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Bax and the Ballet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1977

Lewis Foreman
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Extract

On 27 July 1913 Colin Taylor, a music master at Eton and confidant of the young Philip Heseltine, wrote to his protégé:

By the way I was introduced to Bax at the Russian Ballet the other night – do you know him? I have always pictured him as a slow speaking dreamy man – dreamy he may be, but in his speech he is short, dry and quite unpoetical. He told me he has a splendid ‘Book’ for a ballet and he is longing to get to work on it. At present however he is finishing a work for (I think he said) the Norwich Triennial Festival. A ballet should suit him.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 104 , 1977 , pp. 11 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 The Royal Musical Association and the Authors

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References

NOTES

1 Colin Taylor to Philip Heseltine, 27 July 1913. Transcript by courtesy of Fred Tomlinson.Google Scholar

2 Nesta Macdonald, Diaghilev Observed (New York and London, 1975), 17.Google Scholar

3 Add. MS 54732.Google Scholar

4 Arnold Bax, Farewell My Youth (London, 1943), 23.Google Scholar

5 Bax's typescript in the author's possession.Google Scholar

6 Manuscript short score preserved in the Bax Memorial Room, University College, Cork.Google Scholar

7 Manuscript full score, British Library, Add. MS 54734; parts and photograph of score with the author.Google Scholar

8 Farewell My Youth, 63.Google Scholar

9 British Library, Add. MS 54765.Google Scholar

10 Information from Olga Antonietti's daughter, Jessica Morton.Google Scholar

11 Farewell My Youth, 70.Google Scholar

12 Myra Hess Notebook, British Library, Add. MS 57730.Google Scholar

13 Daily Mad, 25 March 1915, p. 2, col. 6.Google Scholar

14 MacDonald, op. cit., 27.Google Scholar

15 Eleanor Farjeon, Edward Thomas: the Last Four Years (London, 1958).Google Scholar

16 Harriet Cohen, A Bundle of Time (London, 1969).Google Scholar

17 Bax to Padraic Colum, quoted by Colin Scott-Sutherland in Arnold Bax (London, 1973), 29.Google Scholar

18 Act 1 is actually described as Act 1 sc i, but no scene ii is specified.Google Scholar

19 Bax to Rosalind Thorneycroft, letter in the author's possession.Google Scholar

20 Bax's Four Puces for Flute and Piano were arranged from the ballet (1912) but not published until 1947. The movements are entitled: 1 Shadow Dance (no. 26), 2 The Princess Dances (no. 16), 3 Naiad (no. 10), 4 Grotesque (no. 27).Google Scholar

21 D. Watt in New Yorker, 8 March 1952, 91–2.Google Scholar

22 The Stage, 13 December 1917.Google Scholar

23 Contemporary Russian Ballet programmes in the author's possession.Google Scholar

24 Empire Theatre programme, private collection.Google Scholar

25 Cohen, op. cit., 48.Google Scholar

26 Ceremonial Dance, Water Music, Serpent Dance (Murdoch, London, 1929).Google Scholar

27 The tune appears in Old English Ditties selected from W. Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time (London, n.d.), i, 24–5.Google Scholar

The following mx0usical illustrations were played during the lecture:Google Scholar

  1. a

    a Gopak from Russian Suite, piano and orchestral versions.

  2. b

    b Tamara, final page of piano score