The Music of Elisabeth Lutyens

Author(s): Susan Bradshaw

Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 112, No. 1541 (Jul., 1971), pp. 653+655-656
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/957008
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tion, but with the hopes of seeing in a very short particularly pointed reference to the music by 'that
time a Master of Musick in England, equal to any long known, able, and approved Master of Musick,
France or Italy have produced'. We know very Mr. Lock'. Psyche was an immediate success; its
little about the music, for all that remains is the music was published; and it was revived at intervals
vocal line of seven songs with 'Mr Stagings' written for the rest of the century. Yet Shadwell's 'first
at the end. Not even Raymond Leppard could Essay in Rhime' is trash, and clumsy in its manner
refurbish this Calisto for the stage! In view of of introducing music. Calisto, with a much more
Crowne's praise, the seven songs are disappointing. skilful libretto, was not performed publicly, although
Staggins was about 25 at this time and it would at least one other work written for the court had
hardly appear that he got the commission by merit. been taken over by the theatres. The Restoration
The son of a court musician, and like his father a audience would hardly have objected to a play
player in the orchestra, he was unexpectedly made needing five actresses and two actors and still less
Master of the King's Musick in January 1675. He to one needing seven actresses, two of them in
retained the post until his death in 1700, but neverbreeches, so what was the reason? Psyche's main
came to anything as a composer, in spite of beingadvantage lay in having music by Locke rather than
sent to study in Italy in 1676. Staggins. Crowne's libretto had given a composer
Both Crowne and Staggins received their com- the opportunity to develop characters in music as
missions through the devious ways of court politics.well as providing for the dances and other spectacle
Dryden, Shadwell and Settle had stronger claims demanded by Restoration audiences. Staggins was
to write the words and the obvious choice for the not able to take advantage of this, and Calisto
music was the country's most experienced composer, died without influencing English opera. Had Locke
Matthew Locke. Shadwell and Locke collaborated written the music, or-more fancifully-if someone
to produce the dramatic opera Psyche, which was had thought of a composer near the age of the act-
performed on the public stage immediately after resses and turned to the young Henry Purcell, we
Calisto's court performances. Shadwell's preface might at least have had an English Calisto for the
to Psyche has some digs at Crowne's preface and a reference books.
opera

The music of Elisabeth Lutyens

Susan Bradshaw Eilsabeth Lutyens (who is 65 on July 6) is
the composer of this month's Music Suppl
ment. Six concerts including her music are to
be broadcast on Radio 3 during July and Augu

Elisabeth Lutyens is a composer who needs her music to has

write
been of equal quality. What is re-
music-not just in order to produce a markable handfulabout of the works produced during the
near-perfect masterpieces, but as a day-by-day last eight years is not only their quantity (40, inclu-
ingredient of living. The very size and scope
ding four of her
orchestral pieces and three operas), but
output is proof of this, making her the theiropposite
consistencyofwithin a continually expanding
composers like Berg and Webern, andtechnique much and morethe freshness of stylistic approach
akin (in her attitude to work) to the salaried, court-
which she finds for each work. It is evident that she
based composers of the 18th century. Unfortunately is a composer who has never been content merely
for her, there is no 20th-century equivalent to the formulae-and who, moreover,
to repeat successful
employed craftsmen-composers, whose music
is still was
striving to adapt her expressive instincts both
written by command, and performances to the of whose
period of her own life and development, and
works were guaranteed. This has meant that a to the contemporary musical scene.
shamefully large proportion of her music has been Apart from the disadvantage of being a woman
not only unpaid for but also unperformed. At least, in what is still predominantly a man's world,
that was the position until recently: today, the Elisabeth Lutyens has been dogged by the mis-
current mania for novelty at all costs (with every fortune of always having been an 'unfashionable'
recitalist seeking a 'first performance' as a bait for composer. Mocked for being far ahead of her time
critical attention) means that there is no shortage in the 1930s and 40s, her works made little impact
of commissions-even if these are more often on a musical public conditioned to regard any devi-
nominal than financially rewarding-and that ations from tonal harmony as somehow un-English
composers are now assured of one performance ofand not quite nice. Having, with the passing of time,
every work they write. When it comes to a second become part of the 'establishment', her works now
hearing, it is another matter. Performer and fail to qualify for inclusion in avant-garde pro-
audiences alike are fickle in their attentions: a ten- grammes: so important has fashion in music be-
dency to chase the 'new' experience for its own sake come that the newness of outlook of the works
means that works already in existence lie forgotten. themselves is all too often overlooked. This has
And a composer who writes as quickly and as much resulted in the fact that Music for Piano and
as Miss Lutyens does is particularly open to this Orchestra is still awaiting its first performance, as
kind of abuse-by-neglect. are all of the three stage works written during the
She herself would be the first to admit that not all 1960s. This will surely change during the next
653

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 Elisabeth Lutyens: a
drawing by John Boyce

Time off? Not a Ghost of a Chance) are based on

librettos by the composer herself is further evidence
of her feeling for-and facility in expressing herself
through-the medium of words.
Paradoxically, the formal structure of her music
-occasionally seeming to take itself too much for
granted in some of the smaller instrumental pieces
-is both clearer and tauter in the large-scale works.
Whether based on the close-knit, interlinked
relationships of The Numbered and Isis and Osiris,
or on the more sectional procedures of the cycle for
tenor and orchestra, Essence of our Happinesses,
these structures are tightly dependent on the
characteristically strong harmonic foundations of
the music. The formal design of all Miss Lutyens's
music seems to derive from a basically harmonic
inspiration, and to progress by means of vertical
relationships: that is to say, the harmony is func-
tional, in the Austro-German sense, rather than
primarily colouristic, in the French. Nevertheless,
colour-the delicate shades of textures varying
between the dense and the opaque, just as much as
decade, following many successful performances of the sharper colours of imaginative scoring-plays
her chamber music-performances which have been an important descriptive role: sometimes onomato-
received with notable enthusiasm by specialist and
poeically suggestive (as, for instance, in Islands and
non-specialist audiences alike: essential proof of an The Valley of Hatsu-Se), at other times etched by
ability to 'communicate', not achieved by every sectional changes of instrumentation (as in And
living composer.
Suddenly it's Evening)-or even entirely dependent
on the width and resonance (Helix) or the limita-
Since the beginning of 1963 (the date of an earlier tions (Music for Three) of the harmonic register.
fMusical Times article, by Robert Henderson), The largest-and in that sense alone the most
almost all her works (half of them vocal settings)significant-work which Elisabeth Lutyens has
have resulted from commissions-the best possible completed during the last decade is the two-act
indication of a composer's having become a valuedopera, The Numbered. With a libretto by Minos
member of society. Many of the smaller chamber Volanakis, based on the play Die Befristeten, by
music works have been commissioned by individualElias Canetti, The Numbered is scored for 18 solo
performers, and in carrying out these commissions,singers, three actors, chorus and symphony-sized
Miss Lutyens has clearly responded to the special orchestra, including a vast amount of percussion
characters of each. In addition to her own talent (sparingly used), as well as two mandolines and two
for making use of what sounds well (and plays electric guitars. Each of its 20 scenes is played as a
comfortably) on each instrument, and what is most duet between two characters-sometimes as an aria
effectively singable within the voice, she has suc- for one, with comments or interruptions from the
ceeded in making an expressive virtue out of the other, sometimes in a conversational, recitative-like
particular attributes-or failings-of the performers manner-so that the whole work flows naturally
themselves. from one physical/musical character into another.
Outstanding among her pieces for mixed ensembleLike all good operas, this one is an extension of
with voice is The Valley of Hatsu-Se. This work issymphonic music, in that it provides a three-
typical of the best of her music in its ability to dimensional illustration of musical arguments
discover a technique and a stylistic expression sufficient in themselves. But, like all good operas, it
specific to the task in hand-in this case the setting cries out for a stage performance: conceived in
of early Japanese poems in the original language- terms of the stage, it can only have a half-life of its
and in its success in suggesting a deliberate atmos- own, until interpreted in theatrical reality. If music
pheric colour (through subtle harmonic, melodic itself can be said to exist only in performance, how
and rhythmic characterizations) without ever much more true this is of the hybrid art of opera...
resorting to pastiche. Her many vocal works are
distinguished by a wide-ranging scope in the choice
of words, as much as by sensitive musical reaction Even within the period covered by these eight years,
to the words themselves. The fact that two of Miss there is ample evidence of continuing stylistic de-
Lutyens's recent stage works (Isis and Osiris and velopment: the mainly instrumental music of 1964-5
655

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seems, retrospectively, to have been preparing the the future via the musical past. Having worked
way for the most recent (predominantly vocal) through a strict application of what the present
music. It is as if technical expertise and stylistic meant to her in terms of music, she now feels able
intent, having been firmly established, could now to use tonal chords, pulsed rhythms and repeating
be pushed into the background; so that both the formal devices as ingredients of her personal musical
technique and the stylistic design-freed from the vocabulary-just as Luciano Berio, Henri Pousseur
conscious level of musical invention-have been freeand Peter Maxwell Davies (to name but a few) are
to adapt to all kinds of changing expressive situ-able to derive musical inspiration from quotations.
ations. Elisabeth Lutyens, like a growing number ofIn this, her music is at last proving to be neither
contemporary composers, seems to be moving intoahead of, nor behind, but very much of its time.

LUTYENS'S WORKS, 1963-70

(for works up to 1952, see Grove 5, v, 448; 1953-62, MT Aug 1963, p. 555)

1963 String Quintet, op.51*
Wind Trio, fl, cl, bsn, op.52*
Pr6sages, ob, op.53
Encomion, chorus, brass, perc, op.54*
Fantasie-Trio, fl, cl, pf, op.55
The Country of the Stars, motet for chorust
1964 Music for Orchestra III, op.56*
String Trio, op.57*
Scena, v, vc, perc, op.58*
Music for Piano and Orchestra, op.59*
Music for Wind, double woodwind qnt, op.60*
1965 Hymn of Man, male chorus, op.61*
The Valley of Hatsu-Se, S, fl, cl, vc, pf, op.62
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, chorus*
In the Temple of a Bird's Wing, Bar, pf
1966 The Numbered, opera in two acts (completed 1967), op.63
Akapotik Rose, S, fl, 2 cl, v, va, vc, pf, op.64
Music for Three, fl, ob, pf, op.65
1967 And Suddenly it's Evening for T, 11 insts, op.66*
Novenaria, orch, op.67 no.1
Helix, pf (4 hands), op.67 no.2
Scroll for Li-Ho, v, pf, op.67 no.3
The Fall of the Leafe, ob, and str qt*
1968 Horai for v, hn, pf, op.67 no.4
Time off? Not a Ghost of a Chance, charade, Bar, actor,
vocal qt, chorus, 11 insts, op.68
Essences of our Happinesses, T, chorus, orch, op.69
The Tyme doth flete, chorus, op.70
The Ego-Centric, T, Bar, pf
A Phoenix, S, v, cl, pf, op.71
Epithalamium, org, optional S
1969 Temenos, org, op.72
The Dying of the Sun, gui, op.73
Isis and Osiris, lyric drama, 8 voices, small orch, op.74
The Tides of Time, db, pf, op.75f
1970 In the Direction of the Beginning, B, pf, op.76
Anerca, speaker/actress, 10 gui, op.77
Oda a la Tormenta, Mez, pf, op.78
Hymn of Man (second version), chorus
Vision of Youth, S, 3 cl, pf, perc, op.79
Islands, S, T, narrator, fl, cl, pf, str trio, 2 perc, op.80
Verses of Love, chorust
A Goldfish Bowl, an autobiography (Cassell, in prepara-
tion)
* Published by Schott
fPublished by Novello
$ Published by Yorke
all other works published by Olivan

WILLIAM BYRD

KEYBOARD MUSIC
edited by Alan Brown
Volume I was published in 1969 and costs Six pou
is newly published and costs Ten pounds. The usual
available to members of the RMA and subscribers to the whole
series.

Both volumes contain a critical commentary on the edited texts,

with a note of the sources of the music and a generous selection of
facsimile illustrations.

MUSICA BRITANNICA is published for the Royal Musical

Association by Stainer & Bell. Volumes may be ordered from
PUBLISHING SERVICES PARTNERSHIP, Queen Anne's Road,
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. (0493 4281).

656

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