Peter Warlock
Encyclopedia
Peter Warlock was a pseudonym
of Philip Arnold Heseltine (30 October 1894 – 17 December 1930), an Anglo
-Welsh
composer (mainly of songs) and music critic. He used the pseudonym (and various others) when composing, and is now better known by this name.
. He lost his father as a child. His mother remarried and returned to her native Wales
, living at Cefn Bryntalch Hall, Abermule, near Newtown, Montgomeryshire, the family home of her second husband, Walter Buckley Jones. Philip's education was mainly classical including studies at Eton College
, at Christ Church, Oxford
(for one year), and at University College London
(one term). In music, he was mostly self-taught, studying composition on his own from the works of composers he admired, notably Frederick Delius
, Roger Quilter
and Bernard van Dieren
. Nevertheless, one of the masters at Eton, Colin Taylor, had introduced him to some of the modern masters which made a marked impression on him. He was also strongly influenced by Elizabethan
music and poetry as well as by Celt
ic culture (he studied the Cornish
, Welsh
, Irish
, Manx
and Breton
languages). It was the move to Wales, occasioned by his mother's remarriage, that was the spark for this; Welsh may at that time have enjoyed a relatively low status in the country but Philip, never one to shy away from the unconventional, set about learning it with vigour.
He married Minnie Lucy Channing ("Puma"); they had one son born in wedlock. In 2011, the British art critic Brian Sewell
revealed that he was Heseltine's illegitimate child, born seven months after the composer's death.
of 1917-1918. They were followed by a period of concentration on musical journalism; for a while, he was the editor of the musical magazine The Sackbut.
His most prolific period, both as a composer and author, was in the early 1920s, when he withdrew from the financial and social pressures of London to his mother's and stepfather's house in Mid-Wales. Here he wrote some of his finest songs, finally completing his song cycle
The Curlew
to poems by W. B. Yeats. During this period he also met Béla Bartók
, who visited him while returning from a concert in Aberystwyth
arranged by Professor Walford Davies, and whose influence can perhaps be seen in The Curlew.
Between 1925 and 1929, following a quiet period, Warlock and his colleague E. J. Moeran
led a wild, boozy life in Eynsford
, Kent
, having to deal with the local police more than once - including for riding his motorbike naked. For Warlock, this was one of the most fruitful periods of his life, but by the end of the 1920s his creativity was waning and he had to support himself with music criticism again. He was suffering from severe depression
, but whether his death from gas poisoning at the age of 36 was suicide
or an accident is not known for certain. His cat had been put out of the room before he died, perhaps to spare it. There is a third possibility: Warlock had made Bernard van Dieren
his heir in his will, inspiring claims by Warlock's son Nigel Heseltine
that van Dieren had murdered his father.
His name is surrounded by rumours of involvement with the occult, an interest which he shared with others in the Bohemia
n world of the early 20th century — for example the novelist Mary Butts
asserted that it was Warlock who initially introduced her to these subjects. Other less conventional aspects of Peter Warlock's life include experimentation with cannabis
tincture, a gift for the composition of obscene limerick
s and a marked interest in flagellation
.
He wrote little instrumental music, although the suite Capriol (October 1926) is probably his best-known work and exists in versions for string orchestra, full orchestra and piano duet. (There are arrangements for other combinations, but these are not by Warlock.) His only composition for solo piano is a set of arrangements of Celtic melodies, the "Folk-song preludes". He had a deep affinity for poetry, especially that of Yeats and his friends Robert Nichols and Bruce Blunt (1899–1957). He always chose texts of high artistic value, many of them from the Middle Ages
, as basis for his songs.
Many people consider his greatest work to be the song-cycle The Curlew
, for tenor and chamber ensemble, in which he sets four linked poems by Yeats. It is certainly his most substantial piece and was written over a long period of time — some seven years — taking in many stylistic changes along the way from the neo-Delianism
of "The lover mourns for the loss of love" to sections within the longest song, "The withering of the boughs" that suggest Bartók and Schoenberg as influences before achieving a more idiosyncratic, modal, and genuinely Warlockian vocabulary.
Warlock is also known for his many carols, such as Adam lay ybounden
, Tyrley Tyrlow, I Saw a Maiden
and Bethlehem Down
, the last a setting of words by Bruce Blunt
.
Warlock's musical tastes were wide, from Renaissance music
to Bartók
. In his own works, we hear a development from emulation of the Victorian
and Edwardian
drawing-room style to a more contrapuntal
, strongly personal idiom characterised by the relationship between modal lines and a distinctive palette of chords. He was unusual amongst composers of his generation in being largely unaffected by the folksong movement, either as an arranger (the above-named piano pieces being an exception) or a composer. He wrote only one folksong-oriented work, the cycle "Lilligay".
Apart from original works, Warlock edited and transcribed many lute
songs by Elizabethan and Jacobean composers in addition to music by Purcell and other Baroque composers. He also did much to promote the music of Delius
, especially by organising the successful Delius Festival of 1929 with Thomas Beecham
. He wrote the first biography of Delius, as well as, with Cecil Gray
, a book about Carlo Gesualdo
. His book on The English Ayre was a ground breaking study, but he also wrote about contemporary music. His article on Arnold Schoenberg was probably the first substantial study in English of his music. In 1925, Warlock rediscovered the music of 16th century composer Thomas Whythorne
, and published a book of his compositions and poetry.
Warlock also edited, under the pseudonym Rab Noolas (to be read backwards, i.e Saloon Bar), an anthology on drinking "for the delectation of serious topers", entitled Merry-Go-Down (Mandrake Press, c. 1930).
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of Philip Arnold Heseltine (30 October 1894 – 17 December 1930), an Anglo
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...
-Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
composer (mainly of songs) and music critic. He used the pseudonym (and various others) when composing, and is now better known by this name.
Life
Philip Heseltine was born in LondonLondon
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...
. He lost his father as a child. His mother remarried and returned to her native Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, living at Cefn Bryntalch Hall, Abermule, near Newtown, Montgomeryshire, the family home of her second husband, Walter Buckley Jones. Philip's education was mainly classical including studies at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, at Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
(for one year), and at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
(one term). In music, he was mostly self-taught, studying composition on his own from the works of composers he admired, notably Frederick Delius
Frederick Delius
Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, CH was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family of German extraction, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce...
, Roger Quilter
Roger Quilter
Roger Quilter was an English composer, known particularly for his songs.-Biography:Born in Hove, Sussex, Quilter was a younger son of Sir William Quilter, 1st Baronet, who was a noted art collector...
and Bernard van Dieren
Bernard van Dieren
Bernard Hélène Joseph van Dieren was a Dutch composer, critic, author, and writer on music.Van Dieren was the last of five children of a Rotterdam wine merchant, Bernard Joseph van Dieren, and his second wife, Julie Françoise Adelle Labbé...
. Nevertheless, one of the masters at Eton, Colin Taylor, had introduced him to some of the modern masters which made a marked impression on him. He was also strongly influenced by Elizabethan
Elizabethan era
The Elizabethan era was the epoch in English history of Queen Elizabeth I's reign . Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history...
music and poetry as well as by Celt
Celt
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
ic culture (he studied the Cornish
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
, Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
, Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, Manx
Manx language
Manx , also known as Manx Gaelic, and as the Manks language, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, historically spoken by the Manx people. Only a small minority of the Island's population is fluent in the language, but a larger minority has some knowledge of it...
and Breton
Breton language
Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
languages). It was the move to Wales, occasioned by his mother's remarriage, that was the spark for this; Welsh may at that time have enjoyed a relatively low status in the country but Philip, never one to shy away from the unconventional, set about learning it with vigour.
He married Minnie Lucy Channing ("Puma"); they had one son born in wedlock. In 2011, the British art critic Brian Sewell
Brian Sewell
Brian Sewell is an English art critic and media personality. He writes for the London Evening Standard and is noted for artistic conservatism and his acerbic view of the Turner Prize and conceptual art...
revealed that he was Heseltine's illegitimate child, born seven months after the composer's death.
Career
Heseltine wrote his earliest mature compositions, published to critical acclaim under the newly adopted pseudonym Peter Warlock, following his sojourn in IrelandIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
of 1917-1918. They were followed by a period of concentration on musical journalism; for a while, he was the editor of the musical magazine The Sackbut.
His most prolific period, both as a composer and author, was in the early 1920s, when he withdrew from the financial and social pressures of London to his mother's and stepfather's house in Mid-Wales. Here he wrote some of his finest songs, finally completing his song cycle
Song cycle
A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist. Unification can be achieved by a narrative or a persona common to the songs, or even, as in Schumann's...
The Curlew
The Curlew
The Curlew is a song cycle by Peter Warlock on poems by William Butler Yeats. It is generally considered one of the composer's finest works....
to poems by W. B. Yeats. During this period he also met 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...
, who visited him while returning from a concert in Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth is a historic market town, administrative centre and holiday resort within Ceredigion, Wales. Often colloquially known as Aber, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Ystwyth and Rheidol....
arranged by Professor Walford Davies, and whose influence can perhaps be seen in The Curlew.
Between 1925 and 1929, following a quiet period, Warlock and his colleague E. J. Moeran
Ernest John Moeran
Ernest John Moeran was an English composer who had strong associations with Ireland .-Early life:...
led a wild, boozy life in Eynsford
Eynsford
Eynsford is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located on the River Darent, south of Dartford in Kent.-The village:...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, having to deal with the local police more than once - including for riding his motorbike naked. For Warlock, this was one of the most fruitful periods of his life, but by the end of the 1920s his creativity was waning and he had to support himself with music criticism again. He was suffering from severe depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
, but whether his death from gas poisoning at the age of 36 was suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
or an accident is not known for certain. His cat had been put out of the room before he died, perhaps to spare it. There is a third possibility: Warlock had made Bernard van Dieren
Bernard van Dieren
Bernard Hélène Joseph van Dieren was a Dutch composer, critic, author, and writer on music.Van Dieren was the last of five children of a Rotterdam wine merchant, Bernard Joseph van Dieren, and his second wife, Julie Françoise Adelle Labbé...
his heir in his will, inspiring claims by Warlock's son Nigel Heseltine
Nigel Heseltine
Nigel Heseltine was a Welsh writer, of travel books, short stories, plays, and poetry.-Biography:Heseltine was born in London, the son of Philip Heseltine, the composer better known as Peter Warlock...
that van Dieren had murdered his father.
His name is surrounded by rumours of involvement with the occult, an interest which he shared with others in the Bohemia
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
n world of the early 20th century — for example the novelist Mary Butts
Mary Butts
Mary Frances Butts was a British modernist writer. Her work found recognition in important literary magazines such as The Bookman and The Little Review, as well as from some of her fellow modernists, T. S. Eliot, H.D. and Bryher...
asserted that it was Warlock who initially introduced her to these subjects. Other less conventional aspects of Peter Warlock's life include experimentation with cannabis
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
tincture, a gift for the composition of obscene limerick
Limerick (poetry)
A limerick is a kind of a witty, humorous, or nonsense poem, especially one in five-line or meter with a strict rhyme scheme , which is sometimes obscene with humorous intent. The form can be found in England as of the early years of the 18th century...
s and a marked interest in flagellation
Flagellation
Flagellation or flogging is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Specialised implements for it include rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails and the sjambok...
.
In popular culture
Warlock inspired several characters in English language literature, among them:- Julian Oakes, in Jean RhysJean RhysJean Rhys , born Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams, was a mid 20th-century novelist from Dominica. Educated from the age of 16 in Great Britain, she is best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea , written as a "prequel" to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.-Early life:Rhys was born in Roseau, Dominica...
's short story "Till September Petronella," in Tigers Are Better-LookingTigers Are Better-LookingTigers are Better-Looking is a collection of short stories written by famed Dominican author Jean Rhys, published in 1968 by André Deutsch and reissued by Penguin ten years later. This collection combines eight stories written by Rhys during the 1950s with another nine from her previous efforts in...
(19681968 in literatureThe year 1968 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Dean R. Koontz's first novel, Star Quest is published....
), - Coleman in Aldous HuxleyAldous HuxleyAldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
's Antic HayAntic HayAntic Hay is a comic novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1923. The story takes place in London, and depicts the aimless or self-absorbed cultural elite in the sad and turbulent times following the end of World War I....
(19231923 in literatureThe year 1923 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Fictional detective Lord Peter Wimsey makes his first appearance in print....
), - Roy Hartle in Osbert SitwellOsbert SitwellSir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet, was an English writer. His elder sister was Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell and his younger brother was Sir Sacheverell Sitwell; like them he devoted his life to art and literature....
's Those Were the Days (19381938 in literatureThe year 1938 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The trilogy, U.S.A. by John Dos Passos, is published containing his three novels The 42nd Parallel , 1919 , and The Big Money ....
), - Giles Revelstoke in Robertson DaviesRobertson DaviesWilliam Robertson Davies, CC, OOnt, FRSC, FRSL was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best-known and most popular authors, and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies is variously said to have gladly accepted for himself...
' A Mixture of FrailtiesA Mixture of FrailtiesA Mixture of Frailties, published by Macmillan in 1958, is the third novel in The Salterton Trilogy by Canadian novelist Robertson Davies. The other two novels are Tempest-Tost and Leaven of Malice...
(19581958 in literatureThe year 1958 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*August 18 - Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in United States.*First volume of The Civil War by Shelby Foote is published....
); and - Maclintick in Casanova's Chinese RestaurantCasanova's Chinese RestaurantCasanova's Chinese Restaurant is a novel by Anthony Powell . It forms the fifth volume of his masterpiece, the twelve-volume sequence A Dance to the Music of Time, and was originally published in 1960...
(19601960 in literatureThe year 1960 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 2 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case in the United Kingdom....
) by Anthony PowellAnthony PowellAnthony 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....
.
- D. H. LawrenceD. H. LawrenceDavid Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
's use of Warlock as the model for Julius Halliday in his novel Women in LoveWomen in LoveWomen in Love is a novel by British author D. H. Lawrence published in 1920. It is a sequel to his earlier novel The Rainbow , and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, pursues a destructive relationship with Gerald Crich, an...
(19201920 in literatureThe year 1920 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Agatha Christie publishes her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introducing the long-running character detective, Hercule Poirot....
) led to threat of a lawsuit, followed by an out of court settlement. - He is used as a character, together with Carlo GesualdoCarlo GesualdoCarlo Gesualdo, known as Gesualdo di Venosa or Gesualdo da Venosa , Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, was an Italian nobleman, lutenist, composer, and murderer....
, Prince of VenosaVenosaVenosa is a town and comune in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata, in the Vulture area. It is bounded by the comuni of Barile, Ginestra, Lavello, Maschito, Montemilone, Palazzo San Gervasio, Rapolla and Spinazzola....
, madrigalistMadrigal (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....
and uxoricideUxoricideUxoricide is murder of one's wife. It can refer to the act itself or the man who carries it out.- Known or suspected uxoricides:...
, in David PownallDavid PownallDavid Pownall FRSL is a British playwright and author of novels and short stories. Some of his plays have been adapted as films, for instance, Music to Murder By , and others were written as radio plays.-Life and career:...
's play Music to Murder By (1976). - His life was the basis of a highly fictionalized film entitled Voices From a Locked Room (1999). The film starred Jeremy NorthamJeremy NorthamJeremy Philip Northam is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Ivor Novello in the 2001 film Gosford Park, as Dean Martin in the 2002 television movie Martin and Lewis, and as Thomas More on the Showtime series The Tudors...
and depicted Warlock as having multiple personality disorder. - His life was portrayed in the 2005 film Peter Warlock, Some Little Joy.
Works
Warlock's compositions are nearly all songs and most of these are for solo voice and piano. There is a smaller, but still significant, number of pieces for voices — choral songs — although a few of these are arrangements of his solo songs.He wrote little instrumental music, although the suite Capriol (October 1926) is probably his best-known work and exists in versions for string orchestra, full orchestra and piano duet. (There are arrangements for other combinations, but these are not by Warlock.) His only composition for solo piano is a set of arrangements of Celtic melodies, the "Folk-song preludes". He had a deep affinity for poetry, especially that of Yeats and his friends Robert Nichols and Bruce Blunt (1899–1957). He always chose texts of high artistic value, many of them from the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, as basis for his songs.
Many people consider his greatest work to be the song-cycle The Curlew
The Curlew
The Curlew is a song cycle by Peter Warlock on poems by William Butler Yeats. It is generally considered one of the composer's finest works....
, for tenor and chamber ensemble, in which he sets four linked poems by Yeats. It is certainly his most substantial piece and was written over a long period of time — some seven years — taking in many stylistic changes along the way from the neo-Delianism
Frederick Delius
Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, CH was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family of German extraction, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce...
of "The lover mourns for the loss of love" to sections within the longest song, "The withering of the boughs" that suggest Bartók and Schoenberg as influences before achieving a more idiosyncratic, modal, and genuinely Warlockian vocabulary.
Warlock is also known for his many carols, such as Adam lay ybounden
Adam Lay Ybounden
"Adam lay ybounden", originally titled Adam lay i-bowndyn is a 15th century macaronic English text of unknown authorship. The manuscript on which the poem is found, , is held by the British Library, who date the work to c.1400 and speculate that the lyrics may have belonged to a wandering minstrel;...
, Tyrley Tyrlow, I Saw a Maiden
Lullay, mine liking
"Lullay, mine liking" is a Middle English lyric poem or carol of the 15th century which frames a narrative describing an encounter of the Nativity with a song sung by the Virgin Mary to the infant Christ...
and Bethlehem Down
Bethlehem Down
Bethlehem Down is a choral anthem or carol composed in 1927 by Anglo-Welsh composer Peter Warlock and set to a poem written by journalist and poet Bruce Blunt . It is a popular anthem used in the Anglican church during the liturgical seasons of Christmastide and Epiphany...
, the last a setting of words by Bruce Blunt
Bruce Blunt
Bruce Blunt was an English poet, journalist and wine merchant best known for his collaborations with the composer Peter Warlock. In Frederick Delius and Peter Warlock: a friendship revealed he is described as a "bon viveur, poet, journalist, and writer on wine, gardening, and the turf." His poetry...
.
Warlock's musical tastes were wide, from Renaissance music
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...
to 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...
. In his own works, we hear a development from emulation of the Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
and Edwardian
Edwardian period
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period in the United Kingdom is the period covering the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910.The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 and the succession of her son Edward marked the end of the Victorian era...
drawing-room style to a more contrapuntal
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,...
, strongly personal idiom characterised by the relationship between modal lines and a distinctive palette of chords. He was unusual amongst composers of his generation in being largely unaffected by the folksong movement, either as an arranger (the above-named piano pieces being an exception) or a composer. He wrote only one folksong-oriented work, the cycle "Lilligay".
Apart from original works, Warlock edited and transcribed many lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
songs by Elizabethan and Jacobean composers in addition to music by Purcell and other Baroque composers. He also did much to promote the music of Delius
Frederick Delius
Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, CH was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family of German extraction, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce...
, especially by organising the successful Delius Festival of 1929 with Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
. He wrote the first biography of Delius, as well as, with Cecil Gray
Cecil Gray
Cecil Gray was a Scottish music critic and composer. He published books on the composers Jean Sibelius, Peter Warlock and Carlo Gesualdo, the last of these co-authored by the same Warlock; also a history of music, collections of essays on music, a play about Gilles de Rais and an autobiography.He...
, a book about Carlo Gesualdo
Carlo Gesualdo
Carlo Gesualdo, known as Gesualdo di Venosa or Gesualdo da Venosa , Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, was an Italian nobleman, lutenist, composer, and murderer....
. His book on The English Ayre was a ground breaking study, but he also wrote about contemporary music. His article on Arnold Schoenberg was probably the first substantial study in English of his music. In 1925, Warlock rediscovered the music of 16th century composer Thomas Whythorne
Thomas Whythorne
Thomas Whythorne was an English composer who wrote what some consider to be the earliest surviving autobiography in English.Born in Somerset to a wealthy family, Whythorne attended and matriculated from Magdalen College School, Oxford...
, and published a book of his compositions and poetry.
Warlock also edited, under the pseudonym Rab Noolas (to be read backwards, i.e Saloon Bar), an anthology on drinking "for the delectation of serious topers", entitled Merry-Go-Down (Mandrake Press, c. 1930).
Selected bibliography
- Collins, Brian, Peter Warlock: The Composer (Aldershot, 1996).
- Copley, Ian, The Music of Peter Warlock: A Critical Survey (London, 1979).
- Gray, CecilCecil GrayCecil Gray was a Scottish music critic and composer. He published books on the composers Jean Sibelius, Peter Warlock and Carlo Gesualdo, the last of these co-authored by the same Warlock; also a history of music, collections of essays on music, a play about Gilles de Rais and an autobiography.He...
, Peter Warlock: A Memoir of Philip Heseltine, with contributions by Sir Richard Terry and Robert Nichols (London, 1934). - Heseltine, NigelNigel HeseltineNigel Heseltine was a Welsh writer, of travel books, short stories, plays, and poetry.-Biography:Heseltine was born in London, the son of Philip Heseltine, the composer better known as Peter Warlock...
, Capriol for Mother (London, 1992) - Smith, BarryBarry Smith (organist)Barry Smith is a South African organist, choral and orchestral conductor, author, and musicologist.-Early life and education:Born in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, Smith was a choirboy at St Mary's Collegiate Church. In 1956, Smith was awarded a scholarship to Rhodes...
, Peter Warlock: The Life of Philip Heseltine (Oxford, 1994). - Smith, Barry, Frederick Delius and Peter Warlock: A Friendship Revealed (Oxford, 2000).
- Smith, Barry (ed.), The Collected Letters of Peter Warlock (4 vols.) (Woodbridge, 2005)
External links
- Philip Arnold Heseltine (Peter Warlock) (1894-1930), Music scholar and composer: Sitter associated with 4 portraits (National Portrait Gallery)
- The Peter Warlock Society website, including a more detailed biography and a complete list of works.
- Peter Warlock's Songs in the Schubertline (online) edition.
- The UK branch of the Peter Warlock Society website, with UK events and the music hire library lists.
- The Warlock Singers A chamber choir based in Kent, UK named after Peter Warlock, specialising in British music of all periods.