Dame Clara Butt Sings Elgar

Dame Clara Butt

The most renowned English contralto was Dame Clara Butt (1872-1936), who had a close association with the composer Sir Edward Elgar. As mentioned in a post on the main blog, she asked Elgar to transpose and orchestrate his Sea Pictures song cycle for her use, and she gave the premiere performance.

But the Elgar work most associated with her was the patriotic song "Land of Hope and Glory," which uses as its chorus the trio section of Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" March No. 1.

Dame Clara was so closely linked with the song that an early biographer claimed that she suggested it to the composer. That does not seem to be true, although she was the first to perform the work. There's also another story that it was King Edward VII who told Elgar that the "Pomp and Circumstance" theme would make a great song. Whether the King did or didn't do so, the composer went on to employ the melody in his Coronation Ode in the King's honor, using words by A.C. Benson. When the coronation itself was postponed, Dame Clara began to use the setting as a separate song.

To say that she became associated with the work would be an understatement. Her online discography suggests that she recorded it 10 times! Today we have a 1915 recording for you, made during wartime for no doubt patriotic purposes. The orchestra is conducted by Arthur Godfrey (not, I hasten to add, the television host).

Butt's singing is like nothing you would hear today. For one thing, her voice is enormous - and enormously powerful, with a pronounced vibrato that is under perfect control. Her voluminous tones make the orchestra sound anemic. For another, her elastic sense of time would amaze today's listeners. At "Make thee mightier again" she just about brings proceedings to a complete halt. It's more like "Make thee. Mightier. Again."

The sound from the HMV pressing is very good for the period. The orchestra wheezes, as they tended to do in acoustic recordings, but Dame Clara is clear as a nice summer's day.

LINK

Stanley Pope Conducts Elgar

Back in the day, you could find classical vinyl records in several formats. My other blog features 10-inch and 12-inch "long play" records, and even some 10-inch "medium play" discs (which had shorter playing time). Almost all of these were 33-1/3 rpm releases.

The 45 rpm format, introduced in 1949, originally was used for singles (i.e., one song per side), but it wasn't long before an "extended play" (EP) version appeared, with two songs on each side. These were largely given over to pop records - repackaging of older singles, themed collections (e.g., "Hits from My Fair Lady"), and so on. But even classical recordings came out on EP, not so much in the US, but in Europe and perhaps elsewhere. Today's post brings us an example of that species.

Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance Marches were well suited to the EP format. There are five such marches (six if you count the one reconstructed from sketches 70 years after the composer's death). However, only four will fit onto an EP, two per side. This allows the label to include the best-known marches (No. 1 and No. 4), along with No. 2 and No. 5.

The trio section of No. 1 is famed in its guise as "Land of Hope and Glory," a setting made by Elgar for his 1902 Coronation Ode, in honor of new King Edward VII. In the US, it is best known as the traditional graduation hymn - a tradition associated with Elgar. It reputedly began at Yale University in 1905 when the composer received an honorary degree, and the tune was used for the recessional.

The trio of No. 4 is hardly less memorable than No. 1, and in both works, they are beautifully set off by the march tunes. No. 1 has an organ accompaniment in the final section, included in this recording. The other marches are less familiar, but most enjoyable. 

On this recording, all four are handsomely played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Stanley Pope. The conductor generally takes quick tempos, which work well. (The need to keep side length under control may also have hurried things along.)

These days Pope is little remembered, probably because he left very few recordings for posterity. There are these marches, Schumann's Symphony No. 4 and a few transcriptions, including one of symphonies by Robert Simpson and Havergal Brian.

Born in 1916 in London, Pope studied conducting with Paul Kletzki and eventually conducted widely in Europe. He died in 1995. I have only found one photo of him - the one on the EP cover above. With his Van Dyke beard and penetrating stare, Pope gives off Mephistophelian vibes, but who knows what he was really like on the podium or elsewhere.

The marches were made in December 1954 in the Walthamstow Assembly Hall, which was frequently used for recordings, and which here produced pleasing sound - just a bit tubby. The download includes two laudatory reviews and two ads - one is below, promising "extended pleasure," which I hope the EP provides.