Ivy Priaulx Rainier (3 February 190310 October 1986) was a
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n-
British composer.
[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography](_blank)
/ref> Although she lived most of her life in England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and died in France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, her compositional style was strongly influenced by the African music
Given the vastness of the African continent, its music is diverse, with regions and nations having many distinct musical traditions. African music includes the genres amapiano, Jùjú, Fuji, Afrobeat, Highlife, Makossa, Kizomba, and others. The ...
remembered from her childhood.[ She never adopted 12-tone or serial techniques, but her music shows a profound understanding of that musical language. She can be credited with the first truly athematic works composed in England.][ Her Cello Concerto was premiered by Jacqueline du Pré in 1964, and her Violin Concerto ''Due Canti e Finale'' was premiered by ]Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name:
* Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor
** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England
** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to the v ...
in 1977.
Biography
Priaulx Rainier was born in 1903 in Howick Howick may refer to:
Places
*Howick, KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa
**Howick Falls
* Howick, Lancashire, a small hamlet (Howick Cross) and former civil parish in England
*Howick, New Zealand
**Howick Historical Village
**Howick (New Zealand electo ...
, Colony of Natal, to a father of Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
descent and an English mother.[Music Web International]
/ref> One of her sisters was a cellist.[ She studied the violin at the ]South African College of Music
The South African College of Music, abbreviated as SACM, is a department of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Cape Town. It is located on the University's Lower Campus in Rondebosch, Cape Town.
Study opportunities
The South African ...
in Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
after her family moved there when she was aged 10,[ but moved permanently to ]London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
at the age of 17, in 1920, when she took up a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...
(RAM). She studied there with Rowsby Woof
Edward Rowsby Woof (18 January 1883 – 31 December 1943) was an English violinist and music educator. He was born in Coalbrookdale, son of Edward Woof and his wife Sarah (née Rowsby). He became professor of violin at the Royal Academy of Music (F ...
and Sir John Blackwood McEwen. She taught at Badminton School, Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, and also played violin in a string quartet
The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
.[ She had encouragement as a composer from Arnold Bax, and in 1937 studied with ]Nadia Boulanger
Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist.
From a ...
in Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
[Classical Music on the Web]
/ref>[ but considered herself essentially self-taught.][
]
Early career
Priaulx Rainer started composing in 1924, but little came from her pen until 1937, after a long period of recuperation following a serious car accident in 1935.[British Music Information Centre]
/ref>[Royal Academy of Music]
/ref> Her first acknowledged work was ''Three Greek Epigrams'' for voice and piano.[ Her first mature work was the String Quartet No.1 in Cminor][York gate Musical Notes]
/ref> (1939). It was given a private performance in 1940 but not performed publicly until 1944, at Wigmore Hall.[ It was recorded in 1949 by the ]Amadeus Quartet
The Amadeus Quartet was a string quartet founded in 1947 and disbanded in 1987, having retained its founding members throughout its history.
Noted for its smooth, sophisticated style, its seamless ensemble playing, and its sensitive interpretat ...
.[Snowman, Daniel, Amadeus Quartet: The Men and the Music, London, 1981] The music was used for a ballet titled ''Night Spell'', performed by the José Limón
José Arcadio Limón (January 12, 1908 – December 2, 1972) was a dancer and choreographer from Mexico and who developed what is now known as 'Limón technique'. In the 1940s, he founded the José Limón Dance Company (now the Limón Dan ...
company in the United States in 1951[ and at Sadler's Wells Ballet in 1957.][ She often used ]ostinato
In music, an ostinato (; derived from Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces include ...
-like repetition and alternation in her works, often of a percussive character. These characteristics are apparent in the Viola Sonata (premiered in March 1946 by Winifred Copperwheat
Winifred May Copperwheat (10 October 190523 February 1976) was an English classical music, classical viola player and teacher.
She studied under English violist Lionel Tertis at the Royal Academy of Music. Tertis later said after one of her rec ...
and Antony Hopkins) and the ''Barbaric Dance Suite'' for piano (1949; premiered in November 1950 by Margaret Kitchin
Margaret Kitchin (23 March 1914 – 16 June 2008) was a classical pianist, born in Switzerland but long resident in the United Kingdom. She was strongly associated with contemporary music and gave many premieres, including works by Michael Ti ...
). There is also a Suite for clarinet and piano (1943), a ''Sinfonia da camera'' for strings (1947; commissioned by a close friend,[ Michael Tippett;][ premiered by Walter Goehr,][) and a ''Ballet Suite'' (1950). Her first large-scale work for voices was ''Orpheus Sonnets'' for soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra.
In 1939 she was appointed a Professor of Composition at the RAM,][Schott Music]
where she remained until 1961.[ She was elected a Fellow in 1952.][ Her students included Nigel Butterley,][ABC Classic FM]
/ref> Jeremy Dale Roberts
Jeremy Dale Roberts (16 May 1934 – 11 July 2017) was an English composer and teacher. After early contact with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gerald Finzi, Dale Roberts studied with William Alwyn and Priaulx Rainier at the Royal Academy of Music, L ...
, Rachel Cavalho
Rachel Cavalho (1907 – 28 July 2002) was an Australian-born pianist and music educator.
She was born in Queensland and studied in England with Louis Kentner and Priaulx Rainier. Cavalho went on to perform in England and Canada. In 1948, she mov ...
, and Christopher Small
Christopher Neville Charles Small (17 March 1927 – 7 September 2011) was a New Zealand-born musician, educator, lecturer, and author of a number of influential books and articles in the fields of musicology, sociomusicology and ethnomusicology ...
. She and Michael Tippett co-founded the St Ives September Festival, first presented in June 1953.[Barbara Hepworth Biography]
/ref>
Music
The first of Priaulx Rainier's large orchestral works was ''Phalaphala'' (the word refers to an African chief's ceremonial horn), first heard in 1961, celebrating Sir Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London ...
's tenth anniversary with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...
(1960).[
Peter Pears and the Purcell Singers][Singers.com]
/ref> gave the first performance of Priaulx Rainier's ''Requiem'' (1956; tenor and unaccompanied chorus) at the Aldeburgh Festival that year.[ It was set to the poem ''Requiem'', written for her by ]David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne (10 October 1916 – 25 November 2001) was an English poet associated with the Surrealist movement, in particular the British Surrealist Group. Additionally he translated work by French surrealist poets.
Early life and surrealis ...
in 1938–1940 in Paris[Obituary of David Gascoyne, The Times, 28 November 2001]
/ref> and dedicated to future victims of war.[ Pears also commissioned Rainier's '']Cycle for Declamation
''Cycle for Declamation'' is a song cycle for tenor solo composed in 1954 by Priaulx Rainier (190386).Allmusic gives 1953 as the year of composition, Peter Pears 1954. The latterbeing the work's commissioner and original performerseems the more ...
'' (1954) and ''The Bee Oracles'' (1970), a setting of Edith Sitwell's poem ''The Bee-Keeper'' scored for tenor, flute, oboe, violin, cello and harpsichord. Pears first sang it publicly at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1970.
The oboe quartet ''Quanta'' was commissioned by William Glock, Head of Music at the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
, and written for Janet Craxton
Janet Helen Rosemary Craxton (17 May 192918 July 1981) was an English oboe player and teacher. She was the youngest of the six children and the only daughter of the pianist and teacher Harold Craxton. Her older brothers included the artist John C ...
and the London Oboe Quartet. The title comes from the quantum theory
Quantum theory may refer to:
Science
*Quantum mechanics, a major field of physics
*Old quantum theory, predating modern quantum mechanics
* Quantum field theory, an area of quantum mechanics that includes:
** Quantum electrodynamics
** Quantum ch ...
.[
The Cello Concerto was written for a Prom Concert held on 3September 1964][ where it was introduced to the world by Jacqueline du Pré and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under ]Norman Del Mar
Norman René Del Mar CBE (31 July 19196 February 1994) was a British conductor, horn player, and biographer. As a conductor, he specialised in the music of late romantic composers; including Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. H ...
(at the same concert, duPré played Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
's Cello Concerto A cello concerto (sometimes called a violoncello concerto) is a concerto for solo cello with orchestra or, very occasionally, smaller groups of instruments.
These pieces have been written since the Baroque era if not earlier. However, unlike instru ...
with the same orchestra under Sir Malcolm Sargent, the year before she made her famous recording of it under Sir John Barbirolli.) It has been claimed that duPré "loathed every second" of the Rainier concerto, "not only because of its idiom, but also because it was technically beyond her".
Priaulx Rainier's largest work of that period was the orchestral suite ''Aequora Lunae'', a continuous piece in seven sections, each one descriptive of one of the Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
's seas. It was dedicated to Barbara Hepworth
Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadi ...
, whose acquaintance she made in the summer of 1949[ when she stayed in St Ives, ]Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
, using a fisherman's loft as a studio.[ She remained a close friend of Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.][ She claimed that only sculptors and architects fully understood her music.][ Another work premiered at a Prom Concert was ''Ploërmel'' (1973), an evocation of one her favourite places, Ploërmel in the North West of ]France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, near the mouth of the River Loire
The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...
. It uses an orchestra of winds and percussion, including timpani, tubular bells, hand-bells, antique cymbals, high and low gongs, xylophone, and marimba.[
Her violin concerto, ''Due Canti e Finale'', was commissioned by ]Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name:
* Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor
** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England
** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to the v ...
, who performed it at the 1977 Edinburgh Festival
__NOTOC__
This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...
with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, that performs and produces primarily classic works.
The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable ...
conducted by Sir Charles Groves
Sir Charles Barnard Groves CBE (10 March 191520 June 1992) was an English conductor. He was known for the breadth of his repertoire and for encouraging contemporary composers and young conductors.
After accompanying positions and conducting ...
.[ Menuhin described Rainier as "having a musical imagination of a colour and variety scarcely to be believed". On the other hand, after hearing her music, William Walton commented that she "must have barbed-wire underwear". ''Concertante for Two Winds and Orchestra'' was written for, and dedicated to, Janet Craxton and ]Thea King
Dame Thea King DBE FRCM FGSM (26 December 1925 – 26 June 2007) was a British clarinettist.
Biography
Early life
Thea King was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, the daughter of Henry Walter Mayer King, the manager of his family engineer ...
and was premiered at the Proms in 1981.[
There have been infrequent performances of Priaulx Rainier's music as they are difficult for both performer and listener. Premieres of her music were not always adequate, reducing the chances of there being further performances.][ Her complete chamber music was recorded and broadcast by the BBC in 1976.][
]
Later life
She was awarded a Doctorate in Music (Honoris Causa) by the University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
in June 1982.[ She was a passionate gardener and ecologist who helped design, and planted the exotic plants in, Barbara Hepworth's Sculpture Garden in StIves. Her last work, ''Wildlife Celebration'', was commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin and performed in aid of Gerald Durrell's Wildlife Conservation Trust.][
Priaulx Rainier died on 10 October 1986 at ]Besse-en-Chandesse
Besse-et-Saint-Anastaise (; oc, Bèssa), also known as Besse-en-Chandesse (its official name from April 2, 1961 to July 1, 1973), or Besse (its name before 1961), is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central F ...
in France, aged 83.[ The date was the 70th birthday of ]David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne (10 October 1916 – 25 November 2001) was an English poet associated with the Surrealist movement, in particular the British Surrealist Group. Additionally he translated work by French surrealist poets.
Early life and surrealis ...
, the poet to whose words she had written her ''Requiem'' of 1956.[
]
Legacy
Most of her music manuscripts are now housed at the J.W. Jagger Library at the University of Cape Town.
On 28 March 1987 a concert in celebration of her life and work was held at Wigmore Hall. A pictorial biography, ''Come and Listen to the Stars Singing'', written by her long-term partner June Opie, was published in 1988.
Her centenary on 3 February 2003 was marked by a special program on Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
's ABC Classic FM
ABC Classic, formerly ABC-FM (also ABC Fine Music), and then ABC Classic FM, is an Australian classical music radio station available in Australia and internationally. Its website features classical music news, features and listening guides. ...
.[
Her "lost" early String Quartet (1922) was given its world premiere on 8September 2004 at the Tate StIves Visual Music Week.
Rainier's ''Movement for strings'', substantially completed in 1951 but lacking final revision, was edited by Douglas Young and received its first performance at the BBC Proms on 10August 2013.BBC Proms 2013]
/ref>
References
Sources
* Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed, 1954, Eric Blom
Eric Walter Blom (20 August 188811 April 1959) was a Swiss-born British-naturalised music lexicographer, music critic and writer. He is best known as the editor of the 5th edition of ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1954).
Biogr ...
, ed.
*
* Soden, Oliver.
Priaulx Rainier: Fearless and pioneering composer
' (2021)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rainier, Priaulx
1903 births
1986 deaths
South African composers
Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music
Academics of the Royal Academy of Music
20th-century classical musicians
20th-century classical composers
20th-century British composers
Women classical composers
Women music educators
20th-century women composers
South African emigrants to the United Kingdom
British expatriates in France