Keith Falkner

Sir Keith Falkner (March 1, 1900 - May 17, 1994) was a distinguished English bass-baritone singer especially associated with oratorio and concert recital, who later became Director of the Royal College of Music in London.

Childhood and youth

Donald Keith Falkner was born at Sawston, Cambridgeshire. [The core of this account is derived from D. Brook, "Singers of Today" (2nd Edition, Rockliff, London 1958), 75-78; supplementary sources are cited.] At the age of nine he won a place in the choir of New College, Oxford, in which there were 18 boys, two altos, four tenors and four basses, under the direction of Dr Hugh Allen. During his years as a chorister the choir sang almost all the repertoire of Bach's choral music, including particularly the Motets, and also much other Elizabethan and more modern church music, and works by Palestrina, Schütz and Handel. These were usually performed with minimal rehearsal or at sight. In this period Hugh Allen laid the foundation of Falkner's technique, his breathing, intonation and phrasing. ["Comparing Notes", BBC Interview with Richard Baker 1991.] During the early part of the Great War he was a schoolboy at the Perse School, Cambridge, but in 1917-19 he was a pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service, working in hazardous early aircraft spotting submarines in the English Channel.

Adult training

Late in 1919 he gained the recommendation of Sir Hugh Allen (by then Director of the Royal College of Music) for an ex-serviceman's grant to enable him to study singing at the College. For five years he studied there with Albert Garcia, taking organ as his second subject. In 1920 he accepted the post as an assistant vicar-choral at St Paul's Cathedral, which helped to support his continued studies and gave him a start as a professional singer until 1926. At St Paul's, the cavernous acoustic caused his voice to develop a 'lugubrious quality'. He took part in a number of public performances during the early 1920s, but did not begin to make a permanent impression until he sang in Hubert Parry's oratorio "Job", the role including the great dramatic passage of the "Lamentations", at the Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester in 1925.

The role of Job became one of the pinnacles of his art, and he attributed his success in it to the coaching he received from Harry Plunket Greene, whose pupil he became to lighten his tone after his term at St Paul's. Plunket Greene was an inspiration to him for his unique interpretative powers, and made Falkner into one of the finest English singers of his day. Falkner stated, 'Greene's recitals still remain in my mind, they were a highlight of my musical experience.' [Brook 1958, 76.] He attributed a lesser influence to lessons which he received intermittently as a very young man at Vienna and Salzburg from Theodore Lierhammer, from Ernst Grenzebach in Berlin, and from Dossert in Paris. He said that he went to Germany 'to sing himself into the German idiom.' ["Comparing Notes" 1991.]

Early professional career

It was also in 1925 that he made a debut at the Promenade Concerts at Queen's Hall, London, under Henry J. Wood, where he often sang thereafter. Falkner considered that his career 'owed much' to Henry Wood. [R. Pound, "Sir Henry Wood" (London, Cassell 1969), 149.] In 1927 he made the first of his annual appearances in the Bach "St Matthew Passion" with the Bach Choir, and thereafter was regularly engaged for most of the English festivals, including the Leeds Triennial Festival. In April 1929 he first contributed to a Royal Philharmonic Society concert, singing Bach's aria "Thou most blessed" under Henry Wood. His second was in November 1933, for Thomas Beecham, in Dvořák's "Stabat Mater" with Dora Labbette, Heddle Nash and Edith Furmedge. In December 1936 he sang with Olga Haley and Parry Jones in the RPS performance of Berlioz "Romeo and Juliet" under Albert Wolff. [Royal Philharmonic details from R. Elkin, "Royal Philharmonic" (Rider, London 1946), 159, 166, 172.]

His appearance as Hercules in Handel's music drama, opposite Isobel Baillie, at the 1936 Norwich Festival was much admired. In this period he made recordings for His Master's Voice, including the successful Bach record of "How Jovial is my Laughter" ("Secular Cantata" 5, no 3, "Wie will'ich lustig lachen") and "Twas in the cool of eventide" ("St Matthew Passion" no 74, "Am Abend, da es kühle war"). [HMV B 3581. cf. R.D. Darrell, "The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music" (New York 1936), 15, 25.] After singing Mendelssohn's "St Paul" at Ashford he made a famous recording of the aria "O God, have mercy"; he also recorded Kodaly songs, and Purcell songs (for the Purcell Society) with harpsichord and cello (Brand Richards and John Ticehurst). ["Comparing Notes", 1991.]

In America: 1930s

Keith Falkner was married in 1930 and had two daughters. Although England was proud of her singer, Falkner increasingly won success in the United States during the 1930s. In particular he triumphed at the Cincinnati May Festivals in 1935, 1937 and 1939, and throughout that decade, from 1932 to 1939, he gave annual performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitzky. Although oratorio remained his primary interest, especially Parry's "Job" and the "St Matthew Passion", his recitals also reflected his strong interests in folksong, in English Tudor music, in modern English song, and in the songs of Brahms and Schumann.

Film career

It is not widely noticed that Falkner appears to have had a brief film career in 1937 and 1938, leading the cast in three films directed by Arthur B. Woods. These were Warner Bros./First National productions using Teddington Studios facilities: the stories were scripted by James Dyrenforth and Kenneth Leslie-Smith. The first was "Mayfair Melody" (1937), in the character of Mark, with Joyce Kirby and Chili Bouhier. [See external link [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029221/] ] The second was a spy film, "The Singing Cop" (1938), playing Jack Richards, with Ivy St. Helier (in her first film since Noel Coward's "Bitter Sweet" in 1933), which included opera scenes directed by the English singer Percy Heming and under the general musical direction of Benjamin Frankel. [See external link [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030753/] ] The third was the film "Thistledown" (1938), playing "Sir Ian Glenloch" opposite Aino Bergo and Athole Stewart, in a "dramatis personae" which included the character of Rossini. [See external link [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030863/] ] Unfortunately all three of these film musicals are thought to be lost. [Denis Gifford, "Entertainers in British Films. A Century of Showbiz in the Cinema" (Greenwood Press, 1998) ISBN-13: 978-0313307201. cf also Allen Eyles and David Meeker, "Missing Believed Lost: The Great British Film Search" (BFI Publishing, 1992) ISBN-13: 978-0851703060.]

Post-War career

From 1940 to 1945 Falkner was in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. During this time his singing career continued. In 1945, finding himself the Commanding Officer of a large RAF station, he was losing interest in just giving concerts and sought a more administrative role. He therefore gladly accepted an invitation to become Music Officer for the British Council in Italy for four years, where he worked with Francis Toye. When the British Council ran out of money, Adrian Boult made contacts who arranged for him to open and develop the Voice Department at Cornell University in the United States, where he remained for ten years. ["Comparing Notes" 1991.] There he was a Visiting Professor in 1950-1951, Associate Professor in 1951-1956, and full Professor from 1956 to 1960. The Cornell University Music Library holds a small archive of his papers. While working on his "Four Last Songs", Ralph Vaughan Williams and his wife visited Falkner at Cornell, especially in connection with the songs "Menelaus" and "Hands, Eyes and Heart", and in 1956 a first performance of the latter was given. [B Adams and R. Wells (eds), "Vaughan Williams Essays" (Ashgate Publishing, 2003).] In the first years there he appeared in performances of "The Creation" (Haydn) and "Alexander's Feast" (Handel). He also made a complete recording of Schumann's "Dichterliebe" on acetate discs with the pianist John Hunt in 1952, for the University. ["Comparing Notes" 1991. A performance was given on 23 November 1952 at the Memorial Room of Willard Straight Hall, see ext. link [http://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/collect/y19523/index/assoc/D53.dir/doc16.pdf] ]

In 1960 Keith Falkner became Director of the Royal College of Music in London (the post formerly held by his first teacher, Hugh Allen), and remained there until 1974, in which year he received a knighthood. He wrote the volume on "Voice" in the Yehudi Menuhin series of Musical Studies. From 1981 to 1983 he was joint artistic director of the "Kings Lion" festival. Among other distinctions he was a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and of the Trinity College of Music in London, an Honorary Doctor of Music in Oxford University, and a Vice-President of the Royal College of Music and of the Bach Choir. In 1991 he appeared in a BBC Radio 4 interview with Roy Henderson and Richard Baker. He died at Bungay in Suffolk, England in 1994.

Sources and references

Literature

*Julia Falkner, "Keith Falkner: Ich Habe Genug" (A Biography) (Thames, 1998).