Haydn Wood (1882-1959)
It seems astonishing that a composer whose output boasted a
substantial body of orchestral works including 15 suites, 9 rhapsodies, 8
overtures, 3 big concertante pieces and nearly 50 other assorted items; six
choral compositions, some chamber music -notably a string quartet and over a
dozen instrumental solos - 7 song cycles and something in excess of 200
individual songs, should today be remembered more or less by just three of
those vocal items (Roses of Picardy, A Brown Bird Singing and Love's Garden of
Roses) and a single movement of his London Landmarks Suite - Horse Guards,
Whitehall. It's not as if his musical credentials were in any serious doubt.
Quite simply, Haydn Wood, along with others of similar stylistic ilk, fell victim
to changes in fashion and especially the sharp reaction against music which
preferred to concentrate on appeals to the heart rather than the head, as it
were (although, as will be heard on this recording, not all his work was
without serious import).
Haydn Wood was born into a musical family in the Yorkshire
town of Slaithwaite on March 25, 1882. Although his first name was pronounced
Hayden rather than in the manner of the great Franz Joseph, it was,
nonetheless, Austria's famous musical son who dictated the nomenclature. Just
days before his wife was due to produce her off-spring, the future composer's
father took himself off to hear a performance of - appropriately enough - The
Creation and duly vowed that if the new arrival were to be a boy, he would
christen it Haydn. The gender requirement being fulfilled, the promised name
was accordingly bestowed!
The young Wood was only two when the family moved to the
Isle of Man and it was here that he spent his childhood years. His innate
musical talents were encouraged by other members of the household and it was
from an elder brother that he began taking lessons on the violin. It was soon
obvious that his skills as a performer lay far beyond the ordinary and within a
remarkably short space of time, he had earned a local reputation as a child
prodigy. Before his teens, he was giving recitals and, in his later years, he
used to enjoy telling how he received what he then regarded as the ultimate
accolade - being invited by the Douglas municipal authorities to play for
holiday-makers for two weeks in succession. At that time apparently, no-one was
ever engaged for more than one week. Mind you, not all members of the audience
were overjoyed at this exception to the rule and the young violinist's mother
was mortified to overhear the comment "Heavens! This terrible kid
again!"
Wood's exceptional abilities were eventually given wider
recognition with the awarding to him at the age of fifteen of an open
scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he was able to benefit from the
tuition of Enrique Fernandez Arbos for violin, and Sir Charles Villiers
Stanford for composition. Through the latter's good offices, he was introduced
to no less a person than Joseph Joachim, who was visiting London. The great
Hungarian-born virtuoso was highly impressed with the young man's playing and,
on his return to the capital three years later, went to the College with the
express intention of hearing Wood once again. Another distinguished
violinist/composer who granted him a private audience was Pablo Sarasate who
also expressed admiration and delight at what he heard. Both men were present
at the special concert commemorating the opening of the Royal College of
Music's Concert Hall on June 13, 1901 when Wood was the solo violinist and they
lent their wholehearted support to the decision to send him to Brussels for
special training under the world-renowned teacher, Cesar Thomson.
On completion of his studies with the Belgian maestro, Haydn
Wood embarked on a world tour as solo violinist with the soprano, Mme. Emma Albani,
the most popular oratorio singer of her day. His association with the
celebrated Canadian artiste was to last for some eight years, but during this
time, composition began to play an increasingly important role and, amongst a
number of major works that appeared in these early years were a substantial
Piano Concerto and a Phantasy String Quartet, the latter coming second in the
first Cobbett Prize competition in 1905. He might well have continued writing
in such 'serious' vein were it not for his meeting with and, in 1909, duly
marrying the soprano Dorothy Court. It was for her that he started writing
lyrical, sentimental ballads that were eventually to overshadow every other
area of his creative output. He often appeared on the musical stage with her
and shared in the enthusiastic applause which invariably greeted his songs.
Although requiring little compositional effort - the refrain of Love's Garden
of Roses, for example, came to Wood one evening in 1914 while he was travelling
on top of a London bus in the Finchley Road; he quickly alighted and, by the
murky light of a street gas-lamp, quickly scribbled the tune down on the back
of an envelope - these vocal miniatures brought him considerable wealth; Roses
of Picardy alone earning him an estimated £100,000.
He didn't give up writing on a larger scale altogether,
however. The encouragement of the BBC elicited works such as the Violin
Concerto and the Philharmonic Variations for cello and orchestra, whilst
miscellaneous Suites appeared from time to time. In 1917, he tried his hand at
a musical with Cash on Delivery and then, twelve years later, contributed to
the show Dear Love, which was staged at London's Palace Theatre with Claude
Hulbert, Sydney Howard, Dino Galvani, Robert Nainby and Vera Pearce in the
leading roles. Occasionally, Wood would take to the conductor's rostrum,
usually to direct his own pieces - he was, in fact, given his own programme by
the BBC on the occasion of his 70th birthday - and, from 1939, he served as a
Director of the Performing Rights Society. His final years were spent
relatively quietly and he eventually died in a London nursing-home on March 11,
1959, two weeks before his 77th birthday.
SKETCH OF A DANDY: This delightful miniature, dating from
1950 shows, that age had done nothing to diminish the 68 year old composer's
gift for creating simple, pleasing melodies accompanied by occasionally piquant
harmonies. Wood provided his own brief scenario for this little gem of light
music:
Conjure up in your mind the gay nineties and picture a dandy
taking his morning constitutional down Bond Street on a beautiful day in
Spring. He meets one of his charming lady friends and exchanges pleasantries
with her. He reluctantly leaves her and strolls on his way.
SERENADE TO YOUTH: Scored for woodwind and strings, this is
another product of Wood's later years, coming just two years after the Sketch
of a Dandy, in 1952. Shot through with a sentimental vein reminiscent of his
songs and ballads, the composer could well be paying an affectionately
nostalgic tribute to his own happy childhood.
MANNIN VEEN: The title of this work, described as "A
Manx Tone Poem", means "Dear Isle of Man". It was written in
1932/3 and is one of a number of pieces inspired by the area in which Haydn
Wood grew up. The dedication is inscribed to the conductor Joseph Lewis who,
through his association with broadcasting in the earliest years of the BBC, did
a great deal to make the composer's music widely known. The piece is essentially
an orchestral rhapsody built on four Manx folk-songs and Wood provided a
background note to the tunes he employed:-
The first tune, The Good Old Way, is an old and typical air
written mostly in the Dorian mode. The major portion of this tune was probably
added about 1882, following on the introduction of Primitive Methodism into the
Isle of Man.
The second tune, which introduces the lively section of the
work, is a reel - The Manx Fiddler. Chaloner, writing in the middle of the
seventeenth century, remarked that the Manx people were "much addicted to
the music of the violyne, so that there is scarce a family in the Island, but
more or less can play upon it; but as they are ill composers, so they are bad
players".
The third tune, Sweet Water in the Common, relates to the
old practice of summoning a jury of twenty-four men, comprised from each of the
parishes in the district where the dispute took place, to decide questions
connected with watercourses, boundaries, etc.
The fourth and last tune is a fine old hymn, The Harvest of
the Sea, sung by the fishermen as a song of thanksgiving after their safe
return from the fishing grounds:
Hear us, O Lord, from Thy heav'nly
home above,
Though fierce the storm, protect us
with Thy love.
Grant we survive the perils of the
sea,
Father of Heaven we put our trust
in Thee.
After all four themes have been presented, they are
recapitulated, in the order 2, 3, 1 and the work ends in a grandiose
restatement of the great hymn tune.
SUITE: LONDON CAMEOS:
1. Miniature Overture: The City
2. Intermission: St. James's Park in Spring
3. Finale: A State Ball at Buckingham Palace
It is not entirely clear when this delightful Suite was
written, although 1942 seems a likely date. The music wasn't published until
several years afterwards, however, with the second movement appearing in 1953,
the third in 1956 and the first in 1957.
London is obviously a very jolly place, if Haydn Wood's
opening Miniature Overture The City is anything to go by. A robust idea,
announced at the outset, is duly taken up with relish by the horns and then
quickly seized upon by the muted trumpets. All is hustle and bustle, but there
is a distinct hint of rusticity in the ensuing themes, including the lovely,
lyrical tune presented by the oboe and violins. It may not be everyone's idea
of England's capital city, but it certainly paints a charming picture of the
way many people would like it to be.
St. James's Park in Spring also presents an idyllic aspect,
replete with attendant birdsong and a big, sweeping romantic theme for the
violins, while the finale provides an ideal excuse for a big concert waltz. It
has a most distinctive flavour, worlds away from the 3/4 masterpieces of Vienna
and quite unlike the many fine examples of the genre by Eric Coates. One cannot
be certain, however, that the regal inhabitants of Buckingham Palace would have
fully approved of this curious, somewhat bitter-sweet affair with its
occasional rhythmic upsets calculated to wrongfoot even the most experienced
dancer, and unexpected twists of melody and harmony. But as a piece of
inventive, entertaining writing, it is second to none and eloquently proves,
were proof needed, just how fine a composer Haydn Wood really was.
RHAPSODY: MYLECHARANE: One of the finest of Haydn Wood's
Manx-inspired pieces, this orchestral rhapsody - pronounced "Mulla Ca
Rain", with the accent on the last syllable - was composed shortly after
the Second World War. Once again, Wood supplied a brief background note
explaining the work's origins:-
This work derives its title from the opening theme, one of
the oldest and finest of Manx folk tunes. There are conflicting opinions as to
its origin. The general belief is that Mylecharane was a miser. On the other
hand, a well-known authority on Manx folk-lore suggests that the word may be a
corruption of Moilley Chairn, meaning "Praise the Lord". The composer
prefers to think it is the latter because of its choral qualities. The
subsequent themes are original.
Even when Wood is using non-traditional melodies, there is
nonetheless a strongly 'authentic' tang about them. The first 'original' idea
seems to hark back to The Manx Fiddler, which featured in Mannin Veen while the
attractive short-breathed hymn-like tune seems to be a none too-distant
relative of Mylecharane itself.
CONCERT WALTZ: JOYOUSNESS (NO. 6 OF SUITE: MOODS): Haydn
Wood wrote his large six-movement Suite Moods in 1932 and dedicated it to his
sister Adeline. The various moods of Dignity, Allurement, Coquetry,
Pensiveness, Felicity and Joyousness are represented respectively by a Prelude,
Novelette, Caprice, Romance, Spring Song and Concert Waltz, the last of which
is played here. This sturdy piece shares that undefinable 'Englishness'
associated with another fine light music waltz composer, Eric Coates -
something which sets it quite firmly apart from its Viennese counterpart. Tempo
certainly plays a part in that English waltzes do tend to demand a rather
quicker tempo than the strictly dance-related examples of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. While not as intriguingly wayward as A State Ball at Buckingham Palace,
there are still quite a few moments where the prevailing 3/4 is deliciously
undermined!
A BROWN BIRD SINGING: The composer made so-called
"paraphrases for orchestra" of five of his most popular songs - Roses
of Picardy, Bird of Love Divine, I Hear You Calling Me, Until and A Brown Bird
Singing.
It is easy in these cynical times to sneer at ballads such
as A Brown Bird Singing. They belong to a far-distant era whose values and
beliefs seem to us today (more's the pity) to be remote and unrealistic. So, it
may be worth recalling the words of one W.H. Glendining who, not long after the
First World War, paid tribute to Haydn Wood and his songs thus: He has
definitely contributed something which has beautified and helped the lives of
his fellow-men. He has given freely of the inspiring melody, his soul and
brain, and at a crisis in the history of this grand old country, ...he probably
did as much to encourage, to keep our morale with his music, as any statesman
or general. The Roses of Picardy will be fragrantly blooming, the Bird of Love
will still sing, and there will always be a Garden of Roses and A Brown Bird
Singing while a piano or gramophone or voice remains in this land.
APOLLO: OVERTURE: Of his seven orchestral Overtures (eight,
if one counts the first movement of London Cameos,), Haydn Wood chose Greek
subjects for three of them -Eros, Minerva and Apollo. The latter was written in
1934/5 and first performed on Sunday, April 28, 1935 by the BBC Orchestra
(Section E), conducted by Joseph Lewis, as the opening item of a programme
broadcast at 9 p.m. which also included an extraordinary miscellany of snippets
of Elgar, Verdi, Handel, Mozart, German, Gounod and Wagner.
This remarkable work begs the question: where does light
music end and 'serious' repertoire begin? For what we have here is a full-scale
concert overture worthy of - and, indeed, not a little influenced by - Wood's
teacher, Stanford. It is a powerful work written in the nineteenth century
Romantic style and scrupulously following the sonata form structure of
exposition, development, recapitulation and coda. A striking four-note figure
heard at the very outset recurs at strategic points along the way. The first
subject, a somewhat earnest theme introduced by the strings, is quickly driven
to impassioned heights prior to the arrival of the second main idea, a more
settled theme which moves quickly from the clarinet, to the violins and then to
the oboe. This is the material from which Haydn Wood proceeds to build his
imposing musical edifice, whose eventual conclusion in D major offers a
dramatic contrast to the minor mode in which the work began.
THE SEAFARER; A NAUTICAL RHAPSODY: Based "on Halliard,
Capstan and Hauling Shanties", and dedicated" in admiration to all
the brave men who go down to the sea in ships", this work was written in
January 1940. Various familiar tunes put in appearances, beginning with the
trumpetsˇ¦ and trombonesˇ¦ rendition of Hullabaloo Balay. Then the strings and
woodwind present Rio Grande and after a brief reprise of the first theme, we
hear the slightly wistful strains of Leave Her, Johnnie, Leave Her. In due
course, The Drunken Sailor, restores a little animation, with just the hint of
a hornpipe tucked in amongst the proceedings. Shenandoah soon follows as an
elegant oboe solo, to be replaced eventually by When Johnny Comes Down To Hilo,
strings, woodwind and glockenspiel to the fore. Roving is introduced by some
appositely meandering modulations and the Rhapsody draws to a spirited
conclusion with a brief pass-in-review of some of the tunes heard earlier.
© 1992 Tim McDonald
Adrian Leaper
Adrian Leaper was appointed Assistant Conductor to Stanislaw
Skrowaczewski of the Hallé Orchestra in 1986, and has since then enjoyed an
increasingly busy career, with engagements at home and throughout Europe. Born
in 1953, Adrian Leaper studied at the Royal Academy of Music and was for a
number of years co-principal French horn in the Philharmonia Orchestra, before
turning his attention exclusively to conducting. He has been closely involved
with the Naxos and Marco Polo labels and has been consequently instrumental in
introducing elements of English repertoire to Eastern Europe. His numerous
recordings include a complete cycle of Sibelius symphonies for Naxos.
Marco Polo and Murray Khouri wish to thank and acknowledge
Ernest Tomlinson for the invaluable help he has given this project. His
knowledge and generosity have been crucial to the quality of programming on
these CDs.
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