John Foulds

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A successful composer of light music and theatre scores, his principal creative energies went into more ambitious and exploratory works that were particularly influenced by Indian music. Suffering a setback after the decline in popularity of his "World Requiem" (1919–1921), he left London for Paris in 1927, and eventually travelled to India in 1935 where, among other things, he collected folk music, composed pieces for traditional Indian instrument ensembles, and worked for a radio station.

Foulds was an adventurous figure of great innate musicality and superb technical skill. Among his best works are "Three Mantras" for orchestra and wordless chorus (1919–1930), "Essays in the Modes" for piano (1920–1927), the piano concerto "Dynamic Triptych" (1927–1929), and his ninth string quartet "Quartetto Intimo" (1931–1932).

Biography

The son of a bassoonist in the Hallé Orchestra, John Foulds was born in Hulme, Manchester, England, on 2 November 1880. Largely self-taught as a composer, he was one of the most remarkable and unjustly forgotten figures of the "British Musical Renaissance". Though prolific from childhood, Foulds himself joined the Hallé as a cellist in 1900, having already served an apprenticeship in theatre and promenade orchestras in England and abroad. Hans Richter gave him conducting experience; Henry Wood took up some of his works, starting with "Epithalamium" at the 1906 Queen's Hall Proms.

In some respects ahead of his time (he started using quarter-tones as early as the 1890s, while some of his later works anticipate Messiaen and Minimalism) Foulds was in others an intensely-practical musician. He became a successful composer of light music – his "Keltic Lament" was once a popular favourite and in the 1920s the BBC scheduled his music on a daily basis. This was a source of irritation to Foulds; in 1933 he complained to Adrian Boult at the BBC that his serious music was not being performed: " [My light works] number a dozen or so, as compared with the total of 50 of my serious works. This state of affairs is rather a galling one for a serious artist."cite news|last=Wright|first=Roger|title=John Foulds' Indian summer [print version: A composer's Indian summer] |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/09/15/bmindian115.xml|publisher="The Daily Telegraph (Review)"|date=2007-09-15] Foulds also wrote many effective theatre scores, notably for his friends Lewis Casson and Sybil Thorndike. Perhaps the best known was the music for the first production of George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" (Foulds conducted a Suite from it at the Queen's Hall Proms in 1925). However his principal creative energies went into more ambitious and exploratory works, often coloured by his interest in the music of the East, especially India.

Foulds moved to London before World War I, and in 1915 during the war he met and married the violinist Maud MacCarthy, one of the leading Western authorities on Indian music. His gigantic "World Requiem" (1919–1921), in memory of the dead of all nations, was performed at the Royal Albert Hall, conducted by Foulds, under the auspices of The Royal British Legion on Armistice Night, November 11, in 1923 by up to 1,250 instrumentalists and singers; the latter were called the Cenotaph choir. Performances in 1924 and 1925 took place at the Queen's Hall. In 1926 it returned to the Albert Hall, but this was to be the last performance until 2007, again at the Albert Hall. The performances in 1923-6 constituted the first Festivals of Remembrance. While some critics were not impressed by the work, it was nonetheless popular. One newspaper wrote: "The scope of the work is beyond what anyone has dared to attempt hitherto. It is no less than to find expression for the deepest and most widespread unhappiness this generation has ever known. As such it was received by a very large number of listeners, who evidently felt that music alone could do this for them." However, the work ceased to be performed after 1926. Some commentators have suggested a conspiracy against Foulds – his biographer Malcolm MacDonald has, for instance, implied some sort of "intrigue". It appears Foulds was regarded as an inappropriate composer for the occasion because he had not fought in the war, or because of his suspected Left-wing views.

When interest in "A World Requiem" lapsed Foulds suffered a grave setback and in 1927 left for Paris, working there as an accompanist for silent films. In 1934 he published an immensely-stimulating book on contemporary musical developments, "Music To-day". In 1935 he travelled to India, where he collected folk music, became Director of European Music for All-India Radio in Delhi, created an orchestra from scratch, and began to work towards his dream of a musical synthesis of East and West, actually composing pieces for ensembles of traditional Indian instruments. He was so successful that he was asked to open a branch of the station in Calcutta. Tragically, within a week of arriving there, he died suddenly of cholera on 25 April 1939.

Foulds' most substantial compositions include string quartets, symphonic poems, concertos, piano pieces and a huge "concert opera" on Dante's "The Divine Comedy" (1905–1908), as well as a series of "Music-Pictures" exploring the affinities between music and styles of painting. [See cite news|last=Norris|first=Geoffrey|title=The Sound of Illumination (review of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 11 January 2006)|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/01/12/bmclas12.xml|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|date=2006-01-12] (Henry Wood introduced one of them at the 1913 Proms.) Few of these works were performed and fewer published in his lifetime, and several, especially from his last period in India, are lost. (The missing scores included a "Symphony of East and West" for Oriental instruments and Western symphony orchestra.) Foulds' daughter deposited some of the surviving manuscripts by her father in the British Library.cite news|last=Culshaw|first=Peter|title=Visionary Genius of the Spirit World|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/04/26/bafoulds26.xml|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|date=2006-04-26]

Revival

Foulds became a footnote to English music after his death, but from 1974 Malcolm MacDonald, editor of the music journal "Tempo" under the alias Calum MacDonald, conducted an often lonely campaign for Foulds after he came across the Foulds scores deposited in the British Library. MacDonald tracked down Foulds' daughter, who took him to a garage and showed him two coffin-sized boxes full of sketches and manuscripts she had been left by her mother. Unfortunately, many of the manuscripts were damaged: apparently, rats and ants had got at them while they were in India, where Foulds' wife stayed after his death.

An acclaimed recording of Foulds' string quartet music, including the previously-unperformed "Quartetto Intimo", by the Endellion Quartet in the early 1980s began to reawaken interest in him, and this was sustained in the early 1990s by Lyrita Recorded Edition's decision to issue some of Foulds' works including "Three Mantras" and "Dynamic Triptych" on CD. A Proms performance of "Three Mantras" in 1998 was well received, and soon after the Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo began to champion Foulds' work in concerts with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), to huge critical acclaim. [cite news|last=Fanning|first=David|title=Feast for Musical Connoisseurs|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/11/10/bmfeast10.xml|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|date=2005-11-10] cite news|last=Heffer|first=Simon|title=Composition for 1,250 Musicians|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/03/31/bmfoulds131.xml|publisher=The Daily Telegraph (Review)|date=2007-03-31] In November 2005, the CBSO, with Peter Donohoe, gave the first live performance for more than 70 years of Foulds' piano concerto, the "Dynamic Triptych" (1927–1929). The orchestra has issued two well-received CDs of Foulds' music. On Armistice Night, 11 November 2007, the Royal Albert Hall staged the first performance for 81 years of the "World Requiem" under the auspices of the BBC, with Leon Botstein as conductor. [BBC Symphony Orchestra press release dated 25 July 2007; see also cite web|title=John Foulds : A World Requiem|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/orchestras/symphonyorchestra/performances/foulds.shtml|publisher=bbc.co.uk|date=2007|accessdate=2007-09-02] The performance was recorded live and released in Super Audio CD format by Chandos Records in January 2008.

Foulds' "Keltic Lament" has once again become popular due to its regular playing on Classic FM, and BBC Radio 3 plans to revive a tradition of performing "A World Requiem" on Armistice Day.

Legacy

It is difficult to assess Foulds' achievement, or even to classify a composer who was master of a bewildering variety of styles. But he was clearly an adventurous figure of great innate musicality and superb technical skill. Such pieces as the "Three Mantras" for orchestra and wordless chorus (1919–1930), the "Essays in the Modes" for piano (1920–1927), the piano concerto "Dynamic Triptych" (1927–1929), and his ninth string quartet "Quartetto Intimo" (1931–1932) represent a powerful and individual contribution to the music of their time.

Personal life

Before marrying Maud MacCarthy in 1915, Foulds was previously married in 1909 to Maud Woodcock. They had a son, Raymond, in 1911. Foulds later had a son, Patrick, and a daughter, Marybride, with Maud MacCarthy, who had a daughter, Joan, by her previous marriage.

elected works

Music for soloists, chorus and orchestra

* "The Vision of Dante", a "concert opera" on Dante's "Divina Commedia" ("The Divine Comedy") in the translation by Longfellow, op.7
* "A World Requiem", based on texts from the Bible, John Bunyan, Kabir and other sources, op.60

Music for voice and orchestra

* "Lyra Celtica", concerto for wordless mezzo-soprano voice and orchestra, op.50 (unfinished; the two completed movements have been recorded)

Music for solo instrument and orchestra

* "Lento e Scherzetto" for cello and orchestra, op.12
* "Cello Concerto in G major", op.17
* "Apotheosis" for violin and orchestra, op.18 (in memory of Joseph Joachim)
* "Dynamic Triptych" for piano and orchestra, op.88

Orchestral music

* "Epithalamium", op.10
* "Mirage", op.20
* "Music-Pictures Group III", op.33
* "Miniature Suite", op.38 (arr. from theatre music for "Wonderful Grandmama")
* "Hellas: A Suite of Ancient Greece" for double string orchestra, harp and percussion, op.45
* "April – England", op.48 no.1
* "Isles of Greece", op.48 no.2
* "Three Mantras", op.61B
* "Sain Joan Suite", op.82A
* "Suite in the Olden Style from 'Henry VIII"', op.87
* "A Puppet Ballet Suite" (1934)
* "Deva-Music", op.94 (fragments only)
* "Chinese Suite", op.95
* "Indian Suite" (without opus number)
* "Pasquinades Symphoniques", op. 98 (unfinished; the two completed movements have been recorded)
* "Kashmiri Boat Song"
* "Kashmiri Wedding Procession"
* "The Song of Ram Dass"
* "Grand Durbar March" (1937–1938)
* "Symphony of East and West", op.100 (lost)
* "Symphonic Studies" for string orchestra, op.101 (lost)

Light orchestral music

* "Holiday Sketches", op.16
* "Suite Française", op.22
* "Keltic Overture", op.28
* "Keltic Melodies" for strings and harp (1911)
* "Keltic Suite", op.29 (partly derived from "Keltic Melodies" – includes the "Keltic Lament")
* "Music Pictures Group IV" for string orchestra, op.55
* "A Gaelic Dream Song", op.68
* "Le Cabaret" Overture, op.72A (arr. from theatre music to "Deburau")
* "Suite Fantastique", op.72B (arr. from theatre music to "Deburau")
* "Gaelic Melodies (Music Pictures Group VI)", op.81 (one movement derived from "Keltic Melodies")
* "Sicilian Aubade"
* "Hebrew Rhapsody"

Chamber music

* "String Quartet [No.4] in F Minor" (1899) (According to Malcolm MacDonald, Foulds wrote ten quartets, five of them before 1900, but did not give any of them numbers. The numbering used here is MacDonald's. Apparently only Nos. 4, 6, 8 and 9 survive complete.)
* "String Quartet [No.6] ", "Quartetto Romantico" (1903) (originally designated op.5)
* "Sonata for Cello and Piano", op.6
* "String Quartet [No.8] in D Minor", op.23
* "String Trio", op.24 (only the second movement, "Ritornello con Variazioni", survives complete)
* "Two Concert Pieces for Cello and Piano", op.25
* "Aquarelles" ("Music-Pictures Group II") for string quartet, op.32
* "Ballade and Refrain Rococco" for violin and piano, op.40 no.1
* "Caprice Pompadour" for violin and piano, op.42 no.2
* "Greek Processional" for string quintet
* "String Quartet [No.9] ", "Quartetto Intimo", op.89
* "Lento Quieto" (only completely-surviving movement of "String Quartet [No.10] ", "Quartetto Geniale")
* About a dozen short pieces for an "Indo-European Ensemble" of traditional instruments (mostly fragmentary)

Piano music

* "Dichterliebe" Suite (1897–1898, unfinished)
* "Variazioni ed Improvvisati su una Thema Originale", op.4
* Five "Recollections of Ancient Greek Music" (original version of "Hellas")
* "Ghandarva-Music", op.49
* "Persian Love Song" (1935)
* "Essays in the Modes, Op. 78: I. Exotic (Mode II A) II. Ingenuous (Mode V K) III. Introversive (Mode II C) IV. Military (Mode V E) V. Strophic (Mode V L) VI. Prismic (Mode II P)
* Music-Pictures Group VI (Gaelic Melodies), Op. 81: I. The Dream of Morven II. Deirdre Crooning III. Merry Macdoon
* Variazioni ed Improvvisati su un Tema Originale, Op. 4 (Music-Pictures Group VII (Landscapes), Op. 13)) I. Moonrise: Sorrento (after Morelli) II. Nightfall: Luxor (after Cameron)
* English Tune with Burden, Op. 89
* Egoistic (Mode V L)
* April - England, Op. 48, No. 1

ongs

* Three "Songs of Beauty" for tenor and piano, op.11 (texts by Byron and Edgar Allan Poe)
* Five "Mood Pictures" for voice and piano, op.51 (texts by "Fiona MacLeod")
* Two "Songs in "Sacrifice" for voice and string quintet, op.66 (texts by Rabindranath Tagore; also performable with violins and tambura)
* Three "Songs for Voice and Piano", op.69 (texts by Longfellow and Griffin)
* "Garland of Youth", song-cycle op.86 (various texts)
* "The Seven Ages", monologue with text by Shakespeare, for baritone and piano

Choral works without orchestra

* Five "Scottish-Keltic Songs" for mixed chorus, op.70 (various texts)
* "Three Choruses in the Hippolytus of Euripides" for women's chorus with mezzo-soprano solo and piano, op.84B
* "English Madrigals" for unaccompanied voices ("c."1933)

Theatre scores

* "Wonderful Grandmama" (Harold Chapin), op.34
* "The Whispering Well" (Rose), op.35
* "Julius Caesar" (Shakespeare), op.39
* "Sakuntala" (Kālidāsa), op.64
* "The Trojan Women" (Euripides), op.65
* "Veils" (Maud MacCarthy), op.70
* "Deburau" (Sacha Guitry), op.72
* "The Goddess" (Nirjan Pal), op.75
* "The Fires Divine" (Rosaleen Valmer), op.76
* "The Cenci" (Shelley), op.77
* "Cymbeline" (Shakespeare), op.80
* "Saint Joan" (George Bernard Shaw), op.82
* "Masses and Man" (Ernst Toller), op.83
* "Hippolytus" (Euripides), op.84
* "The Dance of Life" (Hermon Ould), op.85
* "Henry VIII" (Shakespeare), op.88
* "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (Shakespeare) (1932)
* "Dear Brutus" (J. M. Barrie) (1934)

Arrangements

* Borodin, "Serenade", op.5 no.5 arranged for small orchestra
* Glazunov, "Meditation", op.32, arranged for small orchestra
* Glazunov, " Serenade Espagnole", op.20 arranged for small orchestra
* Schubert, "String Quartet in D minor, D 810 (Death and the Maiden)" transcribed as a symphony for full orchestra (1930)

Discography

* John Foulds: Dynamic Triptych; Music-Pictures III; April-England; The Song of Ram Dass; Keltic Lament, CBSO, Oramo, Donohoe, Warner Classics 2564 62999-2
*John Foulds - Dynamic Triptych for Piano and Orchestra, Howard Shelley (piano), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,Vernon Handley, Lyrita SRCD 211
* John Foulds: Le Cabaret; April-England; Pasquinade; Three Mantras; Hellas, Barry Wordsworth, LPO, Lyrita SRCD 212
* John Foulds: Three Mantras; Lyra Celtica; Apotheosis; Mirage, CBSO, Oramo, Susan Bickley (mezzo), Daniel Hope (violin), Warner Classics 2564 61525-2
* John Foulds: April-England, Sir Neville Marriner, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Philips 454 444-2
* John Foulds: Keltic Lament, Ronald Corp, New London Orchestra, Hyperion CDA 67400
* John Foulds: String Quartets: (Quartetto Intimo, Op.89, Quartetto Geniale, Op.97: Aquarelles), Endellion String Quartet, Pearl SHE CD 9564
* John Foulds: Piano Music including Essays in the Modes, Kathryn Stott, BIS-CD-933
* John Foulds: April-England (piano version); Gandharva-Music, Juan José Chuquisengo (piano), Sony SK93829

Notes

References

*cite news|last=Fanning|first=David|title=Feast for Musical Connoisseurs|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/11/10/bmfeast10.xml|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|date=2005-11-10
*cite news|last=Norris|first=Geoffrey|title=The Sound of Illumination (review of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 11 January 2006)|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/01/12/bmclas12.xml|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|date=2006-01-12
*cite news|last=Culshaw|first=Peter|title=Visionary Genius of the Spirit World|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/04/26/bafoulds26.xml|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|date=2006-04-26
*cite news|last=Heffer|first=Simon|title=Composition for 1,250 Musicians|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/03/31/bmfoulds131.xml|publisher=The Daily Telegraph (Review)|date=2007-03-31

Further reading

Articles

*cite news|last=Oramo|first=Sakari|authorlink=Sakari Oramo|title=The forgotten man|url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1762823,00.html|publisher="The Guardian"|date=2006-04-28
*cite news|last=Ward|first=David|title=The spine-tingler : Audiences loved John Foulds' 1921 requiem for the first world war, but the piece fell out of favour|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2202701,00.html|publisher="The Guardian"|date=2007-11-01
*cite news|last=Duchen|first=Jessica|title=Composer John Foulds : The lost requiem : Branded a coward, labelled a communist, dismissed by his peers, forgotten by the critics. Now, finally rediscovered, the genius of John Foulds|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article3136021.ece|publisher="The Independent"|date=2007-11-07
*cite news|last=Hewett|first=Ivan|title=John Foulds : The forgotten man of music : As John Foulds's 'World Requiem' is performed for the first time in 82 years, the composer's son talks to Ivan Hewett|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/11/08/bmfoulds108.xml|publisher="The Daily Telegraph"|date=2007-11-08
*cite news|last=Brown|first=Geoff|title=Requiem for a lost composer : John Foulds's great lament for the First World War dead is back after 70 years|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article2832703.ece|publisher="The Times"|date=2007-11-09
*cite news|last=Hewett|first=Ivan|title=World Requiem comes alive after 81-year wait|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/12/ndead412.xml|publisher="The Daily Telegraph"|date=2007-11-12

Books

*cite book|last=Foulds|first=John|title="Music To-day : Its Heritage from the Past, and Legacy to the Future" (Opus 92)|location=London|publisher=Nicholson & Watson|year=1934
*cite book|last=MacDonald|first=Malcolm|authorlink=Malcolm MacDonald (writer on music)|title=John Foulds : His Life in Music : with a Detailed Catalogue of His Works, a Discography, a Bibliographical Note, and with Music Examples and Illustrations|location=Rickmansworth, Herts.|publisher=Triad Press|year=1975|isbn=0902070150
*cite book|last=MacDonald|first=Malcolm|title=John Foulds and His Music: An Introduction|location=White Plains, N.Y.; London|publisher=Pro/Am Music Resources|year=1989|isbn=0912483024 Includes a short anthology of Foulds' writings.

Persondata
NAME = Foulds, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Foulds, John Herbert
SHORT DESCRIPTION = British composer
DATE OF BIRTH = 2 November 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH = Hulme, Manchester, England, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH = 25 April 1939
PLACE OF DEATH = Calcutta, India