Joseph Holbrooke

Joseph Charles Holbrooke (5 July 18785 August 1958) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist.

Life

Early years

Joseph Holbrooke was born Joseph Charles Holbrook in Croydon, Surrey. His father, also named Joseph, was a music hall musician and teacher, and his mother Helen was a Scottish singer. He had two older sisters (Helen and Mary) and two younger brothers (Robert and James), both of whom died in infancy. The family travelled around the country, with both parents participating in musical entertainments. Holbrooke's mother died in 1880 from tuberculosis, leaving the family in the care of Joseph senior, who settled the family in London and took the position of pianist at Collins' Music Hall, Islington, and later at the Bedford Music Hall. Holbrooke was taught to play the piano and the violin by his father, who was not averse to the use of violence as a method of instruction, and played in music halls himself before entering the Royal Academy of Music as a student in 1893, where he studied under Frederick Corder for composition and Frederick Westlake for piano. Whilst at the academy he composed several works, chiefly piano miniatures, songs and some chamber music, which were performed at student concerts: at one recital, he substituted one of his own compositions in preference to Schumann's ''Toccata'', incurring the wrath of the Principal, Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie. Whilst at the Royal Academy, Holbrooke won several prizes including the Potter Exhibition for pianoforte (1895), the Sterndale Bennett Scholarship (awarded on 29 April 1896), the Heathcote Long Prize for pianoforte (1896) and, in his final year (with the ''Pantomime Suite'' for strings), the Charles Lucas Prize for composition (1897).

After leaving the Royal Academy Holbrooke sought a variety of occupations. In 1898 he undertook a tour of Scotland accompanying the music hall singer Arthur Lloyd, but the venture failed and he was forced to return to live with his father in London. He then moved out of the family home to Harringay where he began to teach music privately, but once again without financial success. Around this time he decided to change his name from Holbrook to Holbrooke, probably in order to avoid confusion as his father was also still teaching privately. He subsequently adopted the variant Josef Holbrooke which he continued to use inconsistently throughout the remainder of his life. Responding to an advertisement in ''Musical News'', Holbrooke travelled to Horncastle in Lincolnshire where he briefly lived with and served as musical companion to the Reverend Edward Stewart Bengough (1839-1920). He was soon travelling again, conducting a touring pantomime (''Aladdin and the Lamp'') during the 1899-1900 Christmas season. Once more, however, the enterprise collapsed and Holbrooke was left stranded and virtually destitute, at which point Bengough sent him money to enable him to return to London.

Success

Whilst on tour, Holbrooke had sent the score of his orchestral poem ''The Raven'' to August Manns, conductor at the Crystal Palace. Manns accepted the work for performance and gave the premiere on 3 March 1900, whilst later that same year the orchestral variations on ''Three Blind Mice'' were also heard (Queen's Hall Promenade Concert, conducted by Henry Wood, 8 November 1900). In 1901 he won the Lesley Alexander Prize for chamber music with his Sextet in F minor and also received an invitation from Granville Bantock to become a member of the staff at the Birmingham and Midland Institute School of Music. He accepted the position, living with the Bantocks whilst teaching at the institution, but rapidly became dissatisfied with the routine and returned to London in 1902. There then followed a decade of prestigious commissions and performances, with notable works including the poem for chorus and orchestra ''Queen Mab'' (Leeds Festival, conducted by the composer, 6 October 1904), the orchestral poem ''Ulalume'' (Queen's Hall, conducted by the composer, 26 November 1904), the scena for baritone and orchestra ''Marino Faliero'' (Bristol Festival, conducted by the composer, 12 October 1905), the ''Bohemian Songs'' for baritone and orchestra (Norwich Festival, conducted by the composer, 25 October 1905), the poem for chorus and orchestra ''The Bells'' (Birmingham Festival, conducted by Hans Richter, 3 October 1906), the orchestral suite ''Les Hommages'' (Queen's Hall Promenade Concert, conducted by Henry Wood, 25 October 1906) and the choral symphony ''Homage to E.A. Poe'' (two movements first performed at the Bristol Festival, 16 October 1908). During this period Holbrooke also won a further prize, this time with his Fantasie Quartet, Op.17b entered for the 1905 chamber music competition initiated by Walter Willson Cobbett.

In 1907 Holbrooke was approached by the poet Herbert Trench who wished the composer to set his extended poem on immortality ''Apollo and the Seaman''. This Holbrooke duly did, although only the final section of the poem (''The Embarkation'') is actually sung (by a male chorus), the rest of the score being a purely orchestral illustration of the verses. The completed work, styled "An Illuminated Symphony", was first performed at Queen's Hall on 20 January 1908, conducted by Thomas Beecham: on this occasion the orchestra and chorus were hidden from the audience behind an elaborate screen whilst the text of the poem was projected onto the screen using lantern slides at corresponding points in the music. The rehearsals for ''Apollo and the Seaman'' were attended by Thomas Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden who shortly after the first performance approached Holbrooke with one of his own poems, entitled ''Dylan - Son of the Wave'': this resulted in the composition of the opera ''Dylan'', first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, conducted by Artur Nikisch, on 4 July 1914. The staging included another technological wonder:

:"in this work, in order to get convincing flights of wild fowl, films were made in the Outer Hebrides and projected on to the stage. This, of course, was in the days of the silent film, when there was no means of deadening the whirr or hum of the projector and the films themselves resolved into a series of flicks. The scoring, however, was vivid enough to cover the sounds, and this incipient film music was infinitely more successful than some of the over-vaunted high-level scores heard to-day. The theatre, however, was not ready for such an innovation, and the extra-musical effects were not taken seriously."

Collaboration on two further operas, ''The Children of Don'' (first performed at the London Opera House, conducted by Arthur Nikisch, on 15 June 1912 - postponed from 12 June) and ''Bronwen'', brought about the completion of Holbrooke's most ambitious project, a trilogy under the collective title ''The Cauldron of Annwn'' setting Scott-Ellis' versions of tales from the Welsh Mabinogion. Until his death in 1946, Scott-Ellis effectively acted as patron to Holbrooke, subsidising performances and publication of many of his works.

Throughout this period, Holbrooke also enjoyed a successful career as a virtuoso concert pianist. Besides his own compositions, his repertoire included the Toccata by Robert Schumann, ''Islamey'' by Mily Balakirev, Scriabin's Piano Sonata No.1, the fantasie ''Africa'' for piano and orchestra by Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.2.

Controversy

In 1902 Holbrooke had begun his own series of chamber music concerts to promote his music alongside new works by his British contemporaries. Audiences would regularly find admonishing notes printed in their programmes:

:"Mr. JOSEF HOLBROOKE steps forward somewhat adventurously with his 12th year of endeavour for some Modern English Music to an apathetic public, and hopes to receive as few blows as possible (with the usual financial loss) in return."

:"While our good English musicians in power with fine orchestras and much money are pummelling to their utmost ability the down-trodden and unrecognised gifts (!) of Richard Strauss and his brethren abroad, we, in our small way, and where we can, try to leaven matters by writing out cheques and playing our own music to recalcitrant audiences! It is to be regretted that the Reger Pianoforte Quintet announced for this concert was found so long and turgid that we had to put it aside, in case it met with the sad fate of serious English music. We have found a place for more interesting native work and saved Mr. Reger's reputation, which, with Mr. Strauss, is sacred in this country."

When war broke out in 1914 he turned his attention to vigorously denouncing both the lack of support given to British music and the continued favour afforded to that of other countries, especially Germany. He published a series of five essays entitled ''British Music Versus German Music'' which appeared weekly in ''The New Age'' between 5 November and 3 December 1914:

:"The British people have ever listened to the alien, as in the days of Handel, and the critic (although not a villain!) is always ready with his enthusiasm, in large type, for Tetrazzini, Caruso, Busoni, Strauss, Puccini, Nikisch, Campanini, Van Rooy, Stravinski, Chaliapine, Debussy, Pavlova, Karsavina, Nijinski, Mengelberg, Steinbach, Schönberg, Savonoff, Paderewski, Elman, and a few other aliens! These are the 'gods' I am mentioning, the gods of the British people."

:"In a recent disclosing ..I gave actual instances of the orchestras I had personally given concerts with in London, costing me many hundreds of pounds. My sole reward for this is to find them, the orchestras I engaged, united in ignoring, year after year, my works, until, I imagine, more money is forthcoming to spend on more performances!"

:"the despicable members of the music profession are encouraged to play German music by an absolutely indifferent audience. One wonders if any of such people have lost their sons or husbands at the front, or is it that the bulk of our music lovers 'do not fight.'"

The personal tone which informed much of the writing was too strong for some commentators who saw it as blatant self-promotion:

:"I may be forgiven for reading between his lines. I am tempted to think that Mr. Holbrooke is only discussing his own grievances against the English public, and that the real heading of his articles should be 'Holbrooke's v. German or any other music.'"

:"It is a little depressing to watch Mr. Holbrooke endeavouring, week after week, to precipitate Music into the dismal cesspool of Chauvinism that is already full to overflowing. ..Mr. Holbrooke's position is analogous to that of the street-minstrel. It is as though the penny-whistler on the kerbstone were suddenly to belabour with his instrument all the passers-by who did not instantly lose the purpose of their passing-by in a passion of wonder and ecstasy at the sound of his piping. ..Not ''all'' British composers have yet sunk into the mire of sordid commercialism, wherein Mr. Holbrooke would have them fellow-wallowers with himself, nor are they all intoxicated with those quixotic notions of nationalism that have caused Mr. Holbrooke to waste so much breath in spluttering invective against a public that persists in believing that Art is one, and life too short for futile arguments about its nationality."

The fact that Holbrooke had recently issued a number of works under a pseudonym was also seized upon and viewed with suspicion:

:"I should like to ask Mr. Holbrooke to explain why, for all his patriotism, he has recently thought fit to publish several of his works under the name of Jean Hanze, and, in addition, to circulate a pamphlet puffing their soi-disant BELGIAN COMPOSER! - at this time, of all others, when the word 'Belgian' acts as a kind of magic formula for opening purses! One is reminded of the pavement artist who stuffed his legs through a hole in the wall, and posed as a hero who had given his legs for his country. He got several months."

Undoubtedly, Holbrooke was a difficult and prickly person to deal with professionally. Shortly before a concert in Bournemouth on 22 February 1917, where the composer was to give a performance of his piano concerto ''Gwyn ap Nudd'', the conductor Dan Godfrey was compelled to hastily insert apology slips into each of the programmes to the following effect:

:"Mr Dan Godfrey begs to announce that Mr Joseph Holbrooke declines to play today, at this concert, because his name is not announced on the bills in large enough type, consequently the programme will be changed. The Piano Concerto and Dreamland Suite will be substituted by Violin Concerto, Paganini (H E Batten) Scènes Pittoresques, Massenet."

In fact, what had annoyed Holbrooke was the greater prominence which the printed advertisements gave to Vladimir Pachmann who was due to play two days later: he felt that this was yet another instance where a foreigner was being given undue celebrity to the detriment of a native pianist. Such outbursts of pique were characteristic and he gained the reputation of a troublesome and cantankerous eccentric:

:"Holbrooke's personality has also been largely responsible for the amount of opposition that he has received. He is not a man of reticences, and what his heart feels, his tongue speaks without any ''arrière pensée''. He is fond of talking, and nobody talks much who does not say unwise things at times. Being impulsive by nature and very open in character, he is apt to commit indiscretions which he afterwards regrets. He is his own worst enemy, and is well aware of the fact."

:"Josef Holbrooke, an excitable, deaf, talkative, combative musician, who lives in a solitary house in North London surrounded by ordinary Villadom, and writes there music which no one can play. It is music Wagner-like in form and Strauss-like in its intricate orchestration, almost unrecognised, except in foreign Culturedom. And Holbrooke, who composes it, is the enemy of the critics, the terror of publishers, and the intolerant hater of all that is commonplace in music. 'Holbrooke's Sauce,' they call him."

Neglect

Following the First World War, with his own music increasingly side-lined, Holbrooke continued ever more vehemently to berate his critics. A particular target was Ernest Newman, initially an enthusiast for Holbrooke's music but who latterly became cool towards the composer:

:"Men of note with verbal haemorrhage write on music mostly in our daily journals. ..What their training is for their task is not known. In any case all this writing is entirely a trade issue, for what journalism has to do with the arts is best left to the reader's judgment and imagination. Mr Ernest Newman wrote an illuminating and heart-warming set of articles years ago on our composers in ''The Speaker'', but he now publicly repudiates his early enthusiasm!"

However, at the same time, Holbrooke continued to vigorously and vociferously promote compositions by other contemporary British composers both through performance at his own chamber music concerts and in print:

:"At a time when little notice was taken of British composers, Holbrooke was cudgelling, even bludgeoning, in the English press and at his concerts (for he has always been fond - perhaps too fond - of prefaces oral and printed) at the apathy of the English public and the denseness of newspaper critics. He has suffered for his own sayings and vicariously for those of others; but whether we have liked his savage method of fighting or not, the battle has been won, and we must not forget those who were earliest in the field of modern British music."

Perhaps Holbrooke found some satisfaction in seeing his war-time attitude towards greater British representation in concert-halls echoed retrospectively, albeit without the same controversy:

:"Recognition for British music was won at the cost of thousands of lives and millions of money. ..Truth to tell, we had become rather centred on the one thing and inclined to think that there was only one music, and that it came from Germany. This even continued at the beginning of the war. A protest on the part of a small section of the Press did much to draw people's attention to the fact that we were honouring an enemy nation. The counter cry was raised, of course, that "Music has no nationality" and all the rest of it; but there were a thinking few who realised the injustice. I doubt if the knowledge that at the beginning of the war the German papers reproduced London concert programmes, with their rich preponderance of German music, with the sneering remark that "we couldn't do without it" had much effect. It may have been that a few right-thinking people realised that we knew very little about anything save German music ndthe idea began to germinate that possibly somewhere, somehow, there might be something different. Gradually a little more British music was heard, gradually the public became accustomed to the strange sight of a British name on a concert programme, and gradually it dawned upon the people that there was ''something in it''."

Performances of his own music continued sporadically, but included several of great importance: ''The Children of Don'' (''Die Kinder der Don'') was given five times at the Vienna Volksoper under Felix Weingartner, and three times in Salzburg under Ludwig Kaiser (1876-1932), in 1923; ''Bronwen'' was first performed in Huddersfield by The Carl Rosa Opera Company on 1 February 1929 and then taken on tour; and the ballet ''Aucassin and Nicolette'' was performed over two hundred times by the Markova-Dolin Ballet Company during the 1935-36 season. Holbrooke had spent extended periods of time at Harlech, Wales, since around 1915, Scott-Ellis having provided him with a number of residences, and in the early 1920s he moved with his family to a house which he appropriately named ''Dylan''. In the early hours of 9 November 1928, whilst the rest of the family were in London, fire broke out and the house was completely gutted: Holbrooke sustained serious head injuries and his music library was destroyed. This disaster precipitated a return to London where, having bought back many of the copyrights on his earlier works, Holbrooke set up his own publishing house "Modern Music Library", operating from his various London homes: through this outlet he ensured that his compositions remained available and also issued several printed catalogues of his works.

From about the age of forty he began to suffer problems with his hearing, eventually becoming profoundly deaf, an affliction which tended to increase his isolation and irascibility. The condition also served to curtail his career as a concert pianist: when Holbrooke revised his Piano Concerto ''The Song of Gwyn ap Nudd'' in 1923 it was for a performance given by Frederic Lamond.

A "Holbrooke Music Society" was founded in 1931 to promote the composer's works, Scott-Ellis being the Patron and Granville Bantock acting as President. Until Bantock's death in 1946, Holbrooke maintained frequent correspondence with the older composer, railing against the BBC
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