Spotlight Priaulx Ivy Rainier

The music of Priaulx Rainier continues to enchant audiences the world over with her varied repertoire encompassing concerti, song cycles and solo works. Although she spent most of her life in the UK and France, it is the memory of home in South Africa that enriches so much of her compositional output.

Born in the scenic town of Howick, Natal, South Africa, on 3 February 1903, Rainier relocated to England as a child and showed early musical prowess which would eventually take her to the Royal Academy of Music. Here, Rainier studied violin under Hans Wesseley and Rowsby Woof and counterpoint under J. B. McEwan. She would later return as an educator herself, shaping the young talent passing through the Academy’s doors from 1943 to 1961.

Rainier's works that particularly resonate today include her Cello Concert (1964) premiered by Jacqueline du Pré.

The concerto brilliantly displays the cello‘s rich palette of colours, harmoniously blending with the orchestra‘s commanding power.

The Sonata for violin and piano, with it‘s expressive lyricism and the Barbaric Dance Suite for piano as described by Rainier herself: “The Suite is a key to all my later music, for in the Three Dances, their structural embryo is, on a small scale, the basis for most of the later works.”

The presence of Africa in her music is mysterious. Never a simple matter of quoting from ethnic sources, it seems to have been concerned with memories of light and colour as well as of sounds.

Michael Oliver, Gramophone Magazine

ARTISTIC PARTNERSHIPS

Rainier was greatly influenced by composer Michael Tippett and in 1947 Tippett commissioned her to write Sinfonia da camera for Morley College. Their collaboration further flourished when they co-founded the St Ives Summer Festival in 1966.

Rainier‘s connection with art extended beyond music, fostering a close association with sculptor Barbara Hepworth. Her stay at Hepworth‘s Trewyn Studios in Cornwall inspired her to echo Hepworth‘s artistry in her music.

“The composition of music is very much a mathematical process, so even the quality of light helps; it is so concise and clear” (Rainier, on the work of Barbara Hepworth).

Rainier also developed a fruitful partnership with composer Benjamin Britten and tenor Peter Pears. Their commissions, including the Cycle for Declamation and Requiem, highlight Rainier‘s knack for creating compelling musical narratives.

KEY WORKS

Sinfonia da camera for string orchestra (1947) This dynamic work masterfully oscillates between intense emotive lyricism and moments of dynamic rhythmic energy, culminating in a work of both ferocity and melodicism.

Dance Concerto „Phala-phala“ for orchestra, premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1960-61)

The Bee Oracles for tenor or baritone and ensemble (1969)

Due Canti e Finale concerto for violin and orchestra (1976-77), premiered by Yehudi Menuhin and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Concertante for oboe, clarinet and orchestra (1977-80), premiered at the BBC Proms with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra