Harold Truscott

23rd August 1914 - 7th October 1992

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Chart Map

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 #51: letter sent from HB dated 1st July 1958.

[no envelope survives; the paper is blue and flimsy.The letter was clearly written down in a hurry.]

Dear Harold Truscott

How nice to hear after such a time. We are so pleased to read of such a fine recovery for Margaret & your family. You have not a lot of time for your writing in the Listener [no quotation marks]. I am sending a full score of the 9th. [something unreadable, but symphony is presumably meant] from BBC [no intervening full stops] this morn [? the archaic form may simply be a hasty rendering of morning] by reg post. I can also post you the Sketches of the 9th if they will help you.

You know a lot about my works 'The Gothic' [missing comma] 'The Tigers' & the fugues &c [i.e. what I interpret as HB's et cetera sign] so you are in a position of authority. There is an article in today's "Manchester Guardian" by Cardus you should see. If you spread [spread overwrote another now unreadable word] yourself in the Listener [no quotation marks] - please do not forget to mention my music dramas. 'The Tigers'. "Doktor Faust" (in German) [Doktor originally written Doctor; HB would certainly have been aware of the similarity of title with Busoni's great opera so his use of it for his own work is presumably intentional; no comma or full stop follows] 'Turandot' (in German) [again no full stop or comma] 'The Cenci' (in English) [again no full stop or comma] "Agamemnon" (a one act Tragedy on Aeschylus in English) [no full stop]

What caused the 9th I dont [sic] know - most of my symphonies are a growth from poetry or the drama - but I cannot really recall anything about the dramatic qualities of the 9th - except that they are there.

In haste & with all the best for you & yours from

Havergal Brian

[The last letter is from over eleven years later, written by HB on standard blue writing paper but in blue ballpoint. The calligraphy - not surprising in a man of then 93 years of age - is rather crabbed and shaky, the expression at times elliptical and pared to the bone as in the late symphonies!]

Letter #52: addressed to HT sent from HB dated 4th Sept 1969,

postmarked Shoreham-by-sea, Sussex, 4 45PM 4 SEP 1969.

[envelope is addressed to HT at School of Music, College of Technology, Huddersfield. HB's address is given as 11 Atlantis Court Shoreham by Sea Sussex with no intervening commas or hyphenation.]

Dear Harold

How pleased we were to learn so much of your musical activities from Bernard Tarshish a few days ago and my appreciation for your dedication to me of your 7th Sonata. Ever since you played a Sonata to me at Harrow I've talked of the impression it made on me when I had the opportunity to talk to anybody about it. Your analyses of the Symphonies in the Pelican wonderful penetration & wonderful to read & think about. [This refers to the two-volume symposium 'The Symphony' edited by Robert Simpson. HT contributed the chapter on HB as well as others covering Haydn, Schubert, Mahler, Sibelius, Schmidt, Rubbra and Tippett.]

So many things have happened since we last [written over the top met] at Harrow. Your family and moves all very difficult your children now grown up and mine very much settled in life. And us - well we moved about as usual [a full stop is implied here] We came here a year ago last January in a snow storm. This is a flat in a block of flats, which have an outlook on expanse of bush & the sea. We missed your broadcast because we have not a radio. Very sorry about missing such an opportunity. What a wonder is yours & our friend Bob [i.e. Simpson] - but he is a mirical [I'm unsure if this spelling is meant to allude as much to musical as miracle] worker. All the best wishes & love to you & your wife & family from us

Havergal

[Here the correspondence stops. It is not known if further letters were written (as seems likely) nor where they might be located. MM informs me that he knows - and may somewhere have photocopies - of letters from HB to HT during the 1951-8 lacuna. Others must surely date from the longer hiatus of 1958-69. As an appendix to this correspondence, here is a letter, not from HB, but from Robert Simpson at Broadcasting House. It is addressed to HT at the Pampisford Road address in South Croydon (the house name given is "The Lindens"). The letter is dated 8.ii.54 being postmarked the same day in London W.1.]

Dear Harold,

Yes, of course use my name - I hope it won't kill your chances! I heard your talk on Saturday and found it very fascinating - it could have easily been turned into 3 or 4 talks. Congratulations. I also heard Brian No. 8 and was impressed - I was able to hear only one performance. Opinions seem to be sharply divided about it, though I haven't discussed it in detail with anyone. No news yet of the Fiddle Sonata [this would be HT's Sonata no. 2 in G sharp minor, broadcast later in this same year] - I'll mention it to Harry Croft-Jackson, who runs the New Music programmes. What about coming up for lunch sometime? Could you ring me?

All the best to you both,

As ever,

Bob.

[On the back of the B.B.C. envelope in black biro, HT wrote, at a rather later date: "Before Liszt people used to play: after Liszt they pounded or whispered. He has the decline of piano-playing on his conscience." C.S.]

Index compiled by Tim Horwood. Entries in italics are comments on the letters. Normal text is the letters themselves.

'accompanying' for ambitious tenors & basses	12
'Adolf Hitler Strasse'	9
Aeneid	18
Aeschylus	51
Africa	32, 34, 36, 42, 45
Agamemnon (HB)	51
Age of 6, (HB)	28
Age of 12 (HB)	33
Allum, Walter	27, 36
'Amateur Gardening',	28, 32, 33
Anderson, Sir John	2,3
Augener,	3, 5, 16, 26, 49
B Minor Mass	6
B.B.C.	1, 2, 30, 46, 51
B.B.C. Broadcast	46
B.B.C. orchestra	2
B.M.I.C. British Music Information Centre	40
Bach 48	49
Bach, Johann Christian	39
Bantock, Raymond	3
Bantock, Lady	8
Bantock, Sir Granville	2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 16, 22, 39
Bax, Sir Arnold	16
Beecham, Sir Thomas	2
Beethoven	12
Berkeley, Lennox	16
Berlin	29
Berlioz	6, 32
Birmingham	2, 38, 39
Blair, Peter	33
Bohm, Georg	49
Bosworth	26
Boult, Adrian	2, 5, 20, 47
Bournemouth	1, 2
Brahms	12, 49
Brahms' Symphony no. 3	49
Brian, Elfreda	13
Brian, Havergal – Attitude to
Books on Form	9
Composition	11, 22, 24
Getting performances	2
write a Piano Sonata	20
write my reminiscences	20
Brian, Havergal – Compositions
Agamemnon	51
Cenci, The	51
Dr Merryheart	Intro, 1
Double Fugue in E Flat	5
'Fantastic' Symphony	22
Fantastic Variations	22
Festal Dance	22
Fugue in D major	3
Prelude & Fugue	3, 6, 49
Prelude in D minor	3
Prometheus Unbound	22, 23, 27
Psalm 23	22
Sorrow Song	16
Symphonies - renumbered	22
Symphony No. 1 - Gothic	2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 22, 26, 28, 29, 35, 38, 39, 44, 48, 51
Symphony No. 1 - Gothic ,Te Deum	16, 48
Symphony No. 2	20
Symphony No. 3	20, 22
Symphony No. 6 - 'Sinfonia Tragica’	22
Symphony No. 7	47
Symphony No. 8	52
Symphony No. 9	40, 48, 51
Tigers, The	2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 14, 16, 47, 51
Tigers, The - Kelly Variations	2, 18
Tigers, The - The Wild Horsemen	47
Tinkers Wedding	22, 40
Turandot	28, 40, 51
Violin Concerto	22, 24
Brian, Havergal – Life
Age of 6	28
Age of 12	33
Cellist	12
offer we made of £150 p.a (move house to Deal)	36
Organist	6, 12, 16
Piano playing	49, 49
The removal from here to Deal is impracticable	50
Brian, Havergal – Medical
fall over frozen snow	44
Fibrositis	41
Ulcer	49
Brian, Havergal – father	40
Brian, Havergal – Grandmother	29
Brian, Havergal – Hilda (wife)	4, 13, 15, 21, 24, 28, 29, 36, 37, 41, 43, 49, 50
Brian, Havergal - second daughter (Jean Furnival)	35, 40, 42, 45
Brian, Havergal – Son	10, 22, 37, 46
Brian, Havergal – Son in law	36,41
Brian, Havergal - Susan (pet dog)	18, 19, 20
Brian, Havergal - youngest & eldest daughters	32
Brighton	30, 50
British Council	1
British Museum	7, 8, 27
Britten, Benjamin	16
Broadcast	2, 46, 47, 52
Bruch	11
Bruchlaut	11
Bruckner	12, 29
Brussels	17, 18, 38
Busch, Fritz	3
Busoni	49, 51
Buxtehude	49
Canning, George	33
Cape, Jonathan	14
Cardus	51
Cellist	12
Chamberlain, Joseph	33
Chemnitz	9
Cheshire Parish Church	16
chest trouble (HB wife)	50
Chesters	26
Chislehurst	27
Chopin	16, 32, 32
Chorale Preludes	49
Chrysanthemum culture	28
Cocks & Co	16
Cocks, Robert	16
Composition	11
Concert Analysis	28
Cooke , Arnold	16
Courtauld	2, 49
Covent Garden	2, 27
Cranz	2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14 17, 18, 19, 22, 25, 26, 29, 30, 34, 36, 40, 49
Crockford	27
Croft-Jackson, Harry	52
Dagg	4
'Daily Telegraph'	29
Daniel, Samuel	16
Deal