Page 101 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2020. Konservatoriji: profesionalizacija in specializacija glasbenega dela ▪︎ The conservatories: professionalisation and specialisation of musical activity. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 4
P. 101
in the shadow of parry, stanford and mackenzie ...
the holidays, ‘I am going to study with Berg, aren’t I?’ the answer
was a firm ‘No dear.’ Pressed, my mother said, ‘He’s not a good in-
fluence,’ which I suspected came from Allen.31
Britten’s private studies with Frank Bridge proved far more profitable.
In the end he felt that much of his time at the college was a waste of time.
The second major composer to have difficulties on account of not fit-
ting the college formula was Elisabeth Lutyens (1906–1983), the daughter of
the distinguished architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. From 1922, she had studied
in Paris, staying with a pupil of Nadia Boulanger and attending the Ecole
Normale for harmony, counterpoint and solfège,32 at the same time taking
a great interest in the music of Debussy. In 1926, she gained a place at the
Royal College of Music to study composition. She had shown an early inter-
est in the work of Schoenberg and Webern, which did not ingratiate her to
the college authorities. As Lutyens herself admitted,
the tradition of German romanticism was still firmly entrenched
at the Royal College of Music, where […] Brahms was considered a
great modern.33
She alleged that “the shades of Stanford and Parry hung like a pall over the
College in 1926.”34 Also reported was the view that, “Excluded from the cur-
riculum were any composers before Haydn or after Sibelius, beyond the pale
lay progressives like Schoenberg.”
Because he did not believe she had the talent for serious composition,
the College’s director Hugh Allen imposed the choice of teacher on her, de-
liberately excluding Lutyens from being taught by such figures as the more
famous Vaughan Williams or John Ireland. Instead she was assigned a place
with Harold Darke, the composer of the popular Christmas carol, In the
Bleak Midwinter,35 and a conservative organist and teacher of harmony and
counterpoint. Despite his strongly conservative leanings, Darke was hugely
supportive of his new student, even with her great interest in Schoenberg’s
music, ensuring that, unlike Britten, almost all of the music she composed
31 Britten, “Early influences”. See note 29.
32 Meirion and Susie Harries, A Pilgrim Soul. The Life and Work of Elisabeth Lutyens
(London: Michael Joseph, 1989), 37–38.
33 Ibid., 54.
34 Ibid.
35 This setting of poetry by Christina Rossetti was composed in 1909 a few years after
another version of the same poem by Gustav Holst. Both are still regularly perfor-
med today.
99
the holidays, ‘I am going to study with Berg, aren’t I?’ the answer
was a firm ‘No dear.’ Pressed, my mother said, ‘He’s not a good in-
fluence,’ which I suspected came from Allen.31
Britten’s private studies with Frank Bridge proved far more profitable.
In the end he felt that much of his time at the college was a waste of time.
The second major composer to have difficulties on account of not fit-
ting the college formula was Elisabeth Lutyens (1906–1983), the daughter of
the distinguished architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. From 1922, she had studied
in Paris, staying with a pupil of Nadia Boulanger and attending the Ecole
Normale for harmony, counterpoint and solfège,32 at the same time taking
a great interest in the music of Debussy. In 1926, she gained a place at the
Royal College of Music to study composition. She had shown an early inter-
est in the work of Schoenberg and Webern, which did not ingratiate her to
the college authorities. As Lutyens herself admitted,
the tradition of German romanticism was still firmly entrenched
at the Royal College of Music, where […] Brahms was considered a
great modern.33
She alleged that “the shades of Stanford and Parry hung like a pall over the
College in 1926.”34 Also reported was the view that, “Excluded from the cur-
riculum were any composers before Haydn or after Sibelius, beyond the pale
lay progressives like Schoenberg.”
Because he did not believe she had the talent for serious composition,
the College’s director Hugh Allen imposed the choice of teacher on her, de-
liberately excluding Lutyens from being taught by such figures as the more
famous Vaughan Williams or John Ireland. Instead she was assigned a place
with Harold Darke, the composer of the popular Christmas carol, In the
Bleak Midwinter,35 and a conservative organist and teacher of harmony and
counterpoint. Despite his strongly conservative leanings, Darke was hugely
supportive of his new student, even with her great interest in Schoenberg’s
music, ensuring that, unlike Britten, almost all of the music she composed
31 Britten, “Early influences”. See note 29.
32 Meirion and Susie Harries, A Pilgrim Soul. The Life and Work of Elisabeth Lutyens
(London: Michael Joseph, 1989), 37–38.
33 Ibid., 54.
34 Ibid.
35 This setting of poetry by Christina Rossetti was composed in 1909 a few years after
another version of the same poem by Gustav Holst. Both are still regularly perfor-
med today.
99
