Alan Bush

Born in 1900, Alan Bush, the English composer, conductor and pianist, studied with Corder and Matthay, and privately with John Ireland. He was appointed professor of harmony and composition at the Royal Academy of Music in 1925, a post he held until 1978. In 1929-31, he continued to study at Berlin University and had piano lessons with Moiseiwitsch and Schnabel. The present Source Book documents his works (many of which reflect his Communist sympathies) and the many arrangements of music by other composers. A wealth of detail is provided, including printed scores, CD recordings, bibliographical material and manuscript scores and their locations, the majority of which have been deposited recently in the British Library by the Bush family. A chronology of the composer's life draws on many sources including letters and scrapbooks.

The first major study of British communist composer Alan Bush, providing new perspectives on music and politics during the Cold War.

John Ireland (1879-1962) had a long and close friendship with Alan Bush (1900-1995) which lasted forty years, from 1922, until Ireland's death in 1962. The160 letters between Ireland and Bush, published here for the first time, provide not only a compelling and engaging narrative, but also a unique insight into the musical and day-to-day lives of the two men. The letters were written during a most interesting and turbulent period in British history: the inter-war period of the 1920s and 30s. The volume will appeal to those interested in British musical life, social and political history, as well as followers of Ireland and Bush.

Randall Swingler (1909–67) was arguably the most significant and the best-known radical English poet of his generation. A widely published poet, playwright, novelist, editor and critic, his work was set to music by almost all the major British composers of his time. This new biography draws on extensive sources, including the security services files, to present the most detailed account yet of this influential poet, lyricist and activist. A literary entrepreneur, Swingler was founder of radical paperback publishing company Fore Publications, editor of Left Review and Our Time and literary editor of the Daily Worker; later becoming a staff reporter, until the paper was banned in 1941. In the 1930s, he contributed several plays for Unity Theatre, including the Mass Declamation Spain, the Munich play Crisis and the revues Sandbag Follies and Get Cracking. In 1936, MI5 opened a 20-year-long file on him prompted by a song he co-wrote with Alan Bush for a concert organised to mark the arrival of the 1934 Hunger March into London. During the Second World War, Swingler served in North Africa and Italy and was awarded the Military Medal for his part in the battle of Lake Comacchio. His collections The Years of Anger (1946) and The God in the Cave (1950) contain arguably some of the greatest poems of the Italian campaign. After the war, Swingler was blacklisted by the BBC. Orwell attacked him in Polemic and included him in the list of names he offered the security services in 1949. Stephen Spender vilified him in The God That Failed. The book will challenge the Cold War assumptions that have excluded Swingler’s life and work from standard histories of the period and should be of great interest to activists, scholars and those with an interest in the history of the literary and radical left.

Born in 1900, Alan Bush, the English composer, conductor and pianist, studied with Corder and Matthay, and privately with John Ireland. He was appointed professor of harmony and composition at the Royal Academy of Music in 1925, a post he held until 1978. In 1929-31, he continued to study at Berlin University and had piano lessons with Moiseiwitsch and Schnabel. The present Source Book documents his works (many of which reflect his Communist sympathies) and the many arrangements of his music by other composers. A wealth of detail is provided, including printed scores, CD recordings, bibliographical material and manuscript scores and their locations, the majority of which have been deposited recently in the British Library by the Bush family. A chronology of the composer's life draws on many sources including letters and scrapbooks.

This Companion provides a wide ranging and accessible study of one of the most individual composers of the twentieth century. A team of international scholars shed new light on Tippett's major works and draw attention to those that have not yet received the attention they deserve.

Die britische Sinfonik ist erst in jüngster Zeit ins allgemeine Interesse gerückt. Ein Überblick über die sinfonische Entwicklung im Vereinigten Königreich seit den Anfängen im 18. Jahrhundert bis ins 20. Jahrhundert blieb aber bis heute ein Desideratum. Der hier vorgelegte Überblick zeigt, wie sich die Identität einer britischen Sinfonik über mehr als hundert Jahre entwickelte, geprägt durch Einflüsse vom europäischen Kontinent und von dem Bedürfnis, eigene Wege zu finden. Gegen Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts nahm das sinfonische Schaffen in Großbritannien stark zu, brachte jedoch erst mit Edward Elgar einen prominenten Vertreter von internationalem Rang hervor. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt dieser Publikation liegt auf jenen Werken, die zu einem gewissen Grade von anderen überschattet wurden, unveröffentlicht oder unaufgeführt blieben. Das Ergebnis ist das Bild einer vielgestaltigen sinfonischen Landschaft Großbritanniens, das die ästhetischen Perspektiven der einzelnen Komponisten wie auch ihre soziokulturellen Kontexte erhellt. Ein umfangreiches Verzeichnis aller bekannten Werke und eine ausführliche Bibliographie laden zu weiterer Erkundung des Sujets ein. Only in relatively recent times has any real attention been given to British symphonies. So a comprehensive survey, showing what exists and how the situation in the United Kingdom developed, from the beginnings in the 18th century until well into the 20th century, is long overdue. The preliminary survey presented here shows how a British symphonic identity gradually took shape over more than a century, through influences from abroad and, at home, enterprising attempts to find new ways of expression. By the end of the 19th century, British symphonists had produced an impressive body of work, yet only with the appearance of Elgar’s two symphonies in the following decade did this flourishing school find a champion of international renown. In this publication, light is shone on those works that have to some extent been overshadowed, as well as on those that have remained unpublished or unperformed. The result is a multi-faceted panorama of British symphonism, offering many insights into the composers’ thinking and their socio-cultural contexts. A comprehensive catalogue of all known works and an extensive bibliography invite readers to delve further into the subject.

This is the extraordinary story of the English poet Randall Swingler, godson of the Archbishop of Canterbury, communist, librettist, publisher, propagandist, poet and war-hero. It is a book about the Second World War and the story of the African and Italian campaigns, recorded uniquely through the eyes of the ordinary soldier. It is a case study of the intellectual consequences of the Cold War in Britain, McCarthyism and Zhdanovism. Croft's retelling of Randall Swingler's life from comfortable childhood and public school through to crushing penury will appeal to cultural, political and literary historians.