Comments by Bayan Northcott on the 1964 WCSS

Speaking with Bayan Northcott uncovered a wealth of information about the WCSSs and the period in which they occurred. This post draws together some clips from the interview. The interview progressed with Northcott going through his diary.

He began with some contextual remarks about the scene, and the position of Maxwell Davies, Birtwistle and Goehr.

First a comment about the number of people in attendence:

(LS100049, 1’53”)

Filed under: Commentary from Interviews, General details of the Summer Schools, What music was performed?, What was analyzed/discussed?, Who was there?, Alldis, Bayan No, Bedford, Birtwistle, Brahms, Britten, Bruckner, Byrd, C.P.E. Bach and Satie, Carr-Boyd, Cocke, Cornish, Cowie, Dunstable, Ellis, Gabrielli, Gambier, Gilbert, Goehr, Holloway, Isaac, Maschera, Maxwell Davies, Melos Ensemble, Mendelssohn, Messiaen, Monteverdi, Morley, Mozart, Northcott, Patrick Carnegie, Pezel, Pilkington, Scheidt, Schoenberg, Schubert, Smalley, Stravinsky, Taverner, Tippett, Tomkins, Verdi, Wilbye, Wood, Zipoli

1964 Programme of Concerts and Lectures

The following is the contents of the 1964 Programme, held by Bayan Northcott and photographed when I visited him.

Filed under: What music was performed?, Banks, Bartok, Berg, Berthoud, Birtwistle, Blomdahl, Brahms, C. P. E. Bach, Carewe, Couperin rameau, Crowson, Davies, de Peyer, Debussy, Denning, Ellis, Elsie, Franciax, Fricker, Gabrieli, Gibbons, Gilbert, Godfrey, Goehr, Hamilton, Hartman, Haydn, Henze, Hetherington, Hindemith, Huber, Hurwitz, Isaac, J. S. Bach, Kitchin, Locke, Mackintosh, Maschera, Maxwell Davies, McGaw, Melos Ensemble, Mendelssohn, Messiaen, Mozart, Nono, Orff, Philips, Porteous, Pruslin, Rainier, Sanders, Satie, Schoenberg, Schott, Schubert, Schuller, Searle, Seiber, Selby-Smith, Snitzler, Stravinsky, Thomas, Tippett, Universal Edition, Weil, Wood, Young

A concert, but when?

When I visited Hugh Wood, he showed me two typed pages, one of which had the programme for the Nocturnal concert, Friday 21 August 1964. There was also a concert that Wood insists took place, but which isn’t listed in any of the other literature I have for the events. This was the programme:

Music for a film scene [sic] Schoenberg

Canzona II David Ellis

Movement Neville Gambier

Castle Music Anthony Gilbert

Little Music for Strings Michael Tippett

Serenade Op.11 Brahms

This is a fascinating programme, and it includes works by Ellis and Gilbert no longer in their catalogue. Hopefully my meeting with Anthony Gilbert will clear up whether or not this took place, and if it did, its date, location and performers. I still have little idea who Neville Gambier was.

The following clip is Wood’s reaction to this concert, making clear his memory of its occurrence, and on the difficulty of clarifying the details of the programme.

(LS100044: 51’10”)

Further to this post, this list of works is part of the participants’ concert given on the final evening. For more details see this post.

Filed under: What music was performed?, Brahms, Ellis, Gambier, Gilbert, Schoenberg, Tippett

Other attendees?

According to Michael Hall, the following people were also there (in addition to my earlier post):

1964:

Roger Smalley, John Bulley (sp?), Bill Hopkins, Robin Holloway, David Ellis, David Bedford, Edward Cowie, Brian Ferneyhough?.

1965:

Bayan Northcott, Stephen Arnold, William Coates, Brian Ferneyhough.

Filed under: Who was there?, Arnold, Bedford, Bulley, Coates, Cowey, Ellis, Ferneyhough, Holloway, Hopkins, Northcott, Smalley