Cecil William Turpie Gray (19 May 1895 – 9 September 1951) was a Scottish music critic, author and composer.
Biography
Born in Edinburgh, he took an arts degree at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
and studied composition privately with the Anglo-Canadian composer
Healey Willan
James Healey Willan (12 October 1880 – 16 February 1968) was an Anglo-Canadian organist and composer. He composed more than 800 works including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and ...
. From there he developed his career as editor, music critic, and author. Gray first met
Philip Heseltine (another writer/critic who also composed music under the name Peter Warlock) at the
Cafe Royal
A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-ca ...
in the spring of 1916 and they were soon sharing a studio – 2 Anhalt Studios, close to
Battersea Park
Battersea Park is a 200-acre (83-hectare) green space at Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth in London. It is situated on the south bank of the River Thames opposite Chelsea and was opened in 1858.
The park occupies marshland recla ...
. This led to Gray's first musical venture, the co-sponsoring with Heseltine in 1917 of a concert of works by the then completely unknown composer
Bernard van Dieren
Bernard Hélène Joseph van Dieren (27 December 188724 April 1936) was a Dutch composer, critic, author, and writer on music, much of whose working life was spent in England.
Biography
Van Dieren was the last of five children of a Dutch Rotterda ...
.
Three years later Gray co-founded the early music periodical ''
The Sackbut ''The Sackbut'' was a British music journal published from 1920 to 1934 by the Curwen Press. It published general articles on mainly contemporary, both British and foreign, music as well as reports on performances and records. It was founded by the ...
'', also with Heseltine. Gray subsequently worked as music critic for publications including ''The Daily Telegraph'', ''The Manchester Guardian'', and ''The Morning Post'', and occasionally for the ''Radio Times'' and ''The Listener''.
His first published book, ''A Survey of Contemporary Music'', was published in 1924, and was notable for its contrary opinions.
Frank Howes
Frank Stewart Howes (2 April 1891 – 28 September 1974) was an English music critic. From 1943 to 1960 he was chief music critic of ''The Times''. From his student days Howes gravitated towards criticism as his musical specialism, guided by the a ...
, ''The Times'' chief music critic, pointed out that the formula "so far from the usual view being true, the precise opposite is the case" occurs every few pages.
["Mr Cecil Gray", ''The Times'', 19 September 1951, p6] With Heseltine, Gray co-authored the characteristically perverse ''Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa: Musician and Murderer'' in 1926. A full, but equally unorthodox ''History of Music'' followed in 1928.
Gray was also an early advocate of
Sibelius
Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...
, championing his music in the UK from 1923 when it was still all but unknown there. He wrote two books on the composer in 1931 and 1935. His sympathetic portrayal of Heseltine/Warlock in his memoir of 1934 is thought by many to be his best literary work.
[ There were also two collections of essays, ''Predicaments'' (1936) and ''Contingencies'' (1947), a play about ]Gilles de Rais
Gilles de Rais (c. 1405 – 26 October 1440), Baron de Rais (), was a knight and lord from Brittany, Anjou and Poitou, a leader in the French army, and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He is best known for his reputation and later conv ...
and an autobiography, ''Musical Chairs'' (1948).[Cecil Gray: ''Musical Chairs'']
/ref>
Musical works
Gray was also a composer, but preferred to promote the music of his friends Constant Lambert
Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founder and music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton) he was a major figure in th ...
, Peter Warlock and Bernard van Dieren above his own. Hubert Foss said that not even his most intimate friends knew of his complete worth as a composer. (In his autobiography ''Musical Chairs,'' Gray said that he was "regarded by musicians as a writer and by writers as a musician").[
His first work was the Irish opera '']Deirdre
Deirdre ( , Irish: ; sga, Derdriu ) is the foremost tragic heroine in Irish legend and probably its best-known figure in modern times. She is known by the epithet "Deirdre of the Sorrows" (). Her story is part of the Ulster Cycle, the best-know ...
'', completed in 1937. It was never performed in its entirety, but Gray did extract from its third act the ''Symphonic Prelude for Orchestra'' (1945), which received several performances in England and the United States''.[Gray, Pauline, introduction to ''Musical Chairs'', 1985] ''There were two other operas: ''The Temptation of St Anthony'' (1937, after Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...
), and ''The Trojan Women'' (1937-40, after Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...
). None of the operas were ever staged, but the BBC did broadcast a shortened version of ''The Trojan Women'' on 5 April 1944, conducted by Constant Lambert. Scored for six soloists, chorus and orchestra, the music takes the form of a passacaglia
The passacaglia (; ) is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often based on a bass- ostinato and written in triple metre.
Origin
The t ...
with a chromatic descending ground bass to which the themes of each scene act as a counterpoint. Gray himself adapted and abbreviated the opera for broadcast.
Like Heseltine/Warlock, Gray adopted a pseudonym for some compositions to thwart the enemies he'd made as a critic. ''Syllogism, or Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis'' for orchestra and female chorus was composed using the name Marcus Lestrange. Gray's friend, the artist Michael Ayrton
Michael Ayrton (20 February 1921 – 16 November 1975)T. G. Rosenthal, "Ayrton , Michael (1921–1975)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008accessed 24 Jan 2015/ref> was a British arti ...
, remembered other works, including an Overture ''Roma Nobilis'' and a setting of ''Canticle of the Sun
The Canticle of the Sun, also known as Laudes Creaturarum (Praise of the Creatures) and ''Canticle of the Creatures'', is a religious song composed by Saint Francis of Assisi. It was written in an Umbrian dialect of Italian but has since been ...
'', but both appear to be lost.[
]
Personal life
In 1917 Gray took out a five-year lease on Count House, close to Bosigran Castle in Cornwall (the house is now a climber's club) where he became a neighbour of D. H Lawrence. While there, Gray had a relationship with the American Imagist poet H.D. with whom he had a daughter, Perdita, in 1919. In her autobiographical novel ''Bid Me to Live'' H.D. portrayed Gray as the character "Vane". Lawrence used Gray as the model for two characters: "Cyril Scott" in ''Aaron's Rod
Aaron's rod refers to any of the walking sticks carried by Moses's brother, Aaron, in the Torah. The Bible tells how, along with Moses's rod, Aaron's rod was endowed with miraculous power during the Plagues of Egypt that preceded the Exodus. T ...
'' (1922) and "James Sharpe" in ''Kangaroo
Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...
'' (1923).
He was married three times, first (in 1927) to Natalia Mamontova, the daughter of Natalia Brasova
Natalia Brasova, Countess Brasova (russian: Наталья Брасова; born Natalia Sergeyevna Sheremetyevskaya, russian: Ната́лья Серге́евна Шереме́тьевская; 27 June 1880 – 26 January 1952) was a Russian nob ...
. Their daughter Pauline was born in 1929. But the marriage did not last and Gray married again in 1936, to the Scottish ballet dancer Marie Nielson. Another daughter, Fabia, was born in 1938. His third marriage, to Margery Livingstone Herbage (previously the wife of the BBC's Julian Herbage
Julian Livingstone Herbage (10 September 1904– 15 January 1976) was a British musicologist, broadcaster and member of the BBC music department. He is known for his scholarly edition of the score of Handel's ''Messiah'' (1935), for his role in pl ...
) in 1944, ended at her death in 1948. Among his grandchildren, through Perdita, was the author and Beatles biographer Nicholas Schaffner
Nicholas Schaffner (January 28, 1953 – August 28, 1991) was an American non-fiction author, journalist, and singer-songwriter.
Biography
Schaffner was born in Manhattan to John V. Schaffner (1913–1983), a literary agent whose clients include ...
.
Gray evidently had difficult relationships with women, something that is partly portrayed by Anthony Powell in his ''A Dance to the Music of Time
''A Dance to the Music of Time'' is a 12-volume ''roman-fleuve'' by English writer Anthony Powell, published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim. The story is an often comic examination of movements and manners, power and passivity in Eng ...
'' sequence of novels – in particular the fifth volume ''Casanova's Chinese Restaurant
''Casanova's Chinese Restaurant'' is a novel by Anthony Powell (). It forms the fifth volume of the twelve-volume sequence ''A Dance to the Music of Time'', and was originally published in 1960. Many of the events of the novel were included in t ...
''.
The characters of Maclintick and Gossege are said to form a composite portrait of Gray, though Powell also added echoes of Peter Warlock into the mix.
A hard drinker with a cocaine habit Gray was a slow talker who warmed up and was not regarded as conventional "good company". However he maintained close relationships with many writers, poets, painters and musicians. In 1947 he and his wife Margery moved to the island of Ischia
Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Roughly trapezoidal in shape, it measures approximately east to west ...
, and then to Capri. He became increasingly ill following Margery's death, returning to the UK in 1951 where he died of cirrhosis of the liver in a Worthing nursing home.[ In 1989, the composer's daughter Pauline Gray put together a biographical sketch with selections from his notebooks.][Pauline Gray]
''Cecil Gray, His Life and Notebooks''
Thames Publishing, 1989
Writings
* A ''Survey of Contemporary Music'' (London, 1924, 2nd edition 1927)
* (with P. Heseltine), ''Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa: Musician and Murderer'' (London, 1926)
* ''The History of Music'' (London, 1928)
* ''Sibelius'' (London, 1931, 2nd edition 1934)
* ''Peter Warlock: a Memoir of Philip Heseltine'' (London, 1934)
* ''Sibelius: the Symphonies'' (London, 1935)
* ''Predicaments: or Music and the Future'' (London, 1936)
* ''The Forty-Eight Preludes and Fugues of Bach'' (Oxford, 1938)
* ''Gilles de Rais'': a play (1945)
* ''Contingencies, and Other Essays'' (London, 1947)
* ''Musical Chairs, or Between Two Stools: Being the Life and Memoirs of Cecil Gray'' (London, 1948)
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Cecil
Scottish writers about music
1895 births
1951 deaths
Scottish music critics
British music critics
Sibelius scholars