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2 posts from October 2024

30 October 2024

Two Holst events at the British Library

Two events at the British Library

Join us at the British Library in November for two events marking Gustav Holst’s 150th anniversary – including a special performance inside the Rare Books & Music Reading Room! 

Gustav Holst: An Archival Legacy 
Wednesday 20 November 2024, 14.00-16.30, Foyle Room, British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB (tickets are free, but please contact [email protected] to book a place)  

150 years on from his birth (and 90 years after his death), Gustav Holst is celebrated for several very famous pieces of music – among them, The Planets. But much of his work remains little known, and his life still awaits the thorough exploration given to some of his contemporaries. In this event, we put the focus on the archival sources – manuscript scores, notebooks, letters – and their potential to provide new insights into the composer, his music and those who helped to support him in his work.

Laura Kinnear (Curator, Holst Victorian House, Cheltenham), Judith Ratcliffe (Archivist, The Red House, Britten Pears Arts) and Chris Scobie (Curator, Music Manuscripts & Archives, British Library) delve into their respective collections to showcase the range of material preserved. Holst’s early life, his creative process, his musical influences and the role of his daughter, Imogen, in preserving all this material will all be discussed. We are also delighted to be joined by Holst specialist Philippa Tudor, whose research into Gustav, Imogen and Isobel Holst has drawn on archival collections far and wide.

Opening of a notebook in which Holst kept a note of his musical works. These pages show entries from 1932 and 1933
Notebook in which Holst kept a note of works composed. Add MS 57863, ff. 24v-26


Looking at the archival sources reveals hidden stories and can challenge received wisdom – ultimately providing a means to reassess the legacy of this unique composer of the early 20th century today.  

The afternoon will also include performances by musicians from the Royal College of Music, where Holst himself was a student, performing the Terzetto for flute, oboe and viola alongside a suite for solo viola by Imogen Holst. 

Tickets are free, but please book by emailing [email protected].   

Gustav Holst: An Archival Legacy

PROGRAMME
14.00  Welcome (Sandra Tuppen, Head of Music Collections, British Library)
14.05  Holst's early life and the collections at the Holst Victorian House, Cheltenham (Laura Kinnear)
14.25  Holst's creative process and the collections at the British Library (Chris Scobie)
14.45  Holst's archive, legacy and the collections at The Red House, Aldeburgh (Judith Ratcliffe)
15.05  BREAK (tea and coffee provided)
15.25  Researching Gustav, Isobel and Imogen Holst (Philippa Tudor)
15.50  Performances:

                Imogen Holst: Suite for Unaccompanied Viola  (1930)    
                Gustav Holst: Terzetto (1925)

            (Aisha Goodman, viola; Zoë Borseth Rasmusssen, flute; Ross Williams, oboe)

16.20  END

 

Image of a letter from Gustav Holst to Ralph Vaughan Williams, in ink, written in 1903
Letter from Gustav Holst to Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1903. BL, Add MS 57953


Holst’s Planets: A Celestial Remembrance 
Sunday 10th November 2024, 15.30, Rare Books & Music Reading Room, British Library (tickets available via the British Library website) 

Before that, a very special concert on Sunday 10 November will feature Holst’s most famous piece, The Planets, performed in the composer’s version for two pianos by Simon Callaghan and Thomas Kelly. The British Library’s Rare Books & Music Reading Room, usually a quiet space of course, will be filled with cosmic sound for the occasion – from the imposing menace of ‘Mars’ to the mystical music of ‘Neptune’.   

Holst Jupiter 2
Part of the manuscript of Holst's 'Jupiter' written out for two pianos. Add MS 57881, f. 20

There are some especially nice connections here: Gustav Holst was a regular user of the old reading room at the British Museum for one thing, spending time there in his study of Sanskrit. Many of Holst’s music manuscripts were donated to the British Museum (now British Library) by his daughter, Imogen, too. Among them are autograph, or part-autograph, scores of several of the movements from The Planets written out for two pianos (the autograph full scores of most movements are at the Bodleian Library in Oxford). This reflects the way that Holst worked at the time: producing a continuous draft of a work on four staves, so that it could be played on two pianos. After he had heard this, he would set to work on the orchestration, annotating the score with his intentions – a good example of which can be seen above.  

For more information and to book tickets, please visit: https://www.seetickets.com/event/holst-s-planets-a-celestial-remembrance/british-library/3190448 

This is the first in a series of concerts to be held in the Rare Books & Music Reading Room, the others are: 

Medieval women in song, Sunday 1 December 2024, 15.30: https://thebritishlibraryculturalevents.seetickets.com/event/voice-trio-medieval-women-in-song/british-library/3190586  

Take Five: The five viols of Fretwork play five centuries of music, some of it in five, Sunday 12 January 2025, 15.30: https://thebritishlibraryculturalevents.seetickets.com/event/fretwork-take-five/british-library/3195325  

03 October 2024

Digitised music manuscripts made available online

Following the cyber-attack on the British Library last year, staff have been working behind the scenes to restore access to the Library’s digitised manuscripts. The Library has now made an initial batch of 1,000 digitised manuscripts available online. Among them are about 60 music manuscripts. 

Major English music manuscripts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are included, along with two Bach treasures from the eighteenth century. A highlight is the keyboard manuscript My Ladye Nevells Booke (MS Mus. 1591). 

Image of a page of the manuscript of My Lady Nevells Book
‘My Ladye Nevells Booke’. MS Mus. 1591, f. 1r.

This manuscript dates from 1591 and contains music by the English composer William Byrd. The manuscript was probably a gift from Byrd to Elizabeth Nevell of Hambledon in Buckinghamshire.  Byrd evidently composed some of the pieces especially for her, and her family’s coat of arms is included at the front of the book. Elizabeth seems to have had an abiding interest in music. Under her later married name of Lady Periam she was the dedicatee of music by Thomas Morley.   

The music in My Ladye Nevells Booke was copied out in a beautiful calligraphic style by the ‘singing man’ and scribe John Baldwin. This elaborate style of writing was very suitable for a manuscript being presented as a gift.  Baldwin was also the scribe of another newly available manuscript, the Baldwin Commonplace Book (R.M.24.d.2).  This was his ‘file copy’ of almost 200 sacred and secular works, by various composers. It is written out in a much plainer style. 

Another highlight among these digitised music manuscripts is the so-called Henry VIII Manuscript (Add MS 31922). This was compiled in about 1518 and contains music composed by Henry VIII. The other music in the manuscript is also likely to be repertoire that was performed at Henry’s court. There is no evidence that the King owned the manuscript himself, though. It may have belonged to a noble individual associated with the court. 

Image of a manuscript music score with music notation and sung text
‘Pastime with good company’ by Henry VIII. Add MS 31922, ff. 14v-15r.

 

Also included from the sixteenth century is the Mulliner Book (Add MS 30513), a collection of over 100 pieces for keyboard compiled by Thomas Mulliner. Seventeenth-century composers featured in this first batch of digitised content include William Lawes and John Eccles. There are also several miscellanies containing music by many different composers. 

Finally, a small number of music manuscripts from the eighteenth century are included.  The highlights are two manuscripts of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music, written in his own hand. They are the second book of Bach’s ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’ (Add MS 35021) and his cantata ‘Wo soll ich fliehen hin?' (Zweig MS 1). 

Image of a music manuscript in the hand of J. S. Bach, showing music notation for the C major prelude from Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier
J.S. Bach, autograph manuscript of the Prelude in C major, from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II. Add MS 35021, f. 1.

 

As further digitised music manuscripts become available online, we will post updates about them here. You can browse a list of all currently available on the British Library's Digitised Manuscripts pages.