Chapter 24 - ‘Wanting’ the Home-Grown Composer:

Summary

This chapter indicates some of the changes in the condition of the British composer between the pre–First World War situation that Vaughan Williams had outlined in ‘Who Wants the English Composer?’ and the developments that began to come into place in the 1920s and 1930s. It focusses on aspects of fresh leadership, opportunities, and practical encouragement as evidenced through Hugh Allen and the Royal College of Music, Adrian Boult and the British Broadcasting Corporation, and Hubert Foss and the Oxford University Press Music Department. The Royal College of Music became a composers’ resource, its orchestra and the new Parry theatre offering opportunities for composers to try out works in rehearsal or on the stage. Boult’s championship of British composition was evident in his Royal College conducting class and from his assiduous broadcasting of British composers at the BBC. British music publishers were slow to appreciate the opportunities of income deriving from performance and broadcasting rights, clinging to the tradition of revenue meaning copies sold. But these new income streams enabled material change, and Hubert Foss persuaded OUP to publish serious orchestral music by young British talent. In all of this, Vaughan Williams was an essential point of influence and example.