Page 137 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2024. Glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes ▪︎ Music Criticism – Yesterday and Today. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 7
P. 137
putting music criticism to positive purpose: william glock ...
troversial, defining techniques and philosophies of contemporary thought,
not just music. Very early on in the early 1950s, Glock recognised their very
distinctive and important characters, both in their compositions and in
their writings. He visited continental meetings, notably the ISCM festival
in Baden-Baden in 1955, which was the location for the first performances of
Gerhard’s Symphony No. 1 and Boulez’s Le marteau sans maître, both con-
ducted by Hans Rosbaud, and Elliott Carter’s Sonata for cello and piano.
Roberto Gerhard
Gerhard had fled from Franco’s Spain to England in 1939 and made his
home in Cambridge with a composition fellowship at King’s College.19 His
works in the first decade of his life in England were relatively modest, de-
riving from his Catalan and Spanish background. He then returned to the
twelve-note technique which he had derived from his study with Schoen-
berg with a short serial work, Capriccio for flute of 1949, the foundation for
most of the music he was now going to write. In the early 1950s with only
four published works, Glock published his important article “Tonality in
Twelve-Tone music” in The Score in 1952 and a second article “The Contem-
porary Musical Situation” in June 1956.20 His reputation spread steadily, no-
tably with the premiere of his outstanding Symphony No. 1, at the ISCM
Festival in Baden-Baden on 21 June 1955, which Glock attended with great
enthusiasm and which proved to be a landmark in Gerhard’s development.
It extended Schoenberg’s twelve-note technique in a unique way, creating
a dramatic work whose secrets lay in the history of the Spanish civil war.
Glock then presented Gerhard with a career-changing edition of The Score
which featured in-depth studies of his music.21 In 1957 he invited Gerhard
to give a course at the Dartington Summer School joining a very distin-
guished list of composers. With Glock’s appointment as Controller of Mu-
sic of the BBC, Gerhard’s position was very strong. A combination of prom-
inent performances, and commissions followed from Glock’s BBC Music
19 Niall O’Loughlin, “Escape from Catalonia: The Composing Experience of Rober-
to Gerhard,” in Glasbene migracije: stičišče evropske raznolikosti – Musical Migra-
tions: Crossroads of European musical diversity, ed. Jernej Weiss (Koper, Ljubljana:
Univerza na Primorskem, Festival Ljubljana, 2017), 381–400, https://zalozba.upr.si
/ISBN/978-961-6984-94-2.pdf.
20 Roberto Gerhard, “Tonality in Twelve-Tone music,” The Score and IMA Magazine
6 (May 1952): 23–35; Roberto Gerhard, “The Contemporary Musical Situation,” The
Score and IMA Magazine 16 (June 1956): 7–18.
21 William Glock, ed., The Score and IMA Magazine 17 [Special Roberto Gerhard issue]
(September 1956) including “Comment,” 7.
137
troversial, defining techniques and philosophies of contemporary thought,
not just music. Very early on in the early 1950s, Glock recognised their very
distinctive and important characters, both in their compositions and in
their writings. He visited continental meetings, notably the ISCM festival
in Baden-Baden in 1955, which was the location for the first performances of
Gerhard’s Symphony No. 1 and Boulez’s Le marteau sans maître, both con-
ducted by Hans Rosbaud, and Elliott Carter’s Sonata for cello and piano.
Roberto Gerhard
Gerhard had fled from Franco’s Spain to England in 1939 and made his
home in Cambridge with a composition fellowship at King’s College.19 His
works in the first decade of his life in England were relatively modest, de-
riving from his Catalan and Spanish background. He then returned to the
twelve-note technique which he had derived from his study with Schoen-
berg with a short serial work, Capriccio for flute of 1949, the foundation for
most of the music he was now going to write. In the early 1950s with only
four published works, Glock published his important article “Tonality in
Twelve-Tone music” in The Score in 1952 and a second article “The Contem-
porary Musical Situation” in June 1956.20 His reputation spread steadily, no-
tably with the premiere of his outstanding Symphony No. 1, at the ISCM
Festival in Baden-Baden on 21 June 1955, which Glock attended with great
enthusiasm and which proved to be a landmark in Gerhard’s development.
It extended Schoenberg’s twelve-note technique in a unique way, creating
a dramatic work whose secrets lay in the history of the Spanish civil war.
Glock then presented Gerhard with a career-changing edition of The Score
which featured in-depth studies of his music.21 In 1957 he invited Gerhard
to give a course at the Dartington Summer School joining a very distin-
guished list of composers. With Glock’s appointment as Controller of Mu-
sic of the BBC, Gerhard’s position was very strong. A combination of prom-
inent performances, and commissions followed from Glock’s BBC Music
19 Niall O’Loughlin, “Escape from Catalonia: The Composing Experience of Rober-
to Gerhard,” in Glasbene migracije: stičišče evropske raznolikosti – Musical Migra-
tions: Crossroads of European musical diversity, ed. Jernej Weiss (Koper, Ljubljana:
Univerza na Primorskem, Festival Ljubljana, 2017), 381–400, https://zalozba.upr.si
/ISBN/978-961-6984-94-2.pdf.
20 Roberto Gerhard, “Tonality in Twelve-Tone music,” The Score and IMA Magazine
6 (May 1952): 23–35; Roberto Gerhard, “The Contemporary Musical Situation,” The
Score and IMA Magazine 16 (June 1956): 7–18.
21 William Glock, ed., The Score and IMA Magazine 17 [Special Roberto Gerhard issue]
(September 1956) including “Comment,” 7.
137
