York Bowen
Encyclopedia
Edwin York Bowen was an English composer and pianist. Bowen’s musical career spanned more than fifty years during which time he wrote over 160 works. As well as being a pianist and composer, Bowen was a talented conductor, organist, violist and horn player. Despite achieving considerable success during his lifetime, many of the composer’s works remained unpublished and unperformed until after his death in 1961. Bowen’s compositional style is widely considered as ‘Romantic
’ and his works are often characterized by their individuality and magnificently rich and profound harmonic language. He was one of the most natural and brilliant English composers of piano music of his time.
, London
, to a father who was the owner of the whisky
distillers Bowen and McKechnie. The youngest of three sons, Bowen began piano and harmony lessons with his mother at an early age. His talent was recognised almost immediately and he soon began his musical education at the North Metropolitan College of Music. He subsequently went on to study at the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music with Alfred Izard.
In 1898, at the age of fourteen, Bowen gained an Erard scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music
. He studied there until 1905, learning composition with Frederick Corder
and piano with Tobias Matthay
. While studying at the Royal Academy of Music Bowen won numerous awards including the Sterndale Bennett Prize and the Worshipful Company of Musicians
Medal. In 1907 Bowen was awarded a fellowship to the Royal Academy of Music and two years later was appointed as professor.
In 1912 Bowen married Sylvia Dalton, a singer and the daughter of a Somerset
vicar. Their son Philip was born a year later. During the First World War
Bowen played in the Scots Guards Band
but during service in France
he contracted pneumonia
and was forced to return to the UK. Bowen returned to composing and performing after the war and continued to work as a teacher, examiner, lecturer and adjudicator. He taught at the Tobias Matthay Piano School for over forty years and remained a professor at the Royal Academy of Music until his death in 1961. Among his students was the composer Derek Holman
.
Bowen was awarded several prizes for composition including the Sunday Express Prize for March RAF (1919) and Chappell's Orchestral Suite Prize and the Hawkes and Co. Prize for Intermezzo (1920).
and the Royal Albert Hall
. As a pianist he was recognised for his technical ability and artistic excellence.
Bowen premiered many of his own works including all four of his piano concertos.
He produced his first three piano concertos between 1904 and 1908, performing the Piano Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 11, at the Proms under Henry J. Wood and both the Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 17, and the Piano Concerto No. 3 in G minor, Op. 23, at Promenade Concerts at the Queen's Hall conducted by Hans Richter
. It was not until nearly thirty years later in 1937 that Bowen gave the premiere performance of his Piano Concerto No. 4 in A minor, Op. 88, under the direction of Adrian Boult
. During his lifetime many of Bowen's orchestral works were also performed by prolific conductors. In 1903 Henry Wood conducted Bowen's symphonic poem The Lament of Tasso, Op. 5, in 1906 Hans Richter performed Symphonic Fantasia in F major, Op. 16, and in 1912 Landon Ronald
directed Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 31.
Many of Bowen's instrumental works were dedicated to and premiered by renowned musicians. In 1910 Fritz Kreisler
performed the Suite in D minor for Violin and Piano, Op. 28, and many other renowned violinists of the time later gave performances of the work, including Joseph Szigeti
, Michael Zacherewitsch and Efrem Zimbalist
. The celebrated violinist Marjorie Hayward performed Bowen's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 33, at the Proms in 1920 and the first performances of Sonata for Horn and Piano, Op. 101, and Concerto for Horn, Strings and Timpani, Op. 150, were given by Aubrey Brain
and Dennis Brain
respectively. Bowen also composed works for many of his other contemporaries including Carl Dolmetsch, Léon Goossens
, Beatrice Harrison
, Pauline Juler and Gareth Morris
.
As an instrumentalist Bowen considered the tone quality of the viola to be superior to the violin, and as such composed numerous works for viola. Bowen frequently performed as a pianist alongside the viola player Lionel Tertis
and in 1908 Tertis premiered Bowen's Viola Concerto in C minor, Op. 25. Bowen also aided Tertis in his campaign to increase the popularity of the viola as a solo instrument. Bowen made numerous other contributions to the viola repertoire including a fantasy, a quartet for four violas and two sonatas for viola and piano. Alongside Arnold Bax
and Benjamin Dale
, Bowen was one of the first English composers to add original works to the modern viola repertoire.
Aside from his performances with Lionel Tertis, one of Bowen's most successful collaborations was the piano duo that he formed with fellow professor at the Royal Academy of Music, Harry Isaacs. As a composer Bowen was noted for his inventive piano duets and he continued to perform many of these compositions with Isaacs throughout his career.
As well as premiering many of his own works, Bowen also gave many first performances of piano works by other composers. In 1907 Bowen performed alongside Henry Wood and Frederick Kiddle
to give the first British performance of Mozart's
Concerto in F major for Three Pianos and Orchestra, K.242. Similarly, in 1928 Bowen gave the first performance of William Walton
's Sinfonia Concertante for Orchestra and Piano at a Philharmonic Society
concert at the Queen's Hall.
During his lifetime Bowen also published editions of works by other prestigious composers. These included a three volume edition of Mozart's piano works published between 1931 and 1932. In addition, Bowen produced editions of many of Chopin's
nocturne
s, preludes
, valses
, ballade
s and scherzo
s between 1948 and 1950.
, Chopin, Grieg
and Tchaikovsky
, Bowen's music is very much defined by its distinctive textures and harmonies. Although his active career spanned more than fifty years, Bowen's compositional style altered very little and he continued to employ a diatonic key system with use of colourful chromatic harmonies throughout his life.
Bowen's compositional output is made up almost entirely of instrumental works. Although he wrote for numerous different instrumental combinations, the piano features prominently in many of his works. Despite this, Bowen's varied instrumental proficiencies are evident in his technical and musical understanding of individual instrumental capabilities.
The varying standards of difficulty of his compositions make Bowen's instrumental music accessible to a wide range of musicians. This is particularly true of Bowen's piano works which span from study pieces such as Twelve Easy Impromptus, Op. 99. to the extreme technical virtuosity of works such as Sonata No. 5 in F minor, Op. 72.
Many of Bowen's piano works are aimed at improving piano technique. One of his most notable works, Twenty Four Preludes, Op. 102, is set in all major and minor keys and his Twelve Studies, Op. 46, are also intended to address different elements of piano technique. Bowen dedicated the studies to his piano teacher at the Royal Academy of Music, Tobias Matthay
, who had written several books about various aspects of fore-arm rotation and piano touch. Each of Bowen's studies deals with a different aspect of piano technique discussed in Matthay's books. Inspired by Matthay's innovative approaches, Bowen later produced two books on piano technique: Pedalling the Modern Piano Forte (London, 1936) and The Simplicity of Piano Technique (London, 1961)
hailed Bowen as ‘the finest of English composers’. This opinion was shared by many of Bowen's contemporaries and is reflected in the support he received from many eminent musicians and academics.
Despite Bowen's success during the years before the First World War, by the time he wrote his Piano Concerto No. 4 in A minor, Op. 88, in 1929, his romantic
compositional style was considered outdated in relation to the modern techniques of his contemporaries. In his autobiography published in 1938, Sir Henry J. Wood
protested that Bowen had ‘never taken the position he deserves’.
Following his death in 1961, many of Bowen's compositions remained unpublished. As a result of this, performances of Bowen's works diminished and much of his music remained unperformed in the decades after his death. During this time one of Bowen's most enthusiastic advocates was the composer and pianist Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
, to whom Bowen had dedicated his Twenty Four Preludes, Op. 102. The increase in publications and performances of Bowen's works during the late twentieth century was also largely due to the work done by the York Bowen Society. The revival of interest in Bowen's music during the 1980s was also influenced by the publication of Monica Watson's book York Bowen: A Centenary Tribute (Thames, London, 1984) as well as numerous recordings made of Bowen's works.
Despite the advancements made by the York Bowen Society, many of the composer's works remain unpublished. Although many of Bowen's solo instrumental works contribute significantly to modern performance repertoire, his orchestral and chamber works are rarely performed.
Romantic music
Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
’ and his works are often characterized by their individuality and magnificently rich and profound harmonic language. He was one of the most natural and brilliant English composers of piano music of his time.
Biography
York Bowen was born in Crouch HillCrouch Hill
Crouch Hill is a street in north London, England, running between Crouch End and Stroud Green in the boroughs of Haringey and Islington.The street has a railway station of the same name on the Islington slope of the hill, which is served by the Gospel Oak to Barking line.- The Parkland Walk...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, to a father who was the owner of the whisky
Whisky
Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and corn...
distillers Bowen and McKechnie. The youngest of three sons, Bowen began piano and harmony lessons with his mother at an early age. His talent was recognised almost immediately and he soon began his musical education at the North Metropolitan College of Music. He subsequently went on to study at the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music with Alfred Izard.
In 1898, at the age of fourteen, Bowen gained an Erard scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
. He studied there until 1905, learning composition with Frederick Corder
Frederick Corder
Frederick Corder was an English composer and music teacher.-Biography:Corder was born in Hackney, the son of Micah Corder and his wife Charlotte Hill. He was educated at Blackheath Proprietary School and started music lessons, particularly piano, early. Later he studied with Henry Gadsby...
and piano with Tobias Matthay
Tobias Matthay
Tobias Augustus Matthay was an English pianist, teacher, and composer.-Biography:Matthaw as born in London in 1858 to parents who had come from northern Germany and were naturalised British subjects...
. While studying at the Royal Academy of Music Bowen won numerous awards including the Sterndale Bennett Prize and the Worshipful Company of Musicians
Worshipful Company of Musicians
The Worshipful Company of Musicians is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. Its history dates back to at least 1350. Originally a specialist guild for musicians, its role became an anachronism in the 18th century, when the centre of music making in London moved from the City to the...
Medal. In 1907 Bowen was awarded a fellowship to the Royal Academy of Music and two years later was appointed as professor.
In 1912 Bowen married Sylvia Dalton, a singer and the daughter of a Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
vicar. Their son Philip was born a year later. During the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Bowen played in the Scots Guards Band
Scots Guards Band
The Band of the Scots Guards is one of five bands in the Foot Guards Regiments in the Household Division which primarily guards the British monarch....
but during service in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
he contracted pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
and was forced to return to the UK. Bowen returned to composing and performing after the war and continued to work as a teacher, examiner, lecturer and adjudicator. He taught at the Tobias Matthay Piano School for over forty years and remained a professor at the Royal Academy of Music until his death in 1961. Among his students was the composer Derek Holman
Derek Holman
Derek Holman, CM is a choral conductor, organist, and composer.Holman attended the Royal Academy of Music from 1948 to 1952 and studied with Sir William McKie, Eric Thiman, and York Bowen...
.
Bowen was awarded several prizes for composition including the Sunday Express Prize for March RAF (1919) and Chappell's Orchestral Suite Prize and the Hawkes and Co. Prize for Intermezzo (1920).
Musical career
Bowen achieved considerable success during his lifetime both as a concert pianist and composer. He performed regularly at both the Queen's HallQueen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
and 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....
. As a pianist he was recognised for his technical ability and artistic excellence.
Bowen premiered many of his own works including all four of his piano concertos.
He produced his first three piano concertos between 1904 and 1908, performing the Piano Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 11, at the Proms under Henry J. Wood and both the Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 17, and the Piano Concerto No. 3 in G minor, Op. 23, at Promenade Concerts at the Queen's Hall conducted by Hans Richter
Hans Richter (conductor)
Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...
. It was not until nearly thirty years later in 1937 that Bowen gave the premiere performance of his Piano Concerto No. 4 in A minor, Op. 88, under the direction of 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...
. During his lifetime many of Bowen's orchestral works were also performed by prolific conductors. In 1903 Henry Wood conducted Bowen's symphonic poem The Lament of Tasso, Op. 5, in 1906 Hans Richter performed Symphonic Fantasia in F major, Op. 16, and in 1912 Landon Ronald
Landon Ronald
Sir Landon Ronald was an English conductor, composer, pianist, singing teacher and administrator...
directed Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 31.
Many of Bowen's instrumental works were dedicated to and premiered by renowned musicians. In 1910 Fritz Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...
performed the Suite in D minor for Violin and Piano, Op. 28, and many other renowned violinists of the time later gave performances of the work, including Joseph Szigeti
Joseph Szigeti
Joseph Szigeti was a Hungarian violinist.Born into a musical family, he spent his early childhood in a small town in Transylvania. He quickly proved himself to be a child prodigy on the violin, and moved to Budapest with his father to study with the renowned pedagogue Jenő Hubay...
, Michael Zacherewitsch and Efrem Zimbalist
Efrem Zimbalist
Efrem Zimbalist, Sr. was one of the world's most prominent concert violinists, as well as a composer, teacher, conductor and a long-time director of the Curtis Institute of Music.-Early life:...
. The celebrated violinist Marjorie Hayward performed Bowen's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 33, at the Proms in 1920 and the first performances of Sonata for Horn and Piano, Op. 101, and Concerto for Horn, Strings and Timpani, Op. 150, were given by Aubrey Brain
Aubrey Brain
Aubrey Brain was a British horn player and teacher. He was the father of Dennis Brain.-Biography:Aubrey Harold Brain was born in London in 1893. He came from a musical family. His father, A. E. Brain sr. was a member of the London Symphony Orchestra horn quartet...
and Dennis Brain
Dennis Brain
Dennis Brain was a British virtuoso horn player and was largely credited for popularizing the horn as a solo classical instrument with the post-war British public...
respectively. Bowen also composed works for many of his other contemporaries including Carl Dolmetsch, Léon Goossens
Léon Goossens
Léon Jean Goossens CBE, FRCM was a British oboist.He was born in Liverpool and studied at the Royal College of Music...
, Beatrice Harrison
Beatrice Harrison
Beatrice Harrison was a British cellist active in the first half of the 20th century. She gave first performances of several important English works, especially those of Frederick Delius, and made the first or standard recordings of others.-Early training:Beatrice Harrison was born in Roorkee,...
, Pauline Juler and Gareth Morris
Gareth Morris
Gareth Charles Walter Morris was a British flautist. He was the principal flautist of a number of London orchestras including the Boyd Neel Orchestra before joining the Philharmonia Orchestra. He was the principal flautist of this orchestra for 24 years and Professor of the Flute at the Royal...
.
As an instrumentalist Bowen considered the tone quality of the viola to be superior to the violin, and as such composed numerous works for viola. Bowen frequently performed as a pianist alongside the viola player Lionel Tertis
Lionel Tertis
Lionel Tertis, CBE was an English violist and one of the first viola players to find international fame.Tertis was born in West Hartlepool, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, and initially studied the violin in Leipzig and at the Royal Academy of Music in London...
and in 1908 Tertis premiered Bowen's Viola Concerto in C minor, Op. 25. Bowen also aided Tertis in his campaign to increase the popularity of the viola as a solo instrument. Bowen made numerous other contributions to the viola repertoire including a fantasy, a quartet for four violas and two sonatas for viola and piano. Alongside Arnold Bax
Arnold Bax
Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, KCVO was an English composer and poet. His musical style blended elements of romanticism and impressionism, often with influences from Irish literature and landscape. His orchestral scores are noted for their complexity and colourful instrumentation...
and Benjamin Dale
Benjamin Dale
Benjamin James Dale was an English composer and academic who had a long association with the Royal Academy of Music. Dale showed compositional talent from an early age and went on to write a small but notable corpus of works...
, Bowen was one of the first English composers to add original works to the modern viola repertoire.
Aside from his performances with Lionel Tertis, one of Bowen's most successful collaborations was the piano duo that he formed with fellow professor at the Royal Academy of Music, Harry Isaacs. As a composer Bowen was noted for his inventive piano duets and he continued to perform many of these compositions with Isaacs throughout his career.
As well as premiering many of his own works, Bowen also gave many first performances of piano works by other composers. In 1907 Bowen performed alongside Henry Wood and Frederick Kiddle
Frederick B. Kiddle
Frederick B. Kiddle was a prominent English pianist, organist and accompanist.Kiddle was born at Frome, Somerset, and studied at the Royal College of Music under Sir Walter Parratt, Rockstro and Higgs...
to give the first British performance of Mozart's
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...
Concerto in F major for Three Pianos and Orchestra, K.242. Similarly, in 1928 Bowen gave the first performance of William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
's Sinfonia Concertante for Orchestra and Piano at a Philharmonic Society
Royal Philharmonic Society
The Royal Philharmonic Society is a British music society, formed in 1813. It was originally formed in London to promote performances of instrumental music there. Many distinguished composers and performers have taken part in its concerts...
concert at the Queen's Hall.
During his lifetime Bowen also published editions of works by other prestigious composers. These included a three volume edition of Mozart's piano works published between 1931 and 1932. In addition, Bowen produced editions of many of Chopin's
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
nocturne
Nocturne
A nocturne is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night...
s, preludes
Prelude (music)
A prelude is a short piece of music, the form of which may vary from piece to piece. The prelude can be thought of as a preface. It may stand on its own or introduce another work...
, valses
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
, ballade
Ballade
The ballade is a form of French poetry. It was one of the three formes fixes and one of the verse forms in France most commonly set to music between the late 13th and the 15th centuries....
s and scherzo
Scherzo
A scherzo is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or...
s between 1948 and 1950.
Compositional style
Bowen’s compositions each display a unique ‘blend of Romanticism and strong individuality’. Although his influences include RachmaninoffSergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
, Chopin, Grieg
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
and Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
, Bowen's music is very much defined by its distinctive textures and harmonies. Although his active career spanned more than fifty years, Bowen's compositional style altered very little and he continued to employ a diatonic key system with use of colourful chromatic harmonies throughout his life.
Bowen's compositional output is made up almost entirely of instrumental works. Although he wrote for numerous different instrumental combinations, the piano features prominently in many of his works. Despite this, Bowen's varied instrumental proficiencies are evident in his technical and musical understanding of individual instrumental capabilities.
The varying standards of difficulty of his compositions make Bowen's instrumental music accessible to a wide range of musicians. This is particularly true of Bowen's piano works which span from study pieces such as Twelve Easy Impromptus, Op. 99. to the extreme technical virtuosity of works such as Sonata No. 5 in F minor, Op. 72.
Many of Bowen's piano works are aimed at improving piano technique. One of his most notable works, Twenty Four Preludes, Op. 102, is set in all major and minor keys and his Twelve Studies, Op. 46, are also intended to address different elements of piano technique. Bowen dedicated the studies to his piano teacher at the Royal Academy of Music, Tobias Matthay
Tobias Matthay
Tobias Augustus Matthay was an English pianist, teacher, and composer.-Biography:Matthaw as born in London in 1858 to parents who had come from northern Germany and were naturalised British subjects...
, who had written several books about various aspects of fore-arm rotation and piano touch. Each of Bowen's studies deals with a different aspect of piano technique discussed in Matthay's books. Inspired by Matthay's innovative approaches, Bowen later produced two books on piano technique: Pedalling the Modern Piano Forte (London, 1936) and The Simplicity of Piano Technique (London, 1961)
Reception
During his early career Bowen achieved considerable success as both a composer and concert pianist. After hearing the premiere of Bowen's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 11 in 1903, Camille Saint-SaënsCamille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
hailed Bowen as ‘the finest of English composers’. This opinion was shared by many of Bowen's contemporaries and is reflected in the support he received from many eminent musicians and academics.
Despite Bowen's success during the years before the First World War, by the time he wrote his Piano Concerto No. 4 in A minor, Op. 88, in 1929, his romantic
Romantic music
Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
compositional style was considered outdated in relation to the modern techniques of his contemporaries. In his autobiography published in 1938, Sir Henry J. Wood
Henry Wood
Henry Wood was a British conductor.Henry Wood may also refer to:* Henry C. Wood , American Civil War Medal of Honor recipient* Henry Wood , English cricketer...
protested that Bowen had ‘never taken the position he deserves’.
Following his death in 1961, many of Bowen's compositions remained unpublished. As a result of this, performances of Bowen's works diminished and much of his music remained unperformed in the decades after his death. During this time one of Bowen's most enthusiastic advocates was the composer and pianist Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji was an English composer, music critic, pianist, and writer.-Biography:...
, to whom Bowen had dedicated his Twenty Four Preludes, Op. 102. The increase in publications and performances of Bowen's works during the late twentieth century was also largely due to the work done by the York Bowen Society. The revival of interest in Bowen's music during the 1980s was also influenced by the publication of Monica Watson's book York Bowen: A Centenary Tribute (Thames, London, 1984) as well as numerous recordings made of Bowen's works.
Despite the advancements made by the York Bowen Society, many of the composer's works remain unpublished. Although many of Bowen's solo instrumental works contribute significantly to modern performance repertoire, his orchestral and chamber works are rarely performed.
Selected recordings
- Concerto for Horn, Strings and Timpani (Op. 150) – David Pyatt (Horn), London Philharmonic Orchestra (Nicholas Braithwaite) Lyrita
- Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (Op. 25) – Lawrence PowerLawrence PowerLawrence Power is a British viola player, born 1977, noted both for solo performances and for chamber music with the Nash Ensemble and Leopold String Trio.-Career:...
(Viola), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Martyn Brabbins) Hyperion - Symphony No. 2 in E minor (Op. 31) – Royal Northern College of Music Symphony Orchestra (Douglas Bostock) Classico
- Sonata for Cello and Piano (Op. 64) – Jo Cole (Cello), John Talbot (Piano) BMS
- York Bowen – The Piano Sonatas; The 6 Sonatas performed by Danny Driver; Hyperion CDA67751/2 (2009)
- York Bowen Piano Music – Twenty Four Preludes (Op. 102), Ballade No. 2 (Op. 87), Sonata No. 5 in F minor (Op. 72), Berceuse (Op. 83), Suite Mignonne: Moto Perpetuo (Op. 39), Toccata (Op. 155) – Stephen HoughStephen HoughStephen Andrew Gill Hough is a British-born classical pianist, composer and writer. He became an Australian citizen in 2005 and thus has dual nationality .-Biography:...
(Piano) Hyperion - York Bowen Piano Music – Sonata No. 6 in B minor (Op. 160), Twenty Four Preludes (Op. 120), Reverie (Op. 86) – Joop Celis (Piano) Chandos
- Instrumental Sonatas – Sonata for Flute and Piano (Op. 120), Sonata for Oboe and Piano (Op. 85), Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (Op. 109), Sonata for Horn and Piano (Op. 101) – Endymion Dutton Epoch
External links
- http://www.yorkbowen.co.uk