We regret to say the meeting planned for Monday 23 March has been postponed because of the current Covid-19 situation. Things are obviously changing fast – COBRA met this morning – so what happens in the future is in the lap of the gods.
We will let you know what we plan to do once we know more of what is going to happen.
PC
Our next meeting will be on Monday 24th February at 7.30pm in our usual venue
where Jon Hampton, chair of Music in Salisbury and a good friend of our Society, will be presenting “From Art to Music – how great art has inspired great music”.
Jon will deliver a wide ranging survey of how great works of art have inspired composers to write great music with a few surprises in store.
I hope you will be able to attend.
Free parking outside the venue. Only £3 for non-members.
Our next meeting will be on Monday 10th February at 7.30pm in our usual venue, hen Peter Curbishley will be presenting: ‘Berlioz’s Vocal Music’. Peter will explore Berlioz’s vast output of vocal music, with a wealth of examples.
I hope you will be able to attend.
Free parking. £3 to non-members
It is perhaps not too surprising that an island nation should feature the sea in the compositions of its native composers. Examples of these – from well known and some less well known composers – featured in the last meeting of the Society on 27 January 2020.
Society member Ed Tinline kicked of the second half of the season with a wide selection of pieces composed by British composers, all with the sea as their inspiration.
We started with part of Vaughan William’s Symphony No 1, A Sea Symphony composed in 1909. Inspiration for the symphony came in part from Walt Whitman. It was premiered when he was 38 and established him as a leading composer.
Brighton born Frank Bridge was next with his Symphonic Suite: The Sea composed in 1910. Then a piece by Judith Weir with her Lament, Over the Sea from her The Bagpiper’s String Trio first performed in 1989. Judith was the first woman to be appointed Master of the Queen’s Music.
Next – another woman – Ethyl Smyth with her Overture: The Wreckers from 1906. I wrote ‘jaunty’ at one point with some interesting orchestral colours. Dame Ethel Mary Smyth attained prominence as one of the most accomplished female composers in a male dominated environment, and as one of the main representatives of the suffragette movement. Tchaikovsky said of her ‘[she] one of the few women composers whom one can seriously consider to be achieving something valuable in the field of musical creation’. Source: British Library.
The first half ended with Arnold Bax’s On the Sea-shore And Elgar’s Sea Pictures.
The second half started with the unfamiliar Mass of the Sea composed by Paul Patterson composed in 1983. Next was By the Sleepy Lagoon written at Selsey by Eric Coates – who like Frank Bridge, was born in Brighton – looking across the bay and is used as the theme for Desert Island Discs on Radio 4.
The Kent coast inspired David Matthew’s Overture: From Sea to Sky composed quite recently in 1992. The Sea Interludes from Britten’s Peter Grimes are very familiar. Interestingly, Britten was taught composition by Frank Bridge.
The penultimate piece was The Needles by Matthew Taylor commissioned by the LSE Music Society in 2000. Finally we returned to Elgar and another of his Sea Pictures composed at the end of the nineteenth century.
A fascinating evening and a wide range of music based on this one idea.
Peter Curbishley
Next month’s meeting is Berlioz’s vocal music and is on Monday 10 February.
The second half of the season kicks off on Monday 27 January with an evening devoted to the music of Vaughan Williams and other British composers . Ed Tinline will present the evening entitled Behold the sea.
It starts at 7:30 and where to find us is on one of the tabs at the top of the site. There is free parking outside and access is reasonable for those with disabilities (a small step). £3 for non-members. We look forward to seeing you.
PC
The meeting tonight (Monday 11 November) concentrates on some less well known English composers presented by Christopher Guild. 7:30 as usual.
George Lloyd was born in 1913 in St Ives (Cornwall) and had a traumatic life. 
Both his parents were keen musicians and encouraged his talent from an early age. Illness meant he was taught at home then left to continue his studies in London.
He wrote his first symphony at 19 which was premiered in Penzance. We heard the Introduction, Theme and Five Variations and it was music which showed great accomplishment. Two other symphonies followed as well as two operas; The Serf and Lernin. The latter was also first performed in Penzance before being transferred to London where it had an unusually long run. Alan Forshaw, the presenter, played the Duet from the opera and it was an outstanding piece of music.
A crucial event in his life was joining the Marines as a bandsman and took part in the awful North Cape convoys to supply the Red Army in WWII. A most terrible event took place in many of his fellow marines were drowned in fuel oil. This affected his mental wellbeing and prolonged hospitalisation with what was still being called shellshock, now called PTSD.
It was physically difficult for him to write music because of the shaking but with devoted care from his wife he was able to start again. A movement from a subsequent symphony demonstrated a change in style.
He wrote music for brass bands and one such was HMS Trinidad March, the ship he had served on. He had almost no success with commissions from the BBC with his scores returned with no comment. A member of the audience suggested this might have been the influence of William Glock and the pressure to use the 12 tone scale which Lloyd has little time for.
He quit the musical life and he and his wife opened a market garden in Dorset. He began to be appreciated in later life and had some of his work performed at the Proms and he did well in America. Albany Records recorded several of his works. We heard a movement from the 4th Piano Concerto and a movement from the 6th Symphony. Other pieces included extracts from the Requiem, and the Black Dyke Mills Band playing a memoriam following the IRA atrocity in the Royal parks.
For those of us who knew little of this composer’s work it was a revelation. He had a sure touch when it came to orchestration. I felt his style would have suited film music where he may have done well. We were grateful to Alan for his work in preparing the evening.
Peter Curbishley
Please note we now have a page on Facebook – Salisbury recorded music society.
Next meeting on 28 October
The next meeting will be on Monday 14 October at 7:30 as usual. It will be a presentation by Alan Forshaw on the music of George Lloyd, probably a composer few have heard of. He was born in St Ives, Cornwall and showed early talent. He wrote twelve symphonies and four piano concertos. His sixth symphony was performed at the Proms. He was principal conductor for an orchestra in the United States.
He had a traumatic war experience in the navy. We look forward to seeing you to hear more of the life and music of this composer.
We are pleased to attach the new programme for 2019 – 20. It is an exciting programme with a lot to interest people who like classical music. Several presenters have chosen an English theme this year – five in all – as well as other classics such as Handel and Berlioz. There are two members’ evenings which are open to non members. You can download the programme from here although there will be hard copies available in the Tourist Office; Oxfam’s Music Room and the Library.
Hard copies of the programme is available in the Tourism Information Centre in Fish Row, Oxfam Music Room in Catherine St; and in Salisbury and Amesbury Libraries.
Entrance for non members is £3.
The next and last meeting of the current programme of the Society is a presentation by Tim Rowe of the music of Handel. Starting at 7:30 on May 13th as usual it is entitled intriguingly: Pebbles to Polished Diamonds.
This has been an excellent programme this year and Tim’s evening promises to be a good coda.
Easy parking to the rear.
Salisbury Recorded Music Society 