Scott, Cyril

[grewtw]

Cyril Meir Scott, one of England's greatest symphonists, was born at Oxton, Cheshire, in 1879. He began studying in Frankfurt at the age of twelve.

Between the wars his music was much performed on the Continent, and a high point in his career came with the production of his one-act opera The Alchemist at Essen in 1925 under Felix Wolfe. In England, large-scale works for chorus and orchestra were heard at the 1936 Norwich Festival (Let us Now Praise Famous Men) and the 1937 Leeds Festival (La belle dame sans merci).

His symphonies:

Symphony no. 1 in G major, 1900

http://youtu.be/TvW6n7dX2cg

Symphony no. 2 in A minor, 1903

Symphony no. 3, "The Muses", with chorus, 1939

http://youtu.be/SFyFZez04k4

Symphony no. 4, 1952

http://youtu.be/Gud7Yc4oFBY

His concertos:

Piano concerto in D major, opus 10, 1900

http://youtu.be/u4dwntgqYHo

Cello Concerto, opus 19, 1902

Piano Concerto no. 1, 1914

http://youtu.be/Fl3JIMjtjq0

Violin concerto, 1925

Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra, 1926

Concerto for two violins and orchestra, 1931

Cello concerto, 1937

http://youtu.be/ZyLPwDSA1Qc

Harpsichord concerto, 1937

Oboe concerto, 1946

http://youtu.be/rOq5XyLYshk

Piano concerto no. 2, 1958


His quartets, quintets, etc:

String quartet no. 1, 1920

String quartet no. 2, 1958

String quartet no. 3, 1960

String quartet no. 4, 1968

Piano quintet no. 1, 1924

http://youtu.be/Q6IsbHoFG1k

http://youtu.be/aYp0m3U1c5U

http://youtu.be/2TMmJIqbnYw

http://youtu.be/KGWiTd8EhO4

Piano quintet no. 2, 1952

Clarinet quintet, 1953

Piano quartet in E minor, opus 16, 1900

Three piano sonatas, 1910, 1932, 1956
No 1: http://youtu.be/ulBVCoIidYs

Note that the dates given by Grove and Wikpædia differ considerably.

In the nineteen-twenties Scott began to take a serious interest in Indian philosophy, which led to his becoming a Vedantist and finally a follower of the Higher Occultism. He also became absorbed in the study of naturopathy, osteopathy and homeopathy. He wrote successfully and frequently on all these topics, his work being translated into many languages. His literary output included several volumes of poetry (influenced by Swinburne and Dowson), a quantity of unpublished plays, and an entertaining autobiography, My Years of Indiscretion (1924).

Here is his book "The Philosophy of Modernism, in its Connection with Music" (London, 1917):

http://archive.org/details/philosophyofmode00scotuoft

[Serial_Apologist]

There's a story about Scott that Debussy claimed him as one of his own few successors, but that when Scott went up to the French composer and asked him if he saw similarities in their musics, Debussy is said to have said no! There are similarities, actually, in harmony: Scott took two aspects of Debussy's music, mainly ignoring the rest (for example whole-tone scale usages that some think simplistically a synonym for "Debussyism"), and then concentrated for the rest of his life on those - e.g. Claude D's use of "invented modes" (Q.V. the cyclical motto theme of La mer) - (in which one might say he was working in parallel with Jolivet, whose music does hold resemblances on many levels) - and "parallellism", namely the enlargement of the Mediaeval faux bourdon principle of organum - two simultaneous melodic lines a parallel fourth or fifth apart - to full chords. (This btw became something of a cliché in the 1980s when some musicians began attaching harmonisers to monodic instruments in order to be able to play chords without need of resorting to "extended playing techniques"). Scott was also a vegetarian and wrote books on how to cook vegetarians by subjecting them to Pan diatonicism .

[edashtav]

Erik Chisholm wrote:
“Cyril Scott has been called both a crank and a poseur, and I dare-say there is some truth in both assertions. But he is an interesting fellow sincere in his convictions (as are all fanatics-including you and me) and what was more important to me at that time a very fine pianist and distinguished composer of many songs and piano pieces. The few big works of his I have seen lack spontaneity, are angular and contrived, wanting the charm and exotic flavour which make his smaller works so attractive and acceptable. I don't think that Scott has the necessary technique to write convincing large scale works; the public assessment of him as a composer of original short piano pieces and songs is a correct one.”

I’ve tried to appreciate Scott’s extended works and failed.
I think Chisholm was fair.

[ahinton]

Erik Chisholm wrote:
“Cyril Scott has been called both a crank and a poseur, and I dare-say there is some truth in both assertions. But he is an interesting fellow sincere in his convictions (as are all fanatics-including you and me) and what was more important to me at that time a very fine pianist and distinguished composer of many songs and piano pieces. The few big works of his I have seen lack spontaneity, are angular and contrived, wanting the charm and exotic flavour which make his smaller works so attractive and acceptable. I don't think that Scott has the necessary technique to write convincing large scale works; the public assessment of him as a composer of original short piano pieces and songs is a correct one.”

I’ve tried to appreciate Scott’s extended works and failed.
I think Chisholm was fair.

This was a view lrgely echoed by Chisholm's great friend Sorabji although, in all probability, Sorabji had formed that view before Chisholm did. As to his perceived stature as "one of England's greatest symphonists", I would seriously struggle with such a notion in the face of Elgar before him and Rubbra, Simpson, Arnold and (David) Matthews after him, to name but a few...

[Serial_Apologist]

Erik Chisholm wrote:
“Cyril Scott has been called both a crank and a poseur, and I dare-say there is some truth in both assertions. But he is an interesting fellow sincere in his convictions (as are all fanatics-including you and me) and what was more important to me at that time a very fine pianist and distinguished composer of many songs and piano pieces. The few big works of his I have seen lack spontaneity, are angular and contrived, wanting the charm and exotic flavour which make his smaller works so attractive and acceptable. I don't think that Scott has the necessary technique to write convincing large scale works; the public assessment of him as a composer of original short piano pieces and songs is a correct one.”

I’ve tried to appreciate Scott’s extended works and failed.
I think Chisholm was fair.

I am very fond of the String Quartet No 2, included in the youtube sequence below, with its forthright opening harmonies and ghostly, late Vaughan Williamsy slow second movement. The last movement's turbulence owes much I presume to Tapiola. The first quartet I am listening to now for the first time ever, struck by a correspondence between its idiom and Frank Bridge at the pessimistic end of his emotional spectrum. Where Scott was good I think was in evoking that autumnal landscape feel you get in Bridge's Lament and There's a Willow Lies Aslant a Brook pieces, except that in Bridge's case this mood was mostly reserved for his tone poems, and where he applied their harmonic elusiveness to chamber music genres it was always thematically developed, never merely drifting in that dreamy and often aimless kind of Delian way - which has its place, of course!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0ectEYlv8M&list=OLAKSuy_nP2iH00ekj0GJZ4XfxFQRzLDAeu-FjQl4&index=2

[Edgy 2]

I particularly enjoy his piano music.
There are four volumes of the stuff on Dutton played by Leslie De'Ath (some works played by the composer himself )

[mikealdren]

He also wrote small works that were popular in former times, Kreisler's arrangement of Lotus Land, Tallahassee Suite Op.73 that Heifetz (as well as gentle maiden) and others recorded and Dance negre (probably been renamed nowadays).