Holbrooke, Joseph (1878 - 1958)...who he?

[ardcarp]

I can't believe I've stumbled through a reasonably eclectic musical life and not tripped over Joseph Holbrooke before. Just got back from a concert in which a miniature for clarinet and piano, Cyrene, was played. But the programme notes say he was 'one of Britain's most respected and frequently performed composers'. Have I been asleep, or maybe emerged through a worm-hole from a parellel but not quite identical universe? OK, I know I could look at Wiki...but it would be much more interesting to hear about him from the many erudite members of this Forum.

[MrGongGong]

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=21802#.UMEL_M1qIuc

[LeMartinPecheur]

ardcarp: I recently bought this on the off-chance and not knowing a note, particularly for the Horn Trio cos I like horns: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Holbrooke-Vi...4828882&sr=1-3 The Horn Trio is good stuff IMO, though I can't say I'd be heartbroken if the disc vanished off my shelves. Worth another listen certainly but I'm not yet rushing to buy the complete works

[Tony Halstead]

I too think that the Holbrooke Horn Trio is a 'worthy but dull' piece.
I can't help thinking that maybe Joseph Holbrooke's most enduring musical legacy is the fact that his son was the 'almost legendary' bassoonist GWYDION BROOKE, ( 1912-2005) of the RPO, Philharmonia and other orchestras.

[french frank]

Rob Barnett has written a short biog on MusicWeb (scroll down), together with a list of Holbrooke's works.

[Serial_Apologist]

Rob Barnett has written a short biog on MusicWeb (scroll down), together with a list of Holbrooke's works.

That article has Croydon in north London! I hope it's more factually dependable in other respects. The only work of his I've heard I taped from a broadcast many years ago, and that was the symphonic poem "Ulalume", which I would have described more as Straussian than Tchaikovskyan, reminiscent of "Death and Transfiguration"; it was probably not for nothing that an article I filed from a newspaper several years ago was headed, "The Cockney Wagner", and critics in the 60s were I think right in casting him among the group of British composers including Bantock, essentially wedded to German romanticism and untouched by 20thc compositional styles or methods, even including those of the New English Renaissance. Dance band settings in the 1920s would probably have just been jobbing for him.

[Ferretfancy]

I have a Naxos CD of Holbrooke orchestral works, including the Bronwen Overture, a Symphonic Poem The Raven, and Ulalume. The Czech RSO is conducted by Adrian Leaper. I'm sorry to say that I have only played it once, but I'll give it another go. I certainly remember hearing Bronwen at the Proms in about 1950, as a schoolboy back then.
I think of Holbrooke as a worthy but uninspired composer, Rutland Boughton is another, although his Oboe Concerto is very enjoyable.

Percy Scholes in the old Oxford Companion writes :- "He composed fluently and ably, but sometimes without sufficient self-criticism. He was a vigorous, even violent, controversialist in support of British music in general and his own in particular. In later life he was largely forgotten, and became embittered and eccentric "

[ardcarp]

Having looked him up a bit (including rather lengthy and repetitive Wiki ramblings) it seems he was indeed a prolific and well-known figure whose works were performed here and abroad by internationally renowned conductors. His magnum opus was Mabinogion based on Welsh folklore (he learned Welsh apparently) and which comprised three operas...a mini Ring?

How are the mighty fallen.

[salymap]

A name to make me shudder. For some reason at the Hire Library we stored a selection of Holbrooke's works, most in mss but some Operas.
He sent frequent postcards, badly typed half in red, half in black, as he had ribbon trouble. He often changed the names of works which meant sticking in or writing in every part,' Children of Don' and ''bronwen are two I can recall,also Calan ?? I'm afraid I've never knowingly heard his music but Tommy Beecham wrote very amusingly abouthim in several places/books as he was a known eccentric. His relentless self promotion and name changes made him a joke, which is a pity if he really composed something worthwhile.

[ardcarp]

That's fascinating, salymap...a real contact with a bygone age. I'm still astounded by the number of musicians (I keep asking people!!) who have never heard of him. I wonder if his working class origins were a cause of his awkward relationship with 'the establishment' ..in an era when it mattered. Ironic that Beecham should comment on eccentricity!

[Dave2002]

This rings bells. Wasn't Bronwen broadcast on R3 a few years ago? I remember an opera with a Welsh connection and a rather odd plot, though that wouldn't single out many operas, as most of them have fairly strange goings on.

[Sir Velo]

This rings bells. Wasn't Bronwen broadcast on R3 a few years ago? I remember an opera with a Welsh connection and a rather odd plot, though that wouldn't single out many operas, as most of them have fairly strange goings on.

I think you will find that excerpts from Bronwen were broadcast back in the last century, or 1995 to be precise. IIRC, this was the final instalment in an operatic trilogy based on Welsh folklore. This had the collective title, The Cauldron of Annwn.

[Roehre]

I think you will find that excerpts from Bronwen were broadcast back in the last century, or 1995 to be precise. IIRC, this was the final instalment in an operatic trilogy based on Welsh folklore. This had the collective title, The Cauldron of Annwn.

Or you heard Joseph Parry's Blodwen, also Welsh and broadcast at approximately the same time.
(Joseph Parry's fame is based on his nearly ubiquitous Myfanwy).

[salymap]

Beecham, in his early autobiography, refers to Holbrooke's entertaining book 'Contemporary British Composers'. Now that would be worth seeking out for several reasons. Shouldn't the British Library have details?

[Dave2002]

Or you heard Joseph Parry's Blodwen, also Welsh and broadcast at approximately the same time.
(Joseph Parry's fame is based on his nearly ubiquitous Myfanwy).

Possibly it was Blodwen, but it definitely wasn't a last century broadcast as I heard bits of it in my car while driving to or from our current home. That puts it pretty much in the last decade, and I'd have said more recently, pehaps 5 years at most. Maybe it was Myfanwy?