Henry Walford Davies (1869-1941)

[albion]

The sole major work (excluding several chamber and instrumental pieces) from the extensive catalogue of music by Sir Henry Walford Davies to have found its way into the recording studio is his 'Morality' Everyman, composed for and triumphantly first performed at the 1904 Leeds Festival. The 2004 Dutton recording was a revelation -



Dutton Epoch CDLX7141

I would love to hear more of his music, both choral and orchestral, having accumulated many vocal scores over the years. Luckily, his full scores have enjoyed greater security than those of so many of his contemporaries - the rather overwhelming holdings of his manuscripts at the RCM include the following:

Symphony in D major (1894) - MS 6303 (2)/ MS 6350
Overture in D minor (1897) - MS 6306 (1)
The Temple - Oratorio, Op.14 (1902) - MS 8225
Overture to Everyman, Op.17b (1905) - MS 6322
Lift Up Your Hearts - Sacred Symphony in F, Op.20 (1906) - MS 6324
Holiday Tunes, Suite for Orchestra, Op.21 (1907) - MS 6326/ MS 7717
Ode on Time, Op.27 (1908) - MS 4900
Noble Numbers - Cantata, Op.28 (1909) - MS 6329
Festal Overture in B flat, Op.31 (1910) - MS 6330 (1)
Symphony in G, Op.32 (1911) - MS 6332/ MS 7718
Parthenia - Suite for Orchestra, Op.33 (1911) - MS 6333 (1)/ MS 7720
The Song of St Francis - Cantata, Op.36 (1912) - MS 6334/ MS 7719
A Fantasy (from Dante's Divina Commedia) for tenor, chorus and orchestra, Op.42 (1914) - MS 6338 (1)
Conversations for Piano and Orchestra, Op.43 (1914) - MS 6338 (2)
A Memorial Suite in C for Orchestra, Op.50 (1923) - MS 6352f
Men and Angels, for chorus and orchestra, Op.51 (1925) - MS 6344
High Heaven's King - cantata, Op.52 (1926) - MS 6345
A Children's Symphony in F for small orchestra, Op.53 (1927) - MS 6354
Christ in the Universe - cantata, Op.55 (1929) - MS 6346a

Even a cursory examination of the vocal scores for the choral works reveals a noble musical thought with an element of 'mysticism' akin to both Holst and Vaughan Williams, whilst the recording of Everyman shows that Walford Davies was highly accomplished in the matter of orchestral colour. Here is surely a composer who deserves greater exploration.

[eschiss1]

security that perhaps came of his having been predecessor to Bax? anyhow, intriguing!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Yes, indeed. we are very lucky to have these MSS preserved for us.  I would love to hear the symphonies, the Conversations for piano & orchestra and the Fantasy: Big Ben Looks On - and that's just to start with!

[edurban]

Nice to see this thread the very day the Rupert Luck recording of Walford Davies A Major violin sonata arrived in my mail box!  I've treasured my vocal score of Noble Numbers for many years and hope some day for a recording.  English Music Festival....please?

David

[Alan Howe]

David - do post your reactions to Rupert Luck's new CD....

[albion]

I've treasured my vocal score of Noble Numbers for many years and hope some day for a recording.  English Music Festival....please?

David

Some of Walford Davies' choral works suffer from his apparent inability to know when to stop: Noble Numbers is the prime example - eighteen poems by Herbert, Herrick, Donne and anonymous set for a range of forces ranging from unaccompanied chorus to solo quintet and chorus, together with a lengthy orchestral interlude (The Mastery) and an orchestral Entrata. Something of a prolix forerunner of George Dyson's Quo Vadis, it's structural deficiencies led Davies himself to describe it as "Knobbly Numbers". Nevertheless it has many moments of great beauty and should really find it's ideal home on record.

Walford Davies often seemed to struggle in shaping his material when writing for voices - he was so enthusiastic about juxtaposing texts that he usually wanted to include far too much disparate material. The 1906 Sacred Symphony Lift Up Your Hearts is a prime example: a hybrid between orchestral symphony and cantata, a single page of choral declamation launches us into a very lengthy purely orchestral allegro energico first movement, followed by a shorter allegretto amabile. The third movement is a bass solo (Truly the light is sweet) capped by a brief semi-chorus, but perhaps the most extraordinary movement is the fourth, largo espressivo (further titled "Wherein are heard three sayings of Jesus") - sure enough, emerging out of what at first appears to be a purely orchestral movement, three interjections from the bass soloist and semi-chorus interrupt the flow. Only in the fifth and final movement is the chorus given an opportunity to really shine, with a thrilling setting of the Sanctus text in English. The first performance at the 1906 Hereford Festival perplexed the audience and the critics and it is not difficult to see why - as a structure the work is an abject failure, but as music per se it is splendid and frequently very moving.

It could be argued that Davies was better when presented with a single text rather than when he allowed himself free-reign through the 'anthology' approach. Everyman, Ode on Time (Milton), The Song of St Francis and High Heaven's King (Edmund Spenser, with a brief interpolation from St John's Gospel) succeed best for this very reason: a concrete set of words seemed to concentrate his thought rather than allowing it to wander widely over a range of poems. Having said that, I would still advocate performance and recording of such "anthology" works as Fantasy (founded on passages in Dante's Divine Comedy), Men and Angels (six settings of George Herbert and John Bunyan) and especially the exquisite Five Sayings of Jesus (Together with a Reputed Saying of His and certain other Words chiefly derived from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis). This last work (Op.35) was first performed at the Worcester Festival in 1911 and appears to be the only major choral piece not present in full score in the RCM collection.

I'm not sure what structural issues may afflict Walford Davies' purely orchestral and concertante works (none of the major scores were published), but if the chamber music is anything to go by he could certainly handle the traditional forms very convincingly - it would be particularly fascinating to hear his mature (1911) approach to the symphony.

[Alan Howe]

I'm certainly interested in Walford Davies' compositions, but can't say I was bowled over by Everyman, although the Dutton CD is poorly sung. 'Worthy' was the word that kept coming to mind - but not inspirational. Of course, I'd be delighted to be proved wrong...

[albion]

Any further revival of Walford Davies' music should not present insurmountable difficulties in terms of copying: according to their catalogue, the RCM orchestral library has the parts for -

6 Pastorals, Op.15 (1905)
Holiday Tunes - Suite for Orchestra, Op.21 (1907)
Songs of Nature, Op.24b
The Long Journey - Song Cycle, Op.25 (1910)
Festal Overture in Bb op. 31 (1910)
Symphony in G, Op.32 (1911)
Parthenia - Suite for Orchestra, Op.33 (1911)
Song of St. Francis - Cantata, Op.36 (1912)
Suite in C (after Wordsworth) for Piano and Orchestra, Op.37 (1912)
Fantasy (Dante) - Short Cantata, Op. 42 (1914)
Conversations for Piano and Orchestra, Op.43 (1914)
Heaven's Gate - Cantata, Op.47 (1916)
Memorial Suite for Orchestra, Op.50 (1923)
High Heaven's King - Cantata, Op.52 (1926)
Christ in the Universe - Cantata, Op.55 (1929)
Big Ben Looks On - Orchestral Phantasy (1937)

[albion]

I have uploaded my vocal scores of the major choral works (highlighted in blue) to IMSLP -

The Temple, Op.14 (1902)
Everyman, Op.17 (1904)
Lift Up Your Hearts, Op.20 (1906)
Ode on Time, Op.27 (1908)
Noble Numbers, Op.28 (1909)
Five Sayings of Jesus, Op.35 (1911)
Song of Saint Francis, Op.36 (1912)
Fantasy, Op.42 (1914)
Men and Angels, Op.51 (1925)
High Heaven's King, Op.52 (1926)
Christ in the Universe, Op.55 (1929)

Hopefully this will facilitate reassessment of Davies' contribution to British choral music.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Readers of this forum may like to know that the Orchestral Phantasy "Big Ben Looks On" will be performed by the Orion Symphony Orchestra at the Cadogan Hall at a concert on 31st October this year. The concert, in aid of the St Lazarus Charitable Trust, is titled "Music & Majesty" and consists of music composed by 'Masters of the King's / Queene's Musick': Parry - Symphonic Variations; Walton - Violin Concerto; Elgar - Enigma Variations; and the Walford Davies Phantasy. I hope I can tempt some members to attend - as they did the last St Lazarus concert I organised in 2010.