Life
1883-1953; [Arnold Edward Trevor Bax; pseud. ‘Dermot O’Byrne’;
orig. ‘Dermot McDermott’]; b. Streatham, S. London, raised in
affluence nr. Hampstead, N. London; supported himself largely through
private income; read W. B. Yeats’s Wanderings of Oisin while
music student in 1902; travelled to Dresden and Russia, where he romantically
pursued a Ukrainian girl; invited to Ireland by his br. Clifford, then
staying at Glencolumcille; stayed with AE at Breaghy country cottage;
wrote Deirdre, a five act drama with music later employed in trilogy
of tone poems called Eire (comprised of “Into the Twilight”,
“In the Faery Hills”, and “Roscatha”); set poems by
Fiona MacLeod and Padraic Colum to music; contrib. stories ot Irish
Review; he wrote The Sisters and Green Magic (1912), two stories;
Children of the Hills (1913), collection of stories incl. “Ancient
Dominions” and “The Death of Mache Goldhair”, and Wrack
and Other Stories (1918), all exploring western Irish peasant life
and Irish historical themes; considered more fascinated by the theme than
sympathetic with the people; his “Dublin Ballad - 1916” was
suppressed by the Government in 1918; pronouced ‘my son in music’
by Sibelius; his best-known musical work includes The Garden of Fand
(1916) and Summer Music (1921), both orchestral tone poems,
as well as Tintagel (Symphony No. 1; 1919), all with autobiographical
overtones; tried to write ‘Irishly’, using ‘figures of
a definite Celtic curve’; produced seven symphonies in all; musical
career effectively over by 1939; issued an Farewell My Youth (1943),
an autobiography; in Dublin days he was regarded as a novelist and poet
no less than a composer; returned to the west of Ireland frequently over
30 years; knighted, 1937; appt. Master of the King’s Musick, 1941;
wrote score for David Lean’s Oliver Twist (1948); d. Cork. DNB
DIW DIL OCEL OCIL
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Works
Poetry, Seafoam and Firelight [Orpheus Series, No. 2] (London:
Daniel 1909); Poems Dramatic and Lyrical [Orpheus Ser. No. 9] (London:
Daniel 1911). Fiction, The Sisters and Green
Magic [Orpheus Series] (London: Daniel 1912), 76pp.; Children of
the Hills (Dublin: Maunsel 1913), 148pp.; Wrack and Other
Stories (Dublin: Talbot Press 1918), 195pp. Plays, Red Owen; A Drama in Three Acts (Dublin: Talbot Press 1919), 51pp. Autobiography, Farewell, My
Youth (London: Longmans 1943). Collected works, Colin Scott-Sutherland,
ed., Ideala: Collected Poems, Love Letters, Ephemera, &c. of Arnold
Bax (Petersfield: Fand Music Press 2001), 320pp.; 70 ills.
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Criticism
Colin Scott-Sutherland, Arnold Bax (London: Dent 1973), espec.
pp.17-26; see also Graham Parlett, A Catalogue of the Works of Arnold
Bax (OUP [q.d.]) and Prof. Aloys Georg Fleischmann, intro., Music in
Ireland (Cork UP 1952). See also website at www.fandmusic.com.
Patricia
Boylan, All Cultivated People (1988)
Keith Jeffrey, ‘Irish Culture and the Great War’, in Bullán (Autum 1994)
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Notes
Frank O’Connor, Book of Ireland (London:
Collins 1959), selects “Dublin Ballad - 1916”; also anthologised
in Donagh MacDonagh, The Oxford Book of Irish
Verse (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1958).
Stephen Brown (Ireland in Fiction, 1919), lists The Sisters and the Green Magic (1912), tales of peasant love set in Donegal; Children of the Hills (Dublin Maunsel 1913), stories from Irish Review and Orpheus; Wrack (Talbot Press 1918), stories, viz., Wrack, Before Dawn [on gunrunning], From the Fury of the O’Flahertys, A Coward’s Saga [Desmond Wars], The Invisible City of Coolanoole, The King’s Messenger [man slain to convey message to the dead], The Vision of St. Molaise [early Christian times]; Brown says, ‘unhuman, works of pure fantasy, untouched by feeling ... intimate knowledge of the idiom of Gaelic’.
Chandos ABTD Cassette Tape edn. of “Tintagel” (Symphony No. 1 in 3 movements), played by Ulster Orchestra conducted by Bryden Thompson; cover notes include quotation and remarks: ‘in a moment the Celt within me stood revealed’ on reading Wanderings of Usheen [sic]; travelled to Ireland, where his existence was ‘unrelated to material actualities’, staying mostly at Glencolumcille; returned frequently during following thirty years; also visited Dresden, and pursued a Ukrainian girl to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Ukraine; watched Prince Igor and the Russian Imperial Ballet; early compositions modelled on Chopin and Schumann; later absorbed Tschaikovsky, Wagner, and Richard Strauss; in Ireland tried to write ‘Irishly, using figures of a definite Celtic curve’; influenced later by Debussy and Stravinsky; String Quartet in A Major, 1902, revealing the form of the later symphonies in which scherzo and finale combine in third movement; Quartet in E Major, 1903, with a slow movement prefaced by a quotation from W. B. Yeats, orchestrated as the first orchestral tone poem with the title “Cathleen-ni-Houlihan”; wrote massive Germanic symphony in Dresden; String Quarter in G, symphonic score, 1904; five act drama called Deirdre, with music later employed in trilogy of tone poems called Eire (comprised of Into the Twilight, In the Faery Hills, and Roscatha); orchestral setting of pastoral scenes from Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound, entitled Enchanted Summer; most successful with the tone poems and their orchestral scores, The Garden of Fand (1913), orchestrated 1916); Summer Music (1917, orchestrated 1921); Tintagel (1917; orchestrated 1919); Novembers Woods (1917); all had autobiographical overtones; Piano Quartet (1914-15); Symphonic Variations (1916-18), for piano and orchestra; First Symphony (1921-22), conceived as piano sonata; Second Symphony, completed March 1926; Third Symphony (1928-29); Winter Legends (1930), for piano and orchestra; in this year his First and Third Symphonies were performed in London; Fourth Symphony (Feb. 1931); further symphonies in 1932, 1934, and 1939; his knighthood acknowledged past achievements rather than a current musical force; Tintagel arising from sojourn in Cornwall with his lover, the pianist Harriet Cohen, during a six-week absence from his wife and children in Aug. and Sept. 1917 [&c.].
The British Library holds [1] Arnold Bax. [With a portrait.] Eng. & Fr.. pp. 10. J. & W. Chester: London, Genève, [1921.] 8o. [2] Farewell, My Youth. [Reminiscences.] Title [Another copy.] Farewell, my Youth. Title [A reissue.] Farewell, my Youth.. pp. 112. Longmans & Co.: London, 1943. 8o.. London, 1943. 8o.. London, 1949. 8o. [3] Bulletin. no. 1, etc. Feb. 1968, etc.. [London,] 1968- . 8o. [4] A Handbook on Arnold Bax's Symphonies. [With musical notes.]. pp. 51. Murdoch, Murdoch & Co.: London, [1932.] 8o. [5] Arnold Bax: a catalogue of his music, compiled by Graham Parlett.. London: Triad Press, [1972]. pp. 52; port. 23 cm. [6] Arnold Bax.. London: Dent, 1973. ISBN 0 460 03861 3 pp. xviii, 214: plates; music, ports. 24 cm.
Belfast Central Library holds Children of the Hills (n.d.); Red Owen (1919); Wrack and other stories (1918). UUC JORD holds mus. scores, Bax, A Composer, Foreword by Felix Abrahamian (London 1983), and a biog. and study called Bax [no details].
Authorship
of Poems Dramatic and Lyrical [Orpheus Ser. No. 9] (London: Daniel
1911) is sometimes ascribed to his brother Clifford.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)