Arthur Bliss

Arthur Bliss ca.1922 (photography by Herbert Lambert)

Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss CH , KCVO (born August 2, 1891 in London , † March 27, 1975 ibid) was an English composer .

Life

Bliss studied at Cambridge with Cyril Rootham and Charles Wood and at the Royal College of Music with Charles Villiers Stanford and Gustav Holst . From 1921 to 1923 he taught at the Royal College of Music, then he lived in Santa Barbara until 1925 . He then lived as a composer in London.

After graduating, Arthur Bliss served on the French front in World War I ; He was in the Battle of the Somme wounded and suffered later in Cambrai a mustard gas poisoning . These experiences, like the death of his beloved brother Kennard, left a lasting impact on Bliss' life and work, culminating in the large-scale choral symphony Morning Heroes for baritone, choir and orchestra from 1930.

After his return to London, however, Bliss first made a name for himself with experimental works such as Madam Noy (1918), Conversations (1920) and Rout (1920), all of which were shorter pieces for small ensembles in which Bliss picked up on the latest compositional trends from the continent. He (as well as other British composers of the day, e.g. Percy Grainger and Constant Lambert ) was particularly influenced by the model of Igor Stravinsky's epoch-making ballet Petrushka , which was presented for the first time in 1913 by the Ballets Russes in London. This influence can be heard particularly clearly in the orchestral work Mêlée fantasque from 1921. Bliss was also very interested in the work of the French group Les Six around Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud . A short time later, however, he turned away from the avant-garde and a more nationally influenced late Romantic style, which took up elements of the music of Edward Elgar .

Bliss' best-known work is the half-hour A Color Symphony (1922), in which, inspired by a work on heraldry , he describes the four colors of a coat of arms: in the first sentence “purple, the color of amethyst, pomp, royalty and death ”, in the second sentence“ red, the color of rubies, wine, festivity, blast furnaces, courage and magic ”, in the third sentence“ blue, the color of sapphires, deep water, the sky, the Honesty and melancholy ”and in the fourth sentence“ green, the color of emeralds, hope, youth, joy, spring and victory ”. The Color Symphony is a work of transition and mixes elements of Elgar's music with Stravinsky's music in an interesting way.

Important concert works are the 1939 Piano Concerto (premiered by the famous virtuoso Solomon on the occasion of the New York World's Fair ), the Violin Concerto (1955, for Alfredo Campoli ) and finally the Cello Concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich (1970, premiered under the direction of Benjamin Britten ). In addition, Bliss composed several full-length ballets such as Checkmate (1937, with chess pieces as characters), Miracle in the Gorbals (1944, whose subject was certainly influenced by Béla Bartók's The Wonderful Mandarin ) and Adam Zero (1946), which depicts the cycle of a human life from the theme of the cradle to the grave.

In 1936, Bliss was commissioned to compose the background music for William Cameron Menzie's lavish HG Wells film What will come ( Things to Come ). Up until then, film music in Great Britain consisted mostly of classic compilations or unassuming scores composed by pieces of art, written by moderately talented arrangers (e.g. the music for Alfred Hitchcock's classic The 39 Levels ). Bliss, on the other hand, devoted himself to the music of Things to Come with all his might , whereby he was privileged insofar as he was allowed to write the score before the film was finished. Things to Come was recorded for record before the film premiered; his enormous success with critics and listeners lastingly enhanced the image of film music in England and internationally, and so colleagues such as Ralph Vaughan Williams , John Ireland , Arnold Bax and William Alwyn followed in composing sophisticated film scores.

In the following years Bliss wrote a number of other film scores, but could not build on the success of Things to Come with either Conquest of the Air (1940), Men of Two Worlds (1946) or Seven Waves Away (1957) . His already finished score for Gabriel Pascal's lavish George Bernard Shaw film Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) was even rejected by the director, whereupon Bliss resigned from the commission and was replaced by Georges Auric , a former member of Les Six . Bliss's lost score was set up and recorded a few years ago.

In 1941, Bliss became musical director of the British Broadcasting Corporation's classical division , where he launched the popular Composer of the Week program, which continues to be broadcast in a similar form to this day. Raised to the nobility in 1950, Bliss was appointed Master of the Queen's Music in 1953 (after the death of his predecessor Bax) , in which function he was responsible for all courtly music matters and had to contribute marches, fanfares, etc. to public events (e.g. the fanfare for the inauguration of Prince of Wales Charles in 1969).

Alienated from the avant-garde after the Second World War and preoccupied with official duties, Bliss composed less and less in the last decade and a half of his life. The last work, Spirit of the Age , dates from 1975, the year he died. By the time of his death, Bliss' previous fame had faded, his works were barely performed. This only changed in the course of - z. T. multiple - recording of all important works for record and compact disc . The Color Symphony in particular has occasionally been heard again in normal concert operations since then. His manuscripts and private archive are stored in the Cambridge University Library .

Works (selection)

• Symphonies
  • A Color Symphony (1922)
  • Morning Heroes - A Choral Symphony (1930)

• Concert works
  • Concerto for piano and orchestra (1939)
  • Concerto for violin and orchestra (1955)
  • Concerto for cello and orchestra (1970)

• various orchestral works
  • Hymn to Apollo (1926)
  • Introduction and Allegro (1926)
  • Music for strings (1935)
  • Checkmate (1937) (ballet)
  • Miracle in the Gorbals (1944) (ballet)
  • Adam Zero (1946) (ballet)
  • Meditations on a Theme by John Blow (Premiere 1955)
  • Metamorphic Variations (1970)
  • Spirit of the Age (1975)

• Choir / vocal works
  • Pastorale, "Lie Strewn the White Flocks" (1928) - choir and orchestra
  • The Enchantress - Scena for contralto and orchestra (1951)
  • The Beatitudes (1961) - choir and orchestra

• Chamber music
  • String quartet in A major (1914) - withdrawn
  • Piano quartet (1915)
  • Madame Noy (1918) - for voice and ensemble
  • Conversations (1920) - Suite for chamber ensemble
  • Rout (1920) - for voice (nonsense text) and ensemble (later also with orchestra)
  • Quintet for oboe and strings (1927)
  • Quintet for clarinet and strings (1932)
  • Sonata for viola and piano (1933)
  • String Quartet (No. 1) (1941)
  • String Quartet No. 2 (1950)

Film music

• 1936: What will come (Things to Come)
• 1937: I, Claudius
• 1940: Conquest of the Air
• 1945: Caesar and Cleopatra - withdrawn
• 1946: Men of Two Worlds
• 1949: Christoph Columbus (Christopher Columbus)
• 1952: The Beggar's Opera (The Beggar's Opera)
• 1957: Fear Has a Thousand Names (Seven Waves Away)

Discographic notes

• A Color Symphony, Checkmate (Suite): Ulster Orchestra, Vernon Handley, Chandos CHAN 8503
• A Color Symphony, Adam Zero (complete): English Northern Philharmonia, David Lloyd-Jones, NAXOS 8.553460
• Piano Concerto, March of Homage: Philip Fowke, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, David Atherton, Unicorn-Kanchana UKCD2029
• Cello Concerto, Meditations on a Theme of John Blow, Introduction and Allegro: Robert Cohen, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Barry Wordsworth, Argo 443-170-2
• Mêlée Fantasque, Rout, Adam Zero - Suite, Hymn to Apollo, Serenade for Orchestra and Baritone, The world is charged with the grandeur of God: London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Sir Arthur Bliss, Lyrita SRCD225
• Rout, Madam Noy, Rhapsody, Conversations, The Women of Yueh, Oboe Quintet: The Nash Ensemble, Hyperion CDA66137
• Oboe Quinet, Piano Quartet, Sonata for Viola and Piano: Nicholas Daniel, Peter Donohoe, Julian Rolton, Laurence Jackson, Maggini Quartet, NAXOS 8.555931
• String Quartet No. 1 (1941), String Quartet No. 2 (1950), Fanny Mendelssohn Quartet: Renate Eggebrecht, Mario Korunic, Stefan Berg, Friedemann Kupsa. TROUBADISC TRO-CD 01412
• String Quartet No. 1 in B Flat Major, Conversations, String Quartet in A Major: Nicholas Daniel, Michael Cox, Maggini Quartet, NAXOS 8.557108
• The Film Music of Arthur Bliss - Things to Come (Suite), Caesar and Cleopatra (Suite), The Royal Palaces (Suite), March from "War in the Air": BBC Philharmonic , Rumon Gamba , Chandos CHAN 9896

Web links

• Works by and about Arthur Bliss in the catalog of the German National Library
• The Bliss Trust
• The Arthur Bliss Society
• MusicWeb via Sir Arthur Bliss

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.