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FOREWORD

LENNOX BERKELEY (1903-1989)

The English composer Sir Lennox RandallI Francis Berkeley was born on May lz'n,

1903,just outside the ancient university-townof Oxford. He came from the same generationof British composers as Sir William Walton andSir Michael Tippett but his ancestry was partlyFrench. After graduat ing from Oxforduniversity in 1926, he started a long appren-ticeship with Nadia Boulanger and was her mostdistinguished British pupil. He became a RomanCatholic in 1928 and some of his most profoundworks are on rel igious subjects. Berkeleyadmired Ravel and Poulenc, who were bothpersonal friends, but above all he reveredMozart, Chopin and neo-classical Stravinsky.

Berkeley's most influential British connectionwas with Benjamin Britten. They first met whenthey were both having works performed in theI nt e rnat i onal fe s t iv al of c ont e mp o r ary mu s i c atBarcelona, Spain (1936) and their approach tocompos i t ion was so s im i la r that theyimmediately collaborated on an orchestral suite(Mont Juic), based on Spanish popular tunes.Berkeley reached his maturity towards the endof the 1930s. under the shadow of the secondworld war, with outstanding orchestral workssuch as the Serenade for strings op.12, theSymphony n. I op.16, andthe Divertimento inBb op.18. By the later 1940s his now very per-sonal style was brilliantly expressed in workslike the Piano sonata op. 20, the concertos forsolo piano and for two pianos, and vocal workssuch as the deeply moving Four poems of St.Teresa of Avila op.27 (so memorably sung byKathleen Ferrier) and the Stabat mater op. 28.In the 1950s Berkelev moved into the theatre

with the grand opera Nelson op. 41, the one-actcomedy A dinner engagement op. 45, and thebiblical Ruth op. 50. By now he was indepen-dent of his earlier influences and had createdan impressive synthesis capable of extensioninto a modified serial technique in the 1960s.

It was in this final period that Berkeley wrotethe last of his seven concertos - the Guitar con-certo op.88 (I914) - for Julian Bream. It sumsup his relationship with this intimate instrumentwh ich seems to be so charac ter i s t i c o fBerkeley's own fastidious restraint, although thefinale sports some flamenco effects. Fortunatelythe Guitar concerto was preceded by the soloSonatina op. 52 n. I (1951) for Julian Bream,and the Theme and variations op. 77 (1970) forAngelo Gilardino. The guitar also makes anatmospheric accompaniment to Songs of thehalf-light op.65 (1964) written for Peter Pearsand Julian Bream, setting poems by Walter dela Mare.

Now Berkeley's association with the guitar canbe taken much further back to his years in Paris,when his music was regularly performed boththere and in England. This is the result of adiscovery by Angelo Gilardino in May 2001when he was going through the papers of AndrsSegovia. Berkeley 's Quatre p ices werecomposed for and dedicated to the great Spanishexponent himself. Segovia's Parisian debut wasin 1924; he quickly became famous and twoyears later Schott started publishing his Guitararchive series, which included works by variouscontemporary composers. The Quatre picesmay have been intended for this series and somay the Sonatina by Cyril Scott (1928), alsodiscovered in May 200I. Allan Clive Jones tellsme that Segovia probably played only one

movement of Scott's work and he may never

have played the Berkeley at all, which could

atefrom the same year as the Scott. Segovia's

loss is posterity's gain with this beautifully

balanced set of four pieces, admirably edited

and produced here, adding significantly to

Berkeley's guitar oeuvre and to the repertoire

in general.

Berkeley died on December 26'n,1989.

Peter DickinsonAldeburgh, Suffolk (UK), December 2001.

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

\I f hen,on May 7'h,200I, atLinares (Spain),V V I opened the cases containing the music

of maestro Segovia's library, I could not believemy eyes on finding the manuscript of a workfor guitar by Lennox Berkeley, written for anddedicated to Andrs Segovia. We guitarists, allover the world - in our general appreciation ofthe small, but highly significant guitar outputby Lennox Berkeley felt sure that theSonatina, wntten in 1951 for Julian Bream, washis first piece for solo guitar, followed by Themeand variations (1970), his second solo guitarpiece, by whose dedication I had been honoured.

After recovering from my surprise, the firstthing I noticed was that the work was titled inFrench, and this led me to deduce that it mustdate from the years the composer spent in Pariscompleting his training with Nadia Boulanger(on the advice of Maurice Ravel) betwe en I92land 1932. This tasteful homage to AndrsSegovia is therefore doubly interesting, becauserather few works from this period of Berkeley'slife are known to exist.

Because the manuscript is undated, it does notallow any definite determination of when duringBerkeley's Parisian years the Quatre piceswere written. Consequently, the notion thatCyril Scott's Sonatina (written in June L927 forSegovia) was the first twentieth-century guitar

piece written by a non-guitarist composer fromBritain, though unchallenged by documentaryevidence, no longer appears quite so certain.Berkeley's youthful and thoughtful work couldvery wel l be contemporary with Scott 'smasterpiece, and - who knows ? - may evenslightly precede it.

With hindsight, it is perhaps not entirelyanomalous that Berkeley should have composedfor Segovia during his Paris years, because wecan trace severa l poss ib le l inks betweenBerkeley and Segovia at this period. In this firstplace, reviews of Segovia's numerous concertsin Paris make it very clear that he was a majorname on the Parisian music scene, followinghis debut concert on April'7'h,1924. Any musi-cal person in Paris at that time would mostsurely have been aware of him. Secondly, oneof Segovia's early Paris performances after hisdebut, on May 7.h, 1924, was for the Socitmusicale indpndante (SMI), an organisationformed in 1909 by Ravel and some of hisassociates, and which a few years later was topromote some of the earliest performances ofB erke ley ' s voc a l and chamber mu s i c . ( r )

Through the SMl,therefore, there were probablya number of people who know both Segoviaand Berkeley. Thirdly, and perhaps mostsignificantly, Segovia certainly knew NadiaBoulanger, Berkeley's teacher at this time.(2)Nadia Boulanger was, it should be said, alsoclosely involved with tbe SMI.

It is perhaps also worth mentioning here that

(1) On June lst, 1927, Berkeley's song cycle Tombeaux (totexts of Cocteau) was performed at an SMI concert (otherper formers a t the same concer t inc luded Rave l andCastelnuovo-Tedesco). At the SMI concert on January 27th,1928, Berkeley's Pices for flute, violin, viola and piano werepeormed (Villa-Lobos was another peormer at this concert).At the SMI concert on February 26th, 1929, Berkeley'sSonatine for unaccompanied violin (now lost) was peormed.Further performances of chamber works by Berkeley weregiven at the SMI in the early 1930s.

(2) This information comes from the distinguished Swiss-French tenor Hugues Cuenod (a friend of Nadia Boulanger),who reports meeting the great guitarist at Boulanger's home(personal communication from Hugues Cuenod to Allan CliveJone dated March 10th. 1998).

many other composers working in Paris duringthe early years of Segovia's celebrity wereinspired to compose for him. Pierre de Breville,Pierre- Octave Ferroud, Henri M artelli, GeorgesMigot, Joaqun Nin, Raymond Petit and AlbertRoussel are just some of the names that couldbe cited. Several of their works are publishedin the same series as the present set of piecesby Lennox Berkeley.

As the editor of Lennox Berkeley's Quatrepi c e s I encountered no problems at al ldeciphering composer's manuscript. Therewere, however, in a very few places, somedoubtful points which I have interpreted withina contextual frame. The composer's writing forguitar, though excellent, is jut occasionallyeither unplayable or awkward. I have resolvedthese difficulties with a view to making suchplaces not only playable but also compatiblewith the challenging tempo markings. I havenot adopted the metronome marks of theor ig inal , which are unreal is t ic for theinstrument, but of course I have wished topreserve the character of these pieces, whichdoes not admit of too lreat a slowing of thetempi.

I have tried to make the notation as clear aspossible, and the fingering I have added isintended above al l as an aid to a correct

phrasing. However, the facsimile reproductionof the manuscript - included in this edition -will allow guitarists wishing to create their ownsolution for certain passages to study all thepossible options.

I am grateful to:

My co-editor, the guitarist Luigi Biscaldi,with whom I discussed each detail of thisedition.

Professor Peter Dickinson (author of Themusic of Lennox Berkelry, Thamespublishing, London, 1988) and my colleagueand friend, the guitarist Stanley Yates, fortheir reading of the first draft of this editionand their help in improving it.

Allan Clive Jones, who provided the newsregarding the years spent by the composerin Paris.

Michael Berkeley (the composer and son ofSir Lennox Berkeley) and Tony Scotland (theadministrator of the Berkeley estate), for theirpermission and encouragement to proceedwith the publication of the Quatre pices antheir unstinting help.

Angelo GilardinoVercelli (Italy), December 200I.

T h, classical guitar, like the piano and voice, is a genre for which my father had a special affinity.I Indeed its intimate nature reflects the profound inner life of his own personality.

I do not suppose there are many guitarists who would disagree that Lennox Berkeley's contribution to thetwentieth-century guitar repertotre is of exceptional importance. Now, as awonderful surprise andbonus,we have the ,,Quatre pices,' to add to the ,,Sonatina,, ,

,,Theme & variations,, , ,,Songs of the half-light,,

and the "Guitar concerto".

Although these four early pieces (his first known workfor guttar) were almost certainly written when hewas studying in Paris in the late ]920s, they nevertheless already dsplay many Berkeley hallmarks: anunmistakable understanding of (and fascination for) the instrument, a natural melodic flatr and thebitter-sweet harmony that must have brought a smile to theface of Maurice Ravelwhenhefirst encounteredmy father's work at Oxford and advised him to make his way to Nadia Boulanger to acquire a reallysound technique. It's interesting now to glimpse in their infancy those qualities which were to come totheir maturity in works like the " Sonattna".

This is an important and exctting find, and we are all much indebted to Madame Segovia for making themanuscript available" and to maestro Angelo Gilardino for editing it with such care and sensitivity.

MICHAEL BERKELEY