England's forgotten symphonist W. H. Bell

[Sydney Grew]

Not wishing to spoil the effect of Mr. Maréchal's learned and informative post at the end of the Holbrooke thread, here we start a new one arising from something in the notice reproduced there of the first performance of Holbrooke's Illuminated Symphony "Apollo and the Seaman" at a concert given before Royalty at the Queen's Hall on the twentieth of January 1908. It is there stated that as prelude to the concert the orchestra performed a Symphonic Poem "The Shepherd," written by W. H. Bell and, like the Symphony, inspired by a work of that notable Cork poet Herbert Trench.

Now - perhaps it is a defect of our education - we have never before heard of W. H. Bell! So we quickly looked him up and discovered him to have been a St. Albans man, who over the period from 1899 to 1941 wrote five grand symphonies (the First is named "Walter Whitman" after a Northern American who - not very successfully - tried his hand at poetry!) and at least a dozen Symphonic Poems and Symphonic Fantasies. There is also the Viola Concerto ("Rosa Mystica"), a Piano-forte Quintette, several String Quartettes and Sonatas, a great many works for chorus and orchestra, plenty of songs, and last but certainly not least six and a half music dramas. See here.

Why then is it we wonder that his many no doubt attractive productions are so seldom performed and broadcast to-day? Probably because like Tristram Cary and the always absorbing Roger Smalley he at some mid-life crisis made the mistake of going off to live in one of the Colonies. People in Britain to-day no longer like to think of the colonies do they.

[mercia]

Well if he hadn't gone to South Africa presumably he wouldn't have written his "South African" Symphony no. 4, so I guess we should be grateful that he did. Nor might we have the pleasure of listening to the music of John Joubert, his pupil. Do we know where Bell's interest in the Japanese Noh Play tradition came from?

(I should think the great advantage of being a Cork poet, like Mr Trench, is that you always float.)

[ahinton]

Well if he hadn't gone to South Africa presumably he wouldn't have written his "South African" Symphony no. 4, so I guess we should be grateful. Nor might we have the pleasure of listening to the music of John Joubert. Do we know where Bell's interest in the Japanese Noh Play tradition came from?

I should think the great advantage of being a Cork poet, like Mr Trench, is that you always float.

It would be difficult even for a poet to float in a trench, would not it?

As thou wert...

[Cellini]

I tried to get him on the phone once ...

[verismissimo]

I see that the introduction to Eva Mary and Sydney Grew's "Bach" in the Master Musicians series (1947) has an introduction by one Houston Stewart Chamberlain. Are you by any chance related?

[Sydney Grew]

Well! It seems there is still in England not much interest in the work of composers from the best period. But let us at least copy a paragraph from this enthusiastic review of Bell's Viola Concerto "Rosa Mystica," which was both recorded and broadcast recently, and described in last year's B.B.C. Music Magazine:

"W.H. Bell's stunningly beautiful piece 'Rosa Mystica' was first performed in Cape Town in 1917 but appears never to have been performed outside of South Africa and remained unpublished. It was recently rediscovered by Lewis Foreman and has been made ready for performance by Roger Chase and Michiko Otaki – Roger describes 'the thrill of hearing the full Orchestra play this for the first time....the rebirth of a piece not heard for some 90 odd years."

"Stunningly beautiful" - that must mean something must it not. "Stunning beauty" is in fact what all composers and audiences are seeking. That is why we go to concert halls; that is why we purchase Discs.

[salymap]

Hercule, we agree with your post, all one of us.

[Biffo]

I noticed this thread in passing. Bell's Viola Concerto 'Rosa Mystica' is available from Dutton; the disc also contains a Viola Concerto from another relative unknown, Stanley Bate. Roger Chase is the soloist with Stephen Bell and the BBC Concert Orchestra.

[BBMmk2]

This isn the sort of rep that Chandos or Hyperion could be investigating?

[Biffo]

Dutton are already doing a pretty good job. I had always associated them with historical reissues but when I bought the Bate/Bell disc they sent me a catalogue. They have lots of unfamiliar stuff in new recordings.

[Stanfordian]

Good call biffo. I have been interested in W.H. Bell for a while. A pupil of the great Sir Charles Villiers Stanford at London's RCM. The only work of his that I have heard of Bell's is the violin concerto on Dutton. Here is a list I have compiled of names of composers who were either pupils of Stanford or part of his circle mainly at the RCM or at Cambridge.

Ralph Vaughan Williams,
Gustav Holst,
Herbert Howells,
Samuel Coleridge Taylor,
Ernest John (E.J.) Moeran,
Sir Arthur Bliss,
Haydn Wood,
Leopold Stokowski,
John Ireland,
Rebecca Clarke,
Eugène Goossens,
Ivor Gurney,
Hamish MacCunn,
Arthur Benjamin,
Gordon Jacob,
Rutland Boughton
William Hurlstone,
William Henry (W. H.) Bell,
Edgar Bainton,
Harold Darke,
Thomas Dunhill,
Sir George Dyson,
Cecil Forsyth,
Sir Arthur Somervell
Sir Henry Walford Davies
James Friskin,
Geoffrey Toye,
Charles Wood,,
Sydney Peine (S.P.) Waddington,
Frank Tapp,
Alan Taffs,
Edward Naylor,
Sir Sydney Hugo Nicholson,
George Marshall-Hall,
Eric Gritton,
Ernest Farrar,
Sir William Harris,

Possible pupils or certainly part of his circle:
Sir Landon Ronald (playing in RCM concerts conducted by Stanford)
George Butterworth (possible student of Stanford. Certainly would have come under his influence at the RCM)
Fritz Hart (Certainly would have come under his influence at the RCM; especially in College concerts and opera productions)

Claimed by Grove and Dutton Epoch booklet notes:
Humphrey Procter-Gregg.

I have even read one music writer state that Ivor Novello was a Standord pupil but that seems very, very unlikley.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... and Frank Bridge?

[Biffo]

Stanfordian: According to Wikipedia Ivor Novello was taught harmony and counterpoint by Sir Arthur Herbert Brewer, organist of Gloucester Cathedral. Brewer conducted the premiere of Sibelius' Luonnotar at the 1913 Three Choirs Festival.

Dutton have recordings of quite a few of the composers in your list of Stanford pupils including less familiar composers such as Rebecca Clarke. I have a Dutton disc of Delius rarities that includes a Viola & Violin version of the Double Concerto.

[Stanfordian]

Thank you Sydney Grew for starting the thread. Thanks biffo for spotting that I had missed out Frank Bridge from the list. Just goes to show how many composers Stanford influenced.

Must recommend Fritz Hart's: The Bush, Symphonic Suite, Op. 59 and the Idyll, for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 169. Performed by Ronald Woodcock (violin); Adelaide Symphony Orchestra under Graham Abbott, rec. 1994, ABC Studio 520, Collinswood, Adelaide, South Australia on the label Anthology of Australian Music CSM38. You really can hear the influence of Fritz Hart's friends Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thank you Sydney Grew for starting the thread. Thanks biffo for spotting that I had missed out Frank Bridge from the list. Just goes to show how many composers Stanford influenced.

Must recommend Fritz Hart's: The Bush, Symphonic Suite, Op. 59 and the Idyll, for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 169. Performed by Ronald Woodcock (violin); Adelaide Symphony Orchestra under Graham Abbott, rec. 1994, ABC Studio 520, Collinswood, Adelaide, South Australia on the label Anthology of Australian Music CSM38. You really can hear the influence of Fritz Hart's friends Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst.

From what limited knowledge you have, how would you describe Bell's music, Stanfordian?