Hamilton Harty (1879-1941) Orchestral Works Ireland's major contribution to twentieth century music has been the continuing pre-eminence of its traditional...
Hamilton Harty
(1879-1941)
Orchestral Works
Ireland's major contribution to twentieth century music has been the
continuing pre-eminence of its traditional music, song and dance, rather than
classical music. Unless one includes the work of the harper and composer
Turloch Carolan (1670-1738), whose unique style drew upon ancient Irish
harping, traditional music and song, or the music of contemporary Italian
composers such as Francesco Geminiani and Arcangelo Corelli, the first major
figures of Irish classical music were the composer, pianist and creator of the
nocturne, John Field, and the composer and singer Michael Balfe. Following on
from Field and Balfe, the two greatest Irish composers of the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries were undoubtedly Charles Stanford and Hamilton
Harty.
The composer, conductor, pianist and organist Hamilton Harty was born in
Hillsborough, Co. Down, on 4th December 1879. His first teacher was his father,
and he studied the viola, the piano and the rudiments of counterpoint. By the
age of twelve he was already organist at Magheragall Church, Co. Antrim, and in
November 1895 was offered a new post at St Barnabas' Church, Belfast. He was
later to take up a position at Christ Church in Bray, Co. Wicklow, just a few
miles south of Dublin, and it was while he was based there that he received
much help and encouragement from the Italian composer Michele Esposito, then
Professor of Piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin.
In 1901 Harty resigned as organist at Bray in order to take up a post at
All Saints Church in Norfolk Square, London, although this was to last only a
week after he fell out with the vicar. He was soon to make his mark on the
London music scene, however, not only as a composer but also as an accompanist
of exceptional brilliance. Conducting gradually began to take up more of his
time after no less a person than Hans Richter asked him to conduct one of his
own compositions, With the Wild Geese, with the London Symphony
Orchestra in March 1911. Following this he was engaged for the entire 1912-13
season of London Symphony Orchestra concerts at the Queen's Hall.
Thanks in no small part to the advocacy of both Sir Thomas Beecham and
Albert Coates, Harty was appointed permanent conductor of the Halle Orchestra
in 1920, a position he retained until 1933. During this time he introduced many
new works by composers such as Sibelius, Bax, Walton and Richard Strauss,
although his own two 'private deities' (as he called them) were Mozart and
Berlioz. As a conductor, indeed, his name is particularly associated with the
latter composer, with whom he had a lifelong affinity. He also made a
considerable impression during his tours of the USA in the 1930s, developing a
close rapport with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Harty's many awards included a Fellowship from the Royal College of
Music in 1924, with Honorary Doctorates from Trinity College, Dublin in 1925,
from Manchester University the following year, from Queen's University, Belfast
in 1933 and De Paul University, Chicago in 1936. He was knighted in 1925 and
received the gold medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1934. Hamilton
Harty died in Hove on 19th February 1941.
As a composer, Harty was almost entirely self-taught, his method being
to learn from the great masters of orchestration. He is best known for his
orchestral music, which falls broadly into three main categories: programmatic
works based on Irish themes or legends (including all three works featured on
this disc) such as An Irish Symphony (1904, revised 1915 and 1924), With
the Wild Geese (1910), Irish Variations (1912), In Ireland (1935)
and The Children of Lir (1938); secondly, the more overtly classical
works such as the Violin Concerto (1908) written for Josef Szigeti, and
the virtuosic Piano Concerto (1922); finally there are his
transcriptions of music by Handel and Field.
The highly evocative tone poem With the Wild Geese was first
performed at the Cardiff Festival in 1910 and is loosely cast in a palindromic
form, ABCBA. Two poems by Emily Lawless act as a preface to the work. The first
of these describes the night before the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745, when an
Irish regiment fought for the French. The second (subtitled 'After the Battle;
Early Dawn, Clare Coast') witnesses the ghosts of those slain in battle
returning across the water to their homeland. Harty relates the three main
thematic ideas to a specific mood or emotion. A slow introductory theme, marked
Lento, depicts the soldiers bidding farewell to Ireland, the second
theme, marked Allegro deciso, portrays the Irish regiment abroad, whilst
the third, Meno mosso, tranquillo, represents their dreams of home.
The brief, rhapsodic fantasy In Ireland was originally composed
for flute and piano in 1918, with the arrangement for flute, harp and orchestra
made in 1935. The preface to this work reads 'In a Dublin street at dusk, two
wandering street musicians are playing', hence the prominent rôles for the two
solo instruments.
Before his move to London Harty had entered several works for the Feis
Ceoil in Dublin, an annual music competition inaugurated in May 1897. He
continued to do so even after the move, and one of several of his works to win
a prize was An Irish Symphony in 1904, a largely autobiographical four-movement
work that employs a number of well-known traditional tunes. In the expansive
opening movement, the longest of the four, two tunes are quoted, Avenging
and Bright and The Croppy Boy. The second movement, a humorous
scherzo which is often played separately, quotes the reel The Blackberry
Blossom and The Girl I left behind me, whilst the improvisational
slow movement is a lament based entirely on Jimin Mo Mhile Stor. The
main theme of the finale, in which thematic elements from earlier movements are
recapitulated, is The Boyne Water, a tune associated with Orange
marching bands. An Irish Symphony is rightly considered to be one of
Harty's finest works and displays to great effect his considerable flair for
vivid orchestration.
Peter Quinn