The first is The Fringes of the Fleet, one of the lesser-known Elgar works, dating from 1917. It has been issued in an outstanding recording by the superb baritone Roderick Williams with the Guildford Philharmonic conducted by Tom Higgins, who prepared the performing edition. It's been written that this is a "lost masterpiece" by Elgar, but that's not so. It's been recorded at least three times, and while it's a fascinating work, it's not what most people would consider a masterpiece.
The composition is Elgar's setting of four poems by Rudyard Kipling, from a short book of the same name dealing with naval life during wartime. Kipling was gifted with an ability to summon atmosphere and storyline in a few words; and the poems are intended to provide vivid impressions of the naval service. Elgar, similarly gifted, set these poems to memorable tunes. The resulting work was heard not in the concert hall but as part of a wartime variety show at the London Coliseum.
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| Frederick Stewart, Harry Barratt, Charles Mott, Frederick Henry |
As you can see from the production photo above, this was very much a popular entertainment. The four singers were baritones Charles Mott (the solo voice), Harry Barratt, Frederick Henry and Frederick Stewart. But being popular did not mean it lacked depth. Although the first song, "The Lowestoft Boat," is a comic ditty that indulges in unlikely-soldier stereotypes that will be familiar to anyone who has seen a Hollywood war movie, it also acknowledges the possibility of death more than once. That possibility is made real in the eerie "Submarines," where "we arise, we lie down, and we move / In the belly of Death."
Shortly after the first performance, Elgar added a fifth, acapella song called "Inside the Bar," to words by Gilbert Parker. This forms a conclusion of sorts - it's a hearty sailor's song, telling of home and his fine lass.
After the work had been taken on tour, with Elgar conducting, Kipling objected to the performances and the work was mostly forgotten. The usual reason given for this is that Kipling was bereft by the death of his own son in war; however, his booklet was not published until after that happened, so the reason seems improbable. It may be that he did not like the variety-show approach to his work - or even that he did not like how "Inside the Bar" had been tacked on to his efforts.
Elgar recorded the work for HMV with Mott and the other singers three weeks after it opened. I have dubbed their recording from an out-of-print LP and rebalanced the elderly sound using the new recording as a guide. The results are very listenable, keeping in mind that this is an acoustic recording from 1917. [Note (June 2023): I have cleaned the transfers up considerably. They are now in ambient stereo, which brings the elderly sound forward.] The link is in the comments, as usual, containing the transfer along with the texts. Here is a link to a PDF of Kipling's booklet.
When I posted the transfer above, I had been listening to a fascinating BBC reconstruction of The Starlight Express, a children's play by Violet Pearn based on a book by Algernon Blackwood, with music by Elgar. This is one of those conceits that posits that children are pure and adults are spoiled, and somehow if we all were more sympathetic, the world would be a better place. (And because this was mounted for the Christmas season of 1915, presumably the point was that there would be fewer wars.)
The play is a period piece, but certainly will strike resonances with people who love its near-contemporary, Peter Pan, or one of the other Edwardian evocations of a make-believe time when children behaved with perfect manners and spoke with perfect diction - and had a mystical bent as well. The BBC performance of the play, from 1965, was offered years ago over at the classical music blog The Music Parlour, where it is no longer available.
Shortly after the first performance, Elgar added a fifth, acapella song called "Inside the Bar," to words by Gilbert Parker. This forms a conclusion of sorts - it's a hearty sailor's song, telling of home and his fine lass.
After the work had been taken on tour, with Elgar conducting, Kipling objected to the performances and the work was mostly forgotten. The usual reason given for this is that Kipling was bereft by the death of his own son in war; however, his booklet was not published until after that happened, so the reason seems improbable. It may be that he did not like the variety-show approach to his work - or even that he did not like how "Inside the Bar" had been tacked on to his efforts.
Elgar recorded the work for HMV with Mott and the other singers three weeks after it opened. I have dubbed their recording from an out-of-print LP and rebalanced the elderly sound using the new recording as a guide. The results are very listenable, keeping in mind that this is an acoustic recording from 1917. [Note (June 2023): I have cleaned the transfers up considerably. They are now in ambient stereo, which brings the elderly sound forward.] The link is in the comments, as usual, containing the transfer along with the texts. Here is a link to a PDF of Kipling's booklet.
When I posted the transfer above, I had been listening to a fascinating BBC reconstruction of The Starlight Express, a children's play by Violet Pearn based on a book by Algernon Blackwood, with music by Elgar. This is one of those conceits that posits that children are pure and adults are spoiled, and somehow if we all were more sympathetic, the world would be a better place. (And because this was mounted for the Christmas season of 1915, presumably the point was that there would be fewer wars.)
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| Charles Mott |
The original lead male voice in The Starlight Express, as in the Fringes of the Fleet, was Charles Mott. He was called to active service during the run of Fringes of the Fleet, and was killed in France in 1918. There is a remembrance of him on Music Web International.
