Darnton, Christian

[grewtw]

Philip Christian von Schunck was born in Leeds in 1905, the son of John Edward, the Baron von Schunck.

In 1913 his surname was changed to Darnton by way of his grandmother's will and he became known as Christian Darnton.

He studied with Harry Farjeon and later, at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (1923–6), with Charles Wood, where he wrote the highly chromatic Piano Sonata opus 33.

He subsequently studied bassoon and conducting at the RCM (1926–7) and composition privately with Butting in Berlin (1928).

A principal work of this period is the Piano Concerto (1933), the cadenza of which is an early attempt to notate an inner tempo of extreme waywardness.

Further successes were the remarkably advanced Five Orchestral Pieces (ISCM Festival, Warsaw 1939), the publication of a general introduction to music ("You and Music", 1940) and the cantata "Ballad of Freedom" (1942).

A conversion to communism necessitated a severe simplification of his dissonant avant-garde style, in response to a desire for a more widespread understanding of his work. This change of direction, together with discouragement at his lack of recognition, resulted in the loss of his ability to compose further for almost twenty years: the most notable works from this "populist" period are the unstaged opera "Fantasy Fair" (1951) and the cantata "Jet Pilot" (1952).

The appearance of a Concerto for Orchestra (1973), founded on the pattern of ancient Greek drama, and of a Fourth Symphony (1978), based on the tritone and therefore subtitled "Diabolus in musica", revealed a strikingly original mind.


His most important productions:

Symphonies:

Symphony no. 1, 1931

Symphony no. 2 "Anagram", 1940

Symphony no. 3, 1945, revised 1961

Symphony no. 4 "Diabolus in musica", 1979

http://youtu.be/yuJxFi6mtOI

Other orchestral works:

Five Orchestral Pieces, 1938

Stalingrad, overture, 1943

Concerto for Orchestra, 1973

http://youtu.be/Mtl7LJ9JYQI

Choral:

"Fantasy Fair", opera, 1951

"Ballad of Freedom", cantata, 1952

"Jet Pilot", cantata, 1952


Concertos:

Concertino for piano and chamber orchestra, 1926

Violin Concerto, 1930

Piano Concerto, 1933

Concerto for harp and wind, 1934

Concerto for viola and strings, 1935

Suite concertante for violin and chamber orchestra, 1936

Concerto in C Major for piano and strings, 1948


Chamber music:

String Quartet no. 1, 1925

Octet, 1928

String Trio, 1930

String Quartet no. 2, 1933

String Quartet no. 3, 1934

String Quartet no. 4, 1973


Keyboard:

Piano Sonata no. 1, opus 33, 1925

Piano Sonata no. 2, 1944

[rauschwerk]

Darnton's recorded catalogue seems to be limited to Peter Donohoe's version of the enjoyable 1948 piano concerto. We had a copy of Darnton's Pelican book You and Music in my family home, though I remember little of it.

[Serial_Apologist]

Until this moment Darnton was just a name to me, sourced from god knows where.

Thanks to grewtw for bringing all these little-known about indigenous composers to light, doing the much-needed favour I attempted on behalf of French music of the interwar period a few years ago.

[Serial_Apologist]

Satisfyingly tough stuff to go by the two highlighted works in Sydney's original post having little identity with his British contemporaries, the harmonic language and mainly contrapuntally-driven thought of the Concerto bearing more in common with middle European composers of the 30s and 40s such as Hartmann. Plenty to get one's teeth into in the single-movement symphony, which moves from a quasi-sonata form first movement through an austere slow section to a somewhat sardonic scherzo at mid-point, followed by a finale of sometimes moving intensity, revealing a soft side inner core previously concealed behind a hard shell before brusquely signing off. I shall return to this work as there is a lot to get out of it.

Incidentally, when earlier I said I'd heard of the name Darnton, I think I was actually confusing him with Edward Bainton.