Arthur Bliss: An English Composers Life and Work

Biography

Sir Arthur Bliss was until the time of his death a well respected and prominent English composer of the queens music. He was born as the eldest son on 2 August, 1891 in England. His mother was British but his father was of American origin that was by then working for the Anglo American oil company. (Poets and composers 1July 2007). For more than fifty years he composed and performed his music on the world stage. He later died March 27 1975 in London where he was buried.

Bliss started his Educational journey at Bilton Grange preparatory school 1905-1910); He studied at both Rugby school and Pembroke College. Later on he went to study at Cambridge and Royal College of music, in the latter he studied there for a very short period. He was a bright student as he achieved a First class honors degree in History.

His education life was interrupted after the break out of the First World War where he was forced to serve as an officer in the British army. In this war he fought alongside his brother Kennard Bliss who was killed at the battle of Somme. During the Second World War in 1939 Bliss was living in America where he taught at the University of Berkeley for two years. (Chester Novello 2008). Bliss was highly influenced by Elger. Early on in his music career in 1922 Bliss was invited by Henry Wood to conduct Melee Fantasque at a concert. Fortunately Elger was present at the event and provided Bliss with a chance to perform his colour symphony at the Three choirs festival.

Later on Bliss moved to California America with his family where he had plans of writing music for the movies which were never fruitful. It is here where he eventually got married to Gertrude Hoffmann in 1925. (Eminent Blisses 2008). After getting married Bliss moved back to his native country where his reputation as a composer flourished. In 1928, Bliss wrote a successful pastoral for a small choir and orchestra that was a dedication to Elgar. In 1929 Bliss decided to rekindle his early experiences in the world war one. He composed Morning Heroes a long symphony in five movements that was meant for orator, chorus and orchestra. This symphony illustrated anguish, pain and suffering of the war. It integrated texts from Homer, ancient Chinese poem, Walt Whitman and poetry from Wilfred Owen and Robert Nichols. This symphony dedicated to the fallen heroes of war first premiered at the Norwich Festival in 1930. Due to its (Morning Heroes) huge success Bliss gained popularity all over Europe and his compositions were widely demanded.

In 1942 an important propaganda film in Russia used fanfare for Heroes by Bliss. His dream to create music for movies now came true as he later composed music for The shape of Things to come by H.G Wells and an aborted film version of Anthony and Cleopatra by Bernard Shaw. In addition, he wrote music for the Checkmate a ballad that was well acknowledged in France, choreographed Ninette de Valois.

At the beginning of the 2^nd world war bliss moved back to America in 1939. After his stay abroad he moved back to Britain on June 1941. Soon after settling down he was appointed director of music at the BBC. In 1949 he collaborated with J.B. Priestley to write a ballad that was titled The Olympians. 1953, Bliss was again invited to compose music for the film A Beggars Opera produced by Laurence Oliver and directed by Peter Brook. At his workplace he created music for the 2 act opera, Tobias and the angel for BBC TV in 1960. Although he created good music he considered Mediations (1955) as the best composition that he has ever created.

In his sunset years Bliss actively continued with his career of music and still created captivating music. He produced a cello concerto and the Tryptych. In 1969 he composed music for the Investiture of the Prince of Wales at Caernavon castle. As an octogenarian he created large and metamorphic variations performed in 1973. Shield of Faith for the Windsor Festival Committee was another late work that was done by Bliss just before his death.

Arthur Bliss achieved many honors for instance; in 1954 he was made Master of the Queens Music. He was given an opportunity to serve as the president of Performing Rights Society and President of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers in 1958 and 1960 respectively. In 1965 he was honored as the president of the Cheltenman International Festival of Music. (Eminent Blisses 2008).

More often than not it is usually left for the composer himself to give a review of his own composition and analyze his style. Style in Blisss work we can view it as the essence that motivated his compositions.(Andrew Burn 2008). Bliss believed that the base for all his compositions was emotions. This can be illustrated by the symphony that he composed for the fallen heroes in the First World War. He was of the opinion that without emotion music cannot be beautiful or captivating. This emotion to Bliss should come about as a result of sudden realization of beauty.

Bliss was famous for composing amazing pieces of music together for example; he composed concerto for wordless tenor voice, piano and strings and rout for soprano and chamber orchestra, in which the voice sung phonetic sounds rather than words. (Rings World.com, 2008). Influence by Stravinsky and Debussy is illustrated in his 1922 colour symphony. This symphony explores the idea of musical associations of different colours. Some of the Stravinskys works that highly influenced Bliss are Japanese Lyrics. Apart from the influence by Debussy and Stravinsky Bliss was also influenced highly by Elgar who Bliss had met in 1912. He was accredited for influencing the style of Blisss Music. Most of the Blisss music has Elgarian characteristics. It can be concluded that Elgar was the major influence on Blisss compositions.

Arthur Bliss was a highly influential figure in the British music and he still remains to be a respected musician. The younger British generation that did Queens music continued to be influenced by Blisss famous performances Some of these younger generation included Birtwistle, and Maxwell Davies. Even Though Bliss was influential in his sunset years his works became unpopular because of the new music that was performed by such composers as Maxwell and Davies. With the emergence of music composed by younger generation Blisss music together with that of his fellow composers who performed during the interwar period was viewed as static although some of his best performances continued to be performed. Although Blisss status diminished soon after his death as a well renowned composer his reputation is being revived by playing some of his best performances.

Renaissance music is a kind of European music that was played during that the renaissance period (1400_1600) Renaissance music was attributed with several characteristics. The music was based on modes except creeps were accidentally associated with the music. The music of this time was also characterized by four parts loaded with texture. Tenor was always above the bass. The renaissance music was more concerned with flow and progression of chords to achieve harmony. In this music focus was on blending rather than contrasting strands in the musical texture. Church music that was composed during this time was meant for a cappella performance. Music in the church was always accompanied by instruments. The music that was meant for church that is secular music contained instrumental pieces accompanied by vocal pieces and dances. Between the two, sacred and secular music the latter was considered to be more important.

Considering these characteristics Arthur Blisss compositions exhibited some characteristics of the renaissance music. For example, in the renaissance there was use of instruments like Elizabethan instruments in comparison Blisss music was sometimes accompanied with instruments like the piano. Just like the renaissance music Arthur blisss symphony morning Heroes was composed in five movements and was rich in texture. Arthur Bliss music was secular that is it was not religious, this is an extension of the renaissance music since Bliss did not consider religious music important. Many of the renaissance composers dealt with the secular music. Vocal pieces together with dances and instrumental pieces were considered to be very important components of the renaissance compositions.Blisss compositions sometimes were accompanied by dances. A lot of the music of the renaissance was programmatic in that it was supposed to tell a story. The music was descriptive. To a small extent Arthur Blisss music was descriptive for instance the Morning Heroes described the story of war.

Sir Arthur Bliss was a composer whose compositions were almost like the renaissance compositions. He was a student to Charles Stanford, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. Some of his compositions are Pieces for wordless voices that were considered avant garde. His other works include ballets, cantatas, operas such as thecolour symphony(1932), Olympians(1949), a piano concerto (1938), Tobias and the Angel (1958), a piano concerto (1938), quintets for oboe (1927) clarinet (1931) with strings and a concertina for cello and orchestra (1969).