Page 98 - 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. 98
konservator iji: profesionalizacija in specializacija glasbenega dela
in the number of acknowledged composers emerging from the Academy in
the years after World War II.
A number of successful composers chose the University route. One
important example was William Walton (1902–1983) who became a boy
chorister at Christ Church, Oxford in 1912 at the age of ten and an un-
dergraduate four years later. Although his musical studies were success-
ful, he failed the examinations in his other studies and left University. He
was almost immediately taken under the wing of the literary Sitwell family,
gaining immediate popularity with his music to accompany musical reci-
tations with a small ensemble of the poet Edith Sitwell in Façade, a provoc-
ative setting of 21 poems, possibly mocking Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire.
The enormous success of his choral and orchestral setting of Belshazzar’s
Feast in 1931 ensured his continued popularity both in performance and
publication. Other important composers like Edward Elgar were virtual-
ly self-taught.
Returning to the Royal College of Music, after the death of Stanford
in 1924, the teaching of musical composition was now in the hands of his
pupils, in general also ones who held the same views as Stanford himself.
One composer at the College who is barely known today was R. O. Mor-
ris [Reginald Owen Morris] (1886–1948), the author of a number of stand-
ard textbooks, principally on harmony, figured harmony at the keyboard,
counterpoint and contrapuntal technique in the sixteenth century,22 very
much the hallmarks of Stanford’s methods. At the College his students in-
cluded the master song composer Gerald Finzi and the traditionalist An-
thony Milner (1925–2002). Another composition tutor at the College was
C. H. Kitson (1874–1944)23, described by David Matthews as “an impeccably
respectable composer who cast a cautious eye on [Michael] Tippett’s some-
what undisciplined attempts at academic exercises.”24 Later Morris contrib-
uted substantially as a private teacher to Michael Tippett’s musical devel-
opment with a strict attention to the basic techniques. In the years before
World War II, Peter Racine Fricker (1920–1988) studied at the College with
22 Reginald Owen Morris, The Oxford Harmony, vol. 1 (London: Oxford University
Press, 1946); Introduction to Counterpoint (Oxford and London: Oxford University
Press, 1944); Figured Harmony at the Keyboard, parts 1 and 2 (London: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1933); Contrapuntal Technique in the Sixteenth Century (Oxford: Clar-
endon Press, 1922).
23 C. H. Kitson [Charles Herbert Kitson] was the author of numerous practical textbo-
oks and a wide range of short vocal pieces, some instrumental music and three
settings of the Mass for SATB and organ.
24 David Matthews, Michael Tippett (London: Faber, 1980), 20.
96
in the number of acknowledged composers emerging from the Academy in
the years after World War II.
A number of successful composers chose the University route. One
important example was William Walton (1902–1983) who became a boy
chorister at Christ Church, Oxford in 1912 at the age of ten and an un-
dergraduate four years later. Although his musical studies were success-
ful, he failed the examinations in his other studies and left University. He
was almost immediately taken under the wing of the literary Sitwell family,
gaining immediate popularity with his music to accompany musical reci-
tations with a small ensemble of the poet Edith Sitwell in Façade, a provoc-
ative setting of 21 poems, possibly mocking Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire.
The enormous success of his choral and orchestral setting of Belshazzar’s
Feast in 1931 ensured his continued popularity both in performance and
publication. Other important composers like Edward Elgar were virtual-
ly self-taught.
Returning to the Royal College of Music, after the death of Stanford
in 1924, the teaching of musical composition was now in the hands of his
pupils, in general also ones who held the same views as Stanford himself.
One composer at the College who is barely known today was R. O. Mor-
ris [Reginald Owen Morris] (1886–1948), the author of a number of stand-
ard textbooks, principally on harmony, figured harmony at the keyboard,
counterpoint and contrapuntal technique in the sixteenth century,22 very
much the hallmarks of Stanford’s methods. At the College his students in-
cluded the master song composer Gerald Finzi and the traditionalist An-
thony Milner (1925–2002). Another composition tutor at the College was
C. H. Kitson (1874–1944)23, described by David Matthews as “an impeccably
respectable composer who cast a cautious eye on [Michael] Tippett’s some-
what undisciplined attempts at academic exercises.”24 Later Morris contrib-
uted substantially as a private teacher to Michael Tippett’s musical devel-
opment with a strict attention to the basic techniques. In the years before
World War II, Peter Racine Fricker (1920–1988) studied at the College with
22 Reginald Owen Morris, The Oxford Harmony, vol. 1 (London: Oxford University
Press, 1946); Introduction to Counterpoint (Oxford and London: Oxford University
Press, 1944); Figured Harmony at the Keyboard, parts 1 and 2 (London: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1933); Contrapuntal Technique in the Sixteenth Century (Oxford: Clar-
endon Press, 1922).
23 C. H. Kitson [Charles Herbert Kitson] was the author of numerous practical textbo-
oks and a wide range of short vocal pieces, some instrumental music and three
settings of the Mass for SATB and organ.
24 David Matthews, Michael Tippett (London: Faber, 1980), 20.
96
