I recently found and bought a copy of the quirky Josef Holbrooke - Various appreciations by many authors (Rudall Carte and the Holbrooke Society, 1937) and was pleased to find that it also contained a copy of the 1937 catalogue of Holbrooke's Poeana (works inspired by Edgar Allan Poe):
1. The Raven (piano score 8/-, full score 20/-, parts £6/6/-, piano duet 25/-)
2. Ulalume (piano score 8/-, full score 25/-, parts £6/6/-, piano duet 25/-, two pianos 25/-)
3. The Bells (vocal score 7/6, full score 25/-, parts £15/15-, Prelude full score 4/6, Prelude parts £4/4/-)
4. Song, Annabel Lee (full score 10/6, vocal score 4/-, parts 30/-)
5. Choir, To Zante (1/-)
6. Choral Symphony, Hommage to Poe (vocal score 6/-, full score 45/-, parts £4/4/-, sol-fa 1/-)
7. Symphony for String Orchestra, Al Aaraaf (full score £2/2/-, piano duet arrangement 15/-, parts £4/4/-)
8. Sextet for piano and woodwind, Israfel (piano score and parts 15/-)
9. Quintet for quartet and clarinet, Ligeia (score 5/-, parts 15/-)
10. Piano Suite, Eldorado (12/6)
11. Piano Suite, The Lake (18/-)
12. March - Tragic, for horn and orchestra (12/6)
13. Symphonietta for wind and brass orchestra, The Sleeper (score (25/-, piano arrangement 12/-, parts 15/-)
14. Ballet, The Red Masque (score 45/-, piano 6/-, parts £5)
15. Overture - Dramatic, Amontillado (score 20/-, piano arrangement 18/6, parts £3/10-)
16. Fantasie for orchestra, The Pit and the Pendulum (score £3/3/-, piano arrangement 12/6, parts £4/4/-)
17. Romance for strings (10/6)
17b. Song, Of all who hail (6/-)
17c. Song, Bridal Song (6/-)
18a. Nocturne - Dreams, for harp and flute (7/6)
18b. Quintet arrangement (score and parts 15/-)
19. Lenore, for violin or cello solo (6/-)
20. Nonetto, Irene (score and parts 30/-, full score 25/-)
21. Trio, Fairyland (score and parts 6/-)
22. Concertino, Tamerlane (score 20/-, piano arrangement 10/6, parts 20/-)
23. Dance Symphony, for piano and orchestra, Bon-Bon (score £5, piano 25/-, parts £7/7/-)
24. Fantasie for orchestra, Descent into the Maelstrom (score £6/6/-, piano arrangement £5/10/-, parts £8/8/-)
This is an intriguing list for several reasons - it details various scores for purchase which are now regarded as lost or missing and asserts that the Complete set [of works contained in the catalogue has been] sold to several libraries. Inside the actual volume itself there is a further reference in the Preface - As we write this, we hear that the complete collection of Holbrooke's "Poeana" - 25 works [he must have added another after the catalogue was printed] - have been ordered for a famous American Library.
Was this typical Holbrookean bravado, or were full scores for the Dance Symphony (here titled Bon-Bon) and Descent into the Maelstrom actually supplied to these (unfortunately unspecified) libraries?
???
I tend to prefer the chamber music to the orchestral works.
I am rather excited by the possibility of some 'lost' works turning up. I always enjoy Holbrooke, and his very inconsistency, occasional overblownness, frequent lapses into music-hall melodies and chaotic cataloguing, only make me feel his is a very special character. He is so often coupled with Bantock, but the latter was suave, organised, upper-class and sometimes a bit lacking in character, whereas Holbrooke strikes me as the opposite. It adds to his appeal that when I was a teenager it was nigh impossible to hear anything of his music.
Not recorded certainly......or at least not yet :)
Am I right in thinking that his final (8th?) symphony was also his final (3rd?) piano concerto? Does this survive? So much seems to be unknown, half known, or just speculation about this man!
Quote from: Jimfin on Saturday 25 February 2012, 14:04
Am I right in thinking that his final (8th?) symphony was also his final (3rd?) piano concerto? Does this survive? So much seems to be unknown, half known, or just speculation about this man!
My understanding is that Symphony No.8 of 1930 is for Piano and Orchestra and is entitled the "Dance Symphony" but the full score is lost ???
Quote from: Bill Hayden on Saturday 25 February 2012, 13:51
Fifth and Sixth symphonies have been ever recorded or broadcasted?
;)
None have been broadcast and only Symphony No.4 has been recorded (by Dutton). The other, unrecorded, works are -
Symphony No.1 [also styled Suite],
Les Hommages, Op.40
A Dramatic Choral Symphony - Hommage to E.A. Poe [also styled Symphony No.1], Op.48
Symphony No.2,
Apollo and the Seaman, Op.51
Symphony No.3,
Ships, Op.90
Symphony No.5 for Brass Band,
Wild Wales, Op. 106
Symphony No.6 for Military Band,
Old England, Op.107
Symphony No.7 for Strings,
Al Aaraaf, Op.109
Symphony No.8 for Piano and Orchestra,
Dance Symphony, Op.112
No.3 is allegedly due to be recorded by Howard Griffiths for CPO.
Quote from: Dundonnell on Saturday 25 February 2012, 14:14
Quote from: Jimfin on Saturday 25 February 2012, 14:04
Am I right in thinking that his final (8th?) symphony was also his final (3rd?) piano concerto? Does this survive? So much seems to be unknown, half known, or just speculation about this man!
My understanding is that Symphony No.8 of 1930 is for Piano and Orchestra and is entitled the "Dance Symphony" but the full score is lost ???
Symphony No.8 is also styled Piano Concerto No.3 and appears to exist only in a copyist's reduction for two pianos (in Cambridge University Library).
Thank you for that very enlightening information. Another work to pray for next time I go to shrine, then. So, do I (optimistically) understand that all the earlier symphonies are still extant?
I believe so....but Gareth Vaughan is the Holbrooke expert :)
I am currently engaged-surprise, surprise ;D-in an attempt to produce a chronological catalogue of Holbrooke's Orchestral and Choral Music.
As can probably be well-imagined, not only am I finding it extremely difficult, I am becoming doubtful if I shall actually retain my sanity ;D ;D
If I may send a draft copy to those who know more about Holbrooke than I before I even contemplate putting it up here I would be most grateful :)
Save your sanity. Check out if the recent proof of Fermat's last theorem is the same as the one for which Fermat wrote that he had no room in the margin. A Holbrooke catalogue is beyond one's ken.
Quote from: shamokin88 on Thursday 08 March 2012, 03:56
Save your sanity. Check out if the recent proof of Fermat's last theorem is the same as the one for which Fermat wrote that he had no room in the margin. A Holbrooke catalogue is beyond one's ken.
:)
It may indeed be beyond anyone-certainly, at least, in a chronological format as offered in the other catalogues I have compiled. At the moment I am inclined to publish by opus number and allow others to identify possible dates of composition.
Publish by opus no? Good luck. Holbrooke used the same opus no. for different compositions and the same composition was frequently assigned more than one opus number. Send what you've got so far to me and I'll do what I can to help produce something comprehensive and cohesive.
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Thursday 08 March 2012, 13:22
Publish by opus no? Good luck. Holbrooke used the same opus no. for different compositions and the same composition was frequently assigned more than one opus number. Send what you've got so far to me and I'll do what I can to help produce something comprehensive and cohesive.
I realise full well that I was 'fishing' for such an offer, Gareth ;D It is nevertheless generous of you to make it and I shall certainly take you up on it :)
As you imply, trying to compile a Holbrooke catalogue is the most difficult and frustrating exercise I can imagine. Opus numbers appear to be sprayed across apparent decades of composition to the point when my original chronology exploded as nonsense ;D
This morning I came across a chapter on Holbrooke in "Our Favourite Musicians", Sydney Grew(1922). In his first paragraph Grew wrote ".....I cannot steady myself in the case of Holbrooke....by copying a list of compositions....because the list now would run from page to page, dates and serial opus numbers clashing, chronology all askew....".
I now know exactly how Mr. Grew felt because that is exactly my own experience......... ;D ;D
A new book is apparently in progress edited by Dr Paul Watt (Monash University, Melbourne; editor of the Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle and Musicology Australia) and Anne-Marie Forbes (University of Tasmania): Josef Holbrooke: Composer, Critic and Champion of British Music.
No further details of content or projected publication date at present, but this may be one to watch out for.
:)
Oh yes, my shelf is itching for that one!
Unless the authors are in touch with Jean Holbrooke and have gained her confidence and cooperation they will be able to do only half a job. I will ask her if she knows anything about this potential publication.
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Wednesday 02 May 2012, 22:22Unless the authors are in touch with Jean Holbrooke and have gained her confidence and cooperation they will be able to do only half a job. I will ask her if she knows anything about this potential publication.
It would certainly be interesting to know if there has been any contact.
???
As the book is under joint editorship, it is almost certain to take the form of a symposium. The areas that the book
may potentially cover could include the following (these are the titles of conference papers given by the editors in the last few years):
Paul Watt - Josef Holbrooke's Musical Nation-building Projects (1900–1925) and the end of his Friendship with Ernest Newman; The "German Problem" in Early Twentieth Century England and Joseph Holbrooke's Projection of a Dual Musical Identity; Josef Holbrooke's promotion of British music and his gift to the Grainger Museum
Anne-Marie Forbes - Joseph Holbrooke's
Cauldron of Annwn and Metempsychosis in Music; 'Out of old Mythologies'—Josef Holbrooke and T.E. Ellis
Rushing in where angels fear to tread, I have overhauled the Wikipedia work-list. I included works which are no longer believed to be extant, but which are known to have been performed, such as the overture The New Renaissance and the early Dramatique Piano Concerto. To attempt any sort of chronology with Holbrooke is pretty impossible, so I stuck to opus number sequence (almost equally as fraught) within each section.
Brave, brave man :)
I was defeated by Holbrooke ;D
Are you going to post this on here as well ???
Defeated by Holbrooke: what was the Score?
Quote from: Paul Barasi on Monday 25 June 2012, 01:00
Defeated by Holbrooke: what was the Score?
Penalty ;D
(The penalty of trying to make sense of Holbrooke's eccentric use of opus numbers ::))
Making sense of opus numbers is a problem going back ages. First to be baffled were the ancient Egyptians who could never work out the order in which musical hieroglyphics had been written, not even after they stood before the statue of their cat god Bastet pleading: "Tell us, O Pus".
;D ;D
That's why Cat loggers were first put to work.
QuoteI included works which are no longer believed to be extant, but which are known to have been performed, such as the overture The New Renaissance
Was The New Renaissance ever performed? If so, when and where, and what are your sources? Up until now I had thought it was either lost or never existed.
The "Bronwen" ballet is not part of the printed score of that work, though there is a point in the score where words to the effect of: "Here a ballet is inserted." appear. I have seen a piano score of "Dances from 'Bronwen'", but I don't know if any full score survives. Doubtless Jean Holbrooke would know more.
Incidentally, Mike Freeman believes that the PC "Song of Gwyn ap Nudd" is merely the early
Dramatique PC rehashed - and I find his argument a compelling one, although there is no way either of us can prove or disprove it unless the original score of the
Dramatique were ro turn up. But musically, it sounds earlier than the tone poems which precede it in Opus number. It would be just like Joe to dish it up again in the guise of a symphonic poem in order to get it performed.
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Monday 25 June 2012, 18:00Was The New Renaissance ever performed? If so, when and where, and what are your sources? Up until now I had thought it was either lost or never existed.
Holbrooke conducted
The New Renaissance in Bournemouth on 19th January, 1903 (Kenneth Thompson,
Holbrooke: Some catalogue data, 1965; Stephen Lloyd,
Sir Dan Godfrey, 1995).
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Monday 25 June 2012, 18:00The "Bronwen" ballet is not part of the printed score of that work, though there is a point in the score where words to the effect of: "Here a ballet is inserted." appear. I have seen a piano score of "Dances from 'Bronwen'", but I don't know if any full score survives. Doubtless Jean Holbrooke would know more.
Bronwen - Ballet Music was published by the Modern Music Library for piano, arranged by Arthur Hammond, copyrighted 1929. Let's hope that a full score of the Ballet Music
does indeed survive, as it will be an essential element when ENO mounts the trilogy ...
:)
That's very interesting, John, about The New Renaissance. What a pity it does not seem to have survived. I wonder if it was among the scores lost in the fire when he was living in Wales.
An ENO staging of The Cauldron of Annwn - what a glorious event that would be. One can but dream!
Does anyone know anything about the 5th Symphony "Wild Wales" for brass band. I read somewhere the finale was used as a test piece in an esitedfodd. I know a lot of brass band music and have never heard of this piece.
How would one get hold of the MS?
It was used at an Eisteddfod in Wrexham. A printed score and parts are in the British Library, under the alternative title Old Wales - h.3210.h.(385.).
:)
OK, for us colonists, what is an eisteddfod?
Jerry
An Eisteddfod (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisteddfod) is a Welsh festival of literature and music.
And the plural is eisteddfodau. The "ei" and "au" represent the same sound: 'ai' as in 'line'. The "dd" is equivalent to the voiced 'th' in 'them' (as opposed to the unvoiced, as in 'both'); "f" in Welsh is the same sound as 'v'. In "eisteddfod" the accent is on the 2nd syllable.
The Holbrooke catalogue (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,3351.0.html (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,3351.0.html)) continues to be subject to daily revisions and amendments. I have tried to make any bracketed annotations to the entries as clear as possible, but given the fact that Holbrooke was an inveterate reviser and recycler there is probably much work still to do.
I have just obtained copies of -
Miniature essays - Josef Holbrooke (J & W Chester, 1924)
Complete list of Holbrooke's published musical works (Modern Music Library, 1941)
Complete list of the musical works of Josef Holbrooke (Modern Music Library, 1952)
which may (but quite possibly may not) lead to further clarification.
::) ;D
This is all excellent work, John. I'm not sure how useful the MML lists will be. I looked at them once and retired confused, but I'm glad someone is trying at least to produce a reasonably accurate list of his output. I have Rob Barnett's annotated work list and will try to find time to compare it with what you've produced. Together, something comprehensive and reasonably accurate may emerge.
Yes, I quite agree. A reliable Holbrooke catalogue will be of great value, John; an essential foundation stone for serious Holbrooke scholarship. I do hope it isn't too much of a sisyphean task, but I've found that even in such a comparatively well documented oeuvre as Raff's "new" works keep cropping up!
I have added another opera to the list, Varenka. This is alluded to quite often in early Holbrooke literature: Lowe calls it "a work of somewhat lurid character", whilst Baughan, writing in The Musical Standard, describes the libretto by B.W. Findon as "written in the ultra-passionate Italian mode" and quotes Holbrooke as follows - "it [Varenka] hovers between the popular style and Wagner drama ... Not an original conception, perhaps, but one which I thought feasible". Varenka is included by Lowe in a list of scores with which Holbrooke was dissatisfied, and which the composer subsequently destroyed.
The opera never seems to have been performed complete (possibly it remained in an incomplete state, and certainly it remained unpublished) but a Selection of items was performed at a Grand Promenade Concert in aid of the Playgoers' Club Pantomime Fund for Poor Children (organised by Findon, who was on the committee) at His Majesty's Theatre, London, on 24th November 1907: the soloists included Edith Clegg and Constance Drever, and Thomas Beecham conducted the New Symphony Orchestra.
:)
Quote from: Dundonnell on Friday 09 March 2012, 14:13This morning I came across a chapter on Holbrooke in "Our Favourite Musicians", Sydney Grew(1922). In his first paragraph Grew wrote ".....I cannot steady myself in the case of Holbrooke....by copying a list of compositions....because the list now would run from page to page, dates and serial opus numbers clashing, chronology all askew....". . .
In the following paragraph of that work Grew tells us that "Where a list of her [Dame Smyth's] works forms a column of little more than four inches, a list of his [Holbrooke's] forms a column of three feet four inches in the same type. I make this statement after measuring the two lists in a book that I have."
I have often wondered what that "book that he had" in 1922 was. What a pity he did not see fit to append two or three more words as a reference! Does any one have an idea?
Hrm. If he weren't clearly referring to different books, the Holbrooke could have been the recently published Josef Holbrooke and his work, by George Lowe, I imagine... as is, no clue, as the well-known (to me) musical encyclopedias that I was guessing he was referring to seem to have had at the time rather brief entries for Holbrooke (in either spelling used) too.
Thank you very much! I believe that may be the book to which he was referring. It came out in 1920. The list of Holbrooke's compositions at the end is indeed very long - it occupies fourteen pages. He must have been confused in some way when he implied that Ethel Smyth was treated in the same book. I did just now down-load Ethel Smyth's memoirs ("Impressions that Remain") from 1919, and found it very interesting indeed (especially its chapters about the Benson family), but it contains no list of works.
I found both books at the Internet Text Archive: http://archive.org/details/texts (http://archive.org/details/texts)
I found it at Google Books but that is probably accessible in fewer places, and Internet Archive is on the whole more recommendable, I'd agree, despite their oddly lax policy about copyright (Google Books is much too strict, Internet Archive lets the ball drop entirely, and my mind is wandering again. Never mind. Night!)
Belated thanks, Sydney, for the link to the Holbrooke book and Dame Ethel's autobiography. Fascinating stuff!
The original version of The Raven was performed only once, at Crystal Palace on March 3rd 1900 after which Holbrooke rewrote it. The original score was given to Ernest Newman. Does this still exist? Holbrooke's first piano concerto, composed while a student was never performed. Is it known what happened to it?
QuoteHolbrooke's first piano concerto, composed while a student was never performed. Is it known what happened to it?
Mike Freeman has a shrewd suspicion it was very minimally rewritten and re-appeared as the Piano Concerto bearing the subtitle "Song of Gwyn ap Nudd" - and, stylistically speaking, as well as by what one knows of the man, I find this notion very convincing.
The Cameo disk of Holbrooke's piano music, performed by greek pianist Panagiotis Trochopoulos, seems to be out of sale in all websites.
Anybody knows where to get them?
Cheers
Quote from: fyrexia on Monday 25 May 2020, 00:24
The camel disk of Holbrooke's piano music, performed by greek pianist Panagiotis Trochopoulos, seems to be out of sale in all websites. Anybody knows where to get them?
Amazon Marketplace [USA] & Amazon [UK] appear to have a few copies of vol. 2.
https://www.amazon.com/Music-Piano-2-Holbrooke/dp/B00KMYQ8BY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=holbrooke+paNGIOTIS&qid=1590372664&s=music&sr=1-1-spell (https://www.amazon.com/Music-Piano-2-Holbrooke/dp/B00KMYQ8BY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=holbrooke+paNGIOTIS&qid=1590372664&s=music&sr=1-1-spell)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Josef-Holbrooke-Music-Piano-Vol-2/dp/B00KMYQ8BY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=holbrooke+panagiotis&qid=1590372835&s=music&sr=1-1 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Josef-Holbrooke-Music-Piano-Vol-2/dp/B00KMYQ8BY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=holbrooke+panagiotis&qid=1590372835&s=music&sr=1-1)
Thanks, i already ordered volume 2, but can't find volume 1 :O
Cheers