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Thomas Tomkins – the last Elizabethan

By Susan Foulcher

Thomas Tomkins, born 450 years ago, is frequently called the last representative of the English Virginal School and one of the last English Madrigalists. A musical conservative, he’s even been called ‘the last Elizabethan’ as he continued working 50 years after Elizabeth’s death using archaic, largely Elizabethan, musical forms and style. And yet he’s also been called the leading English composer of the mid-17th century, so it’s interesting to speculate as to why he clung to the musical values of the previous generation, when he clearly had a musical voice of his own.

His reputation as a madrigalist rests on the 1622 publication of his Songs of 3, 4, 5 and 6 parts – a revelatory collection of madrigals and motets representing the final flowering of the English madrigal tradition. They are inventive, with a close association between words and music, although the then-fashionable Italian influence is absent. His most famous ‘sacred madrigal’, When David Heard, was from this collection. A poignant expression of grief, it was written in response to the untimely death of Prince Henry in 1612. The mid 1600s brought about profound and severe changes in England which affected the political, religious, and cultural fabric of the country, and the consequences of the upheaval were dire for Tomkins. Organist at Worcester Cathedral since 1596, he suffered the destruction of his organ and the demise of the choral tradition under the Puritans, as well as damage to his own house. He lost his position in 1646 when cathedral services were discontinued. He also lost his two wives within the space of ten years. When Charles I was executed in 1649, the royalistsympathising Tomkins wrote, understandably, a Sad Pavan for these distracted times. His life was in tatters. It’s hardly surprising, then, that Tomkins, already in his seventies, retired and wrote largely unfashionable keyboard music that suited his own tastes. His son, Nathaniel, undertook the publication of his sacred music posthumously in 1668 under the title Musica Deo Sacra. As well as five settings of the morning and evening canticles, it contains the jewel in Tomkins’ compositional crown – his ninety-four anthems – and constitutes the largest single source of early 17th century church music. The anthems are highly regarded, demonstrating his genius for vocal colour and text expression. Thomas Tomkins would have been delighted to know that this collection provided an excellent source of church music for the revitalised church choirs that followed the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660. Until recently Tomkins’ reputation was based solely on his vocal works, especially the sacred ones, as his keyboard and viol consort music had not been published. It’s clear, though, that Tomkins’ viol music was copied and circulated by connoisseurs during his lifetime. His viol output, particularly the fantasias, shows an innate understanding of the sonority of the instruments, employing virtuosic passagework and singing melodic lines. Similarly, his prolific keyboard music demonstrates excellence in a wide variety of forms, from organ voluntaries to intricate dances and in nominees, even producing a ground-breaking keyboard duet, A Fancy for two to play (on one virginal) – one of the earliest keyboard duets composed in England. Surely a somewhat conservative style can be forgiven when the turmoil of a life spanning the Tudor/Stuart reigns and the civil war is taken into consideration. The change and upheaval Tomkins experienced make the choice of the ‘familiar’ and ‘traditional’ musical palette all the more understandable. For a program of Thomas Tomkins’ vocal and instrumental music, as well as the music of three composers who died in the year of Tomkins’ birth, tune in to Baroque and Before: 1572 Comings and Goings on Friday 4 March at 10pm.

A conductor of ‘radiant integrity’

Vale Bernard Haitink 1929-2021 by Elaine Siversen

The life of Bernard Haitink encompassed 65 years as a conductor. His brilliant career ended in 2019 when, at the age of 90 years, he conducted a concert with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and two concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, one of them being his 90th Prom Concert appearance in London. The young Haitink’s musical influences came from the conductor of his school’s orchestra, with whom Haitink studied the violin and conducting. He continued these studies at the Amsterdam Conservatorium, then played the violin in orchestras and studied conducting with Ferdinand Leitner. In 1954, he conducted his first concert with the orchestra that was later renamed the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. His remarkable talent led to his swift advancement to second conductor in 1955, and, at the age of 28 years, chief conductor in 1957. Haitink’s career prospered with an unexpected engagement at the end of 1956 when Riccardo Chailly became ill and Haitink was asked to substitute for him conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Three years later, after the sudden death of Eduard van Beinum, Haitink accepted the post of first conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra which later led to his becoming principal conductor. Recording engagements with Philips, Decca and EMI followed, and he toured widely with the orchestra. During his prolific concert and recording career, Haitink’s focus was on classical symphonies and major orchestral works, and he was acclaimed for his ‘riveting and meticulous interpretations’. Among his many recordings were the complete Beethoven and Brahms symphonies with the London Symphony Orchestra. He received many music awards, among them the Gramophone Award for his 1980 recordings of Debussy orchestral works, his 1985 recording of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, and the 1986 and 1990 recordings of the Vaughan Williams symphonies. In addition, Echo Klassik (Germany) recognised him for his 2013 recording of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony and Mahler’s Third Symphony earned the 2018 award of Recording of the Year from BBC Music Magazine. It must be remembered that Haitink was 89 in the year of that latter award. The Chicago Tribune music writer John von Rhein wrote that Haitink had a ‘simple, unfussy manner’ on the podium ‘with none of the histrionic gestures or leaps of other conductors’. He used his facial expressions, his eyes, and his hands to convey his musical ideas, and his instructions to the musicians were gentle. A story is told that he said to one violinist that a note should be ‘more velvety, like you are stroking a cat, unless you are allergic to cats’. His life was filled with many conducting posts and engagements, and he was principal conductor of a great number of orchestras in Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom. His longest tenures were with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (22 years) and the Royal Opera House Orchestra (15 years), and he was music director of the Glyndebourne Opera for ten years. This long association with English orchestras, led to his leaving The Netherlands to reside in London where he died in October last year at the age of 92. The conductor Jane Glover recalled Haitink’s ‘radiant integrity’ when conducting Tristan and Isolde at Covent Garden, a performance that, according to The Guardian, was rewarded with ‘an explosive ovation and an avalanche of flowers’; a fitting tribute to this consummate master of the art of conducting.

The Life of a Composer, Saturday 5 March 2022, 8:00pm

With its origins in the early 20th century, International Women’s Day is aimed at celebrating the achievements of women. Gaining momentum towards the end of the century, IWD is now held on 8 March in countries all over the world. At Fine Music Sydney, a program featuring the music of female composers, three of whom are Australian, will be broadcast on 13 March.

The three Australian composers, Corrina Bonshek, Andrea Keller, and Felicity Wilcox, have different styles and interests that they express through their music. Taking inspiration from various sources, Corrina Bonshek says that her work can have a long gestation period: “Often my music is a response to powerful sights and sounds gathered up over a few years and then expressed in musical form.” With a strong interest in non-western music, she has been composer-in-residence at the Experimental Thai Music Laboratory at Burapha University in Thailand, and a visiting scholar at the Nirmita Institute for Young Composers in Cambodia. Her music has been described as ‘connecting to the essence of South-East Asian music – timelessness’.

Bonshek’s interest in meditation has led her to create ‘immersive sonic experiences’ designed for specific places, such as her installation Journey to the Centre – music for Centennial Park Labyrinth. She says, “I composed this piece for visitors to Sydney’s Centennial Park Labyrinth to listen to while walking the labyrinth. This labyrinth is a single sandstone path… that can be used as a path for walking meditation.” The piece was installed at Centennial Park Labyrinth for access by visitors and downloaded 5,000 times in its first year. As a jazz musician, Andrea Keller is a composer, pianist and improviser, and has worked with numerous groups on a range of projects from solo to large ensemble in both jazz and western art music traditions. Besides performing, improvising and recording, Keller has received many commissions as a composer and arranger, including for The Australian Art Orchestra and the Sydney Women’s Jazz Collective, amongst others. Eric Myers says, “Andrea Keller stretches jazz into whatever she wants … As a composer, musician and visionary, she always has. Using many of the most noble aspects of modern jazz – its curiosity, freedom and genre-inclusive nature – Keller enriches and expands the form. It is always a thrill to see where she goes next.”

Working in a broad range of genres, Felicity Wilcox (also writing under the name Felicity Fox) has composed numerous works for film, theatre, installation, and live events, many of which have won awards and ARIA and AACTA nominations. She has received commissions from groups such as The Song Company and the Australia Piano Quartet.

Talking about her piece Uncovered Ground, Wilcox says that she was ‘concerned to somehow create a dialogue between early and new music.’  Shamistha de Soysa says that “Wilcox’s writing is inventive and creates new frontiers in sound with her techniques and combinations of instruments… As she presses the ‘play’ button on the music of the future, she doesn’t hit the ‘delete’ button on music of the past. She has drawn on it for inspiration, inclusion and elaboration.”

Fine Music Sydney’s program acknowledging International Women’s Day will be broadcast on Sunday 13 March at 8:30pm in New Horizons.