Henry Walford Davies

[Gareth Vaughan]

I had a look at the MS of Walford Davies' "Fantasy - Big Ben Looks On" at the RCM last Friday. It is a delightful piece and, since to my surprise and delight Peter Horton, the Librarian, told me they had a set of parts. I am hoping to programme it as part of the 2nd St Lazarus Concert which I am scheduling with the Orion Symphony Orchestra at the Cadogan Hall, London, for 31st October 2012. The other pieces are perhaps less exciting to readers of this forum - we have to get an audience (!) - but well worth attending the concert for: Parry - Symphonic Variations; Walton - Violin Concerto; Elgar - Enigma Variations. I hope some of you guys will be able to come.

[Jimfin]

I won't be able to, living in Japan, but good luck with it! I've recently discovered 'Everyman', but there's precious little Walford Davies recorded, so far as I can see. Dutton did his second Violin Sonata too, and there's the ubiquitous 'Solemn Melody'. Hope to hear 'Big Ben' one of these days...

[Sydney Grew]

Walford Davies is quoted as saying: "Use the gramophone, it is a thing of splendid prospects, but of appalling possibilities. Do get pianissimo needles. If you use a loud needle it can be an instrument of torture. I say that every Sunday School should be allowed to have its own gramophone."

As organist he was known to many hundreds of former choir-boys, and to many thousands of the amateur musicians who took part in competition festivals. Fame came to him as composer in the year 1904, by way of the cantata - or "oratorio" as it is now termed - "Everyman."

Here is a list of some of his works which I prepared last year for another forum. There are probably gaps towards the end. Most of his manuscripts are kept at the Royal College of Music (could that indicate why they are now so seldom performed?)

1889: Sonata 1 for Violin and Pianoforte
      "The Future" for chorus and orchestra

1890: String Quartet. 1 in D minor
      Variations for solo pianoforte

1891: Variations for Orchestra
      Sonata for Horn and Pianoforte
      Madrigal "Weep ye no more, sad fountains" opus 1

1892: "The Nativity" for chorus and orchestra
      String Quartet. 2 in D major
      Sonata for solo pianoforte

1893: A "Dedication Overture" for orchestra
      "To Music" - a choral ode
      Pianoforte Quartet. 1 in E flat major
      Pianoforte Quartet. 2 in D minor
      Sonata 2 for Violin and Pianoforte in E flat major
      Sonata 3 for Violin and Pianoforte in A major
      Fantasia for pianoforte solo
      Odes by Milton and Swinburne, for chorus and orchestra

1894: First Symphony, in D major
      Cantata "Hervé Riel" (sometimes described as a "choral ballad") opus 2
      Sonata 4 for Violin and Pianoforte in E minor opus 5
      A setting of Browning's "Prospice" for baritone and string quartet. (or, with the optional double bass part, with string orchestra), opus 6 - hailed by Banfield as an "extraordinary work." "Its breadth of conception, its dramatic pioneering string quartet accompaniment and soaring melody give it a lasting power."

1895: String Quartet. 3 in C major
      Pianoforte Quartet. 3, also in C major
      "Village Scenes" for pianoforte

1896: Sonata 5 for Violin and Pianoforte in D minor opus 7
      Two Psalms (23rd and 29th), for tenor singer and strings, with harp, opus 8
      Anthem "God Created Man" opus 9

1897: Pianoforte Trio in C major
      Six "Pastorals" for vocal quartet., string quartet., and pianoforte opus 15
      "Days of Man" for chorus and orchestra
      Overture in D minor

1898: A setting of the 13th Psalm for chorus and orchestra
      Part-songs to Blake poems opus 4
      "The Sturdy Rock," decribed as a "glee-madrigal"
      Variations on a Ground for pianoforte solo

1899: Overture "A Welshman in London"
      Two love-songs (Burns) for tenor voice and pianoforte, opus 10

1902: Oratorio "The Temple" opus 14
      Folk-Song cantata "Three Jovial Huntsmen" opus 11
      Cathedral service opus 16

1904: Cantata "Everyman" opus 17
      Morning and Evening Service in G opus 12
      The Clown's Songs from Twelfth Night opus 13

1906: Sacred Symphony "Lift up your Hearts" for chorus and orchestra

1907: Overture "Holiday Times"

1908: "A Solemn Melody"

1909: "Lincoln Festival Overture"
      Choral suite "Noble Numbers"

1911: Second Symphony, in G major
      Cantata "Parthenia"

1912: "Wordsworth Suite" for orchestra
      "The Song of St. Francis" for chorus and orchestra

1917: Cantata "Jerusalem"

1920: Fantasy to passages from Dante, for tenor solo, chorus and orchestra;

and hundreds of songs for solo voice with pianoforte.

In 1918 Davies was appointed Director of Music to the Royal Air Force, and shortly afterwards wrote for it the well-known "March Past."

But he was (as my namesake wrote) "drawn chiefly to poetry of a mystical nature. He was a lover of Spiritual Beauty, and seems always to have been striving to evoke moral goodness. He was not Puritanical in the common sense of the word, being indeed as jolly in his music when the subject calls for jolliness as he was jolly in his impromptu speeches; but his music still, for the most part, expresses matters either of serious thought or of religious thanksgiving. His predominant note is that of praise, and he sounds this note most finely by means of the chorus. Many of his works propound a lofty patriotism, the grand note of national pride and love of country being natural in him. Thus in one of his works he uses John of Gaunt's famous eulogy of England, and in many others he sings, with the poets, of the Beauty and sweetness of his country."

In later years he resided at 32 West Heath Drive, Hampstead, N. W.

[albion]

There is an earlier thread on Walford Davies here - http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,1306. with information about some of the most substantial works contained in the RCM holdings.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Most of his manuscripts are kept at the Royal College of Music (could that indicate why they are now so seldom performed?)

I very much doubt it. The library staff at the RCM couldn't be more helpful and are very willing to lend scores and parts for performances. Indeed, they are delighted when someone does perform Walford Davies.

[Lionel Harrsion]

Most of his manuscripts are kept at the Royal College of Music (could that indicate why they are now so seldom performed?)

I very much doubt it. The library staff at the RCM couldn't be more helpful and are very willing to lend scores and parts for performances. Indeed, they are delighted when someone does perform Walford Davies.

I, too, must add a word in support of Peter Horton and his colleagues in the RCM library -- they have been of the greatest assistance in the work Patrick Meadows and I have done in preparing performing editions from the manuscripts they hold of Coleridge-Taylor and Frederic Cliffe.

[thalbergmad]

Not only do the RCM help professional musicians, they are also extremely helpful to 3rd rate amateur hacks like me.

Top marks to Peter Horton and his staff.

Thal

[Jimfin]

Thank you, Sydney, for that marvellous list. May I live to her more of these works. I was very impressed with 'Everyman', while 'Solemn Melody' strikes me as Davies' downfall, the popular piece that makes everyone ignore all the rest