Rutland Boughton
Encyclopedia
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...
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...
who became well known in the early 20th century as a composer of opera and choral music.
A pupil of Charles Villiers Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
and Walford Davies, Boughton's output included three symphonies, several concertos, part-songs, songs, chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
and opera (which he called "Music Drama" after Wagner). His best known work was the opera The Immortal Hour
The Immortal Hour
The Immortal Hour is an opera by English composer Rutland Boughton. Boughton adapted his own libretto from the works of Fiona MacLeod, a pseudonym of writer William Sharp....
. His Bethlehem (1915), based on the Coventry Nativity Play and notable for its choral arrangements of traditional Christmas carol
Christmas carol
A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.-History:...
s also became very popular with choral societies worldwide.
Other operas by Boughton were: The Birth of Arthur (1913), The Round Table (1916), The Lily Maid (1934), Avalon and Galahad (1945) (all four from the Arthurian cycle of music dramas), The Moon Maiden (1919), Alkestis (1922), and The Queen of Cornwall (1924).
Through the Boughton Trust (see below), many of his major works have been recorded and are available on disc including The Immortal Hour, Bethlehem, Symphony No 1 Oliver Cromwell, Symphony No 2 Deirdre, Symphony No 3, Oboe Concerto No 1, string quartets and various chamber pieces and songs.
In addition to his compositions, Boughton is remembered for his attempt to create an "English Bayreuth" at Glastonbury, establishing the first series of Glastonbury Festivals. (They ran with enormous success from 1914 until 1926). From 1927 until his death in 1960, he lived at Kilcot near Newent
Newent
Newent is a small market town about 8 miles north west of Gloucester City, on the northern edge of the Forest of Dean, and lying within the Forest of Dean Local Authority District. Its population at the 2001 census was 5,073...
, Gloucestershire.
Biography
Rutland Boughton was the son of grocer William Boughton (1841–1905) whose shop occupied Buckingham Street in the town of AylesburyAylesbury
Aylesbury is the county town of Buckinghamshire in South East England. However the town also falls into a geographical region known as the South Midlands an area that ecompasses the north of the South East, and the southern extremities of the East Midlands...
, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
. From an early age he showed signs of exceptional talent for music although formal training opportunities did not immediately become available to him. In 1892 he was apprenticed to a 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...
concert agency and six years later his attention was attracted by several influential musicians including the Rothschild family
Rothschild family
The Rothschild family , known as The House of Rothschild, or more simply as the Rothschilds, is a Jewish-German family that established European banking and finance houses starting in the late 18th century...
which enabled him to raise sufficient monies to study 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. The amount raised, however, was only sufficient to maintain his studies for one year after which he left the college and took up ad-hoc work first in the pit of the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
then as official accompanist to the baritone David Ffrangcon Davies
David Ffrangcon Davies
David Ffrangcon-Davies, M.A. was a Welsh operatic baritone.-Early life and education:David Thomas Davies was born in Bethesda, Gwynedd. He later adapted the name Ffrangcon, an early variant spelling of the nearby valley Nant Ffrancon, as part of his new surname...
(whose daughter, Gwen
Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies
Dame Gwen Lucy Ffrangcon-Davies, DBE was a British actress and centenarian. She was born in London of a Welsh family; the name "Ffrangcon" originates from a valley in Snowdonia...
, later became associated with the Glastonbury Festivals in her famous role Etain in The Immortal Hour). In 1903, he married former Aylesbury neighbour's daughter, Florence Hobley, that he was to regret years later. It was in 1905 (the year he completed his first symphony Oliver Cromwell) that he was approached by Sir Granville Bantock
Granville Bantock
Sir Granville Bantock was a British composer of classical music.-Biography:Granville Ransome Bantock was born in London. His father was a Scottish doctor. He was intended by his parents for the Indian Civil Service but was drawn into the musical world. His first teacher was Dr Gordon Saunders at...
to become a member of staff at the Birmingham and Midland Institute of Music (now the Birmingham Conservatoire).
Birmingham and Midland Institute of Music
It was whilst at Birmingham (1905 to 1911) Boughton was presented with many new opportunities and made many friends. He proved an excellent teacher and an outstanding choral conductor which won him much recognition. He was drawn into socialist ideas through the writings of John RuskinJohn Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
, William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
, Edward Carpenter
Edward Carpenter
Edward Carpenter was an English socialist poet, socialist philosopher, anthologist, and early gay activist....
and George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
, the last with whom he developed a life-long relationship. It was also during those years that he became attached to the young art student, Christina Walshe, who was later to become his partner and artistic "right-hand man" for his Glastonbury projects. His friendship with Shaw had begun when Boughton had been turned down from his invitation to collaborate on an opera. Shaw initially refused to be associated with any of Boughton's music but Boughton would not be dissuaded and eventually Shaw realised they had something in common that was to endure.
Out of his process of self-discovery and self-education, came the artistic aims that were to occupy Boughton for all his life. As a young man, he planned a fourteen-day cycle of dramas on the life of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
in which the story would be enacted on a small stage in the middle of an orchestra while soloists and the chorus would comment on the action. Although this did not come to anything, the idea remained with him and by 1907 Boughton's discovery of the theories and practises of Wagner, combined with his impression that the church's vision of Christianity had somewhat failed, he turned to another subject - King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
. Based upon the Ring Cycle
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
at Bayreuth, and parallel to the ideas of the young poet Reginald Buckley in his book "Arthur of Britain", Boughton set out to create a new form of opera which he later called "choral drama". At this point, the three collaborators - Boughton, Buckley and Walshe - sought to establish a national festival of drama. Whilst London's Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
was ideal for the established operatic repertoire, it would not prove to be so for the plans that Boughton and Buckley had and eventually they decided that they should build their own theatre and, using local talent set up a form of commune or cooperative. At first Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
was deemed a suitable location for the project (the Arts and Crafts Movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
was significant at that time) but they later turned to the 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...
town of Glastonbury
Glastonbury
Glastonbury is a small town in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,784 in the 2001 census...
, the alleged resting place of King Arthur and in an area steeped in legend. Meanwhile, Sir Dan Godfrey
Dan Godfrey
Sir Dan Godfrey was a British music conductor and member of a musical dynasty that included his father Dan Godfrey...
and his Bournemouth orchestra had established a reputation for supporting new English music and it was here where Boughton's first opera from the Arthurian cycle, The Birth of Arthur, received its first performance. It was also at Bournemouth where Boughton's 2nd Symphony had a first hearing and The Queen of Cornwall performed for the first time using an orchestra, and attended by Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
on whose poem the opera was based.
Glastonbury
By 1911, Boughton had resigned from Birmingham and moved to GlastonburyGlastonbury
Glastonbury is a small town in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,784 in the 2001 census...
where, together with Walshe and Buckley, he began to focus on establishing the country's first national annual summer school of music. The first production was not the projected Arthurian Cycle but that of Boughton's new choral-drama, The Immortal Hour, composed in 1912 which with a national appeal to raise funds was produced with the full backing of Sir Granville Bantock
Granville Bantock
Sir Granville Bantock was a British composer of classical music.-Biography:Granville Ransome Bantock was born in London. His father was a Scottish doctor. He was intended by his parents for the Indian Civil Service but was drawn into the musical world. His first teacher was Dr Gordon Saunders at...
, 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...
, John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter...
, Eugene Goossens
Eugène Aynsley Goossens
Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens was an English conductor and composer.-Biography:He was born in Camden Town, London, the son of the Belgian conductor and violinist Eugène Goossens and the grandson of the conductor Eugène Goossens...
, Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
, Dame Ethel Smyth
Ethel Smyth
Dame Ethel Mary Smyth, DBE was an English composer and a leader of the women's suffrage movement.- Early career :...
and Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
and others. Sir Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
promised to lay the foundation stone and Beecham to lend his London orchestra. However, in August 1914, the month set for the opening of the first production, World War 1 had been declared and the full plans had to be postponed. Boughton, however, was determined to proceed and the Festival began and in place of Beecham's orchestra, he used a grand piano and instead of a theatre, the local Assembly Rooms that were to remain the centre of activities until the end of the Festivals in 1926, by which time Boughton had mounted over 350 staged works, 100 chamber concerts, a number of exhibitions and a series of lectures and recitals - something never previously witnessed in England. In 1922, Boughton's Festival Players went on tour and became established at Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
in the Folk Festival House (now demolished) and at Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
.
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Birmingham Repertory Theatre is a theatre and theatre company based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England...
, Barry Jackson, decided to take the Glastonbury Festival Players' production to London where it achieved the record breaking run of over 600 performances. On its arrival at the Regent Theatre in 1922, it secured an initial run of over 200 consecutive performances and a further 160 in 1923, with a highly successful revival in 1932. People came to see the opera on more than one occasion (including members of the Royal family) and especially to see and hear the young Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies
Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies
Dame Gwen Lucy Ffrangcon-Davies, DBE was a British actress and centenarian. She was born in London of a Welsh family; the name "Ffrangcon" originates from a valley in Snowdonia...
whose portrayal as Etain began her professional acting career.
In addition to The Immortal Hour and Bethlehem, his other operas The Queen of Cornwall (1924) based on Thomas Hardy's play, and Alkestis (1922) based on the Greek play by Euripides (which reached Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
in 1933), were also very well received. These latter works have not been publicly heard since the mid-1960s when the original Boughton Trust, organised by Adolph Borsdorf, sponsored professional concert performances in London and Street in Somerset.
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
and the miners lockout of 1926, insisted on staging his very popular Nativity opera Bethlehem (1915) at Church House, Westminster
City of Westminster
The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...
, London, with Jesus born in a miner's cottage and Herod as a top-hatted capitalist, flanked by soldiers and police. The event caused much embarrassment to the people of Glastonbury who withdrew their support from Boughton causing the Festival Players to go into liquidation.
Later life
From 1927 until his death in 1960, Boughton lived at Kilcot, near NewentNewent
Newent is a small market town about 8 miles north west of Gloucester City, on the northern edge of the Forest of Dean, and lying within the Forest of Dean Local Authority District. Its population at the 2001 census was 5,073...
in Gloucestershire where he completed the last two operas of his Arthurian cycle (Avalon and Galahad, which to this day have not been performed) and produced some of his finest works, the quality of these of which has only been realised within the past 20 years. These include his 2nd and 3rd symphonies (the latter was first performed at the London Kingsway Theatre in 1939 in the presence of, among others, Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
, Clarence Raybould
Clarence Raybould
Clarence Raybould was born in Birmingham on 28 June 1886, to Robert J Raybould , a printer compositor, and Elen A Raybould , and died in Bideford on 27 March 1972. He was an English conductor, pianist and composer who conducted works ranging from musical comedy and operetta, Gilbert and Sullivan...
and Alan Bush
Alan Bush
Alan Dudley Bush was a British composer and pianist. He was a committed socialist, and politics sometimes provided central themes in his music.-Personal life:...
), a number of pieces for oboe (including two concertos, one dedicated to his talented daughter Joy Boughton
Joy Boughton
Christina Joyance Boughton was the daughter of English composer Rutland Boughton and artist Christina Walshe. She died in 1963 in tragic circumstances....
and the other to 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...
), chamber music and a number of orchestral pieces. In 1934 and 1935, Boughton attempted to repeat his earlier successes at Glastonbury with festivals commissioned at Stroud
Stroud
Stroud a town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England.Stroud may also refer to:*Stroud, New South Wales, Australia*Stroud, Ontario, Canada*Stroud , Gloucestershire, UK*Stroud...
and Bath, and these saw the release of new works, The Lily Maid (the third opera in the Arthurian Cycle) and The Ever Young. Boughton's reputation was, however, affected by his political leanings towards Communism, and his music was subsequently neglected for the next 40 years. Boughton died at the home of his daughter, Joy, in Barnes, London, in 1960.
Quotations about Boughton
- "I believe that Boughton's works will eventually be regarded as one of the most remarkable achievements in the story of our music" — Charles Kennedy ScottCharles Kennedy ScottCharles Kennedy Scott was an English organist and choral conductor who played an important part in developing the performance of choral and polyphonic music in England, especially of early and modern English music.-Training:Educated at Southampton Grammar School, he entered the Brussels...
, 1915
- "The Immortal Hour is a work of genius" — Sir Edward ElgarEdward ElgarSir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
, 1924
- "... The Immortal Hour enchants me. The whole thing gripped me" — Dame Ethel SmythEthel SmythDame Ethel Mary Smyth, DBE was an English composer and a leader of the women's suffrage movement.- Early career :...
, 1922
- "Now that Elgar is gone, you have the only original personal English style on the market...I find that I have acquired a great taste for it" — George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
, 1934
- "I remember vividly how Boughton made his characters live, and the masterly effect of the choral writing" — Sir Arthur BlissArthur BlissSir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KCVO was an English composer and conductor.Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army...
on The Immortal Hour, 1949
- "In any other country, such a work as The Immortal Hour would have been in the repertoire years ago" — Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRalph Vaughan WilliamsRalph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
, 1949
The Rutland Boughton Music Trust
To restore the composer's reputation, The Rutland Boughton Music Trust was established in 1978, the year of the composer's Centenary, to encourage performances and sponsor recordings of his works. Many of these, including some world premieres, now appear on disc with the Hyperion Records Ltd label http://www.hyperionrecords.co.uk. The Oliver Cromwell symphony - first heard in 2005 - and three of the Songs of the English (last heard around 1904/5) have been released by Dutton, as well as a selection of Songs for mezzo and pianoforte on the British Music Society's own label.More recently the 3rd Symphony has been performed in public by The Manchester Beethoven Orchestra and Aylesbury Symphony Orchestra in 2010 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the composer's death. The performance in Manchester is believed to have been the first ever public performance of the work in the North West of England and was facilitated by the generous assistance of the Rutland Boughton Music Trust.
Major works
- The Immortal Hour (1914)
- Bethlehem (1915)
- The Queen of Cornwall (1923-4)
- Alkestis (1920–22)
- The Lily Maid (1934)
- Symphony No 1, Oliver Cromwell (1904-5)
- Symphony No 2, Deirdre (1926-7)
- Symphony No 3 in B minor (1937)
- Oboe Concerto No 1 (1936)
- Oboe Quartet No 1 (1932)
- String Quartet in A The Greek (1923)
- String Quartet in G From the Welsh Hills (1923)
- Concerto for Flute and Strings (1937)
- Concerto for Oboe and Strings No 1 in C (1936)
- Concerto for String Orchestra (1937)
- Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra (1943)
- Midnight (Choral) (1907)
- Songs (solo)
- Partsongs (for SATB & TTBB)
(NOTE: Details of all compositions can be obtained from The Rutland Boughton Music Trust - see below)
Scores
Some of Boughton's original manuscript scores can be viewed at the British Library, Euston RoadEuston Road
Euston Road is an important thoroughfare in central London, England, and forms part of the A501. It is part of the New Road from Paddington to Islington, and was opened as part of the New Road in 1756...
, London. Enquiries about the availability of scores for performance should be made to The Rutland Boughton Music Trust
Sources
- Barber, Richard, King Arthur in Music. Boydell & Brewer, 1993.
- Benham, Patrick, The Avalonians. Gothic Image Publications, Rev. 2006.
www.gothicimage.co.uk, 1993 * Dent, Edward J, Opera. Penguin Books.
- Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians
- Hurd, Michael, Rutland Boughton and the Glastonbury Festivals. Oxford University Press, 1993.
- Mancoff, Debra N., The Arthurian Revival - Essays on Form, Tradition and Transformation. Garland Publishing Ltd, 1992.
External links
Contacts: R Sherman Boughton, Chairman, http://peter.rsb@btinternet.com, Ian Boughton, Administrator & Librarian, http://www.ianrboughton@aol.com or Paul Adrian Rooke, Music Advisor http://www.pauladrianrooke.com