Rutland Boughton (23 January 187825 January 1960) was an English composer who became well known in the early 20th century as a composer of opera and choral music. He was also an influential communist activist within the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).

His oeuvre includes three symphonies, several concertos, part-songs, songs, chamber music and opera (which he called "music drama" after Wagner). His best known work was the opera The Immortal Hour. His Bethlehem (1915), based on the Coventry Nativity Play and notable for its choral arrangements of traditional Christmas carols, also became very popular with choral societies worldwide.

Among his many works, the prolific Boughton composed a complete series of five operas of Arthurian mythos, written over a period of thirty-five years: The Birth of Arthur (1909), The Round Table (1915–16), The Lily Maid (1933–34), Galahad (1943–44) and Avalon (1944–45). Other operas by Boughton include The Moon Maiden (1918); Alkestis (1920–22); and The Ever Young (1928–29).

Biography

Rutland Boughton was the son of grocer William Boughton (1841–1905) whose shop was situated in Buckingham Street in the town of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and his wife Grace Martha Bishop. From an early age he showed signs of exceptional talent for music although formal training opportunities did not immediately become available to him. In 1892, after leaving school at the age of 14, he was apprenticed to a London concert agency and six years later he attracted the attention of several influential musicians including MP Ferdinand de Rothschild of the Rothschild family which enabled him to raise sufficient monies to study at the Royal College of Music in London. He later took up ad hoc work first in the pit of the Haymarket Theatre then as official accompanist to the baritone David Ffrangcon-Davies (whose daughter, Gwen, later became associated with the Glastonbury Festivals in her famous role Etain in The Immortal Hour). In 1903, he married former Aylesbury neighbour's daughter, Florence Hobley; he lived to regret the marriage. It was in 1905 (the year he completed his first symphony Oliver Cromwell) that he was approached by Sir Granville Bantock to become a member of staff at the Birmingham and Midland Institute of Music (now the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire). that were to remain the centre of activities until the end of the Festivals in 1926, by which time Boughton had mounted over 350 staged works, 100 chamber concerts, a number of exhibitions and a series of lectures and recitals – something never previously witnessed in England. In 1922, Boughton's Festival Players went on tour and became established at Bristol in the Folk Festival House (now demolished) and at Bournemouth.

From 1911, Boughton also worked as a music critic, initially for the Daily Citizen and Daily Herald, and in later years, for the Sunday Worker.

The most notable and most successful of Boughton's works is the opera The Immortal Hour, an adaptation of the play by Fiona Macleod (the pseudonym of William Sharp) based on Celtic mythology. Having been successful in Glastonbury and well received in Birmingham, the director of the then new Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Barry Jackson, decided to take the Glastonbury Festival Players' production to London where it achieved the record breaking run of over 600 performances. On its arrival at the Regent Theatre in 1922, it secured an initial run of over 200 consecutive performances and a further 160 in 1923, with a highly successful revival in 1932. People came to see the opera on more than one occasion (including members of the royal family) and especially to see and hear the young Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies whose portrayal as Etain began her professional acting career.

In addition to The Immortal Hour and Bethlehem, his other operas The Queen of Cornwall (1924) based on Thomas Hardy's play, and Alkestis (1922) based on Gilbert Murray's translation of the Greek play Alcestis, by Euripides (which was performed at Covent Garden by the British National Opera Company and was broadcast by the nascent British Broadcasting Company, both in 1924 This play was heavily attacked by the Daily Mail, provoking a "hue and cry". Boughton also joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and let the details of his membership be widely known.

Quotations about Boughton

  • "I believe that Boughton's works will eventually be regarded as one of the most remarkable achievements in the story of our music" – Charles Kennedy Scott, 1915
  • "The Immortal Hour is a work of genius" – Sir Edward Elgar, 1924
  • "... The Immortal Hour enchants me. The whole thing gripped me" – Dame Ethel Smyth, 1922
  • "Now that Elgar is gone, you have the only original personal English style on the market...I find that I have acquired a great taste for it" – George Bernard Shaw, 1934
  • "I remember vividly how Boughton made his characters live, and the masterly effect of the choral writing" – Sir Arthur Bliss on The Immortal Hour, 1949
  • "In any other country, such a work as The Immortal Hour would have been in the repertoire years ago" – Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1949

The Rutland Boughton Music Trust

The Rutland Boughton Music Trust was established in 1978, the year of the composer's Centenary, to encourage performances and sponsor recordings of his works. Many of these, including some world premieres, the complete Immortal Hour and a selection of short choral pieces, have been issued by Hyperion Records label. The Oliver Cromwell symphony – first heard in 2005 – and three of the Songs of the English (last heard around 1904/5) have been released by Dutton,

as well as a selection of Songs for mezzo and pianoforte on the British Music Society's own label. Dutton has also released the world premiere recording of Boughton's adaptation of Thomas Hardy's play, The Queen of Cornwall, sponsored by the Trust.

  • Bethlehem (1915)
  • The Round Table (1915–16)
  • Alkestis (1920–22)
  • The Queen of Cornwall (1923–24)
  • The Ever Young (1928–29)
  • The Lily Maid (1933–34)
  • Galahad (1943–44)
  • Avalon (1944–45)

Shorter dramatic works

  • The Chapel in Lyonesse (1904)
  • Agincourt (1918)
  • The Moon Maiden (1918)

Ballet

  • Death Dance of Grania (1912)
  • Snow White (1914)
  • The Death of Columbine (1918)
  • May Day (1926–27)

Incidental music

  • Dante and Beatrice (c. 1902)
  • The Land of Heart's Desire (1917)
  • Little Plays of St Francis (1924–25)
  • Isolt (1935)

Orchestral

  • A Summer Night, symphonic poem (1899, revised 1903)
  • Three Folk Dances, for string orchestra (1912)
  • Three Flights for Orchestra (1929)
  • Winter Sun (1932), orchestral sketch
  • Overture to the Arthurian Cycle (1936)
  • Symphony No. 3 in B minor (1937)

Concertante

  • Concerto for oboe and strings No. 1 in C (1936)
  • String Quartet No. 2 in F, From the Welsh Hills (1923)
  • Three Songs without Words, for oboe quartet (1937)
  • Songs of Womanhood (1911) A large range of his printed music and other material is held in the library of the Royal College of Music and in the British Music Collection. The Rutland Boughton Music Trust has a list of compositions including the locations of scores.

References

Sources

  • Barber, Richard, King Arthur in Music. Boydell & Brewer, 1993.
  • Benham, Patrick, The Avalonians. Gothic Image Publications, Rev. 2006.
  • Brook, Donald, Composers' Gallery. Rockcliff, 1945
  • Dent, Edward J, Opera. Penguin Books, 1940
  • Hurd, Michael. 'Rutland Boughton', in Grove Music Online (2001)
  • Hurd, Michael. Immortal Hour: The Life and Period of Rutland Boughton (1962). Rev. 1993 as Rutland Boughton and the Glastonbury Festivals. Rev. 2014 by The Rutland Boughton Music Trust.
  • Mancoff, Debra N., The Arthurian Revival – Essays on Form, Tradition and Transformation. Garland Publishing Ltd, 1992.
  • Rutland Boughton Music Trust