The Makers of British Music - Illustrated London News, 24th October 1908

[albion]

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1. Granville Bantock (1868-1946); 2. Joseph Holbrooke (1878-1958); 3. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912); 4. Percy Pitt (1870-1932); 5. Cyril Scott (1879-1970); 6. Hamilton Harty (1879-1941); 7. George Clement Martin (1844-1916); 8. Ethel Smyth (1858-1944); 9. Ebenezer Prout (1835-1909); 10. Henry Walford Davies (1869-1941); 11. William Hayman Cummings (1831-1915); 12. Edward German (1862-1936); 13. Walter Parratt (1841-1924); 14. Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924); 15. Edward Elgar (1857-1934); 16. Frederic Hymen Cowen (1852-1935); 17. Alexander Campbell Mackenzie (1847-1935); 18. Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918); 19. Frederick Bridge (1844-1924)

The presence of Martin, Parratt and Bridge is interesting to say the least, but not as peculiar as seeing William Cummings (rather better known as a tenor soloist and the author primarily of one work, a cantata The Fairy Ring dating back to 1872) included. The equable proximity of Stanford to Elgar is perhaps a touch optimistic.

[Alan Howe]

What's interesting to me is the title at the top of the page - "Famous living British composers of the old school and the new". Wonder who was supposed to belong to which school?

[albion]

I would suggest, given the date of 1908, the length of careers 'before the public' and perceived reputations -

old = Martin, Prout, Cummings, Parratt, Stanford, Cowen, Mackenzie, Parry, Bridge

new = Bantock, Holbrooke, Coleridge-Taylor, Pitt, Scott, Harty, Smyth, Walford Davies, German, Elgar

[Sydney Grew]

Thank you; much appreciated. (I see that Delius missed out again, although he was about seventeen years older than Scott and Holbrooke!)

[Jimfin]

Love this, thank you! Yes, I can't see Stanford and Elgar being so close! I know of one photo of them at a festival where they stand as far apart as physically possible!

[thalbergmad]

Wonder who was supposed to belong to which school?

Moustache/beard - old school
Clean shaven - new school

Thal

[albion]

More or less - at least it confirms Ethel Smyth as a symbol of modernity.

I know of one photo of them at a festival where they stand as far apart as physically possible!

Yes, the famous group portrait of German, Parry, Elgar, Dan Godfrey, Mackenzie and Stanford was taken at Bournemouth on 8th July 1910 - Parry rests a hand on Mackenzie's shoulder, whilst Elgar looks distinctly uneasy and sits cross-legged as far away from Stanford as possible. According to Alice Elgar, Stanford "fled when he saw E" whilst according to Parry "Stanford refused to speak to [...] Elgar."



One of the things I really like about the ILN illustration is that it is so patently a cobbled-up cut-and-paste composite drawn from whatever photographs were to hand: Coleridge-Taylor is clearly the fresh-faced young student of the 1890s, Cummings is remarkably well-preserved for a gentleman seventy-seven years of age and the positioning of Ebenezer Prout's head has effectively censored the large cigar which is prominent in the photograph of Bantock (which was originally a double one with Elgar taken at the 1906 Birmingham Festival).

[Lionel Harrsion]

One of the things I really like about the ILN illustration is that it is so patently a cobbled-up cut-and-paste composite drawn from whatever photographs were to hand...

And there I was thinking that Photoshop was something new-fangled!

[ahinton]

Wonder who was supposed to belong to which school?

Moustache/beard - old school
Clean shaven - new school

Thal

More or less - at least it confirms Ethel Smyth as a symbol of modernity.

I'd be somewhat wary of taking this too seriously, since what it illustrates above all else is Thal's evident obssession about beards, with which, despite long-term familiarity, I have never yet understood properly...

[Christopher]

What's the story with Elgar and Stanford?  Do tell!

[albion]

Both were hypersensitive to criticism (but quick enough to dish it out), frequently tactless, stubborn and, in Stanford's case especially, quarrelsome. Elgar privately asked Stanford's opinion of one of his choral works (I think it was King Olaf in 1896) before it was performed and was not prepared for the detailed and uncomplimentary assessment: he expected more of a colleague's reassurance than the pseudo teacher-pupil lecture which he received. Nevertheless things remained reasonably amicable even if they were not particularly close. Stanford was directly instrumental in getting Elgar an honorary doctorate from Cambridge in 1900,  and in 1903 they met socially, visited each other (Stanford was staying in Hereford at the time) and participated in the Hereford Festival together without incident. In 1904 Stanford was one of the members of the Atheneum Club (along with Parry) who proposed Elgar as a fellow member.

That same year Elgar was appointed Peyton Professor at the recently-founded Birmingham University and, apparently (though it hasn't survived), Stanford sent Elgar an "odious letter", according to Alice Elgar. The contents can only be guessed at, but probably related to the Birmingham appointment in some particularly uncomplimentary way: Stanford was undoubtedly jealous of Elgar's increasing national and international prominence (a three-day Elgar Festival was held at Covent Garden in 1904) and felt himself being eclipsed. The next year Elgar fuelled the fire in his lecture A Future for English Music in which he pointedly denounced the music of his Victorian contemporaries (with the specifically named exception of Parry), saying that there was nothing more ridiculous than the idea of an English (i.e. British) composer writing rhapsodies (Stanford had two Irish rhapsodies under his belt by then, but then Mackenzie had two Scottish ones), asserting that English (i.e. British) music was widely derided abroad (Stanford had a history of prominent continental performances, especially in Berlin and at several German operas theatres) and pinning his only hopes on Bantock, Holbrooke and Walford Davies. Stanford quite rightly saw these remarks as a not-very-well-veiled personal insult and a very public attempt to humiliate him. He immediately fired off a reply to The Times refuting Elgar's allegations. From then on the relationship was basically acrimonious with neither man prepared to apologise or even acknowledge that they knew the basis of the trouble.

Stanford continued to perform and promote Elgar's music, however, although privately Elgar frequently repeated his low opinion of Stanford's. Various attempts were made by well-meaning friends to patch things up but without success. When Alfred Littleton of Novello's invited them both to a private party Stanford replied "I quite saw and, believe me, thoroughly appreciated the kindly motive which underlay your invitation, and if this had been a private or personal matter no-one would have responded quicker to it than I. But it is unfortunately a public one. The gross disloyalty and ingratitude to those professional colleagues whose identity was all the more clearly pointed out by the exceptions which were publicly named, can't be obliterated in private." Stanford was staying in Malvern when Alice Elgar died in 1920 and, despite being ill himself, attended the funeral (standing in the doorway, unknown to Elgar). Elgar found out later and called it "a cruel piece of impertinence". Herbert Brewer finally made the two men shake hands at the 1922 Gloucester Festival but it probably meant very little by that time to either of them.

[calico]

Thanks for such a detailed account, Albion, I hadn't realised there was such animosity between the two.

Do you have a link to the Bournemouth photo?

[albion]

Bournemouth, 8th July 1910

[Sydney Grew]

I hope this is not too flippant, but that picture when I first saw it brought to mind those Stalin-era photographs where people have been painted out - in this case some one from the centre of the back row . . . It's the way they are placed.

[Alan Howe]

Look like there's some old stick in the back row...