Page 147 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2026 Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes.../Composers’ Societies Past and Present...

The Composers’ Guild of Great Britain and “unofficial” musical diplomacy …

25 July- Prague and World Festival of Youth and Students in Prague with the Workers’
3 August Czech vil- Music Association Singers, including premiere of song Lidiče broad-
(approx.) lages cast on Prague Radio.
Met Khachaturian and Shebalin
October/ Prague, Brno, Second conducting tour, with concerts including Prague with Radio
Novem- Budapest, Ka- Choir and Orchestra (October), Krakow (21 November) and Katowi-
ber towice, Kra- ce (25 November).
kow.
Of particular interest in assessing Bush’s visits and their significance is
his first tour of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria in January and Feb-
ruary 1947, about which he subsequently wrote extensively. In spite of the lack
of any official British involvement, it is clear that Bush was treated to a VIP
experience. In Sofia, he was granted an evening with Prime Minister Georgi
Dimitrov, an invitation the composer put down to his mentioning Dimitrov in
26
a political song of the 1930s. The Yugoslav portions were undertaken under
the auspices of the Committee for Culture and Arts, and the composer met
such prominent figures as the Slovenian politician Josep Vidmar and head
of the Music Section of the Slovenian Ministry of Culture Valens Vodušek.
In Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia, he dined with the respective national com-
27
posers’ unions. In judging his work on the side of acting as ambassador for
British music, the composer’s concert in Ljubljana is representative. This took
place at the Grand Union Hall, with Bush conducting a joint orchestra com-
prising Radio Ljubljana, Maribor and Slovenian Primorska. The concert was
remarkable not merely as a taste of English music but, as Bush later noted, for
the ‘appalling weather’ which caused a brief blackout five minutes before the
start of the concert. The programme consisted of works by Purcell, William
28
Boyce, John Ireland, Elgar, and Bush himself (Example 1).
Example 1: Bush’s concert programme for Ljubljana, 1947
H. Purcell: Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day; The Gordian Knot Unty’d
W. Boyce: Symphony No. 8 for String Orchestra
J. Ireland: Mai-Dun: Symphonic Rhapsody
A. Bush: Resolution
A. Bush: Fantasia on Soviet Themes
E. Elgar: Cockaigne
26 The Song is “Make Your Meaning Clear.” See: Alan Bush to Zola Sibeko, 23 Au-
gust 1976, British Library Alan Bush Collection MS Mus. 672: Correspondence with
South Africa/Chile/China/Guyana.
27 Bush, “Musical Journey Through the Balkans,” 17. To my knowledge, the dinner and
Bush’s visit were not noted in any official documents extant in the archives of the
Slovenian Composers’ Society.
28 Alan Bush, “Script for Broadcast to Jugoslavia,” 2.

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