps in Truro, Cornwall, England or near London. His father, Thomas, was a Cittizen and Joyner of London, and Giles may have been related to Thomas Farnaby , the...
, Op. 50
Concertante
- Piano
- Piano Concerto, Op. 30, withdrawn
- Sinfonia Concertante in C, Op. 38
- Piano Concerto in G, Op. 85
- Violin
- Violin Concerto in A, Op. 103
- Improvisation for Violin for Orchestra, Op. 89
- Viola
- Viola Concerto in A, Op. 75
- Cello
- Soliloquy, Op. 57 for cello, two horns, timpani and strings
Instrumental
- Violin Sonatas
- Violin Sonata No. 1, Op. 11
- Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 31
- Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. 133
- Cello Sonata in G, Op. 60
- Meditationi sur Coeurs Désolés (for Recorder and Harpsichord or Flute or Oboe and Piano), Op. 67
- Oboe Sonata in C, Op. 100
- Meditations on a Byzantine Hymn (for solo Viola), Op. 117
- Sonatina for Treble Recorder and Harpsichord, Op. 128
- Fantasia on a Chord: for Treble Recorder, Harpsichord and Viola da Gamba (ad lib.), Op. 154
- Duo for Cor Anglais and Piano, Op. 156
Chamber
- String Quartets
- String Quartet No. 1 in F minor, Op. 35
- String Quartet No. 2 in E-flat, Op. 73
- String Quartet No. 3, Op. 112
- String Quartet No. 4, Op. 150
- Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 68, in one movement
- Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 138
- Lyric Movement for String Quartet and Piano, Op. 24
Choral
- Magnificat and Nunc dimittisNunc dimittisThe Nunc dimittis is a canticle from a text in the second chapter of Luke named after its first words in Latin, meaning 'Now dismiss...'....
in A flat, Op. 65 for chorus and organ - Three Motets Op. 76 S.A.T.B Unaccompanied
- Missa in honorem Sancti Dominici Op. 66 (Rubbra’s first Roman Catholic mass and the result of his conversion)
- Missa Cantuariensis Op. 59 for double choir
- Missa Brevis Op. 137 for treble voices and organ
- Tenebrae Motets Op. 72 (a, b and c, three sets of three written over a period of time)
- Dormi JesuThe Virgin's Cradle Hymn"The Virgin's Cradle Hymn" is a short lullaby text. It was collected while on a tour of Germany by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and published in his Sibylline Leaves of 1817. According to his own note, Coleridge copied the Latin text from a "print of the Blessed Virgin in a Catholic...
Op. 3 - That Virgin's Child Most Meek Op. 114
For chorus and orchestra
- The Morning Watch, Op. 55
- Song of the Soul, Op. 78
- InscapeInscapeInscape is a concept derived by Gerard Manley Hopkins from the ideas of the medieval philosopher Duns Scotus.[Hopkins] felt that everything in the universe was characterized by what he called inscape, the distinctive design that constitutes individual identity. This identity is not static but...
(Gerard Manley HopkinsGerard Manley HopkinsGerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...
), Op. 122 - Veni Creator Spiritus, Op. 130
Piano music
- Sonatina, Op. 19
- Prelude and fugue on a theme by Cyril ScottCyril ScottCyril Meir Scott was an English composer, writer, and poet.-Biography:Scott was born in Oxton, England to a shipper and scholar of Greek and Hebrew, and Mary Scott , an amateur pianist. He showed a talent for music from an early age and was sent to the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany to...
(also played on organ), Op. 69 - Nine teaching pieces, Op. 74 (requires a second pianist)
- Introduction, Aria and Fugue, Op. 104
- Eight preludes, Op. 131
- Four studiesÉtudeAn étude , is an instrumental musical composition, most commonly of considerable difficulty, usually designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular technical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidly growing popularity of the piano...
, Op. 139 - Invention on the name of Haydn, Op. 160
- Fantasy-fugue, Op. 161
- Fukagawa (without opus)
- Nemo fugue (without opus)
Songs
- Two Songs, Op. 2
- 1. Easter
- 2. Rosa Mundi
- Two Songs with String Quartet, Op. 3
- 1. Tears
- 2. A Litany
- Two Songs, Op. 4
- 1. The Mystery
- 2. Jesukin
- O My Deir Hert, Op. 5
- Two Songs with String Quartet, Op. 7
- 1. Rejection
- 2. Entrez-y-Tous en Sûreté
- Four Songs, Op. 8
- 1. A Cradle Song
- 2. There Is a lady
- 3. Who Is Sylvia?
- 4. Orpheus
- Three Songs, Op. 13
- 1. Out In the Dark
- 2. Hymn to the Virgin
- 3. It Was A Lover
- Two Songs, Op. 14
- 1. The Night
- 2. Slow Spring
- Rune of Hospitality, Op. 15
- Two Songs, Op. 17
- 1. A Prayer
- 2. Invocation to Spring
- Rhapsody, Op. 18
- A Duan of Barra, Op. 20
- Soontree, Op. 21
- Two Songs, Op. 22
- 1. Take, O Take Those Lips Away
- 2. Why So Pale and Wan
- The Song of the Laverock, Op. 23
- Ballad of Tristram, Op. 26
- A Widow Bird State Mourning, Op. 28
- Four Mediaeval Latin Lyrics, Op. 32
- 1. Rondel: Tempus Est Iocundum
- 2. Plaint: Dum Estas Inchoatur
- 3. Pastoral: Ecce, Chorus Virginum
- 4. Lament: Planctus
- In Dark Weather, Op. 33
- Five Sonnets, for tenor and strings, Op. 42
- Amoretti: Five Sonnets, Op. 43
- Nocturne, Op. 54
- Three Psalms, Op. 61
- 1. O Lord, Rebuke Me Not
- 2. The Lord Is My Shepherd
- 3. Praise Ye the Lord
- O Excellent Virgin Princess, Op. 77
- Ode To The Queen, Op. 83
- 1.
- 2. Fair As Unshaded Light
- 3. Yet Once Again Our Measures Move
- 1. Upon the Crucifix
- 2. On the Reed of Our Lord's Passion
- 1. A Night Thought On Terrace Tower
- 2. On Hearing Her Play the Harp
- 3. An Autumn Night Message
- 4. A Song of the Southern River
- 5. Farewell To a Japanese Buddhist Priest Bound Homeward
Publications
Rubbra wrote numerous articles during his lifetime, about both his own music and that of others, including Gerald FinziGerald Finzi
Gerald Raphael Finzi was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a song-writer, but also wrote in other genres...
, Constant Lambert
Constant Lambert
Leonard Constant Lambert was a British composer and conductor.-Early life:Lambert, the son of Russian-born Australian painter George Lambert, was educated at Christ's Hospital and the Royal College of Music...
, John Ireland
John Ireland (composer)
John Nicholson Ireland was an English composer.- Life :John Ireland was born in Bowdon, near Altrincham, Manchester, into a family of Scottish descent and some cultural distinction. His father, Alexander Ireland, a publisher and newspaper proprietor, was aged 70 at John's birth...
, Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
, Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
, Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
, Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
, Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin. Quite independent of the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed an increasingly atonal musical system,...
, Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
and Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
. In the middle of the twentieth century he wrote "Gramaphone Notes" for The Month, a Catholic magazine published in England. He also made several speech recordings for the BBC.
Books
- Foreman, Lewis, ed.