English Music Festival - incl. M. Phillips Symphony

[Alan Howe]

Phillips' Symphony displays a handling of the orchestra which is quite stupefying in its brilliance and virtuosity for a composer in his mid-twenties. The idiom, I'd say, is Elgarian at his most Straussian (think In the South), with particularly astonishing writing for brass. All it lacks is a 'big tune', but I'm mightily impressed all the same.

[Alan Howe]

More about Phillips:

Montague Phillips was born in London in November 1885 and is probably most well known for the opera The Rebel Maid staged in 1921 and the very popular song from the opera, The Fishermen of England. At an early age he was noted as a promising boy soprano in the choir of St. Botolph's Church, Bishopgate. He went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music along with such contemporaries as York Bowen, Benjamin Dale and Arnold Bax where he eventually became a Professor of Harmony and Composition.

At the Academy he won the Charles Lucas Memorial Medal for an early work and moved on to become an organist firstly at Theydon Bois, Essex and then Christ Church, Wanstead and finally Esher Parish Church where he remained for more than 30 years. His work developed after he met and married the singer Clara Butterworth and he wrote a great number (more than 100) of popular ballads and songs in the style of the day. His song cycles include From a Lattice Window, Sea Echoes, Dream Songs, Calendar of Song, Old-World Dance Songs and Flowering Trees.

Phillips produced two piano concertos and a variety of orchestral works. His other opera The Golden Triangle does not appear to have ever been produced. He also wrote a symphony in 1911, a Fantasy for violin and orchestra, and a Sinfonietta broadcast in 1943. Overtures include Revelry and Hampton Court. His suites include The World in the Open Air, In May Time, Village Sketches, Dance Revels and Three Country Pieces. His Empire March was performed at a Henry Wood Prom concert in 1942 and the patriotic In Praise of my Country was given a performance in the 1944 season. He wrote organ and choral music, a variety of single movements and various piano arrangements of his light orchestral suites.

Phillips died in January 1969 at Esher.
http://www.lightmusicsociety.com/composers/?composerDetail=17

[Mark Thomas]

I'm mightily impressed

Yes, me too, it's a very fine piece which fully justifies its length. More than anything else, Phillips' writing for the orchestra is absolutely magnificent; such power, such variety of mood and colour. What I suspect will prove to be the lack of memorable melody is a little perplexing, considering his career as a writer of "light" music, which depends upon it so much, but despite that I suspect that this is one of the few works to which I will return even though after a gap of a few hours I cannot recall it in detail - as I do to Cherubini for example.

[minacciosa]

Indeed, reconstruction is exactly the correct term. An editor is taking the constituent parts of a currently non-extant whole and reassembling them according to received rules. the first outcome is never completely right, for there are inevitably mistakes both minimal and egregious in the hand-copied parts of little-performed works that extend from wrong notes to incorrect numbers of rests. These cannot be corrected until the first reading whereupon the editor must go back to the bench and amend all that was awry.

It's a big job and not at all straightforward.

[JimL]

Nonetheless, a complete set of parts is the complete symphony.  The job is essentially collating and editing the result.  I hope that the movement tempos can be found and added to the download at some point.

[Alan Howe]

Well, true. But don't underestimate the care and concentration with which the work has to be undertaken.

As for the movement tempi, why not contact Martin Yates himself, Jim? Contact details can be found here:
http://www.hazardchase.co.uk/artists/martin-yates/contact/
We look forward to hearing from you...

[eschiss1]

Given how often parts disagree with each other - in tempo indications, in accidentals (sometimes intentionally (Charles Ives to an overzealous editor: "The wrong notes are -right-!") but often more just a matter of forgetfulness), ... - collation is in fact editing work, not something with a single given outcome.

(Rachmaninov's 1st symphony was mentioned; in the opposite direction, parts had to be created for Rubinstein's 3rd symphony- apparently the original 19th century parts had gone walkabout- before a performance and recording (two...) could be made awhile back.)

[Richard Moss]

Mark,

Thanks v. much for the Phillips uploads. I've already got his piano concertos and was thinking of exploring his repertoire further, so very timely.

There is a current Dutton CD of some of Phillips' orchestral works including (according to the Allmusic data) two movements from this symphony - A Spring Rondo and a Summer nocturne.  The Dutton web-site merely says the CD contains (i) Symphony in C minor (no track details) and (ii) the Sinfonietta in C min (Op. 70).

Can anyone clarify if the symphony on the BBC broadcast relates to either work on this CD??

Cheers

Richard Moss

[Gareth Vaughan]

I believe they are the composer's reconstructions of these two movts AFTER the score (and parts) seemed to have gone missing. He retitled them as these two "symphonic poems" (if you like) so they may well differ somewhat from the original movts in the parts rediscovered by Yates.

[semloh]

The two excerpts of the Symphony in C minor on the Dutton MPhillips disc (Spring rondo and Nocturne) suggested a fine work. How marvellous to now have this recording from the English Music Festival.
Thanks to Mark, and to Martin Yates.