William Walton: Music and Literature (review)

William Walton: Music and Literature. Edited by Stewart R. Craggs. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 1999. [xiv, 269 p. ISBN 1-85928-190-7. $96.95.]

As Michael Pope states in his foreword to this volume of essays on the life and work of William Walton (1902-1983), "How does it happen that a partial view of a great composer's work can acquire the virtual status of received opinion? So far as the evaluation of Walton's music is concerned, there has for some time been a tendency to focus attention on the earlier stages of his development. . . . But what are we to say of a view which limits recognition of his genius to works produced before the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939?" (p. xi). This collection of ten essays illuminates many diverse aspects of Walton's craft, providing insight into largely unexplored territory. Some articles offer surveys of entire genres, while others focus on a single work. The balanced combination of approaches provides both breadth and depth in this appraisal of the music of one of Britain's leading twentieth-century composers.

Several collections of essays on eminent British composers have appeared in recent years, including Elgar Studies (ed. Raymond Monk [Aldershot, England: Scolar Press, 1990]), Edward Elgar: Music and Literature (ed. Raymond Monk [Aldershot, England: Scolar Press, 1993]), Vaughan Williams Studies (ed. Alain Frogley [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996]), and The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten (ed. Mervyn Cooke [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999]). This parallel monograph on Walton, therefore, is significant not only for the views it presents on the composer but also because it endorses Walton's place in the pantheon of modern British composers.

Walton composed some of the most quintessentially British music of the twentieth century, works filled with grandeur and majesty. Façade (1923), written during his teens, was followed by Belshazzar's Feast (1931), one of the greatest achievements in the choral repertory; as Michael Kennedy remarks at the conclusion of his article on the latter work in the present volume, "Belshazzar's Feast has now passed the test of all great and enduring art: it is impossible to imagine a time when it did not exist" (p. 65). Walton's coronation marches Crown Imperial (1937) and Orb and Sceptre (1953) remain popular, and his concertos for viola (1929), violin (1939), and cello (1957) are extremely well-crafted compositions. Furthermore, his scores for Laurence Olivier's Shakespeare films Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1947), and Richard III (1954) are among the most exquisite examples of the genre. But these works represent only a small glimpse into a compositional voice with tremendous strength and sincerity, as the present collection of essays so aptly proves.

The chapters on various genres provide a solid background and context for those on individual works. Alan Cuckston's essay on the songs, John Coggrave's on the sacred music, Robert Meikle's on the symphonies and concertos, and Stephen Lloyd's on the film music all offer concrete insights into diverse aspects of Walton's craft. Particularly impressive are Meikle's analytical tables, some devoted to a single work, others comparative. Several essays, including Meikle's, are quite technical, while others, such as Coggrave's, do not contain any music examples and focus instead on contextualization of the works.

Just as different approaches are evident in the genre essays, the chapters on individual compositions reflect diverse strategies for examining musical works. Kevin McBeath's "Façade--'a Noise like Amber'" offers a detailed chronology of performances of the work. Kennedy discusses issues surrounding the commission of Belshazzar's Feast in "Belshazzar and the BBC Bureaucracy: The Origins of a Masterpiece," and Zelda Lawrence-Curran's essay examines the radio play Christopher Columbus, illuminating autobiographical elements in the largely unknown work. Scott Price enters the Britten-influenced world of Walton's operatic oeuvre in "'A Lost Child': A Study of the Genesis of Troilus and Cressida," which examines the composer's only major...