Constant Lambert
Encyclopedia
Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British
composer and conductor
.
n-born Australia
n painter George Lambert
, was educated at Christ's Hospital
and the Royal College of Music
. Lambert was a prodigy, writing orchestra
l works from the age of 13, and at 20 received a commission to write a ballet for Sergei Diaghilev
's Ballets Russes
(Romeo and Juliet).
For a few years he enjoyed a meteoric celebrity, including participating in a recording of William Walton
's Façade with Edith Sitwell
. Lambert's best known composition is The Rio Grande
(1927) for piano
and alto soloists, chorus
, and orchestra of brass, strings and percussion. It achieved instant success, and Lambert made two recordings of the piece as conductor (1930 and 1949). He had a great interest in American Negro music, and once said that he would have ideally liked The Rio Grande to feature a black choir.
(after the play of the same name
by Thomas Nashe
), one of his most emotionally dark works, proved unfashionable in the mood following the death of George V
, but Alan Frank hailed it at the time as Lambert's "finest work". Lambert himself considered he had failed as a composer, and completed only two major works in the remaining sixteen years of his life. Instead he concentrated on conducting, and appeared at Covent Garden
and in BBC
radio broadcasts, and accompanied the ballet in European and American tours.
The war took its toll of his vitality and creativity, and his health declined with the development of diabetes
which remained untreated for years owing to his fear of doctors, stemming from his childhood.
Lambert was renowned as a raconteur in his day and as an expert on many different arts and modern European culture. He was also one of the first "serious" composers to understand fully the importance of jazz
and popular culture in the music of his time. He responded positively to the music of Duke Ellington
. His embrace of music outside the 'serious' repertoire is illustrated by his book Music Ho! (1934), subtitled "a study of music in decline", which remains one of the wittiest, if highly opinionated, volumes of music criticism in the English language.
He was at the centre of a brilliant literary and intellectual circle including Michael Ayrton
, Sacheverell Sitwell
and Anthony Powell
, and despite Powell's denial, he is often said to be the prototype of the character Hugh Moreland in Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time
.
As a conductor he had an instinctive appreciation of Liszt
, Chabrier
, Waldteufel
and romantic
Russia
n composers, and made fine recordings of some of their works. However, it was only when his health was declining that his career had a chance to flourish with the development of the BBC Third Programme and the Philharmonia Orchestra
, having struggled for many years to extract vital performances from second-rate ensembles.
. After divorcing Kaye, in 1947 Lambert married the artist Isabel Delmer
; after his death, she married Alan Rawsthorne
. Lambert's first wife Florence Kaye married Peter Hole; their daughter Anne later took the stage name Annie Lambert.
Lambert earlier had an on-and-off affair with the ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn
which began when Fonteyn was only 17 years old. It was rumoured at the time that Fonteyn became pregnant by Lambert but had an abortion. According to friends of Fonteyn, Lambert was the great love of her life and she despaired when she finally realised he would never marry her. Some aspects of this relationship were symbolised in his ballet Horoscope
(1938).
and undiagnosed diabetes
complicated by acute alcoholism
, and was buried in Brompton Cemetery
, London
. His son Kit was buried in the same grave in 1983.
Choral and vocal:
Orchestral:
Chamber
Instrumental
Film Music
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 and conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
.
Early life
Lambert, the son of RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n-born Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n painter George Lambert
George Washington Lambert
George Washington Thomas Lambert ARA was an Australian artist, known principally for portrait paintings and as a war artist during the First World War.-Early life:...
, was educated at Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital is an English coeducational independent day and boarding school with Royal Charter located in the Sussex countryside just south of Horsham in Horsham District, West Sussex, England...
and 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...
. Lambert was a prodigy, writing orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
l works from the age of 13, and at 20 received a commission to write a ballet for Sergei Diaghilev
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:...
's Ballets Russes
Ballets Russes
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company from Russia which performed between 1909 and 1929 in many countries. Directed by Sergei Diaghilev, it is regarded as the greatest ballet company of the 20th century. Many of its dancers originated from the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg...
(Romeo and Juliet).
For a few years he enjoyed a meteoric celebrity, including participating in a recording 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 Façade with Edith Sitwell
Edith Sitwell
Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell DBE was a British poet and critic.-Background:Edith Sitwell was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the oldest child and only daughter of Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet, of Renishaw Hall; he was an expert on genealogy and landscaping...
. Lambert's best known composition is The Rio Grande
The Rio Grande (Lambert)
The Rio Grande is a work by Constant Lambert, for alto, choir, piano, brass, strings and a percussion section of 15 instruments, needing five players. It was written in 1927, and achieved instant and long-lasting popularity on its appearance on the concert stage in 1929...
(1927) for piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and alto soloists, chorus
Choir
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...
, and orchestra of brass, strings and percussion. It achieved instant success, and Lambert made two recordings of the piece as conductor (1930 and 1949). He had a great interest in American Negro music, and once said that he would have ideally liked The Rio Grande to feature a black choir.
Career
During the 1930s, his career as a conductor took off with his appointment with the Vic-Wells ballet (later The Royal Ballet), but his career as a composer stagnated. His major choral work Summer's Last Will and TestamentSummer's Last Will and Testament (Lambert)
Summer's Last Will and Testament is a choral masque or cantata by Constant Lambert, written between 1932 and 1935, and premiered in 1936. It is scored for chorus and orchestra, with a baritone solo also featured in the last of its seven movements. It is based on the poem of the same name by...
(after the play of the same name
Summer's Last Will and Testament
Summer's Last Will and Testament is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy written by Thomas Nashe. Nashe's sole extant drama, it broke new ground in the development of English Renaissance drama: "No earlier English comedy has anything like the intellectual content or the social relevance that it...
by Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Early life:...
), one of his most emotionally dark works, proved unfashionable in the mood following the death of George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
, but Alan Frank hailed it at the time as Lambert's "finest work". Lambert himself considered he had failed as a composer, and completed only two major works in the remaining sixteen years of his life. Instead he concentrated on conducting, and appeared at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
and in 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...
radio broadcasts, and accompanied the ballet in European and American tours.
The war took its toll of his vitality and creativity, and his health declined with the development of diabetes
Diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus, often simply referred to as diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced...
which remained untreated for years owing to his fear of doctors, stemming from his childhood.
Lambert was renowned as a raconteur in his day and as an expert on many different arts and modern European culture. He was also one of the first "serious" composers to understand fully the importance of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and popular culture in the music of his time. He responded positively to the music of Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
. His embrace of music outside the 'serious' repertoire is illustrated by his book Music Ho! (1934), subtitled "a study of music in decline", which remains one of the wittiest, if highly opinionated, volumes of music criticism in the English language.
Michael Ayrton
Michael Ayrton was an English artist and writer, known as a painter, printmaker and sculptor, and also as a critic, broadcaster and novelist...
, Sacheverell Sitwell
Sacheverell Sitwell
Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, 6th Baronet CH was an English writer, best known as an art critic and writer on architecture, particularly the baroque. He was the younger brother of Dame Edith Sitwell and Sir Osbert Sitwell....
and Anthony Powell
Anthony Powell
Anthony Dymoke Powell CH, CBE was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975....
, and despite Powell's denial, he is often said to be the prototype of the character Hugh Moreland in Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time
A Dance to the Music of Time
A Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve-volume cycle of novels by Anthony Powell, inspired by the painting of the same name by Nicolas Poussin. One of the longest works of fiction in literature, it was published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim...
.
As a conductor he had an instinctive appreciation of Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, Chabrier
Emmanuel Chabrier
Emmanuel Chabrier was a French Romantic composer and pianist. Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, España and Joyeuse marche, he left an important corpus of operas , songs, and piano music as well...
, Waldteufel
Émile Waldteufel
Émile Waldteufel was a French composer of dance music.-Life:Émile Waldteufel was born in Strasbourg to a Jewish Alsatian family of musicians....
and 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....
Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n composers, and made fine recordings of some of their works. However, it was only when his health was declining that his career had a chance to flourish with the development of the BBC Third Programme and the Philharmonia Orchestra
Philharmonia Orchestra
The Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke...
, having struggled for many years to extract vital performances from second-rate ensembles.
Personal life
Lambert's first marriage was to Florence Kaye; their son was Kit LambertKit Lambert
Christopher "Kit" Sebastian Lambert was a record producer and the manager for The Who.-Early life:Kit Lambert was the son of noted composer, Constant Lambert...
. After divorcing Kaye, in 1947 Lambert married the artist Isabel Delmer
Isabel Rawsthorne
Isabel Rawsthorne, also known as Isabel Lambert, was a British painter, designer and occasional artists' model. During the war she worked in Black Propaganda...
; after his death, she married 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:...
. Lambert's first wife Florence Kaye married Peter Hole; their daughter Anne later took the stage name Annie Lambert.
Lambert earlier had an on-and-off affair with the ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn
Margot Fonteyn
Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE , was an English ballerina of the 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time...
which began when Fonteyn was only 17 years old. It was rumoured at the time that Fonteyn became pregnant by Lambert but had an abortion. According to friends of Fonteyn, Lambert was the great love of her life and she despaired when she finally realised he would never marry her. Some aspects of this relationship were symbolised in his ballet Horoscope
Horoscope (ballet)
Horoscope is a ballet created in 1937 by Frederick Ashton with scenery by Sophie Fedorovich and music by Constant Lambert. It is based on astrological themes, and is reminiscent of Gustav Holst's The Planets in its musical exploration of the mystical. The story of the ballet concerns a young man...
(1938).
Later life
Lambert died on 21 August 1951, two days short of his forty-sixth birthday, of pneumoniaPneumonia
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 undiagnosed diabetes
Diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus, often simply referred to as diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced...
complicated by acute alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, and was buried in Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery is located near Earl's Court in South West London, England . It is managed by The Royal Parks and is one of the Magnificent Seven...
, 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...
. His son Kit was buried in the same grave in 1983.
Major works
Ballets:- Romeo and Juliet (1925)
- Pomona (1927)
- HoroscopeHoroscope (ballet)Horoscope is a ballet created in 1937 by Frederick Ashton with scenery by Sophie Fedorovich and music by Constant Lambert. It is based on astrological themes, and is reminiscent of Gustav Holst's The Planets in its musical exploration of the mystical. The story of the ballet concerns a young man...
(1938) - Tiresias (1950)
Choral and vocal:
- Eight poems of Li PoLi BaiLi Bai , also known in the West by various other transliterations, especially Li Po, was a major Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period. He has been regarded as one of the greatest poets in China's Tang period, which is often called China's "golden age" of poetry. Around a thousand existing...
(1928) - The Rio GrandeThe Rio Grande (Lambert)The Rio Grande is a work by Constant Lambert, for alto, choir, piano, brass, strings and a percussion section of 15 instruments, needing five players. It was written in 1927, and achieved instant and long-lasting popularity on its appearance on the concert stage in 1929...
(1927) (set to a poem by Sacheverell SitwellSacheverell SitwellSir Sacheverell Sitwell, 6th Baronet CH was an English writer, best known as an art critic and writer on architecture, particularly the baroque. He was the younger brother of Dame Edith Sitwell and Sir Osbert Sitwell....
) - Summer's Last Will and TestamentSummer's Last Will and Testament (Lambert)Summer's Last Will and Testament is a choral masque or cantata by Constant Lambert, written between 1932 and 1935, and premiered in 1936. It is scored for chorus and orchestra, with a baritone solo also featured in the last of its seven movements. It is based on the poem of the same name by...
(1936; to wordsSummer's Last Will and TestamentSummer's Last Will and Testament is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy written by Thomas Nashe. Nashe's sole extant drama, it broke new ground in the development of English Renaissance drama: "No earlier English comedy has anything like the intellectual content or the social relevance that it...
by Thomas NasheThomas NasheThomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Early life:...
) - Dirge from CymbelineCymbelineCymbeline , also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance...
(1947)
Orchestral:
- Piano ConcertoPiano concertoA piano concerto is a concerto written for piano and orchestra.See also harpsichord concerto; some of these works are occasionally played on piano...
(1924) (ed. Shipley/Easterbrook - premiered Mark GasserMark Gasser-Career:Gasser is a fellow of the Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Music. He studied with John Humphreys at the Birmingham Conservatoire, and with Frank Wibaut at the Royal Academy of Music...
2001 Christ's Hospital) - The Bird Actors OvertureOvertureOverture in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera...
(1924) - Music for Orchestra (1927)
- Aubade Heroique (1941)
Chamber
- Concerto for Piano and 9 Instruments (1931)
Instrumental
- Piano SonataPiano sonataA piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement , two movements , five or even more movements...
(1930) - Elegy, for piano (1938)
- Trois pieces negres, pour les touches blanches, piano duet (4 hands) (1949)
Film Music
- Merchant Seamen (1940)
- Anna KareninaAnna Karenina (1948 film)Anna Karenina [p] is a 1948 British film based on the 19th century novel, Anna Karenina, by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. The film was directed by Julien Duvivier, and starred Vivien Leigh in the title role...
(1948)
External links
- 'The Jazz Age', lecture and concert by Chamber DomaineChamber DomaineChamber Domaine is a British chamber music ensemble. The ensemble gave its highly praised South Bank and Wigmore Hall debuts in 1999 and since then has performed at leading festivals and concert series in the United Kingdom, Europe and North America....
given on the 6th of November 2007 at Gresham CollegeGresham CollegeGresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in central London, England. It was founded in 1597 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham and today it hosts over 140 free public lectures every year within the City of London.-History:Sir Thomas Gresham,...
, including the Suite in Three Movements for Piano by Lambert (available for audio and video download). - Constant Lambert (1905-1951), Composer, conductor and critic: Sitter in 24 portraits (National Portrait Gallery)