Ernest Walker 1870-1949

[Simon]

Pianoforte Quartets in D Major (1899) and and in C minor (1910) received mixed reviews over the years.

Pianoforte Quartet in D major (1899):

The Musical Times and Singing
Class Circular - Vol. 41, No. 683 (Jan. 1, 1900) - Page 42

Miss CECILIA GATES gave her last chamber concert at the Crystal Palace, on the 11th ult. It was distinguished by the first performance of a Pianoforte Quartet in D, by Dr. Ernest Walker. This consists of the customary four movements, which are laid out on classic lines. The work is very unequal in merit and suffers from diffuseness, but several of the themes are suggestive, and the writing is always musicianly. It was fairly well interpreted by the composer, Miss Gates, Mr. H. Krame, and M. Jacques Renard.

The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular - Vol. 42, No. 695 (Jan. 1, 1901) - Page 31

A pianoforte quartet by Mr. Ernest Walker is also full of ability, but in it there is a trace of the desire to display learning for its own sake, a thing not uncommon in modern English chamber music. It may be a fault on the right side, but it is a fault.


Pianoforte Quartet in C minor (1910):

The Strad - 1911, Volume 21 - Page 421

While on the subject of chamber music I must dwell for a moment on Mr. Dunhill's interesting series of concerts promoted with the chief object of re-introducing works by native composers which were favourably received on the occasion of their first performance. [...] A pianoforte quartet [in C minor, see The Musical Times - Vol. 52, No. 818 (Apr. 1, 1911) - Page 256] of Dr. Ernest Walker was also revived ; scarcely so interesting this, but not without grace and elegance of workmanship.

Cobbett Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music - 1963, Volume 2 - Page 565

A piano quartet in C minor received a supplementary Carnegie award, MS. copies being provided in order to facilitate performance.

The Oxford Magazine: A Weekly Newspaper and Review - 1957, Volume 76 - Page 140

Compositions written in the Brahmsian tradition, such as those of Dohnanyi and Ernest Walker, are not so popular now, but Ernest Walker's Pianoforte Quartet in C minor is well worth performance : beautifully written for the instruments, full of a remarkably fresh inspiration that seems only to fail a little in the slow movement, and written with real intensity and passion.


Finally, just a word to let you know that my post about the Horn Quintet has been expanded (if you haven't noticed yet!).

[Simon]

According to Ivor Keys' analysis (to be found in Margaret Deneke's book), the Fantasia Op. 32 (composed in 1905, but published almost two decades later), unlike much earlier chamber music by Walker, moves away from Brahms mold. A more detailed analysis is to be found in The Strad, the very same year it was first published.

The Strad - 1923, Volume 34 - Pages 213-214

Brief causeries
By Sydney Grew.

I have recently given myself the pleasure of reading Ernest Walker's fantasia in D major, for string quartet (Op. 32), and am dawn to attempt the impossible task of conveying some of my impressions to words. I was already aware that this piece had been played many times by the Catterall Quartet, also by a famous quartet in Vienna, of which the name has escaped me ; but I had not heard the music, nor did I suspect it was so lovely.

Hitherto my acquaintance with Dr. Walker's music has been confined to a reading of his setting of Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale", which was no more successful than any other setting of this poet's work, and to some piano pieces (a mazurka, and a piece for left hand alone), which he played to me about twenty-two years ago ; in the days when he, with Mr. Burnham W. Horner, was an examiner for the Society of Arts. Therefore I can say that this fantasia came to me practically as the first note of Ernest Walker's later and more individual compositions.

It is by the serenity of this piece that I am most affected. The music is pure, in the beautiful degree of purity which we convey by the term Classical. It moves over a very profound emotional basis, but that emotion has been rendered absolute by the composer's mental development, so that its expression lifts one up into the marvellous world where we acquire contentment. I know no higher praise that can be offered art.

The very opening strikes the authentic note of true music : (Ex. 1)

The opening adagio is very gracious. With slight increases in the tempo the music proceeds through some smooth modulations, and in a contemplative vein, to a close on the dominant; and then, out of the tranquility thus achieved, it springs lightly into the quick middle portion of the piece.

This vivace is the perfect sequel with the preceding. It demands a perfect sense of rhythm in the players, and an immaculate accuracy of touch ; yet otherwise it is not at all difficult. The time is 6/8, but the dotted minim is only as long in time as the crotchet of the adagio. I cannot quote from the vivacious portion of this central movement ; but the following outline of the middle theme of the section will show how thoroughly the mood of the beginning is expanded into the atmosphere of the vivace. There is something of the Beethoven elevation in music.
(Ex. 2)

The immediate sequel is a passage of development that well reveals the composer's skill, yet all the time without in any way falling into a display of skill for the sake of skill. Indeed, this animated development reveals even more finely his musicianship, because it is clearly not only an outgrowth of the mood of the piece, but actually the necessary process of embodying the full statement of that mood.

The middle movement closes in a sustained passage which is not unlike a lyrical hymn-tune, and out of this it proceeds gently into a repetition of the opening adagio ; now in the main key of the piece, and with the original themes given in more complete melodic form.
(Ex. 3)

Gradually the piece returns to the exact outlines of the beginning, as shown in my first example, and the fantasia ends in the tone ineffable serenity towards which it has been progressing from the start.

I believe that Dr. Walker's quartet will become a widely used piece, not only before professional audiences, but also in the homes of amateurs. I certainly hope that it may become this, for the credit of our chamber art and in order to encourage other composers to write in the same manner. The piece would, I imagine, be a perfect test piece at the larger musical competitions. It is published by Fischer and Bro., of New York, and 3, New Street, Birmingham, England.

[Alan Howe]

Ah, the legendary Sydney Grew! Whoever he is...

[eschiss1]

Legendary or not, I've heard of him somewhere before this. If you can be nothing else, Be Kind (& humble)

Born 1879, died 1946, Birmingham, organist and writer on music. Author of "Masters of Music" .(published 1924) and other works.
Also: the nickname of some (the other one, maybe?) forum person elsewhere whose interests include Richard Trunk (also b.1879)...
This'd be the real'n, given the 1923 date!

Ah. In connection with someone wedonotmentionhere, initials KSS. That's how I heard of him...

[Alan Howe]

I was referring to the current-day individual who hides anonymously behind that moniker...

[eschiss1]

... Erm... That was clear.

[Alan Howe]

OK, my fault; let's return to Ernest Walker.