RISM UK is pleased to announce the launch of the new RISM UK Catalogue.

The catalogue is a subset of the international RISM Online Catalogue of Musical Sources. It contains all data from that resource on printed and manuscript music held in British libraries and archives, and pulls data directly from the international database to ensure it remains up-to-date.  We hope it will be of value and interest to researchers wanting to locate sources of printed and manuscript music held in repositories in Britain.

The catalogue illustrates the rich resource of historic music materials that have been preserved in Britain. The information held can be searched in traditional ways, such as by composer and title, and also by the incipits of the musical notation.  A new feature makes it possible to identify and locate unica - printed editions that survive in single copies only. It is also possible to define the date ranges of searches more precisely than was possible before. Data from search results can be freely downloaded in simple CSV format, allowing researchers to reuse the information for their own purposes.  The database also provides access to digitised images, where they are available, from participating libraries via IIIF.

The new interface has been funded by the Strategic Knowledge Exchange Initiative at Royal Holloway, University of London. You can find out more about the RISM UK database at the Royal Holloway’s School of Music Research Projects and Centres pages.

Future projects

RISM UK in partnership with Royal Holloway, University of London, is currently completing a scoping study of the potential for further cataloguing projects involving music manuscripts and printed music in county record offices and other archives across the UK.

Work by postgraduate researchers Micah Neale and James Ritzema, supervised by Stephen Rose and Sandra Tuppen, has uncovered large holdings in county record offices especially of parish church music manuscripts from the 18th century, manuscripts of vernacular dance tunes, teaching manuscripts for learner musicians, and fragments of medieval music in the bindings of later volumes.

This scoping study is funded by the Strategic Knowledge Exchange Initiative at Royal Holloway, University of London.

We would also be very pleased to hear from holders of material within RISM’s scope who would be interested in adding its details to the database. Please contact Caroline Shaw, Secretary of the RISM (UK) Trust: [email protected] if you would like to be involved.

It was with characteristic self-deprecation that Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) – whose birthday is today, 12th October – reacted to Boosey & Hawkes’ proposed republication of two pieces that he had written 30 years before: [1] ‘These youthful indiscretions were a great shock to me’, he wrote. [2]’.

The ‘Two Old Airs’, arrangements of German folk-melodies for voice and piano, were now rather too old for the composer’s liking.  They dated from the early 1900s, about the time of his involvement in the English folk-song revival, and before his studies with Maurice Ravel were to lend his music the distinctive textures he wryly called ‘French polish’. By 1933, the time of this letter, his style had undergone considerable development — this was the discordant era of the furious Fourth Symphony (Add MS 50140) and ‘Job: A Masque for Dancing’ (Add MS 54326) — so the composer’s opinion of the early pieces was rather lower than Leslie Boosey’s (1887–1979), and he was anxious that they should not be mistaken for new work.  ‘I am not very proud of them’, was Vaughan Williams’s verdict; ‘If you do decide to issue them I must insist that the date of composition must be printed on the copy’. [3]  Boosey agreed, and the songs were re-issued later that year.

Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams (in the hand of his wife Adeline, signed by Ralph) to Leslie Boosey, probably 13 August 1933, regarding the re-issue of another previously-published work: ‘Rondel’, composed in 1896: ‘I have no objection to your issuing the songs if, as I say, the date of composition is printed on the copies. […] There is nothing particularly wrong with them technically – they are only, to me, rather characterless’. MS Mus. 1813/2/1/281/8. © The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust. Reproduced by kind permission of The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust.

Boosey & Hawkes Ltd. were not the main publishers of Vaughan Williams's music, their rights being mainly in his early chamber works, but their archive (MS Mus. 1813) nevertheless holds a number of his letters.  Many, like the above, concern mainly formalities: rights, reprints or new arrangements of works for different instruments.  (This kind of correspondence was continued after the composer’s death by his widow Ursula).  Other exchanges, however, shed interesting light on both Vaughan Williams’s life and the publisher’s role in the musical world.  In May 1938, for instance, Vaughan Williams wrote to Leslie Boosey with an unusual request:

Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Boosey, 16 May 1938. MS Mus. 1813/2/1/219/8. © The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust. Reproduced by kind permission of The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust.

Can you help me with some advice — I have been asked to arrange the music for a pageant — one scene is a garden party in 1900 — Could you find out from your records what were the popular songs about 1895 (I had better ante-date it a bit)

— (1) what a military band at a party would be likely to be playing?

— (2) what a young lady would be likely to sing when asked for a song with piano accomp[animent]?

— It will be very kind of you if you can help me in this [4]

Vaughan Williams would surely have had a fairly good idea of these things himself, but evidently wished to be sure of historical accuracy.   The pageant in question, a collaborative effort between several composers entitled 'England's Pleasant Land' (Add MS 57290-57291) was performed two months later at Milton Court near Dorking, with Vaughan Williams conducting. [5]  It depicted the phemonena old and new that have threatened the peace of the English countryside and the freedom of its people: land enclosures, industrialisation and wanton urban growth.  Interestingly, some of the themes Vaughan Williams composed for this pageant later reappeared, in transfigured form, in the much-loved Fifth Symphony (1943) (Add MS 50371-50372) whose serenity was to bring such peace and consolation to war-battered Britain.

Letter from Vaughan Williams (in the hand of his wife Adeline, signed by Ralph) to Leslie Boosey, 31 October 1940. MS Mus. 1813/2/1/281/6. © The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust. Reproduced by kind permission of The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust

Vaughan Williams's involvement in the war effort (in both World Wars) is well-known.  One form his service took during the Second was his chairmanship of a board which sought to aid foreign-born musicians interned in Britain as 'Enemy Aliens'.  The policy of internment, though precautionary in intention, inevitably resulted in the imprisonment of innocent people, many of whom had moved to Britain precisely in fear or defiance of Nazism.  Several times Vaughan Williams sent lists of names to Leslie Boosey, asking if he knew them well enough to be able to attest to their character.  The favour was to be repaid when the same board helped to secure the release of three of Boosey's own staff — Erwin Stein, Alfred Kalmus and Ernst Roth — after they were interned in July 1940.  (For more about this tale, see this blog [https://blogs.bl.uk/music/2020/05/ernst-roth-and-the-business-of-music.html]).

Copy letter from Leslie Boosey to Ralph Vaughan Williams, 11 October 1940. ‘I am afraid there are some very stupid people in charge of [affairs] here today’. MS Mus. 1813/2/1/281/6. © Boosey & Hawkes. Reproduced by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes Ltd.

A final category of Vaughan Williams’s correspondence consists of his letters of recommendation in support of younger or less prominent composers and musicians.   In July 1938 he wrote to Boosey ‘to introduce to you Mr. William Cole — a composer of talent and a first rate organist’. [6]  He did the same for the composer Franz Reizenstein (1911–1986), whom he introduced as his ‘friend and ex-pupil’ — adding, ‘though indeed there was nothing he needed to learn from me’. [7]  Reizenstein, being German by birth, was among those later interned and for whose release Vaughan Williams was to intervene. [8]

Ralph Vaughan Williams’ letter of introduction for Franz Reizenstein, sent to Leslie Boosey, 9 July 1937. MS Mus. 1813/2/1/281/8. ©  The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust. Reproduced by kind permission of The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust.

Letters like these show both composer and publisher working quietly behind the scenes for the flourishing of the musical world.  The tone of the correspondence also reveals the esteem in which each held the other.  Yet it would only have embarrassed Vaughan Williams had Leslie Boosey told him directly what he had written to the Norwegian composer Sverre Hagerrup Bull (1892–1976): 'RVW is our greatest living Composer, and probably the best purely English composer we have ever had'.

Full transcriptions of the letters quoted in this article can be found on the website ‘The Letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams’, http://vaughanwilliams.uk.

References

[1] Editorial comment, ‘The Letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams’, Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Boosey, 6 August 1933, letter number VWL5061<http://vaughanwilliams.uk/letter/vwl5061>, retrieved 18 July 2020.

[2] Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Boosey, 6 August 1933.  Full text transcribed at ‘The Letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams’, letter number VWL5061<http://vaughanwilliams.uk/letter/vwl5061>, retrieved 18 July 2020.

[3] Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Boosey, 6 August 1933. 

[4] Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Boosey, 16 May 1938.  British Library, MS Mus. 1813/2/1/219/8.

[5] Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘England’s Pleasant Land’, The Redress of the Past, <http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1061/> , retrieved 28 August 2020.

[6] Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Boosey, 3 July 1938.  British Library, MS Mus. 1813/2/1/212/6.

[7] Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Boosey, 9 July 1937.  British Library, MS Mus. 1813/2/1/281/8. 

[8] Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning, 22 October 1940.  Full text transcribed at ‘The Letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams’, letter number VWL 4969, <http://vaughanwilliams.uk/letter/vwl4969>, retrieved 28 August 2020.

Dominic Newman, Manuscripts Cataloguer

 

Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, a setting of Cardinal John Henry Newman’s poem of the same name for voices and orchestra, is an important work that sealed Elgar's reputation as a composer of international significance. With its references to Catholic doctrine concerning Mary, Mother of God and Purgatory, it is also strongly connected to Elgar’s background as a Roman Catholic, and proved controversial in its early performances. Despite the significance of the work, the manuscript has been historically difficult to access, as it was donated by Elgar to the Oratory of St Philip Neri in Birmingham.

Dr Joanna Bullivant of the University of Oxford has therefore organised a project with the British Library, the National Institute of Newman Studies, USA, and the National Trust (who run the Elgar Birthplace Museum) to digitise and curate the manuscript for scholars and the general public. As well as digitising the manuscript and making it available online, the project involves developing new expert commentary for the British Library Discovering Music pages and organising a series of events with school children. The manuscript score together with related Newman manuscripts at the Birmingham Oratory were digitised by Eugenio Falcioni who writes about the process and special techniques used during digitisation, whilst Joanna Bullivant comments about the manuscripts and their significance for research.

The Church, Library, and Cardinal Newman Room at the Birmingham Oratory. Photos by Eugenio Falcioni

The British Library on-location digitisation service

The British Library has offered on-location digitisation services to external customers for some time. For these customers, an on-location service is usually preferable due to the precious nature of their collection items, or in some cases, because they are too fragile or bulky to be sent to the London studio.

To fulfil an on-location job, an experienced heritage photographer will travel to the location of the item(s) along with state of the art photographic equipment and a number of digitisation and collection care tools approved by conservation experts at The British Library.

The digitisation of Elgar’s original score and the two Newman manuscripts of The Dream of Gerontius at The Birmingham Oratory is a prestigious example of this service. The Newman manuscripts consist of the author’s rough draft of his poem and the first autograph fair copy. The Elgar manuscript is the autograph score used in the first performance. All these documents contain myriad rich details that give insight into the history of poem and music: not only crossings-out, corrections, and notes on performance, but also Elgar’s remarks on the weather and the signatures of everyone involved in the first performance.

The digitisation process of the Elgar and Newman manuscripts at the Birmingham Oratory

The project, carried out in March 2020, took four days of intense work, capturing every page of the manuscripts. This process may seem straightforward, but involves many crucial aspects, such as transport and setup of various specialist equipment; extreme care in handling the original manuscripts; a technically flawless photographic process; and consistent image management. These elements are crucial in delivering the finest digitised product to the customer in a relatively short time.

Setup of the temporary digitisation workstation at the Birmingham Oratory. Photo by Eugenio Falcioni

Fortunately, the three manuscripts were all in excellent condition, which made the imaging process quite smooth and without any particular hitches. 

Having the opportunity to work on such important items, in a fascinating place like The Birmingham Oratory, is enough for a photographer to feel satisfied. But what made this project really interesting and challenging from a photographic point of view was the fact that a number of pages in Elgar’s manuscript score had been covered with additional sheets, glued over parts of the original score. Elgar did this where he made emendations to the musical text in the form of adding bars or material for particular parts. As a painstaking editor of his music for performance, it was common for Elgar to want to make these kinds of changes.

Reading the information covered by this layer of paper is almost impossible with the naked eye. Even by magnifying the new digital images it was difficult to see anything. Given the great interest in uncovering the original information and the importance of the manuscript, following the normal imaging process, I undertook a special imaging cycle to try to reveal the hidden text. A couple of attempts were made using an infrared camera and subsequently trying to illuminate the manuscript under ultraviolet torches, but both proved unsuccessful. As a last attempt, the technique of 'transmitted light' finally revealed the original hidden text.

Applying the transmitted light technique on a Newman manuscript at the Birmingham Oratory with the light placed behind the manuscript page and the camera on the other side. Photos by Eugenio Falcioni

Transmitted light is a photographic technique where only one lighting source is placed at the back of the photographed object, making it possible to photograph the passage of light through it. This technique is mainly used on supports like paper or canvas that don’t completely block the light and is often used at the BL to capture watermarks in paper documents. The technique itself is not particularly complicated, although it requires a good mastery of the lighting systems and particular care in leafing through the original document. It is essential to have no other sources of light apart from the photographers' lamp, to avoid unnecessary light pollution that may affect the output. The lamp must also be placed at a reasonable distance from the photographed page, so as not to transmit any heat.

Uncovering hidden text in Elgar’s score

By back-lighting the pages of Elgar’s manuscript it was possible to reveal the information contained on its inner side. At first sight it would seem that much of the covered information is now legible, albeit with some difficulty due to the overlapping of the scores. Although Elgar probably never imagined that anyone would uncover the music he attempted to conceal, it was a privilege to use my photographic skills to help scholars further understand the context and meaning of his work.

The final step of the process was a patient post-production effort, carried out to emphasize the contrast of the ink recovered. This resulted in being able to distinguish the overlapping scores from each other to make it more visible to those who wish to study it. While there is no lost aria or the secret of the ‘Enigma’ Variations concealed beneath the glued-down corrections, they reveal a more quotidian but no less important side of Elgar.

By tracing the minute alterations made as the work reached its final version, we witness the composer’s working methods, his attention to detail, and his sensitivity to the impact of the work in performance.

Elgar’s score of The Dream of Gerontius at the Birmingham Oratory. The transmitted light photographic technique reveals the hidden text on page 35 of the score. Images by Eugenio Falcioni. Reproduced with kind permission from The Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory.

Fully digitized versions of the Elgar and Newman manuscripts in IIIF can be viewed on the NINS website.

Written by Eugenio Falcioni, Senior Imaging Technician, The British Library, and Dr Joanna Bullivant, Lecturer, University of Oxford Faculty of Music

During the last few months we have been actively publishing music manuscripts on Digitised Manuscripts. Approximately 60 digitised manuscripts are listed below grouped in rough chronological order. Highlights include: The ‘Cosyn’ and ‘Forster’ virginal books and autographs by Purcell; Henry Lawes; Haydn; Thomas Arne; Rossini; Mendelssohn; Verdi; Arthur Sullivan; Berlioz; Gounod; Liszt; Offenbach; Mahler; and Elgar.

16th-century music manuscripts

A collection of motets, masses, Te Deum, and Kyrie, in four volumes, by English composers (Add MS 17802; Add MS 17803; Add MS 17804; Add MS 17805); A collection of services, anthems, and a few part-songs, for five voices, by English composers (Add MS 30480; Add MS 30481; Add MS 30482; Add MS 30483; Add MS 30484); A collection of sacred compositions in parts (Add MS 32377); A collection of parts of masses, motets, and services (Add MS 34191); A miscellany of Middle English verse, including ballads by Chaucer and Lydgate; 'The Flyting of Montgomerie and Polwart' by Alexander Montgomerie; 'Nebuchadnezzar's Fierie Furnace'; the 'Annals of Oskell'; grammatical exercises in Latin and Greek; and Old songs of Durham (Harley MS 7578); Masses and motets, in parts, by Nicolas Ludford (Royal Appendix MS 45; Royal Appendix MS 46; Royal Appendix MS 47; Royal Appendix MS 48); A collection of largely sacred music of English origin, composed for instruments and voice (Royal Appendix MS 74; Royal Appendix MS 75; Royal Appendix MS 76); A collection of French and Italian compositions by anonymous authors (Royal Appendix MS 55); A collection of frottole, strambotti, and odes, with music for four voices, by Italian composers of the 15th and early 16th century (Egerton MS 3051).

A Te deum from the Cantus part-book, Add MS 30480, f. 4r.

17th-century music manuscripts

A volume with miscellaneous writings, ornamented with initials, portraits of saints, royal arms, etc. including songs with lute accompaniment in tablature (Add MS 4900); A volume with keyboard and lyra viol music (Add MS 63852); The Cosyn Virginal Book (R.M.23.l.4); The Forster Virginal Book (R.M.24.d.3); The autograph of Henry Purcell’s The Yorkshire Feast Song (Egerton MS 2956); The Henry Lawes Music Manuscript (Add MS 53723); Canons for 4 voices to the first lines of the Psalms (Vulgate version), by Sydrach Rahel, with a dedication, in French , to James I (Royal Appendix MS 64).

The Cosyn Virginal Book. R.M.23.l.4, f. 2r

Henry Purcell’s The Yorkshire Feast Song. Egerton MS 2956, f.1r

18th-century music manuscripts

Original letters of Joseph Haydn (Egerton MS 2380); Sonatas, suites and other works for keyboard instrument by G. F. Handel and other composers (MS Mus. 1587); A collection of anthems, in score, by G.F. Handel (Add MS 30309); The Chandos Music Manuscripts (Add MS 62099; Add MS 62100; Add MS 62101; Add MS 62102; Add MS 62103); A collection of songs, excerpts from operas, and an anthem, by Thomas Arne (Add MS 29370); Autograph cantatas by Antonio Caldara (Add MS 31549); Sonatas for the viola-da-gamba by Carl Friedrich Abel (Add MS 31697); 19th century letters and papers relating to the ownership of the Mozart string quartets in Add MS 37763-37765 (Add MS 37766).

Letter from Joseph Haydn to the music printer William Forster. Egerton MS 2380, f. 3r

19th-century music manuscripts

Selected autograph vocal pieces by Gioacchino Rossini (Add MS 30246); Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s autograph of his String Quartet in E flat (Add MS 30900); The Scherzo, Notturno, and Wedding March from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night's Dream arranged by the composer for piano (Egerton MS 2955); Giuseppe Verdi’s autograph of his opera Attila (Add MS 35156); The autograph of Robert Schumann's piano sonata in F minor (Add MS 37056); Charles François Gounod’s Messe Solennelle (Add MS 37639); The autograph score of Arthur Sullivan’s operetta The Gondoliers (Add MS 53779); Letters from Hector Berlioz to members of his family (Add MS 56237); Songs by Thomas Moore arranged by Henry Bishop and others (Add MS 19569); Songs with piano accompaniment by Hortense Bonaparte, wife of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland (Add MS 30148); 19th-century copy of The ‘Lamentabatur Jacob' by Cristobal Morales, and a setting of ‘Incipit Lamentatio Hieremiæ’ by Thomas Tallis (Add MS 34070); Autograph compositions by Franz Liszt (Add MS 34182); The musical autograph album of Eliza Wesley, containing short pieces, inscriptions and signatures of numerous composers, musicians, and singers (Add MS 35026); Miscellaneous autograph compositions by various composers (Add MS 38070); Music by Michael Haydn and Carl Maria von Weber (Add MS 41634); Airs from the cantatas and other works of J.S. Bach, arranged by Robert Franz for alto and tenor voices with pianoforte accompaniment (Add MS 41635); Jacques Offenbach’s autograph score of his comic opera Fantasio (Add MS 42064); Miscellaneous music, partly autograph, by various 18th- and 19th-century composers (Add MS 47860).

Autograph of Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E flat. Add MS 30900.

 

Musical quotation from ‘Amami Alfredo’ from Verdi’s opera La traviata in the composer’s autograph. Add MS 35026, f. 69r

Early 20th-century music manuscripts

Cancelled folio from the draft orchestral full score of the third movement, ‘Rondo-Burleske’, of Gustav Mahler's Symphony no.9 in D major (MS Mus. 97); Sketches and drafts by Edward Elgar (Add MS 49973 B).

Cancelled folio from Mahler’s draft orchestral full score of his Symphony no.9 in D major. Third movement, ‘Rondo-Burleske’. MS Mus. 97.

 

With the activities of concert and opera organisations abruptly curtailed owing to the coronavirus crisis, it seems a good time to explore an unusual set of concert programmes held by the British Library.  The Konzert-Programm-Austausch – or Concert Programme Exchange – collection stands out in the Library’s extensive holdings of programmes for its size, geographical diversity, and unusual configuration.  Bound in 60 volumes, the collection consists of some 15,000 programmes and flyers dating from between 1900 and 1914 and encompassing concerts given in Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, the USA, South America and Japan.

Title page of the 1909-1910 Konzert-Programm-Austausch series (British Library, shelfmark P.P.1946.ad.)

This material forms part of a unique scheme initiated in 1893 by the Leipzig-based publisher Breitkopf & Hartel to distribute programmes on a subscription basis.   

Subscribers would receive 36 instalments per year, each typically containing between 50 and 100 programmes arranged alphabetically by location.  Annual subscriptions were offered to organisations such as music societies, orchestras, and chamber groups, each of which was obliged to contribute multiple copies of its programmes for distribution within the series.  Over time, subscribers could therefore build up runs of original programmes from each organisation.  The arrangement of the collection into separate parts, each enclosed in a wrapper with a decorative title page, reflects the way in which Breitkopf collected and then distributed the programmes to subscribers.

The venture as a whole operated from 1893 until 1944, a period of significant change in the technology of music dissemination.  In London, the conductor Sir Henry Wood (1869-1944) – founder of the long-running Promenade Concerts – subscribed to the series and contributed a selection of programmes for his concerts at the Queen’s Hall and elsewhere.  Indeed, the first few volumes in the British Library collection once formed part of Wood’s personal library and each are bound with his name embossed in gold lettering on the front cover. 

Sir Henry Wood (1869-1944). © National Portrait Gallery, London. NPG D45376

Wood was especially interested in new and unusual repertory – he called such works ‘novelties’ – and information gleaned from the Concert Programme Exchange series could, in theory, have influenced the programming of his concerts, or at least given him an indication of musical trends in other parts of Europe.  The series might also have acted to promote awareness of the activities and schedules of soloists and conductors, which will have given an inquisitive conductor like Wood ideas for future performances.  In this respect it helped to bridge the gap between the pre-audio era and the advent of commercial recording and broadcasting. 

The portion of the series held at the British Library contains a rich variety of material, reflecting not only the musical repertories performed at the time but also the visual aesthetics for marketing performances at the time.  Represented within the collection are programmes not only for some of the world’s most important concert venues – such as the Queen’s Hall in London, the Musikverein in Vienna, and Carnegie Hall in New York – but also a wide range of concert-giving organisations in countless smaller towns and cities.  A typical issue dating from January 1900 consists of 41 flyers and programmes, beginning with a concert given in Altona by the Altonaer Kirchenchor at the St. Johanniskirche on 4 January.  The remaining items are from venues in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland. 

They include a performance of Verdi’s Requiem conducted by Oskar Fried in Vienna on 2 January with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as subscription concerts of orchestral music presented by the Berlin Hofkapelle (under Felix Weingartner), the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and the Tonhalle in Zurich. The repertory ranged from performances of baroque choral music, to a performance of Bruch’s ‘Das Feuerkreuz’ in Cologne, to piano recitals by Ernst von Dohnanyi in Berlin and Wilhelm Backhaus in Darmstadt. Through the collection researchers can therefore investigate repertories and reconstruct concert programming with a detail and a geographic breadth impossible in any single collection of programmes elsewhere. 

The collection has been digitised in full and is currently available via the Nineteenth-Century Collections Online portal, a subscription service which can be accessed in the Library’s reading rooms (https://www.gale.com/intl/c/ncco-british-theatre-music-and-literature-high-and-popular-culture).

Rupert Ridgewell, Lead Curator, Printed Music

Commodore Matthew Perry’s gunboat diplomacy opened up feudal Japan to western trade paving the way for the 1868 Meiji Restoration. To avoid the risk of colonisation, the restored Imperial government initiated a period of sustained modernisation and industrialisation, adopting western fashions and ideas. Japan embraced western music, adapting it to create a new musical genre called Yōgaku. Music being a potent form of cultural expression, Yōgaku was first introduced into the school curriculum by the Japanese Empire to help forge a modern national identity, and elements of it have remained in such use to the present day. The Japanese Postal Authority released a series of nine stamp issues between 24 August 1979 and 10 March 1981 to commemorate the national music curriculum.

The first series issued on 24 August 1979 includes this 50-yen stamp designed by J. Takidaira (Figure 1) depicting a man standing in front of a ruined castle under moonlight with excerpts of the lyrics and score for Kōjō no tsuki (Moon Over Castle Ruins) by Bansui Doi and Rentarō Taki respectively.

Figure 1

The second stamp (Figure 2) designed by R. Taniuchi illustrates a sunset scene with a boy holding a toy aeroplane beside a girl throwing a ball in the air along with an extract from the score and lyrics for Yūyake Koyake (Evening Glow) produced by the composers Ukō Nakamura and Shin Kusakawa in July 1923.

Figure 2

The second series issued on 26 November 1979 both commemorate music by Tatsuyuki Takano and Teiichi Okano.

Hori’s design for the first 50-yen stamp depicts yellowish-red maple leaves being blown off a tree branch beneath the music and lyrics of Momiji (Maple Leaves) written in 1911 for 2nd grade elementary school text books (Figure 3). The second designed by T. Murakami reveals a man holding a parcel walking through a village scene beneath the last four bars and lyrics to Furusato (Birthplace) produced in 1914 for 6th grade elementary school (Figure 4).

Figure 3

Figure 4

The third series released on 28 January 1980 includes a 50-yen stamp (Figure 5) incorporating artwork by Shigehiko Ishikawa of boats mooring in a watery landscape accompanied by the score and lyrics of Fuyugeshiki (Wintry Scene), composed in 1913 as teaching material for 5th Grade Elementary School. The second one (Figure 6), designed by S. Watanabe depicts Mount Fuji with the music and lyrics to Fujisan (Mount Fuji), composed and published for use by elementary schools in 1910.

Figure 5

Figure 6

These were followed by the fourth series issued on 21 March 1980. M. Anno’s stamp design (Figure 7) comprises a rural scene accompanying part of the score and lyrics of Haru no ogawa (Spring Brook) composed in 1912 by Takano and Okano for 4th Grade Students. The other stamp by K. Morita (Figure 8) illustrates a young Japanese girl reaching out towards cherry blossom with score and lyrics from the Edo Period song Sakura (Cherry Blossoms). Their inclusion in a publication by the Tōkyō School of Music in 1888 compiled by the Director of Music to the Ministry of Education indicates it has long been in use in the national music curriculum.

Figure 7

Figure 8

The fifth series issued on 28 April 1980 includes a stamp designed by R. Taniuchi (Figure 9) comprising a young Japanese boy and girl looking out to sea with a boat in the background and with music and lyrics from Umi (The Sea). Created by Ryūha Hayashi and Takeshi Inoue it was first published in ‘First Grade Elementary School Songbook No. 1’ in 1941 to teach 1st Grade students. F. Hori’s design for the second stamp (Figure 10) of flowers and a moon accompany the music and lyrics to Takano and Okano’s work Oborozukiyo (Night of the Hazy Moon), created in 1914 for 6th Grade Elementary School students.

Figure 9

Figure 10

The sixth series issued on 16 June 1980, includes S. Watanabe’s stamp design (Figure 11), a photographic image of the Japanese national flag and a rooftop with the score and lyrics of Takano and Okano’s song Hinomaru (The Rising Sun) used in 1st Grade Elementary classes since 1941. The second by M. Anno (Figure 12) presents a marshland scene with score and lyrics to Shoko Ema and Yoshinao Nakata’s song Natsu no omoide (Memories of Summer). First broadcast in 1949 on NHK Radio it is used to teach 2nd year Junior High School.

Figure 11

Figure 12

The first stamp (Figure 13) of 7th series issued on 18 September 1980 carries K. Negishi’s image of a woman outdoors holding out her hand to a red dragonfly with music for Aka Tonbo (Red Dragonfly), a song created by Rofū Miki and Kōsaku Yamada in 1927. Included in a collection of children’s stories called ‘The Acorn’ by 1980 it was included in Japan’s national music curriculum to teach 1st Grade Junior High Schools. The second by S. Hayashi (Figure 14) depicts a Japanese woman seated under a night sky with music for Hamabe no uta (Song by the Sea) created by Kokei Hayashi and Tamezō Narita in 1916 as teaching material for 2nd Grade Junior High School.

Figure 13

Figure 14

Issued on 9 February 1891, the 8th series includes k. Morita’s design (Figure 15) revealing a mother holding a baby whilst playing a Japanese drum called a den-den daiko. Above this image, is the music for Komoriuta (Lullaby), a traditional nursery rhyme included in a 1941 songbook to teach 3rd Grade students. The second by M. Yonekura (Figure 16) shows a young girl day-dreaming with an island and palm tree in the background accompanied by music to Yashi no mi (Coconut) produced by Tōson Shimazaki and Toraji Ōhaka in 1936 for an NHK Radio series of people’s songs. It was subsequently adopted as teaching material for 3rd Grade Junior High School.

Figure 15

Figure 16

The 9th series sold on 10 March 1981 includes a stamp by T. Murakami (Figure 17) depicting a child playing amongst birds, butterflies and flora with music to Haru ga kita (Spring Has Come) by Takano and Okano, a song written in 1910 for use in 2nd Grade Elementary School. The Final stamp by S. Hayashi (Figure 18) illustrates a woman smelling blossom upon a branch with music to Hana (Flowers), composed by Hogoromo Takeshima and Rentarō Taki for 3rd Grade Junior High School.

Figure 17

Figure 18

In total 28,000,000 sets of the first six series and 26,000,000 sets of the last two series were photogravure printed in Tōkyō, revealing how stamps comprise a form of mass media. Used postally and collected, stamps transmit multiple memes or units of cultural expression nationally and globally. These nine stamp issues offer more examples of how the British Library’s Philatelic Collections provide an invaluable research resource for musicologists.

Richard Scott Morel, Curator, Philatelic Collections

Danyel Gilgan, author of The Life Before: My Grandfather's Life Uncovered, writes about the artistic and personal relationship of Wilf Franks and Michael Tippett.

Wilf Franks and Michael Tippett in Spain in 1933. Photo by David Ayerst. Reproduced with permission.

Having spent much of the last seven years researching the life of my late grandfather, the artist Wilf Franks, I discovered many musical links to his life. My new book The Life Before: My Grandfather's Life Uncovered explores his connections to figures such as Ralph Vaughan Williams and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. But it was the writings of another giant of 20th-century music which brought me to the Rare Books and Music Reading Room at the British Library. The figure in question is Sir Michael Tippett, and the Library’s collection of Tippett letters and musical scores provided an extraordinary reservoir of information about the youthful life of my grandfather.

Throughout much of the 1930s, the lives of Wilf Franks and Michael Tippett were intertwined, as together they staged musical and dramatic productions in diverse locations such as Battersea Town Hall and the East Cleveland mining village of Boosbeck in the North East of England. During these years of youthful experimentation, the two young men became involved in an intense and volatile love affair as they explored theories of pacifism and embraced the radical Marxist politics of Leon Trotsky. At this time they also shared a passion for traditional British folk music and the poetry of luminaries such as William Blake and Wilfred Owen.

Poetry

In one letter Tippett makes a powerful statement about Wilf Franks’ poetic influence on their relationship.

'… he spends an hour or so with me here on the Blake I am going to set, and with a surer instinct for poetry than mine tells me where to get off – in point of fact I am therefore only setting the ‘Song of Liberty’ from The Marriage [of Heaven and Hell]… Wilfred Owen he knows almost word for word and draws it out for me, its meanings, its divine pity and so on – that will stay as long as it means something to us both …[1]'

As well as this connection to Tippett’s setting of William Blake’s ‘A Song of Liberty’, the relationship is poetically linked to another of Tippett’s compositions. In 1935, Tippett completed his String Quartet no.1, a piece that is now considered the first official composition in his canon of works. He wrote the following of the piece:

'Meeting with Wilf was the deepest, most shattering experience of falling in love: and I am quite certain that it was a major factor underlying the discovery of my own individual musical ‘voice’… all that love flowed out in the slow movement of my First String Quartet…[2]'

The original manuscript of String Quartet no.1 is held in the Tippett collection at the British Library (Add MS 59808). On the first page of the document is the simple inscription, ‘To Wilfred Franks Quartet no I in A by Michael Tippett’.  Opposite this dedication, Tippett wrote out the Wilfred Owen poem ‘Happiness’:

Ever again to breathe pure happiness,

The happiness our mother gave us, boys?

So smile at nothings, needing no caress?

Have we not laughed too often since with joys?

Have we not wrought too sick & sorrowful wrongs

For their hands’ pardoning? The sun may cleanse,

And time, & starlight Life will sing sweet songs,

And gods will show us pleasures more than men’s.

But the old Happiness is unreturning.

Boy’s griefs are not so grievous as youth’s yearning,

Boys have no sadness sadder than our hope.

We who have seen the gods’ kaleidoscope,

And played with human passions for our toys,

We knew men suffer chiefly by their joys.

Wilfred Owen’s poem ‘Happiness’. Written here by Michael Tippett on the inside cover of the manuscript of his String Quartet No.1, the composition that is dedicated to Wilf Franks. Add MS 59808. ©The Sir Michael Tippett Will Trust. Reproduced with permission.

The optimistic opening is in contrast to the darker second verse. Owen seems to be contrasting his happy youth to the hell of war, but the poem appears here as a poignant prediction of how the joy of Wilf and Tippett’s early relationship would end in sadness and disarray. Perhaps, even at this mid-point in the relationship, Tippett already knew the love affair would have a painful end.

Politics

Politics, too, played an important role in Wilf and Tippett’s relationship. From the early days of the affair both men had a passion for radical Marxist politics. By the mid-1930s they had embraced Leon Trotsky’s political thinking and were starting to involve themselves with London’s emerging Trotskyist movement. At this time Fascism was raising its ugly head across Britain, and Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF) was preaching hateful, anti-Semitic rhetoric on the streets of London. On Sunday 4 October 1936, Mosley planned to march his men along Cable Street in East London, right through the heart of the local Jewish Community. Thousands of left-wing anti-fascist protesters came to support the local Jewish community’s effort to block the fascist parade. Amongst the crowd were Wilf Franks and the composer Alan Bush. Appeals by the Jewish community to have the march banned fell on deaf ears and the Metropolitan Police were tasked with clearing a path for the fascists. As mounted police began baton charging the crowd, Wilf stood on a soap box shouting ‘Stand firm comrades, stand firm!’ He was grabbed from the crowd by the police and charged with assaulting a police officer, a charge which he always denied. As Wilf sat in a police cell with other arrested men, he would have heard the news that Mosley and the BUF were forced to turn away from the Jewish neighbourhood and march instead towards the west. It was a famous victory against British fascism. Three days later Tippett wrote to Alan Bush:

'Yes, Sunday was historic! Wilf is on remand for criminal assault – police perjury - & the family fortune has fallen heavily over a counsel for him. Thames Police Court Friday morning! So it goes. Love Michael.'

Michael Tippett's postcard to Alan Bush. 7th October 1936. MS Mus. 499.

© The Sir Michael Tippett Will Trust. Reproduced with permission.

Tippett’s attempts to get Wilf freed failed when he was sentenced to 28 days hard labour. The composer spent more of his meagre financial resources on a failed appeal against the sentence, as a second letter to Alan Bush shows:

'My dear Alan, I was glad to hear from Wilf by phone that you were in touch with him… I have compromised myself so to speak for the whole amount & shall pay the remainder…[3]'

A Painful End

The love relationship between the two young men came to an end in August, 1938, when Wilf Franks told Tippett of his intention to marry. The news came as a bitter blow to the composer, ‘It was as if a whole dam had opened’[4] he wrote. Tippett was plunged into a personal crisis, and he sought healing in Jungian psychoanalysis. Despite the painful split, Wilf Franks and his new love Meg Masters continued to work with Tippett on creative events such as a 1939 Symphony of Youth in Brockwell Park, South London. At this time Tippett was working on the libretto for a new oratorio. The poetry of Owen and Blake, the anti-fascist, anti-imperialist politics which Franks and Tippett had embraced and the Jungian analysis in which Tippett sought healing, would all find their way into the libretto of the oratorio which became Tippett’s most famous work, A Child of Our Time.

By the time A Child of Our Time premiered in 1944, Wilf Franks and Michael Tippett were fully estranged. It would be some 40 years until the friendship was rekindled. A recently discovered letter sent from Tippett to Franks gives an interesting insight into the composer's feelings towards his old friend at the time of the reunion.[5] The composer wrote, 'As you have my phone no. now, will you keep it close to your heart', Tippett then adds, with a nod to the painful past and with a touch of humour, 'or even throw it once more into the dustbin'. He signs the letter 'Love Mike', the affectionate name that Wilf had always used. Although living at opposite ends of the country, the two men, who both lived into their 90s, remained friends for the rest of their lives.

Danyel Gilgan

References

[1] Schuttenhelm, Thomas, Selected Letters of Michael Tippett (Faber and Faber, 2005), page 233.

[2] Tippett, Michael, Those Twentieth-Century Blues: An Autobiography (Hutchinson, 1991), page 58.

[3] Tippett letter to Alan Bush. 20th October 1936. British Library Alan Bush Collection, MS Mus. 449.

[4] Tippett, Michael, Those Twentieth-Century Blues: An Autobiography (Hutchinson, 1991), page 62.

[5] The recently discovered letter from Michael Tippett to Wilfred Franks is held in the Franks family collection and is quoted here with permission from The Sir Michael Tippett Will Trust.

The Qatar Digital Library (QDL) is a collaboration between the British Library and the Qatar National Library, in which historical records from the former India Office are being catalogued and digitised, along with Arabic manuscripts on scientific topics from the British Library’s collection. Music theory has always been considered a scientific pursuit by Arabic scholars – as it had been by Plato and Pythagoras – on account of the mathematical nature of topics such as intervals, modes, rhythm, transposition, and tonal relationships.

Musical manuscripts digitised for the QDL so far include a copy of a commentary on an influential theoretical treatise, the Book of Cycles (Kitāb al-adwār) by Ṣafī al-Dīn al-Urmawī (d. 1294) (Add MS 7471, ff. 41v-92r), a work on the construction of musical instruments (Or. 9649), a cosmological treatise on music (Add MS 23494), and a recently-catalogued copy of the Kitāb al-inʻām bi-maʻrifat al-anghām (Book of Generosity on the Understanding of Melodies; Or. 13019) by the 16th-century music theorist Shams al-Dīn al-Ṣaydāwī. [Note that although this manuscript has been digitised it is not yet available to view on the Qatar Digital Library.]

The Kitāb al-inʻām is a short text in verse, remarkable for its presentation of an innovative and apparently unique system of music notation. It is also a feast for the eyes: both its text and its many diagrams are copied using a range of brightly-coloured inks which are not merely decorative, but rather an inherent aspect of this notation system. While several other copies of this text are known, the QDL’s high resolution, full-colour digitisation is a first, allowing its fundamental aesthetic and graphic features to be appreciated on an accessible digital platform for the first time.

Figure 1: Or 13019, f. 1v, opening of the treatise

Little is known about the author, although his name indicates origins in Ṣaydā (Sidon) in today’s Lebanon. His dates are uncertain, but he may have died in Damascus in 1506, which would mean that Or. 13019 – dated to 906 in the Islamic hijrī calendar (equivalent to 1501 CE) – was produced within his lifetime, as well as being the earliest known surviving copy. Ownership marks recorded on folio 1r indicate predominantly Syrian owners over the centuries. It was bought by the British Museum in 1966.

Following an introduction [fig. 1], al-Ṣaydāwī opens the treatise by outlining the four fundamental musical modes (called ‘uṣūl’) used in his time: Rāst, ʻIrāq, Zīrāfkand and Iṣfahān. Modes are constructed of sets of tetrachords which may be present within more than one of them, establishing complex familial relationships between them. From each of these four basic modes, two further ‘branch’ modes (furūʻ) are derived, which maintain a musical relationship with their ‘parents’. In addition to these groups of four and eight, al-Ṣaydāwī also enumerates six secondary modes called awāzāt, each of which is likewise related to two of the twelve fundamental and branch modes already outlined.

Figure 2: Or 13019, f. 9v, depicting the fundamental mode Rāst, and its branch modes Zankulā and `Ushshāq

To present these modes and describe further aspects of their performance, al-Ṣaydāwī uses a stave-like diagram [fig. 2] of eight labelled parallel horizontal lines enclosed within a circular frame, representing the degrees of the scale (buḥūr). The lowest pitch is indicated on the bottom line, and the highest (an octave above) on the second-highest line (the uppermost line in each diagram is a framing device and not indicative of a note).

Figure 3: Or 13019, f. 7r, description of colours used in the stave diagram

Al-Ṣaydāwī follows established convention in using Persian terms to describe these notes as yekgāh (first position), dūgāh (second position), etc. However, he innovates in additionally colour-coding each line, with the eighth line from the bottom the same colour as the lowest, as the notes represented are an octave apart (the uppermost line in the diagrams is only a frame). The specific colours are described in the introduction to the text [fig. 3].

Al-Ṣaydāwī goes on to outline a system for representing notes above and below the basic octave, independently of this graphic stave. To do this, a table [fig. 4] presents colour-coded Arabic alphanumeric abjad letters indicating microtonal intervals. These notes are paired with a ‘question’ and ‘response’ concept indicating further notes, at fixed intervals of separation totalling an octave, and allowing the total range of notation to be expanded.

Figure 4: Or 13019, f. 13v, table of notation beyond the basic octave

The second unique aspect of al-Ṣaydāwī’s work is a notational system applied to the stave diagram which, in combination with instructions in the text, indicates aspects of the performance of the mode [fig. 5]. The letter mīm (م), standing for ma’khadh (مأخذ, meaning ‘place from which one takes something’) is written on the starting note/line of the mode and in the same colour, on the left of the diagram. The mode’s final note – often also its tonal centre – is indicated with the word rakz (with the sense of ‘setting, fixing’), written on the corresponding line, to the right.

Figure 5: Or 13019, 10v, instructions for playing Zīrāfkand

The instruction iṣʻad (اصعد, ‘ascend’) in red, denotes a transition to a higher pitch. Conversely, a yellow letter hāʼ (ھ, from the root هبط, ‘descent’) indicates a transition to a lower pitch. These ascents or descents must be performed note-by-note (bi-al-tartīb) if the letter ‘tā’’ (ت, in red) is written next to the note towards which the pitch ascends or descends, whereas the player should jump directly to that pitch if iṣʻad or hāʼ is written with a long ‘tail’. Other abbreviations indicate additional aspects of performance such as prolongation, staccato articulation, and trill-like ornamentation.

This work presents difficulties of interpretation due to the poetic text and some ambiguity in terminology. For example, yekgāh, meaning the first note of the scale, also indicates the particular mode which starts on that note, i.e. rāst, while buḥūr also has variant meanings. Similarly, while the word maqām these days means ‘mode’ in general, in al-Ṣaydāwī’s time it still retained a more literal meaning of ‘placement’. Furthermore, the meaning of some of the notational abbreviations is unclear; some of the diagrams in the extant copies appear unlabelled and unfinished; and Or. 13019 lacks at least one folio (between the present folios 11v and 12r).

Al-Ṣaydāwī’s musical notation remains a fascinating and enigmatic theoretical experiment, unique of its time. While it permitted a wide range of notes to be succinctly conveyed, their relationships to each other expressed, and an unprecedented level of codified performance detail to be indicated, no later texts are known to have developed this system further.

Jenny Norton-Wright

Arabic Scientific Manuscripts Curator, British Library Qatar Project

References

Antar, Thérèse B. (translation and commentary), Exploitation de la couleur en musique: Livre de la connaissance des tons et leur explication. Mouhammad Chams al-Din al-Saydawi al-Dimachqi (Beirut: Presse Chemaly and Chemaly, 2001).

Ghrab, Anas, 'Livre de la générosite dans la connaisance des modes: Edition et traduction (Unpublished thesis submitted for the Diplôme d'études approfondies, Université Lumiere-Lyon, 2002).

Shiloah, A. and A. Berthier, 'A propos d’un "petit livre arabe de musique"', in Revue de musicologie, 71.1 (1985), pp. 164-77.