Lutyens, Elisabeth (1906 - 1983)

[Alison]

I was always intrigued by the few bits and pieces I heard by this composer.

How is she viewed now and is she due a revival at some stage?

Any views or memories gratefully received.

[kea]

She seems to be generally viewed as being spelled "Elisabeth" and as for her music I've not heard any myself, but am curious.

[Alison]

She seems to be generally viewed as being spelled "Elisabeth" and as for her music I've not heard any myself, but am curious.

Ah yes quite so. Don't think I can modify the thread title

[teamsaint]

She seems to be generally viewed as being spelled "Elisabeth" and as for her music I've not heard any myself, but am curious.

There is a certain amount on youtube.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RY4IvI_2KMM

Alison's " intrigued" is about where I have got to with her work, though I do find myself returning to it from time to time.

[Tony Halstead]

She seems to be generally viewed as being spelled "Elisabeth" and as for her music I've not heard any myself, but am curious.

if you've ever seen any 'Hammer Horror' films then you will probably heard some of her 'commercial' music. She quite unashamedly owned up to composing film music in order to earn a living so that she could write her 'real' music.
if you want to get started on 'the real Lutyens' try the exquisite 'And Suddenly it's Evening'.

[Beef Oven!]

Ah yes quite so. Don't think I can modify the thread title

The moderator can change edit the thread title.

I enjoy the bits and pieces that I've heard. I have recordings of 'Quincunx' & 'And Suddenly It's Evening' on Lyrita, a download of 'Verses Of Love' by the Ionian Singers and 'Chamber Concerto no.1' etc on the NMC label. I do enjoy modern (?) 20C music, and her work is right up my street.

To be honest, I'm not sufficiently familiar with her music - I must listen a bit more regularly.

This is the NMC release...........

[umslopogaas]

I heard a piece of her music at Dartington Hall back in the 1960s. I think it was "And Suddenly Its Evening", which was premiered in 1967 and would quite likely have been featured: I cant remember if it was actually the premiere, nor if the composer was present. Nor, if I am honest, can I remember a note of it. There is a recording, on Lyrita, originally issued on Argo LP ZRG 638. The Penguin Guide is not terribly keen on it: "... the impact ... is blunted when the music is so unrelievedly slow."

[Rolmill]

...'Verses Of Love' by the Ionian Singers...

I sang this with the Ionian Singers a few times (may have been on the recording, don't remember and not able to check right now) and thought it was lovely, one of my favourite of the many contemporary works we sang.

[Beef Oven!]

I sang this with the Ionian Singers a few times (may have been on the recording, don't remember and not able to check right now) and thought it was lovely, one of my favourite of the many contemporary works we sang.

Yes, it's lovely.

And you might be on the recording? Magic!

This is the recording I have......

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I have long loved her Music - amongst the very best written in the Twentieth Century (and not just in this country) somewhere between Stravinsky and Webern, but completely her own. One of her most delicious pieces, her setting of O Saisons, O Chateau is, as far as I know, unavailable (not even via youTube - it was on a DECCA recording back in the '70s) but the works others have mentioned are all wonderful. In addition to the NMC disc BeefO mentions, there's also another:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elisabeth-Lutyens-Chamber-Choral-Works/dp/B000IAZNFO/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1412777709&sr=1-1&keywords=elisabeth+lutyens

Is she due a revival? YES! This was the cause of an argument between Nicholas Kenyon and myself when, in her centenary year, not a single semiquaver of her Music was included in the Proms season. After declaring his admiration for her work, the Controller of the Proms said he hadn't any control over the content of the concerts - and, anyway, there was a work by Thea Musgrave programmed that year, so I had no grounds for complaint. Apart from The Tears of Night in 1994, her work hasn't appeared at the Proms since 1981 - nor, The Skull film Music apart, has much been broadcast.

And a great (and sometimes horrible) person - at the very end of her life, nearly blind, crippled with arthritis and knowing that she was dying, she produced two sets of "Triolets". Elegaic? Beggar that - lets see what new rhythms and harmonies we can get from just three players. (Smoking forty-odd of the other sort each day as she did so!)

This is worth every penny, too, for more information about her life:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pilgrim-Soul-Life-Elisabeth-Lutyens/dp/0571161219/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412778800&sr=1-1&keywords=elisabeth+lutyens

[pastoralguy]

I have long loved her Music - amongst the very best written in the Twentieth Century (and not just in this country) somewhere between Stravinsky and Webern, but completely her own. One of her most delicious pieces, her setting of O Saisons, O Chateau is, as far as I know, unavailable (not even via youTube - it was on a DECCA recording back in the '70s) but the works others have mentioned are all wonderful. In addition to the NMC disc BeefO mentions, there's also another:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elisabeth-Lutyens-Chamber-Choral-Works/dp/B000IAZNFO/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1412777709&sr=1-1&keywords=elisabeth+lutyens

Is she due a revival? YES! This was the cause of an argument between Nicholas Kenyon and myself when, in her centenary year, not a single semiquaver of her Music was included in the Proms season. After declaring his admiration for her work, the Controller of the Proms said he hadn't any control over the content of the concerts - and, anyway, there was a work by Thea Musgrave programmed that year, so I had no grounds for complaint. Apart from The Tears of Night in 1994, her work hasn't appeared at the Proms since 1981 - nor, The Skull film Music apart, has much been broadcast.

And a great (and sometimes horrible) person - at the very end of her life, nearly blind, crippled with arthritis and knowing that she was dying, she produced two sets of "Triolets". Elegaic? Beggar that - lets see what new rhythms and harmonies we can get from just three players. (Smoking forty-odd of the other sort each day as she did so!)

This is worth every penny, too, for more information about her life:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pilgrim-Soul...sabeth+lutyens

Thanks for that, fhg. I've splashed out and spent a penny on the book. (Monetary, not the other way...)

No expense spared in this household...

[Beef Oven!]

I have long loved her Music - amongst the very best written in the Twentieth Century (and not just in this country) somewhere between Stravinsky and Webern, but completely her own. One of her most delicious pieces, her setting of O Saisons, O Chateau is, as far as I know, unavailable (not even via youTube - it was on a DECCA recording back in the '70s) but the works others have mentioned are all wonderful. In addition to the NMC disc BeefO mentions, there's also another:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elisabeth-Lutyens-Chamber-Choral-Works/dp/B000IAZNFO/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1412777709&sr=1-1&keywords=elisabeth+lutyens

Is she due a revival? YES! This was the cause of an argument between Nicholas Kenyon and myself when, in her centenary year, not a single semiquaver of her Music was included in the Proms season. After declaring his admiration for her work, the Controller of the Proms said he hadn't any control over the content of the concerts - and, anyway, there was a work by Thea Musgrave programmed that year, so I had no grounds for complaint. Apart from The Tears of Night in 1994, her work hasn't appeared at the Proms since 1981 - nor, The Skull film Music apart, has much been broadcast.

And a great (and sometimes horrible) person - at the very end of her life, nearly blind, crippled with arthritis and knowing that she was dying, she produced two sets of "Triolets". Elegaic? Beggar that - lets see what new rhythms and harmonies we can get from just three players. (Smoking forty-odd of the other sort each day as she did so!)

This is worth every penny, too, for more information about her life:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pilgrim-Soul...sabeth+lutyens

What a great summary!

[Lordgeous]

Yes, a most interesting, and sometimes formidable, woman. She always seemed to be in the middle of some battle or other, with one (or more) composers. I too got to know her at Dartington in the 1960s though my music (being tonal) was not to her taste. "O Saisons, O Chateau" was always the work that stood out for me and I think I still have it on tape (Jane Manning?). Thanks for the thumbs up on the book - duly ordered!

[ahinton]

Yes, a most interesting, and sometimes formidable, woman. She always seemed to be in the middle of some battle or other, with one (or more) composers. I too got to know her at Dartington in the 1960s though my music (being tonal) was not to her taste. "O Saisons, O Chateau" was always the work that stood out for me and I think I still have it on tape (Jane Manning?). Thanks for the thumbs up on the book - duly ordered!

The incomparable Jane Manning it almost certainly was!

Incidentally, your reference to your music being tonal reminds me of when I was a student at RCM and one of the other composition students there (no names, no pack-drill!) had taken some of his music to "12-tone Lizzie" as she was often nicknamed in those days (curiously no one even referred to my teacher as "12-tone Humphrey" in my hearing, but that's another matter), only to have a red circle put around a triadic chord in a rapid passage of semiquavers for each instrument in (I think) a string trio in what was quite clearly an otherwise atonal context and inscribed above it "dull tonal references"! - totally in character, to be sure, but rather less than helpful, methinks...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

IIRC, the soprano in the recording of O Saisons was Teresa Cahill - though I'm sure the wonderful Ms Manning has performed it.

A very strict teacher - and it was to her that Britten sent the 16-yr-old Robert Saxton for composition lessons when the teenager asked him for tuition. (Brian Elias, too.) Saxton recalls those lessons with great affection and no small terror!