…and what a wonderful, enchanted forest it was! Gathered once again for the last of the 23/24 Hans Keller Chamber Music Forums were the Lark and Havisham Piano Trios from the Royal Conservatoire Scotland and Royal Academy of Music respectively, the Talland Quartet from the Royal Northern College of Music and Quartet Concrète from the Guildhall School of Music. This time, mentors were John Myerscough ‘cellist in the Doric Quartet and Richard Ireland, Chamber Studio’s founder. Mendelssohn, Shostakovich, Haydn, Ravel and Beethoven all on the menu. So, let’s eavesdrop a little on some of the sessions….
I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, though, dear reader, what these three have in common. Yes, indeed, all are celebrating their centenaries this year so here at MusiCB3 we thought it appropriate to have our own little moment to reflect. It is, of course, impossible (and indeed unnecessary) in this little post to go into any great detail so this is simply a muse on my favourite aspects of their output.
On the United Nations International Day of Happiness, the goal of happiness and well-being takes center stage. The theme this year is “Happier Together“. Music is often associated with happiness and provides the opportunity to experience togetherness. So, let’s delve into some prevalent themes around the topic and take a quick peek at the happiness available in our collections.
Happy Saint David’s Day, or, as they say in Wales, Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant Hapus! Today on MusiCB3, we have a post from Sarah, celebrating Saint David’s Day.
Georges Auric spent his childhood in Montpellier, and started composing at the age of 10 studying at the local conservatory. He was something of a child prodigy and performed a piano recital when he was just 14 at the Société Musicale Indépendante. In 1913 his parents moved to the capital so that he could study at the Paris Conservatoire. In the year following his public recital, several songs that he had composed were performed by the Société Nationale de Musique. He then moved from the Conservatoire to the Schola Cantorum to study composition with Vincent D’Indy and Albert Roussel.
Georges Auric 1940
Having gained recognition as a child prodigy both in composition and piano performance, he became a protégé of Erik Satie during the following decade. During the 1910s and 20s, he was a significant contributor of avant-garde music in Paris and was significantly influenced by Cocteau and the other composers of Les Six. In Paris was regularly invited out, and by the age of 15 he was acquainted with Stravinsky, Apollinaire, and Cocteau (who dedicated “Le coq et l’arlequin” to him in 1918).
In the 1940s and 50s Auric composed several ballets and one of his most important works, the Partita (1953–5) for two pianos, although film music increasingly occupied him, his biggest popular success coming with Moulin Rouge (dir. J. Huston, 1952). “It’s April Again” (also known as “The Song from Moulin Rouge” and “Where Is Your Heart“) is a popularsong that first appeared in the 1952 filmMoulin Rouge. It became a No. 1 hit in the UK Singles Chart when recorded by Mantovani.
A respected composer before sound came to the movies, Auric’s first film score was for Jean Cocteau’s seminal “The Blood of a Poet” (1930). He subsequently composed over 100 film scores for numerous directors including Henri-Georges Clouzot, Robert Hamer, John Huston and Max Ophuls. Having heard on the radio this month that John Williams was celebrating his 92nd birthday having composed 75 film scores, makes me realise just how prolific Auric was! However, although he won some awards, Auric doesn’t come close to John Williams haul. Auric did however, win the Cannes Film Festival’s music award in 1946 for two scores, ”La Belle et la Bete” and ”La Symphonie Pastorale” and was nominated for an EMMY for Outstanding Achievement in Composing Original Music for Television – 1964 for Kremlin.
Georges Auric, caricatured by Cocteau, 1921
The Ealing Comedy years
George Auric is well known for writing the music for nine Ealing comedies after arriving in Ealing in the Spring of 1945. Many thought that having a foreigner compose for what were essentially British films about British eccentricities was in poor taste, but Auric’s appointment brought a fresh life to the film scores of the day.
By 1945, employing prestigious composers to create new scores for British films was not just a novelty. Muir Mathieson at the Rank Organisation had picked Arthur Bliss to score Things to Come (1936) and then engaged Vaughan Williams into films for 49th Parallel (1941). At British and Dominion, Paul Czinner had secured William Walton for Escape Me Never (1935) and two of Auric’s Les Six collegues had also made their British debuts – Arthur Honegger in Gabriel Pascal’s Pygmalion (1938) and Darius Milhaud in the GPO Documentary The Islanders (1939)
Some of the best known Ealing comedies were scored by Auric:
Hue and Cry (1947) First of the post-war Ealing comedies: a joyous boy’s own romp
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) A group of eccentric Londoners plot the perfect crime
Passport to Pimlico (1949) Cherished comedy in which a London street in Pimlico declares its independence
The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953) Ealing comedy in which the villagers of Titfield decide to run their own railway
In May 2015, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a programme about the music of the Ealing Comedies featuring the music of George Auric. In this episode, Matthew Sweet turns his attention to the celebrated Ealing Comedies from 1947-57 and the composers who wrote the music for them, including Georges Auric, Benjamin Frankel, Tristram Cary and Ernest Irving.
By 1954 Auric had returned to France. He continued to compose for French films in the postwar decades, scoring such classics as Du rififi chez les hommes (Rififi, d. Jules Dassin, 1955) a classic French Film Noir, and Lola Montès (d. Max Ophüls, 1955) which depicts he life of Irish dancer and courtesan Lola Montez (1821–1861), portrayed by Martine Carol, and tells the story of the most famous of her many notorious affairs, those with Franz Liszt and Ludwig I of Bavaria.
In 1954, Auric succeeded Honegger as president of SACEM (Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music), becoming its honorary president in 1979. He became director of the Paris Opéra and the Opéra-Comique from 1962 to 1968.He died in his Paris apartment in 1983 at the age of 84, having composed music for more than 100 films and television productions in his lifetime.
You can find a selection of Georges Auric’s scores, including piano music, ballet and film music at the University Library, and the DVD of “A Nous la Liberté” at the Pendlebury Library (DVD.F.46)
A question from a researcher recently sent me down into the stacks to search out our copy of Boosey’s Musical Cabinet, no. 158. This volume of the Musical Cabinet arrived at the UL in October 1873, and contains a collection of Twelve New Ballads by ‘Claribel’.
Don’t worry, dear reader, I’ve not (yet) taken leave of my senses. This is how Alasdair Beatson described the character of the allegretto second movement of Beethoven’s Piano Trio, Op. 70 no. 2. The New Year couldn’t have got off to a more inspiring start as once again the Talland Quartet, Quartet Concrète and the Lark and Havisham Piano Trios were gathered here at the Music School in West Road for the January Hans Keller Forum – three days of intense work under the benevolent ears of pianist Alasdair Beatson, cellist John Myerscough and violinist Richard Ireland. Where to start….?
On behalf of the MusiCB3 team, I would like to wish our readers an inspiring start to 2024. May the year be fulfilling and bring you many moments of joy. If you are reading this, music will undoubtedly be part of your plans for the year ahead.
During the last months of the year, the legal deposit music arriving in the UL music department often has a festive feel, as publishers start churning out the year’s Christmas music. For this week’s festive offering from MusiCB3, we have have a virtual display case of Christmassy legal deposit music, then and now…
…or in the dress circle/the gods/a box – whichever area of the concert hall is you favourite. For this little post I am once again handing my keyboard to Hans Keller in order to share a selection of extracts from some of his many, many programme notes – some short a la Webern, some rather longer like Bruckner. The note in question depended, of course, entirely on the commission he was given. Whether it was 100 words maximum or 1,000, Keller would fashion something both informative and at times provocative. So, here goes…
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