Elisabeth Lutyens
Encyclopedia
Elisabeth Lutyens, CBE
(9 July 1906, London – 14 April 1983, London) was a significant English composer
.
Sir Edwin Lutyens
and his wife Emily, who was profoundly involved in the Theosophical Movement
. From 1911 the young Krishnamurti
was living in their London house as a friend of Elisabeth and her sisters. At age nine she began to aspire to be a composer, which given the prowess of her father in architecture, and the domineering nature of her mother, allowed her to elude her parents' attempt to live vicariously through their children. In 1922, Lutyens pursued her musical education at the École Normale de Musique in Paris, before accompanying her mother to India in 1923. On her return she studied with John Foulds
and subsequently continued her musical education from 1926 to 1930 at the Royal College of Music
in London as a pupil of Harold Darke
.
; she first used a 12-note series in Chamber Concerto I for 9 instruments (1939), a work that has been compared with Webern's op.24 Concerto, but earlier than this she had been using the techniques of inversion and retrograde fundamental to a serial idiom, and she claimed she had been inspired to this by precedents she found in older British music, especially Purcell
.
She did not always employ or limit herself to 12-note series; some works use a self-created 14-note progression, for instance. She was very fond of the music of Debussy, whose musical influence can be distinctly perceived in her work, and she became close friends with Luigi Dallapiccola
. But her negative opinions of strict serialism caused an ideological rift between herself and her serialist colleagues. Descriptions of her music cite 'extraordinary achievements, demonstrating a completely personal serial style and very original structures', arguing that even though without a tonal centre, the notes in her music seem to have a natural and 'precisely ordered place'.
Lutyens, together with the conductor Iris Lemare and the violinist Anne MacNaghten, who formed a string quartet, made an extraordinarily influential trio. Their concerts proved to be a powerful force within the musical world of London, introducing composers such as Benjamin Britten
, Elizabeth Maconchy
, Grace Williams
, Malcolm Williamson
and Alan Rawsthorne
. Composition was not just a hobby for Lutyens, but rather a way of life. She spent hours every day composing, whether her music had been commissioned or not.
producer who had studied with Schoenberg
, and whose influence may have been a decisive factor in her adopting serial techniques. Clark and Lutyens married in 1942. She composed in complete isolation, a process greatly impeded by the drinking and partying at the Clark flat, and the responsibilities of motherhood. Lutyens paid the bills by composing film scores for Hammer Films’ horror movies and also for their rivals Amicus Productions
films, including Don't Bother to Knock
(1960), Dr Terror's House of Horrors (1965), The Skull
(1965) (a suite from this was issued on CD in 2004), Theatre of Death (1966), and The Terrornauts
(1967). She also wrote music for many feature and documentary films and for BBC radio and TV programmes, as well as incidental music for the stage. She was very prolific at this work and was known in the business for her quip 'Do you want it good, or do you want it Wednesday?'
She found success in 1947 with a cantata
setting Rimbaud’s poem O Saisons, O Châteaux. The BBC refused to perform it at the time because the soprano
range was thought to go beyond the bounds of the possible, but the BBC was nevertheless the organization that gave first performances to many of her works from the 1940s to the 1950s, after which there was a tendency to ignore her until her friend William Glock
became Director of Music.
By the late 1960s, however, her music was in greater favour and she received a number of important commissions, including Quincunx for orchestra with soprano and baritone soloists (1959–60), which was premiered at the 1962 Cheltenham International Festival and uses a quartet of Wagner Tuba
s in the orchestra. Her Symphonies for solo piano, wind, harps and percussion was a commission for the 1961 Promenade Concerts. In 1969 she was made a C.B.E.. Her autobiography, A Goldfish Bowl, describing life as a female musician in London, was published in 1972. In her later years she took many private pupils, including the composers Malcolm Williamson
, Alison Bauld
, Brian Elias
and Robert Saxton
. She also acted as a mentor to the young Richard Rodney Bennett
, though he was never a formal pupil.
A combative and idiosyncratic character and a composer of music that has been described as ‘sensuously beautiful’, Elisabeth Lutyens had to struggle to earn her place among the composers of classical twentieth century musical canon, and her music is still seldom heard or recorded. She was also one of the models for Henry Reed's satirical depiction of Dame Hilda Tablet
in a series of 1950s radio plays.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(9 July 1906, London – 14 April 1983, London) was a significant English composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
.
Early life and education
She was one of the five children of architectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Sir Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
and his wife Emily, who was profoundly involved in the Theosophical Movement
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
. From 1911 the young Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti or J. Krishnamurti or , was a renowned writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. His subject matter included: psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive change in society...
was living in their London house as a friend of Elisabeth and her sisters. At age nine she began to aspire to be a composer, which given the prowess of her father in architecture, and the domineering nature of her mother, allowed her to elude her parents' attempt to live vicariously through their children. In 1922, Lutyens pursued her musical education at the École Normale de Musique in Paris, before accompanying her mother to India in 1923. On her return she studied with John Foulds
John Foulds
John Herbert Foulds was a British composer of classical music. Largely self-taught as a composer, he was one of the most remarkable and unjustly forgotten figures of the "British Musical Renaissance"....
and subsequently continued her musical education from 1926 to 1930 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...
in London as a pupil of Harold Darke
Harold Darke
Dr Harold Edwin Darke was an English composer and organist.Darke was born in Highbury, London the youngest son of Samuel Darke & Arundel Bourne...
.
Compositional style and development
Lutyens is credited with bringing Schoenbergian serial technique (albeit her own very personal interpretation of it) to the UK. She disapproved of the 'overblown sound' of Mahler and similar composers, and instead chose to work with sparse textures and develop her own type of serialismSerialism
In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...
; she first used a 12-note series in Chamber Concerto I for 9 instruments (1939), a work that has been compared with Webern's op.24 Concerto, but earlier than this she had been using the techniques of inversion and retrograde fundamental to a serial idiom, and she claimed she had been inspired to this by precedents she found in older British music, especially Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
.
She did not always employ or limit herself to 12-note series; some works use a self-created 14-note progression, for instance. She was very fond of the music of Debussy, whose musical influence can be distinctly perceived in her work, and she became close friends with Luigi Dallapiccola
Luigi Dallapiccola
Luigi Dallapiccola was an Italian composer known for his lyrical twelve-tone compositions.-Biography:Dallapiccola was born at Pisino d'Istria , to Italian parents....
. But her negative opinions of strict serialism caused an ideological rift between herself and her serialist colleagues. Descriptions of her music cite 'extraordinary achievements, demonstrating a completely personal serial style and very original structures', arguing that even though without a tonal centre, the notes in her music seem to have a natural and 'precisely ordered place'.
Lutyens, together with the conductor Iris Lemare and the violinist Anne MacNaghten, who formed a string quartet, made an extraordinarily influential trio. Their concerts proved to be a powerful force within the musical world of London, introducing composers such as 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...
, Elizabeth Maconchy
Elizabeth Maconchy
Dame Elizabeth Violet Maconchy Le Fanu DBE was an English composer, most noted for her cycle of thirteen string quartets.-Biography:...
, Grace Williams
Grace Williams
-Biography:Williams was born in Barry, near Cardiff, Wales.She was educated at Barry County School, and won a scholarship to Cardiff University . She then went to the Royal College of Music, London, where she was taught by Ralph Vaughan Williams...
, Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson AO , CBE was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death.-Biography:...
and Alan Rawsthorne
Alan Rawsthorne
Alan Rawsthorne was a British composer. He was born in Haslingden, Lancashire, and is buried in Thaxted churchyard in Essex.-Career:...
. Composition was not just a hobby for Lutyens, but rather a way of life. She spent hours every day composing, whether her music had been commissioned or not.
Later years
In 1933, Lutyens married Ian Herbert Campbell Glennie, a baritone singer, and bore him three children. The marriage was not happy, however, and in 1938 she left him for Edward Clark, a distinguished conductor and BBCBBC
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...
producer who had studied with Schoenberg
Schoenberg
Schoenberg is the surname of several persons:* Arnold Schoenberg , Austrian-American composer* Claude-Michel Schoenberg , French record producer, actor, singer, popular songwriter, and musical theatre composer...
, and whose influence may have been a decisive factor in her adopting serial techniques. Clark and Lutyens married in 1942. She composed in complete isolation, a process greatly impeded by the drinking and partying at the Clark flat, and the responsibilities of motherhood. Lutyens paid the bills by composing film scores for Hammer Films’ horror movies and also for their rivals Amicus Productions
Amicus Productions
Amicus Productions is a British film production company, based at Shepperton Studios, England. It was founded by American producer and screenwriter Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg.-Horror:...
films, including Don't Bother to Knock
Don't Bother to Knock
Don't Bother to Knock is a 1952 American thriller film starring Marilyn Monroe and Richard Widmark, directed by Roy Ward Baker and written by Daniel Taradash. Monroe is featured as a disturbed babysitter watching a child at the same New York hotel where a pilot, played by Widmark, is staying...
(1960), Dr Terror's House of Horrors (1965), The Skull
The Skull
The Skull is a 1965 British horror film directed by Freddie Francis for Amicus Productions. It starred the frequently paired horror actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, alongside Patrick Wymark, Jill Bennett, Nigel Green, Patrick Magee and Peter Woodthorpe.It was one of a number of British...
(1965) (a suite from this was issued on CD in 2004), Theatre of Death (1966), and The Terrornauts
The Terrornauts
-Synopsis:Project Star Talk is based at a UK radio telescope site, its mission is to listen for radio signals from other intelligences. Dr Joe Burke is the head of the project assisted by his small team consisting of electronics expert Ben Keller and office manager Sandy Lund . Due to the lack of...
(1967). She also wrote music for many feature and documentary films and for BBC radio and TV programmes, as well as incidental music for the stage. She was very prolific at this work and was known in the business for her quip 'Do you want it good, or do you want it Wednesday?'
She found success in 1947 with a cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
setting Rimbaud’s poem O Saisons, O Châteaux. The BBC refused to perform it at the time because the soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
range was thought to go beyond the bounds of the possible, but the BBC was nevertheless the organization that gave first performances to many of her works from the 1940s to the 1950s, after which there was a tendency to ignore her until her friend William Glock
William Glock
Sir William Frederick Glock was a British music critic and musical administrator.-Biography:Glock was born in London. He read history at the University of Cambridge and was an organ scholar at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge...
became Director of Music.
By the late 1960s, however, her music was in greater favour and she received a number of important commissions, including Quincunx for orchestra with soprano and baritone soloists (1959–60), which was premiered at the 1962 Cheltenham International Festival and uses a quartet of Wagner Tuba
Wagner tuba
The Wagner tuba is a comparatively rare brass instrument that combines elements of both the French horn and the tuba. Also referred to as the "Bayreuth Tuba", it was originally created for Richard Wagner's operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Since then, other composers have written for it, most...
s in the orchestra. Her Symphonies for solo piano, wind, harps and percussion was a commission for the 1961 Promenade Concerts. In 1969 she was made a C.B.E.. Her autobiography, A Goldfish Bowl, describing life as a female musician in London, was published in 1972. In her later years she took many private pupils, including the composers Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson AO , CBE was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death.-Biography:...
, Alison Bauld
Alison Bauld
Alison Margaret Bauld is an Australian writer and composer who lives and works in London, England.-Biography:Bauld was born in Sydney and studied piano with Alexander Sverjensky at the Conservatorium of New South Wales...
, Brian Elias
Brian Elias
Brian Elias is a British composer.- Career highlights :*1965 - commenced informal composition studies with Elisabeth Lutyens.*1984 - L’Eylah premiered at the BBC Proms....
and Robert Saxton
Robert Saxton
-Biography:After early advice and encouragement from Benjamin Britten, Robert Saxton took private composition lessons with Elisabeth Lutyens. He went on to study with Robin Holloway at Cambridge University, with Robert Sherlaw Johnson as a post-graduate at Oxford University, and later with Berio....
. She also acted as a mentor to the young Richard Rodney Bennett
Richard Rodney Bennett
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, CBE is an English composer renowned for his film scores and his jazz performance as much as for his challenging concert works...
, though he was never a formal pupil.
A combative and idiosyncratic character and a composer of music that has been described as ‘sensuously beautiful’, Elisabeth Lutyens had to struggle to earn her place among the composers of classical twentieth century musical canon, and her music is still seldom heard or recorded. She was also one of the models for Henry Reed's satirical depiction of Dame Hilda Tablet
Hilda Tablet
Dame Hilda Tablet is a fictitious "twelve-tone composeress" created by Henry Reed in a series of radio comedy plays for the British Broadcasting Corporation's Third Programme...
in a series of 1950s radio plays.
Chamber music
- String Quartet I, op.5 no.1 (1937) – withdrawn
- String Quartet II, op.5 no.5 (1938)
- String Trio, op.5 no.6 (1939)
- Chamber Concerto I, op.8 no.1 for 9 instruments (1939–40)
- String Quartet III, op.18 (1949)
- Concertante for five players, op.22 (1950)
- String Quartet VI, op.25 (1952)
- Valediction for clarinet and piano, op.28 (1953–4) – dedicated to the memory of Dylan ThomasDylan ThomasDylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
- Capriccii for 2 harps and percussion, op.33 (1955)
- Six Tempi for 10 instruments, op.42 (1957)
- Wind Quintet, op.45 (1960)
- String Quintet, op.51 (1963)
- Wind Trio, op.52 (1963)
- String Trio, op.57 (1963)
- Music for Wind, for double wind quintet, op.60 (1963)
- Plenum II for oboe and 13 instruments, op.92 (1973)
- Plenum III for string quartet, op.93 (1973)
Vocal and choral
- O Saisons! O Châteaux! – cantata after Rimbaud, op.13 (1946)
- Requiem for the Living for soli, chorus and orchestra, op.16 (1948)
- Motet ‘Excerpta Tractatus-logico-philosophicus’ for unaccompanied chorus, op.27 (1951) – text by Ludwig WittgensteinLudwig WittgensteinLudwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
- De Amore for soli, chorus and orchestra, op.39 (1957) – text by Geoffrey ChaucerGeoffrey ChaucerGeoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
- Quincuncx, see full orchestra
- The Country of the Stars – Motet, op.50 (1963) – text by Boethius translated Chaucer
- The Valley of Hatsu-Se for soprano, flute, clarinet, cello and piano, op.62 (1965) – on early Japanese poetry
- And Suddenly It’s Evening for tenor and 11 Instruments, op.66 (1965) – text by Salvatore QuasimodoSalvatore QuasimodoSalvatore Quasimodo was an Italian author and poet. In 1959 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times". Along with Giuseppe Ungaretti and Eugenio Montale, he is one of the foremost Italian poets...
- Essence of Our Happinesses for tenor, chorus and orchestra, op.69 (1968) – texts by Abu Yasid, John DonneJohn DonneJohn Donne 31 March 1631), English poet, satirist, lawyer, and priest, is now considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are notable for their strong and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs,...
and Rimbaud - In the Direction of the Beginning for bass and piano, op.76 (1970) – text by Dylan Thomas
- Anerca for speaker, 10 guitars and percussion, op.77 (1970) – on Eskimo poetry
- Requiescat for soprano and string trio, in memoriam Igor Stravinsky (1971) – text by William BlakeWilliam BlakeWilliam Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
- Voice of Quiet Waters for chorus and orchestra, op.84 (1972)
Solo instrumental
- 5 Intermezzi for piano, op.9 (1941–42)
- Piano e Forte for piano, op.43 (1958)
- Five Bagatelles for piano, op.49 (1962)
- The Dying of the Sun for guitar, op.73 (1969)
- Plenum I for piano, op.87 (1972)
- La natura dell'Acqua for piano, op. 154 (1981)
Small orchestra
- Chamber Concerto II for clarinet, tenor sax, piano and strings, op.8 no.2 (1940)
- Chamber Concerto III for bassoon and small orchestra, op.8 no.3 (1945)
- Chamber Concerto IV, for horn and small orchestra, op.8 no.4 (1946)
- Chamber Concerto V for string quartet and chamber orchestra, op.8 mo.5 (1946)
- Chamber Concerto VI (1948) was withdrawn
- Six Bagatelles, 113 (1976), for six woodwind, four brass, percussion, harp, piano (doubling celeste) & five solo strings
Orchestral
- Three Pieces, op.7 (1939)
- Three Symphonic Preludes (1942)
- Viola Concerto, op.15 (1947)
- Music for Orchestra I, op.31 (1955)
- Chorale for Orchestra ‘Hommage a Igor Stravinsky’, op.36
- Quincunx, for orchestra with soprano and baritone soli in one movement, op.44 (1959–60) – text by Sir Thomas BrowneThomas BrowneSir Thomas Browne was an English author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric....
- Music for Piano and Orchestra, op.59 (1963)
- Novenaria, op.67 no.1 (1967)
Opera and music theatre
- Infidelio – seven scenes for soprano and tenor, op.29 (1954)
- The Numbered – opera in a Prologue and four acts after Elias CanettiElias CanettiElias Canetti was a Bulgarian-born modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and non-fiction writer. He wrote in German and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981, "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power".-Life:...
, op.63 (1965–67) - Time Off? Not the Ghost of a Chance! – charade in four scenes, op.68 (1967–68)
- Isis and Osiris – lyric drama after PlutarchPlutarchPlutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
. op.74 (1969) - The Linnet from the Leaf – music-theatre for singers and two instrumental groups, op.89 (1972)
- The Waiting Game – scenes for mezzo, baritone, actor and small orchestra, op.91 (1973)