Editing Arnold Bax (section)

==Life and career==
===Early years===
Bax was born on 8 November 1883 in the London suburb of [[Streatham]], Surrey, to a prosperous Victorian family. He was the eldest son of Alfred Ridley Bax (1844–1918) and his wife, Charlotte Ellen (1860–1940), daughter of Rev. William Knibb Lea, of [[Xiamen|Amoy]], China.<ref name=dnb>Foreman, Lewis. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30645 "Bax, Sir Arnold Edward Trevor"], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, retrieved 16 September 2015 {{ODNBsub}}</ref><ref>Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-Armour, A. C. Fox-Davies, T. C. & E. C. Jack, 1910, p. 106</ref> The couple's youngest son, [[Clifford Bax|Clifford Lea Bax]], became a playwright and essayist.{{refn|Their siblings were Alfred (1884–95) and Evelyn (1887–1984).<ref name=p7>Parlett, p. 7</ref>|group= n}} Alfred Bax was a [[barrister]] of the [[Middle Temple]], but having a private income he did not practise. In 1896 the family moved to a mansion in  [[Hampstead]]. Bax later wrote that although it would have been good to be raised in the country, the large gardens of the family house were the next best thing.<ref>Foreman (1971), p. 60</ref> He was a musical child: "I cannot remember the long-lost day when I was unable to play the piano – inaccurately".<ref>Bax, p. 7</ref>

After a [[Preparatory school (United Kingdom)|preparatory school]] in [[Balham]],<ref name=p7/> Bax attended the Hampstead Conservatoire during the 1890s. The establishment was run – "with considerable personal pomp", according to Bax – by [[Cecil Sharp]],<ref>Bax, p. 11</ref> whose passion for English folk-song and folk-dance excited no response in his pupil.<ref name=archive>Herbage, Julian. [https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati19511960lees/dictionaryofnati19511960lees_djvu.txt "Bax, Sir Arnold Edward Trevor"], Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 1971, retrieved 9 July 2021</ref> An enthusiasm for folk music was widespread among British composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including [[Hubert Parry|Parry]], [[Charles Villiers Stanford|Stanford]], [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]] and [[Gustav Holst|Holst]];<ref>Onderdonk, p. 84</ref> [[Arthur Sullivan|Sullivan]] and [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]] stood aloof,<ref>Hughes, p. 143; and Stradling and Hughes, p. 140</ref> as did Bax, who later put into general circulation the saying, "You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk-dancing."<ref name=b12>Bax, p. 12</ref>{{refn|This ''bon mot'', often misattributed to [[Thomas Beecham|Sir Thomas Beecham]],<ref>Sherrin, p. 109</ref> first appeared in print in Bax's memoirs, ascribed to an unnamed "sympathetic Scot",<ref name=b12/> later identified as the conductor [[Guy Warrack]].<ref>Lloyd (2014), p. 37; and Schaarwächter, p. 578</ref>|group= n}}

[[File:Frederick Corder 001.jpg|thumb|alt=portrait of bald, moustached man in middle age|upright|[[Frederick Corder]] (in 1913), Bax's composition teacher]]
In 1900 Bax moved on to the [[Royal Academy of Music]], where he remained until 1905, studying composition with [[Frederick Corder]] and piano with [[Tobias Matthay]]. Corder was a devotee of the works of [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]], whose music was Bax's principal inspiration in his early years. He later observed, "For a dozen years of my youth I wallowed in Wagner's music to the almost total exclusion – until I became aware of [[Richard Strauss]] – of any other".<ref>Foreman (1971), p. 62</ref> Bax also discovered and privately studied the works of [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]], whose music, like that of Strauss, was frowned on by the largely conservative faculty of the academy.<ref name=archive/>

Although Bax won a [[George Alexander Macfarren|Macfarren]] Scholarship for composition and other important prizes, and was known for his exceptional ability to read complex modern scores on sight, he attracted less recognition than his contemporaries [[Benjamin Dale]] and [[York Bowen]].<ref name=archive/><ref name=grove>Foreman, Lewis. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/02380 "Bax, Sir Arnold"], Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, retrieved 16 September 2015 {{subscription required}}</ref> His keyboard technique was formidable, but he had no desire for a career as a soloist.{{refn|He had even less desire to conduct, vowed never to do so, and broke the vow only once, in 1906.<ref>Foreman (1971), p. 64</ref>|group= n}} Unlike most of his contemporaries, he had private means that made him free to pursue his musical career as he chose, without the necessity of earning an income.<ref>Foreman (1971), pp. 60 and 65</ref> ''The Times'' considered that Bax's independence and disinclination to heed his teachers ultimately damaged his art, because he did not develop the discipline to express his imagination to the greatest effect.<ref name=times>"Obituary: Sir Arnold Bax", ''The Times'', 5 October 1953, p. 11</ref>

After leaving the Academy Bax visited Dresden, where he saw the original production of Strauss's ''[[Salome (opera)|Salome]]'', and first heard the music of [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler]], which he found "eccentric, long-winded, muddle-headed, and yet always interesting".<ref>Bax, p. 29</ref> Among the influences on the young Bax was the Irish poet [[W. B. Yeats]]; Bax's brother Clifford introduced him to Yeats's poetry and to Ireland.<ref name=grove/> Influenced by Yeats's ''[[The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems|The Wanderings of Oisin]]'', Bax visited the west coast of Ireland in 1902, and found that "in a moment the Celt within me stood revealed".<ref name=grove/> His first composition to be performed – at an academy concert in 1902 – was an Irish dialect song called "The Grand Match".<ref>Foreman (1971), p. 63</ref>

===Early career===
{{Quote box| quoted=true|width=30%|bgcolor=#FFFFF0|align=right|quote= I worked very hard at the Irish language and steeped myself in its history and saga, folk-tale and fairy-lore.&nbsp;... Under this domination, my musical style became strengthened&nbsp;... I began to write Irishly, using figures and melodies of a definitely Celtic curve.|salign = right|source= Bax in his memoirs, 1943<ref>Bax, p. 41</ref>}}
Musically, Bax veered away from the influence of Wagner and Strauss, and deliberately adopted what he conceived of as a Celtic idiom. In 1908 he began a cycle of tone poems called ''Eire'', described by his biographer [[Lewis Foreman]] as the beginning of the composer's truly mature style. The first of these pieces, ''Into the Twilight'', was premiered by [[Thomas Beecham]] and the [[New Symphony Orchestra (London)|New Symphony Orchestra]] in April 1909, and the following year, at Elgar's instigation, [[Henry Wood]], commissioned the second in the cycle, ''[[In the Faëry Hills]]''.<ref name=f66>Foreman (1971), p. 66</ref>  The work received mixed notices. ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'''s reviewer wrote, "Mr Bax has happily suggested the appropriate atmosphere of mystery";<ref>"Music in London", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 31 August 1910, p. 6</ref> ''[[The Observer]]'' found the piece "very undeterminate and unsatisfying, but not difficult to follow".<ref>"Music: The Promenades", ''The Observer'', 4 September 1910, p. 4</ref> ''[[The Times]]'' commented on the "rather second-hand language" at some points, derivative of Wagner and Debussy, although "there is still a great deal which is wholly individual".<ref>"Promenade Concerts", ''The Times'', 31 August 1910, p. 9</ref> ''[[The Musical Times]]'' praised "a mystic glamour that could not fail to be felt by the listener" although the coherence of the piece "was not instantly discernible".<ref>[http://www.jstor.org/stable/906005 "The Promenade Concerts"], ''The Musical Times'', October 1910, pp. 657–658 {{subscription required}}</ref> A third work in the cycle, ''Roscatha'', was not performed in the composer's lifetime.{{refn|The work was recorded in 1985 by the [[Ulster Orchestra]] conducted by [[Bryden Thomson]].<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/71761312 "The tale the pine-trees knew; Into the twilight; In the faery hills; Roscatha"], WorldCat, retrieved 16 September 2015</ref>|group=n}}

Bax's private means enabled him to travel to the [[Russian Empire]] in 1910. He was in pursuit of [[Natalia Skarginska]], a young Ukrainian whom he had met in London – one of several women with whom he fell in love over the years.<ref name=f67>Foreman (1983), p. 67</ref> The visit eventually proved a failure from the romantic point of view but musically enriched him. In [[Saint Petersburg]] he discovered and immediately loved ballet; he absorbed Russian musical influences that inspired material for the First Piano Sonata, the piano pieces, "May Night in the Ukraine" and "Gopak", and the First Violin Sonata, dedicated to Skarginska.<ref name=archive/><ref name=f67/> Foreman describes him in this period as "a musical magpie, celebrating his latest discoveries in new compositions"; Foreman adds that Bax's own musical personality was strong enough for him to assimilate his influences and make them into his own.{{refn|Foreman lists among those who influenced Bax: Wagner, Strauss, Debussy, the Russian "Five" ([[Mily Balakirev|Balakirev]], [[César Cui|Cui]], [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]], [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]] and [[Alexander Borodin|Borodin]]), [[Alexander Glazunov|Glazunov]], [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]], [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]] and early [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]].<ref name=dnb/>|group= n}} Russian music continued to influence him until the First World War. An unfinished ballet ''Tamara'', "a little-Russian fairy tale in action and dance", provided material the composer reused in post-war works.<ref name=dnb/>

Having given up his pursuit of Skarginska, Bax returned to England; in January 1911 he married the pianist Elsita Luisa Sobrino (b. 1885 or 1886), daughter of the teacher and pianist, Carlos Sobrino, and his wife, Luise, ''née'' Schmitz, a singer.{{refn|Luise taught at the Hampstead Conservatoire, and Bax had known Elsita since his time there.<ref>Scott-Sutherland, p. 30</ref>|group= n}} Bax and his wife lived first in Chester Terrace, [[Regent's Park]], London,<ref>Foreman (1983), p. 83</ref> and then moved to Ireland, taking a house in [[Rathgar]], a well-to-do suburb of Dublin.<ref>Foreman (1983), p. 96</ref> They had two children, Dermot (1912–1976) and Maeve Astrid (1913–1987).<ref>Foreman (1983), p. 95</ref>  Bax became known in Dublin literary circles under the pseudonym "Dermot O'Byrne"; he mixed with the writer [[George William Russell]] and his associates, and published stories, verses and a play.<ref>Foreman (1983), p. 89</ref> Reviewing a selection of the prose and poetry reissued in 1980, Stephen Banfield found most of Bax's earlier poems "like his early music, over-written, cluttered with the secondhand lumber of early Yeats, though the weakness is one of loosely chosen language rather than complexity." Banfield had better things to say of the later poems, where Bax "focuses matters, whether laconically and colloquially upon the grim futility of the 1916 [[Easter rising|Easter Uprising]]&nbsp;... or pungently upon his recurrent disillusionment about love."<ref>Banfield, p. 781</ref>  Some of Bax's writings as O'Byrne were regarded as subversively sympathetic to the [[Irish republicanism|Irish republican]] cause, and the government censor prohibited their publication.<ref>Jeffery, p. 94</ref>

===First World War===
At the beginning of the war Bax returned to England. A heart complaint, from which he suffered intermittently throughout his life, made him unfit for military service; he acted as a [[special constable]] for a period.<ref name=dnb/><ref name=grove/> At a time when fellow composers including Vaughan Williams, [[Arthur Bliss]], [[George Butterworth]] and [[Ivor Gurney]] were serving overseas, Bax was able to produce a large body of music, finding, in Foreman's phrase, "his technical and artistic maturity" in his early thirties.  Among his better-known works from the period are the orchestral [[symphonic poem|tone poems]] ''[[November Woods]]'' (1916) and  ''[[Tintagel (Bax)|Tintagel]]'' (1917–19).<ref name=grove/>

[[File:Sackville Street (Dublin) after the 1916 Easter Rising.JPG|alt=external scene showing ruined buildings in a city street|thumb|left|The Easter rising in Dublin and its aftermath shocked and distressed Bax]]
{{Quote box|width=25%|bgcolor=#FFFFF0|align=right|quote=And when the devil's made us wise<br>
Each in his own peculiar hell<br>
With desert hearts and drunken eyes<br>
We're free to sentimentalise<br>
By corners where the martyrs fell.|salign = right|source= From Bax's poem "A Dublin Ballad", 1916.<ref>O'Byrne, p. 63</ref>}}
During his time in Dublin, Bax had made many republican friends. The Easter rising in April 1916 and the subsequent execution of the ringleaders shocked him deeply. He expressed his feelings in some of his music such as the orchestral ''In Memoriam'' and the "Elegiac Trio" for flute, viola, and harp (1916), as well as in his poetry.<ref name=dnb/>

In addition to his Irish influences, Bax also drew on a Nordic tradition, being inspired by the Norwegian poet [[Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson]] and Icelandic sagas. Bax's Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra (1917) is seen by the [[musicologist]] [[Julian Herbage]] as the turning-point from the Celtic to the Nordic in Bax's oeuvre; Herbage views it as a further indication of the shift that ''Winter Legends'', composed thirteen years later, has a Nordic rather than a Celtic setting.<ref name=archive/>

During the war Bax began an affair with the pianist [[Harriet Cohen]], for whom he left his wife and children.{{refn|The affair was not publicly known, though it was common knowledge in musical circles; Vaughan Williams was greatly amused to find in a musical dictionary an entry for Harriet Cohen which read, "– see under Bax".<ref>Rothwell, p. 154</ref> Elsita Bax refused her husband a divorce, and remained his wife until her death in 1947.<ref name=p10>Parlett, p. 10</ref>|group= n}} Musically, she was his muse for the rest of his life; he wrote numerous pieces for her, and she was the dedicatee of eighteen of his works.<ref>Parlett, p. 321</ref>  He took a flat in [[Swiss Cottage]], London, where he lived until the start of the Second World War. He sketched many of his mature works there, often taking them in [[short score]] to his favoured rural retreats, [[Glencolmcille]] in [[Ulster]], Ireland, and then from 1928 onwards [[Morar]] in  Scotland, to work on the full score at leisure.<ref>Foreman and Foreman, p. 204</ref><ref>Scott-Sutherland, p. 142</ref>

===Inter-war years===
In a study of Bax in 1919 his friend and confidante, the critic Edwin Evans, commented on the waning of the Celtic influence in the composer's music and the emergence of "a more austere, abstract art".<ref name=evans1>Evans (March 1919), p. 204</ref> From the 1920s onwards Bax seldom turned to poetic legend for inspiration.<ref name=h556>Herbage, p. 556</ref> In Foreman's view, in the post-war years Bax was recognised for the first time as an important, though isolated, figure in British music. The many substantial works he wrote during the war  years were heard in public, and he started writing symphonies. Few English composers had so far written symphonies that occupied a secure place in the repertoire, the best known being Elgar ([[Symphony No. 1 (Elgar)|A{{music|flat}}]] and [[Symphony No. 2 (Elgar)|E{{music|flat}}]] symphonies) and Vaughan Williams (''[[A Sea Symphony|Sea]]'', ''[[A London Symphony|London]]'' and ''[[Pastoral Symphony (Vaughan Williams)|Pastoral]]'' symphonies).<ref>Scott-Sutherland, p. 117</ref> During the 1920s and into the 1930s Bax was seen by many as the leading British symphonist.<ref name=grove/>
[[File:Harriet-Cohen-1922.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=profile of young woman with dark hair|[[Harriet Cohen]], Bax's muse, in 1920]]
Bax's [[Symphony No. 1 (Bax)|First Symphony]] was written in 1921–22, and when first given it was a great success, despite its ferocity of tone. The critics found the work dark and severe.<ref name=ym>"Yesterday's Music: The Bax Symphony Reheard", ''The Observer'', 13 January 1924, p. 15</ref> ''[[The Daily News (UK)|The Daily News]]'' commented, "It is full of arrogant, almost blatant, virility. Its prevailing tone colour is dark, very dark – thick clouds with only here and there a ray of sunlight."<ref name=ym/> ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' suggested that if there was any humour in the piece, it was sardonic.<ref name=ym/> ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' noted the severity of the work, but declared it "a truly great English symphony".<ref>"Bax's Symphony", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 14 January 1924, p. 10</ref> The work was a box-office attraction at the [[the Proms|Proms]] for several years after the premiere.<ref name=h556 /> In Foreman's view, Bax was at his musical peak for a fairly short time, and his reputation was overtaken by those of Vaughan Williams and [[William Walton]].<ref name=dnb/> The [[Symphony No. 3 (Bax)|Third Symphony]] was completed in 1929 and, championed by Wood, remained for some time among the composer's most popular works.<ref>"Promenade Concert", ''The Times'', 26 September 1930, p. 10</ref><ref>Hull, p. 33</ref>

In the mid-1920s, while his affair with Cohen continued, Bax met the twenty-three-year-old Mary Gleaves, and for more than two decades he maintained relationships with both women. His affair with Cohen ripened into warm friendship and continuing musical partnership.<ref name=dnb/> Gleaves became his companion from the later 1920s until his death.<ref>Foreman (1983), p. 241</ref>{{refn|Cohen chose to ignore the nature of Bax's relationship with Gleaves, and referred to her in later years as "Sir Arnold's nurse".<ref>Foreman, Lewis. [http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-colin-scott-sutherland-bank-manager-and-writer-1-2794788 "Obituary: Colin Scott-Sutherland"], ''[[The Scotsman]]'', 16 February 2013</ref>|group= n}}

In the 1930s, Bax composed the last four of his seven symphonies. Other works from the decade include the popular ''[[Overture to a Picaresque Comedy]]'' (1930), several works for chamber groups, including a nonet (1930), a string quintet (1933), an octet for horn, piano, and strings (1934) and his  third and last string quartet (1936). The Cello Concerto (1932) was commissioned by and dedicated to [[Gaspar Cassadó]], who quickly dropped the work from his repertoire. Although [[Beatrice Harrison]] championed the concerto in the 1930s and 40s, Bax said, "The fact that nobody has ever taken up this work has been one of the major disappointments of my musical life".<ref name=chandos/><ref>Foreman (1983), p. 290</ref>

Bax was [[knight bachelor|knighted]] in 1937; he had neither expected nor sought the honour, and was more surprised than delighted to receive it.<ref>Foreman (1983) pp. 309–310</ref> As the decade progressed, he became less prolific; he commented that he wanted to "retire, like a grocer".<ref>Scott-Sutherland, p. 75</ref>  Among his compositions from the period was the Violin Concerto (1938). Although not written to commission, he had composed it with the violin virtuoso [[Jascha Heifetz]] in mind. Heifetz never played it, and it was premiered in 1942 by [[Eda Kersey]] with the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]] and Wood.<ref>Petrocelli, p. 58</ref>

===1940s and 50s===
After the death of the [[Master of the King's Music]],{{refn|The antiquated spelling "Master of the [Queen's] Musick" persisted in the columns of ''The Times'' and elsewhere into the 1970s, but was officially changed to "Master of the [King's] Music during the tenure of Elgar (1924–34).<ref>[http://www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalHousehold/OfficialRoyalposts/MasterofTheQueensMusic.aspx "Master of the Queen's Music"] The official website of the British Monarchy, retrieved 16 September 2015</ref> Bax was [[London Gazette|gazetted]] as "Master of the Music".<ref>[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39616/supplement/4201 Supplement, 5 August 1952], ''The London Gazette''</ref>|group= n}} [[Walford Davies|Sir Walford Davies]], in 1941, Bax was appointed to succeed him. The choice surprised many. Bax, despite his knighthood, was not an Establishment figure;<ref>Duck, p. 257</ref> he himself had expressed a disinclination to "shuffle around in knee-breeches".<ref name=archive/> In the opinion of ''The Times'' the appointment was not a good one: "Bax was not cut out for official duties and found their performance irksome".<ref name=times/> Nonetheless, Bax wrote a handful of occasional pieces for royal events, including a march for the [[Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II|Coronation]] in 1953.<ref name=times/>

[[File:Storrington.JPG|thumb|left|alt=image of an English country town|Storrington, Bax's home in his last years]]
After the Second World War began, Bax moved to Sussex, taking up residence at the White Horse Hotel, [[Storrington]], where he lived for the rest of his life.<ref>Parlett, p. 9</ref> He abandoned composition and completed a book of memoirs about his early years, ''Farewell, My Youth''. ''The Times'' found it at times waspish, at times reticent, surprising in parts, and regrettably short.<ref>"A Composer's Reminiscences", ''The Times'', 9 April 1943, p. 6</ref> Later in the war Bax was persuaded to contribute incidental music for a short film, ''Malta G. C.''; he subsequently wrote music for [[David Lean]]'s ''[[Oliver Twist (1948 film)|Oliver Twist]]'' (1948) and a second short film, ''Journey into History'' (1952). His other works from the period include the short ''Morning Song'' for piano and orchestra, and the Left-Hand Concertante (1949), both written for Cohen.<ref name=dnb/> Bax and the [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom|Poet Laureate]], [[John Masefield]], worked on a pageant, ''The Play of Saint George'' in 1947, but the project was not completed.<ref name=p10/>

In his last years, Bax maintained a contented retirement for much of the time. Walton commented, "an important cricket match at [[Lord's Cricket Ground|Lord's]] would bring him hurrying up to town from his pub at Storrington with much greater excitement than a performance of one of his works".<ref>Bliss ''et al'', p. 14</ref> In 1950, after hearing his Third Symphony played at [[Bournemouth]], he said, "I ought perhaps to be thinking of an eighth", but by this time he had begun to drink quite heavily, which aged him rapidly and impaired his ability to concentrate on a large-scale composition.<ref>Parlett, p. 328; and Foreman (1983), p. 356</ref>  He wrote in 1952, "I doubt whether I shall write anything else{{space}}… I have said all I have to say and it is of no use to repeat myself."<ref>Foreman (1983), p. 355</ref> Celebrations were planned by the [[the Hallé|Hallé Orchestra]] and others to celebrate Bax's seventieth birthday in November 1953.<ref name=cardus/> The celebrations became memorials: while visiting [[Cork (city)|Cork]] in October 1953 Bax died suddenly of heart failure aged 69.<ref>Fry, p. 284</ref> He was interred in [[St. Finbarr's Cemetery]], Cork.<ref>Scott-Sutherland, p. 188</ref>