Frankfurt Group
TheFrankfurt Group,also called theFrankfurt Gangor theFrankfurt Five,[1]was a group of English-speaking composers and friends who studied composition underIwan Knorrat theHoch ConservatoryinFrankfurt am Mainin the late 1890s.[2]The group includedH. Balfour Gardiner,Norman O'Neill,Cyril ScottandRoger Quilter,who were all English, andPercy GraingerandFrederick Septimus Kelly,who were born inAustraliabut established themselves as composers in England.[2]Although they did not study in Frankfurt all at the same time they remained close friends from their student days onwards.[3]
Knorr, though German-born, was strongly influenced byRussian musicand was a believer in fostering the individuality of his pupils.[2]The Frankfurt group were united more by their friendship and their non-conformity than by any common aim,[4]though they did share a dislike ofBeethoven,[5]and a resistance to themusical nationalismof the self-styledEnglish Musical RenaissanceofHubert ParryandCharles Villiers Stanford,and of the laterEnglish Pastoral SchoolofRalph Vaughan WilliamsandGustav Holst.[2]All of them had a predilection for the music ofFrederick Delius,[6]although there remains some doubt as to when the individual members first became aware of his music, which was certainly later than when they were a group in the 1890s.[7]The group was distinguished by its rebelliousness,[8]and by studying abroad they stood apart from the conservative wider English musical establishment.[3]
Grainger described the group asPre-Raphaelitecomposers,[9]arguing that they were musically distinguished from other British composers by "an excessive emotionality... particularly a tragic or sentimental or wistful or pathetic emotionality", reached through a focus onchordsrather thanmusical architectureor "the truly English qualities of grandeur, hopefulness and glory".[8]Most rebellious were Grainger and Scott, whose music often crossed the boundaries of accepted musical convention.[8]Scott's work for a time gave up the use ofbarsandtime signatures,while employingdissonant harmoniesand highly individualorchestration.[2]The music of Quilter, O'Neill and (sometimes) Balfour Gardiner, shows an influence derived from Delius.[10]
Legacy
[edit]Writing in 1977Stephen Banfieldargued that "today [the Frankfurt Group] is difficult to regard as anything other than a damp squib in the history of English music". Of them all, he said, only Roger Quilter is remembered not as a name but for his music - although only his songs have made an impact.[11]
References
[edit]- ^Langfield 2002,p. 15.
- ^abcdeHowes 1966,p. 192.
- ^abLloyd 2005,p. 15.
- ^Langfield 2002,pp. 15–16.
- ^Langfield 2002,p. 14.
- ^Payne, Anthony. 'Classical: On the Air' inThe Independent,26 November, 1999
- ^Banfield, Stephen.Sensibility and English Song(1985), p 107
- ^abcLloyd 2005,p. 16.
- ^The Pre-Raphaelite Cello,Somm Recordings SOMMCD0685 (2024), reviewed at MusicWeb International
- ^Delius and his Circle,Stone Records (2011)
- ^Stephen Banfield. 'Roger Quilter: A Centenary Note',inThe Musical Times,Vol. 118 No. 1617, November 1977, pp. 903-906
Literature
[edit]- Peter Cahn,Das Hoch'sche Konservatorium in Frankfurt am Main (1878–1978),Frankfurt am Main: Kramer, 1979.
- Howes, Frank (1966). "Tributaries from Frankfurt, Birmingham and Elsewhere".The English Musical Renaissance.London: Secker & Warburg. pp. 192–202.OCLC930472265.
- Langfield, Valerie (2002).Roger Quilter: His Life and Music.Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer.ISBN0-85115-871-4.Retrieved2017-11-28.
- Lloyd, Stephen (2005).H. Balfour Gardiner.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-61922-X.Retrieved2017-11-28.
