Messages

OK, just my 'vocal score' contributions were re-labelled 'complete score' by admins, and not 'complete vocal score' (eg. see Parry: Lotos Eaters).

Thanks for the link, very useful.

Thanks. I have a physical copy of the Novello edition of 1885 and considering this version was performed in the UK I am surprised that there seems to be no performing materials or full scores available to borrow - or buy! IMSLP have long used confusing terminology like 'full score' for complete vocal score and 'complete score' for god knows what! - it is always best to have a quick browse. Full score, vocal score and choral score should all be self-explanatory to musicians!

I have been trying to get hold of a full score (miniature/study/PDF etc.) of The Spectre's Bride, but it appears to be impossible in the UK. I'd be grateful for any leads.

It would be nice to round off this thread with some music, so here goes:

Grübelei by Rosemary Brown's Liszt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sLqPFw1rU4

The lady herself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpxV-zu7LnY&feature=relmfu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyEgYgy6OLQ

Actually, science would not start with 2 or 4.

Now, I did not specify which postulate you might begin investigating, only that science has to start with a postulate or theory. From what we know about RB, fraud doesn't seem likely. There is no evidence to suggest that the music was ghost-written (you know what I mean! as opposed to ghost-dictated LOL), and Rosemary Brown had never studied style-composition, neither had she advanced pianistic ability. A scientific materialist approach would then consider investigating 3), but then RB was ordinary in every respect except mediumship. So do you then reject 3 & 4 because it does not fit in with your world-view? If so, I concur with Alan's earlier point that your world-view then dictates the possible outcomes.

Composers have often described the creative process as being a kind of channel, receiving the music from elsewhere. And when one of the native singers of English folk-song was asked where the wonderful melodies came from, he replied, 'If you can get the words, the almighty sends you the tune' This common inner experience leads me to postulate that the Akashic Records could be a very real possibility.

I have merely added another postulate. I don't need evidence for one of those, if I had some it would be called a theory. Science starts at points such as this does it not?

So we have:
1) Fraud
2) Real communication with discarnate entities
3) Delusion - it is a neurological disorder triggering savant syndrome
4) The ability is a result of communication with the Akashic records

What we need is to hear some of the music. Can anyone help?

I did mean by 'genuine' that my impression is that she was not a fraud, but then I would have to be an open-minded sceptic (see My big TOE by Thomas Campbell) on who is really deluded: her or those who believe her to be.
I should have expounded more on my point about savants: if it is possible at all to display such incredible abilities because of a neurological disorder, might it not be possible for some individuals to do this by some other means, and having psychic abilities might be an aid to this? RR Bennett did spot the fingerprints of some of Brown's composers in the music she produced, so something similar seems to be going on - both may be accessing akashic records as clearly in either case there has been no study of each discipline.

I would propose a third possibility: that Rosemary Brown was accessing the Akashic Records. Having read Brown's book, she does seem genuine as others have said.

If you do not remember the autistic savant Daniel Tammet, do look him up. There were articles in the papers seven or eight years back, and I recall he featured in a TV programme about savants. Incredibly he could solve difficult mathematical problems effortlessly without having studied the subject. He saw shapes in his mind's eye which coalesced into an answer somehow. It isn't a huge leap to imagine that a similar process could bring a composition together.

Please read all of my post if you wish to understand my point. Harrison's daughter would have been about 19 when she died. Read the stanza putting yourself in Harrison's shoes. Listen to the piece. Heartbreaking.
Jim

[No - we hear the funereal 'one bell only' in the poem's sixth stanza.]

Yes, the Wiki link posted by eschiss1 is the same Julius Harrison. Two large-scale works - the Mass in C and the Requiem are still yet to have modern performances and recordings (though a broadcast of the Mass was available on this forum). For Boosey & Hawkes he produced the SATB version of Britten's 'A Ceremony of Carols'.

Here is another article: http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/archive/2001/04/14/Worcestershire+Archive/7764894.Worcestershire_s_other_composer/

As stated in the above link, Harrison could see Bredon Hill from a bedroom window of his home.

I don't agree with John France (though am grateful for his writings on British Music) in his article on Musicweb-international.com that Bredon Hill is more happy than sad. To my ears it is imbued with melancholy, but then I suppose you have to know it in order to receive it. I feel it tug at my heartstrings and have loved it since I first heard this broadcast. France states that the second stanza is the starting point for the piece:

Here of a Sunday morning
My love and I would lie,
And see the coloured counties,
And hear the larks so high
About us in the sky.

Yes, but this is a memory of what was. Surely one can hear from the music that this is a bittersweet memory of long lost days. He goes on to say, 'We hear...the bells of Bredon Hill playing in the orchestra before the soloist closes the work with a little phrase in the lower register.' No - we hear the funereal 'one bell only' in the poem's sixth stanza. There is a feeling of real loss, and perhaps this is a reflection of him losing his daughter in 1935 (Joan Harrison 1916-1935). The Mass in C was composed in her memory and took eleven years to complete, so this piece completed in 1941 is right in the middle of that period.

They tolled the one bell only,
Groom there was none to see,
The mourners followed after,
And so to church went she,
And would not wait for me.

Since a father gives away his daughter during a wedding service, this would be a poignant stanza for Harrison.
I would be interested to hear what others make of the piece.

Jim

Howard Ferguson comes to mind. A fine craftsman (e.g. Octet, Partita) he stopped composing when he felt he said all he had to say. I think there are barely 20+ compositions.