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Harold Truscott23rd August 1914 - 7th October 1992 |
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Letters 1 - 10 11 – 20 21 – 30 31 – 40 41 – 50 51 – 52 Index
From Hitler To Horticulture:
the letters of Havergal Brian to Harold Truscott
edited and annotated by Guy Rickards
(with additional comments from Malcolm
MacDonald and Margaret Truscott)
Letter #11: Postcard
addressed to HT sent from HB dated Sept 19th 1949,
postmarked Harrow, Middx, 6 30 PM, 19 SEP
1949.
[postcard
marked in pencil Manner of approach to writing about music. by HT. The
postcard
is written in small letters, very
cramped with the text continuing along the margins at right
angles to the main text; it is also
stained with age and the postmark from another letter.]
Dear Harold & Margaret
Thanks for letter & mss. This promises to be interesting & what you say in your
letter about the manner of approach to it - is, for me, the only way. Composition can not be taught in spite of so many official
opinions to the contrary. Yes - it is a curious adventure - your visit to
Denmark St. Yesterday being Sunday - I started on the Autumn clearing up in the
garden - which means a few days [sic] hard work. I
should be out of it by Wed or Thursday & as soon as it is over, I will
follow up your visit to Denmark St & see if I can clear up the mystery. I
once had a letter from Vienna [the next three words are
almost impossible to decipher] commencing Hr Bruchlaut! [Bruchlaut
meaning ' the sound of a crash' - or, in the medical sense of 'Bruch', 'the
noise of a hernia'! (I am indebted to MM for the
identification of this)] so anything can happen in this mad world.
Meanwhile I shall read the mss & I am sure of finding much to my liking. [From
here to the end of the letter HB continues along the margins of the card]
You say nothing in your letter about pears. They were sent
to your address last Wed & you should have received them Thursday morning.
All
good wishes to you both
HB.
Letter #12: addressed
to HT sent from HB dated Sept 19th 1949, [i.e the same day as Letter #11]
postmarked Harrow, Middx, 9 15 AM, 20 SEP
1949.
[envelope
marked in pencil Schubert essay by HT]
Dear Harold & Margaret
Tonight I have read through your Schubert. For me it is amazing in its erudition &
knowledge of Schubert - & others (How did you meet Philipp Wolfram? [sic;
the organist-composer Philipp Wolfrum (1854-1919) is
clearly meant; by meet - since HT would not have reached his 5th
birthday when Wolfrum died - HB would seem to have meant come across(the
music of)]) in such manner that I cannot get abreast of you. My companionship
with Schubert belongs to distant years. As a boy I used to walk miles on St Patrick's day to hear High Mass when
Schuberts [sic] Mass in B flat was [added afterwards, on top of the
line usually] sung with full orchestra. (The players were a scooping up of
local theatre orchestra supplemented by odd professional & amateur.) [It
is not clear if HB meant the odd professional & amateur, or
professionals & amateurs] As a cellist I
played in his String Quartets & his unknown orchestral works. [a colon
rather than full stop should be read here] 'Tragic' Symphony, 'Fierrabras' Overture and, as a conductor - the 'Unfinished' and 'Tragic' Symphonies
& Overtures. As a youth I did a lot of 'accompanying' for ambitious
tenors & basses - in all the songs of those days - 'The
Desert' - 'The Maniac' - 'Yeomans [sic]
Wedding'. [redundant full stop] & fifty others perhaps - but - I
never succeeded in getting one of those ambitious singers to take up the
songs of Schubert - though I offered to provide free copies:- they were
published by Litolff.
So it is rather long ago. As a
listener I never missed a chance of hearing his last 3 Symphonies [presumably
in 1949 nos. 6 in C, 7 - now renumbered 9 - in C, "The Great", and 8
in B minor, "Unfinished"]: the last was a very strong [could
be stirring] performance [added afterwards here, on top of the line
of the C major] on the radio. Yo The piano
works I am almost unacquainted with except the wonderful Duet Duo in E
Major [HB may mean here the Grand Duo in C, of which there
are many arrangements (including Joachim's orchestration of it as a symphony) -
MM] - I think: it was a great favourite as in an organ
arrangement in my time & I often played his 'Musical
Moments' as Voluntaries - in my early organ days. So your approach to him is
very different from mine. The essay is so wonderful & full of verve that I
make no attempt at criticism for the reason of the different approach. Though I
wonder if the 'influences' you discover are real in various composers
are intended by you to be real or unconscious. Of course times [added
afterwards here, on top of the line were &] are different in the 19th
[no full stop] & 20th. Centuries than they were in the
17th. but I think that Hubert Parry in his history of the
"Music of the 17th Century" - shows that different
composers living in different countries & not having any chance to know of
each others [sic] existence, were [added afterwards here, on top of
the line all] working out their salvation in the same way. So that you
might think a Neapolitan composer was au fait with, say, the work of a
Flemish composer - though he had never seen a note of the music. Anyhow it is a
pleasure to find you taking the same direction that I always dif did after
acquaintance with works of the Symphonists: Mozart Beethoven Schubert
Brahms Bruckner
for the three groups are so
dissimilar.
I will read it [added
afterwards here, on top of the line the essay] again before I return it.
Also, if you are unable to get a copy of the score of the Gothic
- I will lend you mine, say, for 3 months if that time (or less) will enable
you to swallow it whole. I really ought not to be writing at this hour of the
night - For I've had a tiring day in the garden. Every kind
greeting to you both
HB.
Letter #13: addressed
to HT sent from HB dated Sept 22nd 1949,
postmarked Harrow, Middx, 6 30 PM, 22 SEP
1949.
Dear Harold & Margaret
Thank you so much for your letters.
I have unreserved admiration for your Schubert &
think it ought to find an early publicity in print. I wish you had had a close
acquaintance with the Gothic & other Symphonies before
you closed your Schubert.
[new line, but not a new
paragraph] I shall return the mss tomorrow Friday morning.
I think the best way of realising your wish of a meeting is
to invite you both here - & I will do this as soon as it can be arranged. Margaret also asks how Mrs
B takes the loss of her family's departure. Well - it is some what [sic]
disturbing. My Elfreda was married last Sat week (Sept 3)
& the loss of realising that Elfreda Brian no longer existed as she had
done for 20 years had lessened considerably - until this morning when snaps of
the wedding arrived. So today has been quieter [added afterwards here]
than yesterday. I can say no more than - no parents of children are excepted
from this sort of thing. So there is only one way to avoid it. 'Don't!'.
Very
kindest greetings & wishes to you both
HB
[Letter #14 makes it now clear
that a full score of the Gothic Symphony was in HT's
hands, but whether HB's own copy or one extracted from Cranz
is unclear. The whereabouts of the full score of 'The Tigers'
now arises as a major concern; it was not to be settled in HB's lifetime,
indeed not until over 30 years after these letters were written. Letter #15
contains an example of HB's paranoia about snoopers.]
Letter #14: addressed
to HT sent from HB dated Sept 28th 1949,
postmarked Harrow, Middx, 1 PM, 28 SEP 1949.
[enveloped
marked in pencil Cranz - Gothic & Tigers, Where? by HT]
Dear Harold & Margaret
I am very pleased to have your
letter. When you have found your way about the 'Gothic'
score I shall be glad if you & Margaret can arrange
to come here & we will have a talk about it & other things. I do hope
that you are successful in finding a publisher for the Schubert.
Jonathan Cape is also another likely publisher - he has
recently issued a book on the orchestra by Nettel which I
have not yet seen.
The garden has
been occupying my attention for over a week and as soon as I feel free to leave
it I shall pay a visit to the Cranz agents. Did you do
anything with your proposal about 'The Tigers'? That is a
matter for me to enquire about - because the Full Score
is in MSS and I wonder, after the contretemps regarding the
'Gothic', what has happened to it. Mrs. B appreciates your
thoughts.
Kindest
greetings & regards to you both from
HB.
Letter #15: addressed
to HT sent from HB dated Sept 30th 1949,
postmarked Harrow, Middx, 3 45 PM, 30 SEP
1949.
Dear Harold & Margaret
When returning the Schubert mss last Friday I forgot to draw
your attention to markings on the cover. I dont [sic] remember seeing
any when I opened the parcel or when I first read it. But when I picked it up
to read it a second time I found all sorts of marks on it & a big thumb
impression on the foot of it. No man can be in two places at once and if I am
busy in the garden & Mrs
B is out with the Scottie - there is a clear passage for
the snooper. Stranger things than marks have happened here
when we are 'not in' - of course if the cover was marked before
sending it to me, this letter has no purpose. Wash out.
All
the best to you both from
HB.
Letter #16: addressed
to HT sent from HB dated Oct 3rd 1949,
postmarked Harrow, Middx, 9 15 AM, 4 OCT 1949.
[envelope
marked in pencil Gothic by HT]
Dear Margaret & Harold [the
first time HB reversed the order of addressees]
Although this letter is dated Monday
- today - I cannot get it in the post until first collection tomorrow Tuesday
(at 8 A.M.) Many thanks for your interesting letter. Your friend's discernment
may be psychic or instinct, or a guess - but - the 'Gothic'
is profoundly sad music - or, shall we say deeply tragic music. All my symphonies are (so. [The opening parenthesis here seems
to be merely a slip of the pen.] Let me tell you a true story. When I was a
youth & organist of a Cheshire
Parish Church, I mixed a great deal with the clerical element one of whom - he
had a lovely tenor voice & we [afterwards added on top of the line:
(he & I)] used to do many songs. [The clause beginning one of whom was
not completed, the aside concerning his voice having distracted HB's ever
perilous grammar totally. For the identification of the cleric see note at end
of letter.] His favourite composer was Lord Henry [??
Henry is the only recognisable name I can discern from HB's extended squiggle]
Somerset. He told me one day that a friend of his was
coming to stay for a week end & his friend had written lyrics for some of
the most popular song writers (of that day). So I met his friend & played
& sang some of my settings of Longfellow, Tennyson & translations from the German. He suggested
that he should send me a couple of lyrics & I should set them to music. I
did. He [undecipherable word crossed out with wrote substituted above]
& said he had engaged a singer and a pianist & had fixed up an appointment
audition with Robert Cocks - the head of the firm of Cocks
& Co - (Predecessors of Augener
& Co to whom the business of Cocks & Co
was sold). Eventually I heard about the auditions. Cocks told my friend that I
was the most profoundly tragic composer he had heard & my works could not
& would not have any commercial success. "If your friend wishes to
make a success as a song writer he will have to escape from his present
mood." That was my first venture as a boy. You will find the tragic
note in most of my published songs - my favourite is 'Sorrow
Song' [no comma or dash; MM was surprised that HB thought of 'Sorrow Song'
as his favourite and comments: 'he seems to have shuffled that honour around a
lot of them depending on who he was writing to and how he was feeling']
words by the 16th. Century Samuel Daniel. If
your friend was enticed by the 'Judex crederis, esse
venturus' of the middle movement of the 'Te Deum' - yes I
agree & you will find he is right when you get into it. Perhaps the most
intensely tragic music I have written. I think it was of that movement Bantock was thinking when we were walking together. He said -
'You know Brian that is your Magnum Opus & you will never surpass it - you
have completed your work.' He then commenced a long exhortation in Latin which
lasted from Langham Street to almost by Peter Robinsons [i.e. the department
store; the distance must be over a hundred yards]. I said - 'What does it
all amount to - I read Latin . [extraneous full stop but clearly marked]
but d- [this is a coy reference, I presume, to dammit or damned]
if I understand much when spoken.' He said - 'I am quoting Horace
who says - 'You have built a wall of brass such as no onslaughts can shiver or
wreck.' [This single quote mark terminates Bantock's speech as well as the
Horace extract. MM has identified this as coming from the Odes, Book III, No.
30, published in 23 BC:- 'Exegi monumentum aere perennius', etc.: 'It's only 15
lines long, but I suppose an old-fashionedly orotund delivery could have spun
it out from Langham St. to Peter Robinsons.'] I could tell you many things
about the Gothic. For instance - I discussed it with Ernest Newman
in 1905 outside the Post Office Hanley (Staffs) somewhere about midnight! E. N.
was then music critic of the 'Manchester Guardian'. His
conviction at that time was that the Symphony in the future would contract to
one single movement which might not be greatly dissimilar from the Chopin Ballade. . [two full stops clearly marked; the sense
demands a new paragraph here, but one does not occur!] I will think over
your request for names for the opera proposal. First of all - Dr
Vaughan Williams whom I have had cordial relationships with for
many years. Then Dr Joseph Hathaway [the Gloucestershire
composer referred to in "Havergal Brian on Music", Vol. 1, pp 365-6.]
who saw the opera during the war & wrote me to say 'The Tigers' was the finest of all English operas. Afterwards you
might get in touch with Benjamin Britten, Lennox
Berkeley [no comma] Arnold Cooke - Sir
Arnold Bax - whose name should follow if [in is clearly meant here]
order of seniority Vaughan Williams or if in alphabetical order Bax goes first
and VW. [no full stop after V] last. I can give you all the addresses of
the about above composers but Britten & Berkeley.
My
kindest greetings to you both
HB.
[MM adds:- Though HB doesn't name
his clerical friend's friend, the circumstantial detail leads me to the
conclusion that this is another version, and the fullest we,ve had so far, of
the story of the young HB's meeting with the young Gunby Hadath
(which we know from other sources took place at 'a Cheshire rectory': from HB's
mention here of being the organist of the church, I wonder if the meeting
wasn't in fact at Odd Rode, where HB spent a lot of time at
the sexton's house. The sexton seems to have been called Frank Vale, but we
can't be sure that he's identical with HB's unnamed friend here). The
'Longfellow' setting is presumably I shot an arrow, and one of the
translations from the German presumably Wanderer's Night
Song - but this is the first evidence that HB set more than one
translated German text at this time; and also the first mention I've seen of
any Tennyson setting(s?). The fact that Hadath (if it is Hadath) sent HB a
couple of lyrics confirms his statements elsewhere that there was a second
early Hadath song apart from Today and Tomorrow; and incidentally
confirms my guess that HB derived his texts direct from the poet (the subject
of Newsletter correspondence between MM and Adrian Ure).]
Letter #17: addressed
to HT sent from HB dated Oct 5th 1949,
postmarked Harrow, Middx, 6 30PM, 5 OCT 1949.
[envelope
marked in pencil Give up opera for present - can't get anything from Cranz by HT;
HB's letter is on very poor quality
paper, rather than his usual standard blue writing paper -
the ink is still green.]
Dear Harold & Margaret
Please let the opera matter drop
entirely for the moment. I went to town today & called at 8 Denmark St [no
punctuation] they there still are ignorant of both Symphony & Opera. I
spoke on the phone to with Dr
Michaud & got nothing from him. Miss Pursey died two
weeks ago - so the whole affair is a mixup. I am now writing to Cranz of Brussels.
Do you wonder I am a misanthrope?
Can you believe anybody or nobody - or are the Sons of the Spirit of Denial [an
oblique reference to Goethe's 'Faust']masquerading
as angels? I give it up.
All
the best to you both
from
HB.
Letter #18: addressed
to HT sent from HB dated Oct 11th 1949,
postmarked Harrow, Middx, 3 45PM, 11 OCT 1949.
[envelope
marked in pencil Cranz - Tigers - Band parts. Latin phrases by HT; poor
quality
paper again, as in Letter #17]
Dear Harold & Margaret
Thanks for your letter. I will do
all I can to help you or save you both from perdition. The essay projected
sounds interesting & when you are ready - just write & give me a few
days notice & I will arrange that you can both come & spend a time
here. About the Cranz matter there is silence & I am
somewhat surprised that nobody is surprised about it. Cranz of Brussels has not written - although I pointed out to him
that when the London firm published the opera - I handed to
them hundreds of mss orchestral band parts of the dances &
variations [i.e. the 5 Symphonic Dances and Symphonic Variations on 'Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?'] which cost me over £100 for
the copying. Apart from intervals of lying fallow he [i.e. Cranz of London
whom HB in an earlier letter thought might even be dead] never ceased to
write and, apart from the Gothic no attempt has been made
to produce any of the Symphonies. Perhaps the Cranz
revelation of the loathsome underground operations may deter [could be
debar] further large works. I want to know something more of the immortal
genius who wrote
'Sed
fugit interea, fugit inreparabile tempus',
& the still more heartsearching
'Sunt
lacrimae rerum: mentem mortalia tangeunt'.
[the 'immortal genius' here is Virgil; the first quotation comes from the 'Georgics', III,
line 284: 'Meanwhile time is flying, flying never to return' (transl. Jackson);
the second comes from the Aeneid, I, line 462. This latter
should read 'Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt'; HB's
spelling of tangunt is wrong and he replaced et with a colon.
This line is normally part of a longer quotation: 'Even here high merit has its
due; there is pity for a world's distress, and a sympathy for short-lived
humanity' (transl. W F Jackson-Knight), so the
re-punctuation may have been intentional to consolidate the meaning of the line
in isolation; a translation might run: 'For the world's distress: mortal Man
compassion', an intriguing point if the colon is deliberately suggesting that
mortal Man is the world's distress. I am indebted to Malcom Macdonald for the
identification of these quotations.]
In that age I feel at home: and I am
too far away to be cheated - for it is a world of mind.
My
best wishes to you both
HB.
Another upset here! Susan,
the Scottie, is in for an operation & it is a toss up
whether she gets through it.
Letter #19: addressed
to HT sent from HB dated Oct 19th 1949,
postmarked Harrow, Middx, 3 45 PM, 19 OCT
1949.
[envelope
marked in pencil Cranz removal March 1949 by HT; return of normal
blue writing
paper]
Dear Harold & Margaret
Thanks for the kind expressions in
your letter - dont [sic] take it too seriously about the journey
to perdition - all sorts of things go in & out of my head in these
troublesome days. Susan had the operation & is
recovering - but oh - the Vet should take out the stiches [sic] tonight.
She should get a new lease of life. There is a hope that the Cranz
things are not hopeless, but it is too soon to say what will happen in the
future. I went to town today & consulted my Society [well, Society is
what it looks like, but Solicitors is surely what is meant; added
afterwards over the top (Margaret Street)] & gave all particulars - So
[HB's capital] I do not feel as despondent today as when I returned from
town a fortnight ago. By the time we meet - the various odd hindrances may have
resolved themselves. But for you - it is likely I may never have heard of the
Cranz removal or Miss Ps [no apostrophe] death or anything else. From
what I was told this morning the Cranz removal took place sometime last March.
Very wrong of them not to inform me.
Very
kindest greetings & best wishes to you both
from
HB
Letter #20: addressed
to HT sent from HB dated Oct 27th 1949,
postmarked Harrow, Middx, 1 PM, 27 OCT 1949.
[enveloped
marked in pencil Piano Sonata - no appeal to him. Views on pianos in his
symphonies. Reminiscences. by
HT]
Dear Harold & Margaret
So far since I wrote to you there is
complete silence & it is extraordinary to be so after the remarkable
activity which began when I was in town last week.
I am sorry that your suggestion of a
Piano Sonata makes no more appeal to me than if you asked me
to write a concerto for that damnable crossbreed - Saxophone. I have
used pianos in the my third and fourth symphonies [these were, of course, renumbered in 1967
as the current nos. 2 and 3] - only for the dramatic amplification of the
orchestra & to impart a tone colour which the orchestra itself is incapable
[of is missing here, or else before which] - not because I wanted to see
3 women sitting at the pianos with their elbows crooked.
The insight given unexpectedly into
the position of my works should give you another glimpse of what humanity is
capable. 'Put not your trust in Princes nor in any child of man.'
When Adrian Boult
suggested that I should write my
reminiscences - I told him that they were better unwritten - for if they
were written nobody would believe them.
I hope you are both flourishing
& happy. Susan [HB's pet Scottie
who underwent an operation in Letter #18] is going on splendid. Her
recovery is a miracle.
Yours
ever [? this is as near as I can decipher this last line, but see Letter #21]
HB.