Foyle Room, British Library, London, Wednesday 1 May 2024, 2-3.30pm

Jane Manning and Anthony Payne in 1981. Reproduced by permission of the estate of Jane Manning and Anthony Payne.

Preparations are well under way for an exciting event here at the British Library on Wednesday 1 May 2024, celebrating the lives of soprano Jane Manning (1938-2021) and her husband, the composer Anthony Payne (1936-2021). Their archives were acquired by the British Library in 2022 so the event is also a chance to mark this and an opportunity to delve into the collections, exploring highlights and the many ways that the contents will be valuable for research.  

The event will be hosted by composer Steph Power, who knew and worked with both Jane and Tony over many years. And, importantly, there will also be plenty of live music too: with a mix of music by Tony and pieces that had been specially written for Jane. We are delighted to be joined by soprano Patricia Auchterlonie for this, together with Roger Montgomery (horn), Dorothea Vogel (viola) and Robert Manasse (flute). 

 

PROGRAMME 

Sally Beamish:  Buzz, for voice and viola  
Erika Fox:  Singender Steige, for voice and flute  
Nicola LeFanu:  Songs for Jane, for voice and viola 
Elisabeth Lutyens:  Lament of Isis on the Death of Osiris 
Thea Musgrave:  Primavera, for voice and flute  
Anthony Payne:  Leap, Skip and Chase the Song, for solo viola  
Rhian Samuel:  Trois Chansons de François Villon, for voice and flute/piccolo  
Judith Weir:  Don't Let That Horse, for voice and horn 

 

As a soprano of phenomenal ability, Jane Manning premiered more than 350 new works by composers including John Cage, Judith Weir, Harrison Birtwistle and Oliver Knussen (memorably creating the role of Max in Knussen's operatic version of Where the Wild Things Are). Her repertoire also included many 20th century classics by the likes of György Ligeti, Milton Babbitt, Pierre Boulez and Arnold Schoenberg. Anthony Payne was a highly-respected composer of music that uniquely combined aspects of tradition with modernism. He reached widest attention through his elaboration of unfinished works by Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams – especially his work on the unfinished sketches for Elgar’s Symphony No. 3. Both Jane and Tony founded the new music ensemble Jane’s Minstrels in 1988, going on to support the work of several generations of composers. 

As well as celebrating their lives and careers, this event will be a chance to find out more about their archives. Particularly rich in material relating to the performance of contemporary classical music in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Jane and Tony’s collections sit alongside those of other composers and musicians they worked with here at the British Library, all together providing a rich resource for researchers of this period. Tony’s manuscript scores and sketches for pieces are included of course – ranging from the small scale, such as the solo viola piece that will be performed on the 1st May, through to bigger orchestral works like Time’s Arrow (depicting the Big Bang and subsequent expansion and contraction of the universe, no less). The archive also contains an extraordinary set of letters to Jane from the many composers she worked closely with, providing plenty of insight into what is involved in bringing these pieces to life through performance. Alongisde this, sound recordings, diaries and other papers all help to give a detailed picture of contemporary music making in this period. 

The event is taking place at the British Library, in the Foyle Room (in the British Library’s Centre for Conservation, at the back of the St Pancras site) on Wednesday 1 May 2024, 2-3.30pm. Tickets are free but are limited, so we would encourage booking in advance via the website here if you are interested in coming along: https://www.seetickets.com/event/jane-manning-anthony-payne-a-celebration/british-library/2990149 .

A further announcement about the archive will appear on the Music blog once it is catalogued and available for researchers.  

 

Chris Scobie, Lead Curator, Music Manuscripts & Archives

Within Music Collections, we have an ongoing 18-month project to catalogue several archives of 20th-century women musicians. The project is part of the Library’s ‘Unlocking Hidden Collections’ initiative, which aims to make available selected Library collections that for various reasons, including cataloguing backlogs and metadata issues, remain undiscoverable and ‘hidden’ to users. The initiative places particular emphasis on materials relating to demographics which are underrepresented within the Library’s special collections.

The subjects of the two archives discussed below – pianist Harriet Cohen and contralto Astra Desmond – were near-contemporaries and had interlinked musical networks. Both were keen internationalists involved in various strands of British cultural diplomacy over several decades. Both were also esteemed for their intellect and partook in scholarly projects – for instance, they each contributed chapters to a 1943 book about Dvořák, on his piano music and vocal music respectively.[1] Their archives are quite different in scope and type, but both provide unusual and striking insights into the mechanisms of musical life in Britain across the first half of the 20th century.

MS Mus. 1917: Harriet Cohen Papers (Part II)

Harriet Cohen (1895-1967) was a concert pianist active from the late 1910s to the 1950s. She is best remembered today for her recordings and transcriptions of Bach; her promotion of new music, especially by British, Spanish, and Soviet composers; her 40-year love affair with Arnold Bax; and her fundraising and activism on behalf of Jewish and Zionist causes. Cohen was a prolific writer and lecturer on music, producing two books titled Music’s handmaid and A bundle of time alongside countless articles and opinion pieces for books and magazines.[2]

Cohen’s archive has a convoluted history. She died suddenly in November 1967, at the age of 71, and in her will bequeathed four trunks of letters and papers to the British Museum. The trunks contained some 1,900 letters between Cohen and Bax, along with letters from other ‘close men friends’ (as she called them) and prominent musical figures, and material formerly owned by Bax. It’s clear that Cohen considered these letters and papers to be of significant music-historical importance, and – once her stipulated 30-year embargo on the materials elapsed – that she wished for them to be viewed by musicologists. This first Cohen collection has been fully catalogued for many years now at MS Mus. 1626-1677. Cohen’s will also included donations of material elsewhere: her substantial art collection was given to the Royal Academy of Music, while individual music manuscripts in her possession (by Bax and others) were distributed to various universities and libraries. It is fair to say, therefore, that she carefully curated her own archival legacy and managed its destinations.

Not mentioned specifically in the will, however, were Cohen’s own personal and professional papers, which had clearly been useful while writing her memoir, and which it appears were in the process of being sorted at the time of her death. These papers went first to Cohen’s literary executor, and were eventually donated to the British Library by his widow in 2008, 40 years after the first Cohen bequest. This later archive has recently been arranged and catalogued as MS Mus. 1917: Harriet Cohen Papers (Part II).

One series of files contains a loosely chronological paper trail of her concert activity, with invitations, fee negotiations, contracts, travel itineraries, expenses receipts, draft running orders, and sometimes concert programmes. Another series contains her writings, lectures, and broadcasts on all sorts of topics: matters of musical interpretation and practical pianism; recollections of her work with composers such as Bax, Elgar, and Sibelius; lectures and debates on political and social issues. There’s a lot of correspondence – professional, personal, and political – with evidence of very patchy attempts by Cohen or an associate to order the hundreds of letters chronologically, alphabetically, or (slightly chaotically) by profession of correspondent; the final cataloguing order embraces these half-sequences, in order to preserve prior curatorial processes.

Cohen’s papers present an unusually full account of a performer’s efforts to advocate for herself and her career. While in-demand as a soloist, recitalist, and recording artist in the interwar years and during the second world war, Cohen’s engagements and opportunities decreased significantly after 1945, especially in the aftermath of life-changing illnesses and injuries. Letters show that Cohen would frequently ask conductors, programmers, and producers directly for engagements, or ask musical friends to pull strings on her behalf; copies of these outbound letters are found together with generally negative replies – some kind and explanatory, some short and blunt. Cohen believed she was discriminated against as a woman (especially as she grew older), and as a Jewish person who openly advocated for Jewish causes, which is very probably true in both cases. At the same time, Cohen was a complex and sometimes difficult character. Her proprietorial tendency comes across in letters to young Bax enthusiasts, where she refuses them permission to play works which she considered ‘hers’, and in remonstrations to conductors and organisations in cases where other soloists had been invited to perform ‘my Vaughan Williams’ or ‘my Elgar’ – with the possessive pronoun often underlined. Cohen’s mastery of the strongly worded letter was not limited to musical contexts: the archive includes an elaborate explanatory missive following a court summons for a driving infraction, and a letter to the Wine and Food Society threatening resignation as a member unless it addressed the prevalent sexist treatment of lone female diners in restaurants.

We may speculate that Cohen would not have wanted all of this preserved for posterity – especially when encountering occasional papers marked ‘Rubbish’ and ‘Discard’. Considering the Library’s two Cohen collections side by side inevitably leads to reflections upon the original bequest’s carefully curated presentation of an artist’s life and work – which ultimately revolved around her relationships with the creative men in her life[3] – and the much fuller, unfiltered and messy snapshot of the same life and work found in Part II. In the latter, the breadth and depth of Cohen’s own contributions to, and struggles within, the musical and political life of the 20th century shine through (alongside her Fortnum and Mason bills, cruise ship quiz certificates, and cat photos).

Concert posters from the collections of Harriet Cohen (MS Mus. 1917) and Astra Desmond (MS Mus. 1952)

MS Mus. 1952: Astra Desmond Papers

The papers of contralto Astra Desmond (1893-1973) arrived at the Library in 2022, along with a set of test pressings donated to the Sound Archive. Between the late 1910s and early 1950s, Desmond maintained a busy schedule as a recitalist and soloist for oratorio and concert performances (with occasional appearances on the operatic stage too). She was perhaps best known in her time for the Angel role in Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius – which she performed widely with the composer at the podium – and she appeared in the first performances of Vaughan Williams’s Five Tudor Portraits and Serenade to Music. Desmond made frequent broadcasts for the BBC when the corporation was brand new, and as its music programmes developed she contributed a wide variety of recitals, talks, and reviews.

The collection reflects the full range of Desmond’s professional activity. There’s an extensive chronological run of concert programmes, which documents Desmond’s evolving recital repertoire and relationships with conductors, pianists, organisations, and venues. Files containing lists of repertoire and plans for recitals demonstrate both her thoughtful artistic programming and her consideration of audience demographics. There are papers relating to her roles as vocal professor at the Royal Academy of Music (1947-1963) and her adjudication notes for major vocal competitions.

Among the most important and unusual material in the Desmond collection relates to her work as a translator. Desmond had a good command of 12 European languages, and strongly preferred to sing art song in its original language while also recognising the importance of English ‘singing translations’ for the dissemination and appreciation of foreign-language songs in the UK. She learned Swedish and Norwegian in order to promote little-known songs by Grieg, Sibelius, and Kilpinen in the UK, and went on to write important early studies of the songs of Grieg and Sibelius; she published ‘singing translations’ of Grieg, Brahms, and Dvořák songs, and, when singing in original languages, printed her translations in concert programmes wherever possible. Newspaper reviews of her performances by critics around Europe applaud her linguistic prowess and excellent pronunciation. Topics of song, language and translation were hotly debated among British critics throughout Desmond’s performing years, and this material offers an invaluable insight into this aspect of song performance history.[4] What’s more, as the difficult, complex and imaginative work of translators still so often falls by the wayside in discussions of creativity (musical and otherwise), it is unusual and exciting to have a substantial archival resource of this kind.

The correspondence series in the Desmond collection is quite small, but includes a couple of alphabetically-arranged files of letters from important musicians – including one short letter from Harriet Cohen, addressed to ‘Gwen’ (Desmond’s real name was Gwendoline Neame).[5] In turn, there is one short note from Desmond to Cohen preserved in the Cohen collection, relating to the Society of Women Musicians, of which Desmond was president in the mid 1950s, and for which both gave concerts and/or talks. Beyond this, paper traces of their many, illustrious mutual friends and colleagues point to the wider social networks behind so much of British musical life in the early and mid 20th century.

References

[1] Gerald Abraham, ed., Antonin Dvorak: His Achievement (London: Drummond, 1943).

[2] Music’s handmaid (London: Faber, 1936); A bundle of time: The memoirs of Harriet Cohen (London: Faber, 1969).

[3] Helen Fry’s biography of Cohen is titled Music and Men: The Life and Loves of Harriet Cohen (Stroud: The History Press, 2008). A reader may instinctively critique such a title in line with wider problematic tropes of understanding the lives of creative women through their relationships with creative men, of which there are no shortage of examples; however, this should be contextualised with the knowledge that Cohen’s own self-perception was to a great extent bound up in similar tropes, which she embraced – for instance, she would often speak proudly of her ‘life’s work’ being bound up with Bax’s compositions.

[4] For context on the politics of singing language and translation during the interwar period, see Laura Tunbridge, Singing in the Age of Anxiety: Lieder Performances in New York and London between the World Wars (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018), especially Chapter 2, ‘Singing translations’.

[5] At some point, Desmond also modified this spelling to ‘Gwendolyn’. It is unclear from the papers exactly when she took on the professional name of Astra Desmond, but it was in use by the time of her official recital debut at Steinway Hall on 9 February 1916.

Frankie Perry, Music Manuscripts and Archives Cataloguer

To mark International Women’s Day 2024 we are holding a study day on women musicians on Friday 8 March in the British Library Pigott Theatre.

The study day will feature a series of presentations and discussions by expert musicologists, performers, composers, and British Library curators, on various aspects of the lives and music of women musicians, ranging from the 18th century until today. This will include case studies on specific composers and performers; more general talks on their achievements, challenges and barriers they faced in their careers; as well as aspects of acquiring, curating, and researching women musicians’ archives at the British Library.

Programme details and information on how to book a free ticket can be found at: https://thebritishlibraryculturalevents.seetickets.com/event/celebrating-women-musicians-past-and-present/british-library/2915297

'Mdlle Jenny Lind as "Susanna" in "Le Nozze di Figaro" at Her Majesty's Theatre'. Wood engraving by Frederick James Smyth (active 1841-1867). NPG D45841. ©National Portrait Gallery, London.

Following the recent cyber-attack on the British Library, the Library has now implemented an interim service which will enable existing Registered Readers to access most of our printed music, music manuscripts, and paper-based archival collections relating to music. This service will be expanded further in the coming weeks so please see the British Library's temporary website for the most up to date information. 

We understand how frustrating this recent period has been for everyone wishing to access our printed music, and music manuscripts and archives, and we would like to thank you for your patience. We are continuing to work to restore our services, and you can read more about these activities on our Knowledge Matters blog. 

The Using the Library page on our temporary website provides general information on current Library services, and advice for those without an existing Reader Pass. Please read on for information about the availability of specific music collections.

Printed music

You can now search for printed music using a searchable online version of our main catalogue of books and other printed material. Online and advance ordering is unavailable, so Registered Readers will need to collect a paper order form from staff in the Rare Books & Music Reading Room and fill in the required details. Please write the shelfmark exactly as it appears in the online catalogue.

Printed music with shelfmarks that start with the following letters should be available: a-i, A-H, Hirsch, I, N, P, R.M.5-R.M.17., RPS, Tyson. Unfortunately we cannot guarantee availability, as an item may, for instance, be in use by another Reader. If you wish to gain greater assurance on the availability of a particular item before you visit us, please contact our Reference Services Team by emailing https://bl.libanswers.com/form?queue_id=2304

For other material, including printed music shelfmarks beginning K.,M., Mad. Soc., R.M.18.-R.M.27., VOC and INS we would also advise checking before you visit as some material is not yet available. The lending collection of modern printed scores held at our Boston Spa site is also currently unavailable.

Music manuscripts and music-related archival documents

Although the Library’s online catalogue of archives and manuscripts is not currently available, the Reference Services Team can assist with queries about these collections, checking paper catalogues and other sources. Please speak to the team in the Rare Books & Music Reading Room or email https://bl.libanswers.com/form?queue_id=2304

In addition, the following digitised copies of older catalogues give details of music manuscripts acquired before about 1900: Hughes-Hughes, Augustus, Catalogue of Manuscript Music in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1906-1909).

• Vol I: Sacred vocal music
• Vol II: Secular vocal music
• Vol III: Instrumental music, treatises etc.

Most music manuscripts and archives can now be made available to existing Registered Readers, including restricted category material, although some material may need approval to see first. This includes manuscripts with the following prefixes:

• Soc. (Madrigal Society Loan Collection)
• Music Loan
• M. manuscripts
• RPS MS (RPS printed music is available, but not RPS manuscripts)
• Zweig MS

As well as some music manuscripts from the following collections: Add MS, Egerton, Royal Appendix, Royal, King’s, MS Mus. The Reference Services Team can advise on whether a particular item is likely to be available. Please speak to the team in the Rare Books & Music Reading Room or email https://bl.libanswers.com/form?queue_id=2304

To place a request to see a music manuscript or archival document relating to music, Registered Readers need to collect a paper order form from staff in the Rare Books & Music Reading Room and fill in the required details, including the shelfmark (manuscript number).

For restricted items, both printed and manuscript, readers are encouraged to contact Reference Services via LibAnswers who can advise about applying for access to this material category. Please note that applications can take up to 3 working days to process.

Microfilms

The Reference Services Team in the Rare Books & Music Reading Room has a full list of microfilms of printed and manuscript music.

Digital resources

You can search for most of our digitised printed music on Google Books.

Early Music Online contains images of 16th-century anthologies of printed music in the British Library.

We regret that our digitised music manuscripts and electronic research resources are not currently available.

We thank you, once again, for your patience as we continue to work to restore our services. Please do check this blog and the temporary British Library website for further updates.

Sandra Tuppen, Head of Music Collections

January 2024 (last updated 5 June 2024)

Just before the end of his life, Samuel Wesley – the elder composer, 1766–1837, the middle of the three main Samuels in the Wesley dynasty – experienced something of a revival in his spirits. Since his adolescence he had suffered long periods of depression alternating with stretches of creative activity and success. In the last two decades of his life, however, two serious breakdowns, one following the loss of an infant child in 1816 (which led to his confinement for a time to a mental asylum), and a second in 1830 (after which he seldom appeared in public), effectively brought his performing and composing career to an end. But in the summer of 1837, aged 71, the shadows lifted, his powers returned, and he enjoyed a final flourishing of activity and of relative contentment. 

One newly-catalogued music score originates with the last major public event of Wesley’s life, and possibly one of the happiest. It is a score of a Fugue in B Minor for organ ‘composed expressly’ for Wesley’s fellow composer-organist Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), whom he met during the latter’s second visit to London in September 1837. It is not known exactly how the meeting came about, but was possibly arranged in advance by Wesley’s daughter Eliza, who is known to have met Mendelssohn on 7th September.  Wesley composed the fugue on the 9th, and the two composers met on the 12th, after Mendelssohn’s organ recital at Christ Church, Greyfriars (just opposite St. Paul’s Cathedral). Although it is not known whether Wesley played his Fugue for Mendelssohn, he did improvise at the organ after the recital. The younger composer was deeply impressed, but according to Eliza her father only said, ‘Oh, Sir, you have not heard me play; you should have heard me forty years ago!’

The opening of Samuel Wesley’s ‘Fugue composed expressly for Dr. Mendelssohn' (MS Mus. 1933, f.1)

The present manuscript (British Library shelfmark MS Mus. 1933) is most likely in a contemporary copyist’s hand, though an inscription on folio 4 is in Wesley’s own writing.  It complements his own autograph manuscript at shelfmark Add MS 35007, f. 99b. 

Wesley died less than a month after the meeting, on 11 October 1837, seemingly a happier man than he had been for some years. Mendelssohn, only 28 at the time of their meeting, followed him only slightly over ten years later, and at scarcely more than half Wesley’s age, on 4 November 1847.

The opening of a ‘Desk Voluntary’ in Wesley’s own hand  (MS Mus. 1933, f. 2v.)

Reference sources:

Olleson, P., & Pelkey, S.  (2001). Wesley, Samuel. Grove Music Online. Retrieved 5 Oct. 2023, from https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-60000202959.

Olleson, P.  (2004, September 23). Wesley, Samuel (1766–1837), composer and organist. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 5 Oct. 2023, from https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-29072.

Brown, Geoffrey Ernest, ‘The organ music of Samuel Wesley’, (Durham University thesis, 1977), pp. 168–169. Retrieved 6th July 2023 from Durham Theses, http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/9873/.

Dominic Newman

Music Manuscript and Archival Cataloguer

The exciting discovery of a previously unknown letter written by Michael Tippett is the latest in a series of acquisitions relating to the composer. The letter was recently donated to the BL and featured in an article in the Guardian newspaper. 

Sir Michael Kemp Tippett, portrait by J. S. Lewinski (June 1977) © National Portrait Gallery, London

Letter sent from Wormwood Scrubs (MS Mus. 1943)

The letter (now catalogued as MS Mus. 1943) was sent to Tippett’s close friend Evelyn Maude in August 1943. It was written while the composer was an inmate at Wormwood Scrubs, imprisoned as a conscientious objector for two months during the Second World War. Prisoners were restricted to a single correspondent and one letter a fortnight, but Tippett made up for the limitations by writing five packed letters.

Part of the front of the letter, showing the strict regulations for communication with prisoners,  as well as Tippett's prisoner number (5832) added in pencil in the bottom left hand corner. British Library, MS Mus. 1943.

Intriguingly, this letter is missing the top portion of one side, so we don't know how it begins - but the rest of it covers a mix of personal reflection, descriptions of prison life, future plans and long strings of requests. Evelyn Maude had lived near to Tippett in Oxted in Surrey, her son was taught French by him at the local school and they generally connected through a shared love of music. She was the dedicatee of his early Symphony in B flat (the manuscript of which was the subject of a blog post back in 2018) and a fellow pacifist, also helping to house and care for refugee families and evacuees during the war.

Evelyn Maude in the 1930s. Image reproduced by permission of Alice Nissen.

The newly acquired letter completes a set of five, with the other four already at the British Library (MS Mus. 1752, ff. 26-32). Although this one is undated, we can work out that it must have been sent on 2 August. It is the penultimate one in the sequence and paints a vivid picture of someone impatient to return to their life outside of prison. The letter includes plans for a busy first day out, with ‘breakfast + bath at Ben’s’ (Benjamin Britten’s house – Britten, along with Peter Pears, had visited Wormwood Scrubs the previous month, in order to give a concert to prisoners), followed by a performance of Tippett’s second string quartet at the Wigmore Hall and then straight onto Cornwall via Paddington station (the night train left at 9.50pm). There is also a lengthy passage about plans for the choir at Morley College (where Tippett was director of music) in the coming autumn term.

We are delighted that this letter has come to light, and extremely grateful to Alice Nissen for donating it to the British Library on behalf of the estate of Stella Maude.

Manuscript of the first piano sonata (MS Mus. 1926/1)

A few months ago the British Library received another important donation, this one the earliest known manuscript of Tippett’s first piano sonata. It is dated 1 June 1938, and at this point in time titled ‘Fantasy Sonata’, ‘op. 4’ (it is now listed as Tippett’s second official work). This manuscript helps fill in another part of the somewhat convoluted story of this piece. It was first performed by Phyllis Sellick (1911-2007) at the Queen’s Hall in 1938 (a recording was also made by her in 1941), then first published in 1942. A revised version was published in 1954. As well as the two published editions, the British Library already held Tippett’s own copy of the first edition, annotated by the composer with the revisions that were to become the second version (Add MS 72017). 

Also in the BL's collection is a manuscript copy of the piece dated July 1938, with fingerings added in pencil, possibly by Phyllis Sellick herself (Add MS 72016). The new manuscript dates from a month before that copy and includes a number of differences (most notably the change in note values for the last movement), all of which are incorporated into the first edition.

Opening of Tippett's first piano sonata, in the newly acquired manuscript. British Library, MS Mus. 1926/1.

The new manuscript (now catalogued as MS Mus. 1926/1) was generously donated by Kit and Jean Martin, who inherited it from Cyril Allinson, brother of Francesca Allinson, the eventual dedicatee of the piece. The donation also included a draft of a book on English folk-song that Francesca Allinson was planning (MS Mus. 1926/2).

Tippett letters and papers

The largest recent Tippett acquisition arrived at the British Library last year: a collection of letters and other papers, including several important series of correspondence, mostly from Tippett to key figures in his life, such as Anna Kallin, David Ayerst, Meirion Bowen and Francesca Allinson – dedicatee of the first piano sonata mentioned above. ‘Fresca’, among other things a musician and author (her book A Childhood was published by Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Hogarth Press in 1937), was one of the people closest to Tippett in his life. Without a doubt the most affecting item here is the despairing note she left for him before her suicide in April 1945.  

Tippett's 'dream diaries' are another particularly personal element to this collection – written descriptions and possible interpretations of dreams, compiled in early 1939 around the time that he was undergoing Jungian analysis with John Layard, himself a noted anthropologist and pupil of Carl Jung (Layard's book on dream analysis, The Lady of the Hare, was published in 1944). Among other things, Tippett used these sessions to explore, and come to terms with, aspects of his sexuality. Extracts of these diaries were published in Tippett autobiography, Those Twentieth Century Blues (London, 1991) but this will be the first time that the complete set will be available for researchers.

Cataloguing of this much larger collection - which also includes material relating to the promotion, marketing and commissioning of Tippett's music in the last decades of his life, as well as a small amount of sketch material - has yet to begin, but an announcement will be made once it is available to researchers.

 

Research materials (MS Mus. 1942)

Both the piano sonata manuscript and the collection of letters and papers mentioned above have resurfaced thanks to research undertaken by Oliver Soden for his biography of Tippett published in 2019. A small but important collection of material collected by Oliver as part of this research is another recently catalogued Tippett collection. This includes various items relating to Tippett’s early folk-song opera Robin Hood, including a draft libretto, a contemporary account of the performance and photographs. There are also copies of letters from Tippett and others to Karl Hawker, where the originals are in private collections or, in a number of cases, untraced. This material has been catalogued as MS Mus. 1942 and descriptions can be read in our online catalogue.  

An overview of Tippett manuscripts at the British Library

Like the collections of other 20th-century composers, the Tippett manuscripts have been acquired over a number of years - the earliest in 1971 and continuing up to the present day. The list below provides collection level descriptions of all the main Tippett items in the BL, together with links to the online catalogue.

Main collections

Add MS 61748-61804. Tippett Collection Part I. 57 volumes. Music manuscripts for most major works composed before 1977. Purchased from Otto Haas, 1980. 

Add MS 63820-63840. Tippett Collection Part II. 21 volumes. Music manuscripts, including scores and sketches for The Mask of Time, the Triple Concerto, String quartet no. 4 and piano sonata no. 4. Purchased from Otto Haas, 1986. 

Add MS 71099-71103. Tippett Collection Part III. 5 volumes. Manuscripts of New Year, Byzantium and String quartet no. 5. Purchased from the Tippett Foundation, 1992. 

Add MS 72001-72065. Tippett Collection Part IV. 65 volumes. Music manuscripts plus a series of 32 notebooks, containing sketches and plans for works and written texts. Purchased Tippett Foundation, 1994. 

Add MS 72066-72071. Tippett Collection Part V. 6 volumes. Early works, purchased from John Amis, 1994. 

MS Mus. 1757. 6 volumes. Material from various sources, including letters to Paul Crossley and Evelyn Maude, autograph score of the early Symphony in B-flat major and sketches and drafts for other works. 

MS Mus. 1765. Michael Tillett collection. 40 volumes of scores, papers and correspondence mainly relating to Tillett’s work as assistant and amanuensis to Tippett. Donated by the estate of Michael Tillett, through the offices of Schott Music, 2011. 

Music Deposit 2022/07. Letters and papers of Michael Tippett from the collection of Nicholas Wright. Purchased March 2022.

Individual manuscripts

Add MS 59808. String quartet no. 1 (first version). Purchased in 1976 as part of the Macnaghten Concerts Collection .

Add MS 61891, ff. 75-76. Discarded leaf from The Ice Break. Purchased from Maggs, 1981. 

Egerton MS 3786. King Priam, autograph full score. Purchased from Karl Hawker, 1971. 

MS Mus. 1858. Four Songs of the British Isles, autograph working manuscript. Purchased from Sotheby’s, 2018. 

MS Mus. 1926. Manuscript material belonging to Michael Tippett and Francesca Allinson (including Piano Sonata no. 1, autograph manuscript). Donated, May 2023. 

MS Mus. 1942. Materials collected by Oliver Soden during research for his biography of Michael Tippett. Donated October 2019.

MS Mus. 1943. Letter from Michael Tippett to Evelyn Maude, 2 August 1943. Donated, July 2023.

 

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Chris Scobie, Lead Curator, Music Manuscripts & Archives

To mark the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla we are highlighting some of the finest examples in our collections of manuscript and printed music associated with coronations in Britain.

Music in Coronation Ceremonies

Music has formed an important part in coronation ceremonies throughout English, and later British, history. The musical selection for each coronation has varied through the centuries, with newly commissioned works and coronation anthems by prominent composers featuring alongside many other sacred and secular pieces. Not only does the music contribute to the grandeur and splendour of the ceremony as a whole, it also plays an important liturgical role in the religious service at the heart of the ceremony, with certain pieces traditionally being performed in specific parts of it.

Coronation Music

Handel’s Coronation Anthems

Arguably the most well-known piece associated with the coronation ceremony is George Frideric Handel’s ‘Zadok the Priest’. One of a series of four anthems Handel composed for the coronation of King George II and Queen Caroline in 1727, it has been performed at every coronation since then. Handel’s autograph manuscripts of all four anthems are held in the Royal Music Library at the British Library.

‘Zadok the Priest’ is scored for SATB chorus and an orchestra consisting of strings, oboes, bassoons, trumpets, timpani and basso continuo. The words are drawn from the first Book of Kings (1 Kings 1:38-40), a text that describes the anointing of Solomon as King by the Priests Zadok and Nathan, an act mirrored in the anointing of the new monarch at the solemn heart of the coronation service itself. Handel’s anthem is fittingly performed at this moment in the proceedings.

Reproduced below is a page from Handel’s manuscript showing the opening section of the anthem with the words ‘God Save the King’. The manuscript in full can be viewed on our Digitised Manuscripts website. 

British Library R.M.20.h.5, f.5r. Zadok the Priest, HWV 258.

 

You can also follow the opening pages of the manuscript together with the music below:

G.F. Handel: 'Zadok the Priest', HWV 258. Music licensed courtesy of Naxos Music. Catalogue no. 8.578072.

At King George II and Queen Caroline’s ceremony, Handel’s other coronation anthems were sung during the Recognition part of the service (‘The King shall rejoice’), the Inthronisation (‘Let thy hand be strengthened’) and the coronation of the Queen (‘My heart is inditing’). ‘My heart is inditing’ was also set to music by other composers for the crowning of a Queen Consort, such as Henry Purcell (1659-1695) who composed this anthem for the coronation of Queen Mary of Modena in 1685 and William Boyce (1711-1779) who composed the anthem for the coronation of Queen Charlotte in 1761.

Although it was not written for use in coronation ceremonies, Handel’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ from Messiah also featured in several coronations, from that of George IV (1821) onwards.

The opening page of G.F. Handel’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ from Messiah. British Library R.M.20.f.2, f. 100r.

Elgar’s Coronation music

Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) composed a number of works for the coronations of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1902, and King George V and Queen Mary in 1911, although not all of them were actually performed during the coronation ceremonies. These included the Coronation Ode op. 44 composed in 1902, the Coronation March op. 65 and the anthem ‘O hearken thou’ composed in 1911. His Military Marches op. 39 (‘Pomp and Circumstance’) were also performed at the coronations of George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937 (no.1), and Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 (nos. 1, 2 and 4), where also the Variation no.9 (‘Nimrod’) from his famous ‘Enigma’ variations op. 36, was heard before the coronation service. Shown below is the title and opening page from the autograph manuscript of Elgar’s anthem ‘O hearken thou’, in a version for voices and organ accompaniment:

 

Title and first page from the vocal score of Edward Elgar’s anthem ‘O hearken thou’ in the composer’s hand. British Library Add MS 58049, f. 5r-v.

The coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra also included a new setting for the coronation anthem ‘I was glad’ by Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918). An anthem based on these words is traditionally sung during the monarch’s entrance into Westminster Abbey, and has been set to music by a number of composers, including William Boyce (1711-1779) and Thomas Attwood (1765-1838). Parry’s setting has been used in every coronation since its performance at the coronation of King Edward VII (1902).

Title and opening page from the 1902 Novello edition of Hubert Parry’s coronation anthem ‘I was glad’. British Library: F.231.r.(28.).

 

Vaughan Williams’s coronation music

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) composed his Festival Te Deum for chorus, organ and orchestra for the coronation of King George VI on 12 May 1937. It was based on traditional themes and was performed during the procession from the throne into St. Edward’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey. Shown below is the opening page of the full score in Vaughan Williams’s hand.

Opening page from Ralph Vaughan William’s Festival Te Deum. British Library Add MS 50459. © Oxford University Press. Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press.

Vaughan Williams’s music also featured prominently in the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953. The service included the ‘Creed’ and ‘Sanctus’ from his Mass in G minor (Add MS 50443-50444) originally composed in 1920-1921, and he also composed the congregational hymn ‘All people that on earth do dwell’, and the anthem for voices only ‘O taste and see’.

Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation also included William Walton’s (1902-1983) Te Deum Laudamus, for double chorus, semi-chorus, organ and orchestra, which was especially composed for her coronation. It was performed in the same position in the proceedings that Vaughan Williams’s Festival Te Deum was performed for the coronation of King George VI, during the procession into St. Edward’s Chapel. Below are reproduced the title and opening page from Walton’s autograph manuscript:

 
Sir William Walton: Te Deum Laudamus in D. British Library Add MS 47898, ff.1r-v. © Oxford University Press. Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press.

Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation additionally included the anthem 'I will not leave you comfortless’ ('Nos vos relinquam orphanos') for solo voices by William Byrd (ca. 1540-1623), whose 400th anniversary is celebrated this year. Below is a page from the soprano (cantus) part of this piece in the original Latin version ‘Non vos relinquam orphanos’:

William Byrd’s ‘Non vos relinquam orphanos’ from his Gradualia published in London in 1607. Cantus primus part. British Library, K.2.f.6.

‘God Save the King’

We also hold in our collection what is believed to be the earliest surviving manuscript of the words and music of what has since become Britain’s national anthem. Although the words and tune are anonymous, the anthem has been arranged and harmonised by numerous composers since it first became known in the mid-18th century. The arrangement shown below is in the hand of the composer Thomas Arne (1710-1778) and was sung at Drury Lane Theatre in London in 1745. The words are slightly different from the established version and include mention of the king at the time, George II. Historically, it was not uncommon for the national anthem to mention the name of the King or Queen.

‘God bless our noble King’ in the hand of Thomas Arne harmonized for 3-part chorus, with instrumental accompaniment. British Library Add MS 29370 ff. 114r-v.

 

Dr Loukia Drosopoulou, Curator, Music

References

Matthias Range, Music and Ceremonial at British Coronations: from James I to Elizabeth II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Anselm Hughes, ‘Music of the Coronation over a Thousand Years, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 79th Session, May 1953, pp. 81-100.

Janet Leeper, ‘Coronation Music’, The Contemporary Review, volume 151, January 1937, pp. 554-562.

The 1st of April 2023 marks 100 years since the birth of Oliver Wray (Tim) Neighbour (1923-2015) former Music Librarian of the British Library, scholar and Library benefactor, who is fondly remembered by his former colleagues.

Tim began working at the British Museum Library as a cataloguer in 1946. He became Assistant Keeper in the Music Room in 1951, and was Music Librarian from 1976 until his retirement in 1985. His work was focused on building up the printed music collections (music manuscripts at that time were the responsibility of the Department of Manuscripts), adding appropriately to the existing collections. As his musicological knowledge informed this collection development activity, so his librarian's intimate knowledge of sources informed his scholarly writing. His publications include works on the consort and keyboard music of William Byrd, and the music of composers as varied as Orlando Gibbons, Richard Wagner, Arnold Schoenberg and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

During his time as Head of the Music department, he also oversaw the publication of the 62 volumes of The Catalogue of Printed Music in the British Library to 1980 (London: K.G. Saur, 1981-1987). This important work was the first published catalogue of the printed music collections, whose converted entries form the bulk of the records for printed music resources in the current online catalogue.

Tim Neighbour in the Music Room at the British Museum in 1998 [?] Photo: Robert Parker

During and after his tenure as Music Librarian, Tim was gradually building up a private collection of music manuscripts, which he left to the Library in his will; this collection includes autograph manuscripts of Corelli, Clementi, Puccini, Debussy, Coleridge-Taylor, Britten, Lutyens, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and many other composers. He also made a significant bequest to the British Library for the purchase of printed and manuscript music.

Tim's dedication to the British Library's music collections continued well beyond his retirement, as he transferred seamlessly to a Voluntary Assistant role and continued to attend every working day. Current members of the music teams have memories of him dating from the 1990s and 2000s.  Tim walked from his home in Marylebone to the Library every morning.  His arrival (at 10.34 precisely) was the signal for all who were so inclined to take a coffee break, where work matters might be discussed, along with other wide-ranging topics; from plans for walking and bird-watching holidays on the Isle of Skye (Tim was a keen ornithologist), to the merits of Alice in Wonderland, to the best method of drying clothes in a London flat, to the difference between the Catalogue of Printed Music's 'suppositious' and 'supposititious' works. He would then spend the rest of the day at work in the music office, lending his expertise to curatorial selection decisions and carrying out other projects.

At this time Tim chose to contribute through his existing specialist knowledge rather than spend time learning new technologies. He never embraced email as a means of communication; instead, explanatory notes were written in small neat handwriting with one of his selection of improbably short pencils. To copy him in to an email correspondence meant laying a printed copy of the relevant email on his desk!

Tim was always encouraging to colleagues and willing to share his detailed knowledge of the music collections and the quirks of their history. He was a familiar figure at social gatherings and outings, which he enjoyed, and was always interested in his colleagues' lives and activities, inquiring kindly after family members. We join his family and friends in remembering him with affection at this time.

Caroline Shaw, Music Cataloguing and Processing Team Manager

Further reading

Chesser, Richard. “Oliver Wray ‘Tim’ Neighbour (1923–2015)”, Fontes Artis Musicae, vol. 62, no. 4, 2015, pp. 349–51. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24578452. Accessed 27 Mar. 2023.

Shenton, Kenneth. ‘Oliver Neighbour: Versatile librarian and scholar who played a vital role in raising musicological standards in postwar Britain’, The Independent, Thursday 26 March 2015. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/oliver-neighbour-versatile-librarian-and-scholar-who-played-a-vital-role-in-raising-musicological-standards-in-postwar-britain-10134085.html. Accessed 27 Mar. 2023.