Damian Rees
I thought I would provide some background on why and how I came to
hear of HB and a little about my own compositional development,
though I hope I haven’t dwelt too much on the latter as this should
be about HB. I have also provided a few words on what I feel are
the challenges
ahead for the HBS in promoting the music, what I feel are the
attitudes towards HB and British music of the mid twentieth century
and some of the limitations and options that orchestral music has
of being performed regularly in Britain today.
I first became interested in HB when I was about 10 years old and
read about the Gothic in one of the Guinness Books of music
records. Who this composer was and what the piece would sound like,
and if indeed it had ever been performed, fascinated me. I had only
recently discovered classical music. My parents were more into
blues, folk and 60s pop than classical music though my father had
several records of famous classical pieces and loved many of the
romantic overtures. My parents neither encouraged nor discouraged
my interests in music so I joined the local record library in my
native city of Swansea. I searched the library for HB CDs but
didn’t find any (though the Marco Polo recording had been released
around this time). Instead I worked my way through the entire
catalogue of classical music that they had to offer (about 1000 CDs
or so over the following couple of years). I mentioned the name
Havergal Brian to my family and friends and nobody had heard of him
until my grandmother
one-day, going through her Radio Times, noticed a TV programme that
featured him. This was the Grateful Dead programme and I remember
sitting at my grandparents home on a Friday night (I use to spend
every Friday night from a young age with both of my paternal
grandparents). This programme was my first encounter with the music
and at the age of 13 as I think I was at the time completely blew
my mind. I think boys like grand loud music that seems to bring
with it images of fantasy and the incredible. I knew then that I
wanted to get as much of his music as I could
though the only issue was I had no income (other than a weekly
allowance) and no idea where I would be able to get hold of any of
the music.
By the time I was 13 I had started to write music. I cannot play a
musical instrument and have never had any great desire to learn.
For me I wanted to hear orchestras and the sounds of more than what
man (or boy) could possibly encompass. I was never a fan of the
piano, the organ for me was something related to the Church and my
mother’s continued hatred of the instrument stuck with me as a
child. I would like to say that now I have put both of these errors
in my judgement behind me and love much piano and organ music. My
first experiments with composition came after my father showed me
the basics of how to read music. When I was listening to all these
recordings I wanted to know what it looked like on paper, much as I
do when I hear a play. I want to be able to read through the script
before and after in case I missed anything or to see how things
come ‘alive’ when performed. I then got some books from the library
and one of my father’s musician friends gave me a book on harmony
so I took it upon myself to learn the rudiments of music. At school
I hated music; the teachers I thought were terrible and all we were
ever taught was how to sing Puff the Magic Dragon or a song from a
show. The first subject I gave up when I could was music. None of
my friends at school or on the council estate I grew up on had any
interest in any of the music I was listening to. So I had nobody
other than myself to share my discoveries with or to play the
music I was writing with. I had been given a very basic music
program, which I could manually input the notes into and which
played them back to me—in a very metallic and expressionless way.
Well, HB was one of the first composers to really grab me and when
I read in the newly published BBC Music magazine that Marco Polo
had released the Gothic and two other disks I knew that I had to
save some money and find a classical record shop. Swansea at the
time was barren of anything creative; I think since the death of
Dan Jones in 1993 (and in fact well before this) classical music
had all but died there. I am glad to say that now things have
progressed and concerts are being promoted all over South Wales
especially by such people as John Metcalf and Peter Reynolds.
Indeed John is a huge advocate for new music in Wales and himself
an underrated composer of some lovely works. At this time my mother
worked in one of the big department stores in Cardiff and one day
my father and I went up to meet her and, while walking through one
of the local arcades, we came across a little shop called City
Radio (since closed, much to my great sadness). This little shop
was a wonderful classical music retailer, they had many wondrous
and unusual finds for a curious teenager like myself including all
the HB CDs that were out at that time. I still
remember the day I bought my first HB disk. It was February 1993—I
remember as it was exactly 12 months after the CD had been
recorded. I remember being really disappointed at the time that I
had not saved enough of my lunch money (I use to get 50p a day and
had been starving myself as soon as I knew we were going to
Cardiff) to buy the Gothic symphony. So I bought myself the other
choral symphony (at the time I had no idea it was the only other
choral symphony), number 4. I still remember the drive home and the
anticipation of putting the music on and when I did the piece just
astounded me. I was no music critic, wasn’t interested in the
recording quality, the balance issues or anything else all I cared
about was how breathtaking it sounded. I listened to the work
everyday for about 3 months. Both of my parents found the music
strange, loud, annoying and didn’t understand what I saw in it. So
perhaps as a way to rebel against my parents I would play HB almost
everyday.
The path for my HB passion was set, three months later it was my
birthday and I took all the money I had back to Cardiff and bought
the Gothic. I found out that the score was published so talked my
parents into getting it for me that Christmas and went to my local
bookshop and ordered
any book on him I could find. HB was a huge influence on my
creative developments and gave me confidence that to be a composer
you didn’t need to come from a wealthy middle class background
(though of course that would always be an advantage). I am not sure
if his musical language was a huge influence or if it was his
passion, creativity and sheer determination that has had a more
lasting impact on me. When I was 18, I entered the Royal Academy of
Music (how I got there is a tale that doesn’t need to fill the HBS
Newsletter) to study composition and I took it as my
mission to get people (musicians of my age) to hear and know about
this composer. It was here that I realised that most musicians know
little of any music outside their own instrument and show little
interest in finding out, or at least broadening their musical
knowledge. However I didn’t let that put me off. In my first term I
had to give a lecture on a work that meant something to me, so I
picked the Gothic. There I was in front of a room of peers who at
least liked classical music (until this point I had only met a few
teenagers who enjoyed or knew anything about classical music) but
who knew nothing about HB or for that matter almost anything post
1950 by any composer.
The rite of spring and Debussy I remember were seen as “modern” and
new, though one had been dead for almost 100 years and the Rite was
approaching its centenary. At the lecture I talked about HB this
eccentric (as he was billed by the professor at the time) English
composer. The class
loved the piece, the bits I played and wanted hear more but were
saddened that there was very little chamber music or piano music
that they could put on.
The RAM I found a very conservative place but gave me a chance to meet some great musicians and to study with and learn from some of the greatest names in modern music. I think other composers thought I was odd for liking HB and didn’t understand what I got out of the music. Most thought him conservative and quirky. Interests were more caught up with Jazz and the “very” new. I continued to be interested in HB (of course there are many other composers too) and thought that I would like to take a more active part in the HBS. I believed and still do that the HB scores need to be typeset and properly produced; hand written scores are looked down on by most orchestral managers and conductors these days.
HB, I feel, is a composer of worth and a missing link in late
Romantic British music, he is often misunderstood and the myths
have stuck. Yet people often leave aside the very Englishness of
his music, the love of Music Hall and War especially. In this
latter regard the obsessive use of march rhythms and the possible
meaning they have in his work has often intrigued me. There is
something to me very British about the image of battles and the
mark they have left on our history and mythology which seem to be
deeply rooted in HB. These dark and often craggy pieces with
swirling harmonies and explosive eruptions taking place with little
build up sound at times to me like being on a battlefield. The
confusion, the power and violence is often present. Sometimes HB
for me doesn’t sustain his ideas and some of the latter works (and
very early works) lack a sense of
direction but at its best to me it has always been a very special
music.
As for myself, since I graduated from the RAM my music has been played all over the world and I have started to get commissions from performers and festivals. In fact next year there are plans for my Symphony No2 to be played in Wales as well as a commercial release of my Guitar Concerto. HB gave me the conviction as a teenager that anyone with the desire and inspiration to write can and should. I have found the lack of HB in the musical world unsettling in as much as I have the general lack of appreciation of much English music from the early to mid twentieth century. It seems that Britain runs on an ‘in crowd’ basis with a small selected few being part of the establishment while everything else is left out. There is, and continues to be, a personal bias in programming and performing that underlines the complete autonomy of the musical establishment with very few people in the position of making the big decisions.
On a practical note, HB’s music possesses many problems for
performance, mainly the cost of orchestras, especially when they
need so many extra players. Most amateur orchestras in the UK would
struggle to find half of the woodwind section let alone the 7 or 8
percussionists needed. The options for performances are limited,
especially as most conductors don’t have free rein of what to
programme, as they are not associated with one orchestra but a
guest. With a serious lack of money from the government or
charities into art, Britain continues its tradition of seeing the
arts as a
luxury in society. With smaller orchestras not having the funds to
perform HB or for that matter much “unusual” music they have to
stick to favourites to fill their halls and pay for their upkeep.
Currently there is a trend for what I call the Classic FM audience
in music. There are stereotypes that go with this image but one
thing is clear. It is mainly middle class people who have
conservative tastes, but who have some disposable income but only
listen to what is being promoted by the marketing machine or the
old classics. This is not supposed to be a bitter statement or to
make things seem
hopeless, it is just a limitation that the HBS needs to be aware of
when pushing the music and crying out for live performances here in
Britain. There are other practical problems with orchestras too.
However I feel the right promotion, the best possible performing
material and the continued enthusiasm should in the future lead to
continued appreciation and performances of HB.
At 28, I plan on being around for a long time and to continue to do all that I can to promote HB. Most of my initial performances were the result of me emailing and sending CDs and scores of my works to performers asking them if they would like to play my works. If this approach worked for me and has worked for other friends of mine, then I am sure it will work in the long run for HB though we have a long way to go before the myths and misunderstandings are successfully challenged.
© Damian Rees 2006
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