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The British composer Arthur BLISS was born at ‘Hawthornden’, Queen's Ride, Barnes on 2nd August 1891 and died on 27 March 1975 (London). After an education at Rugby he went up to Pembroke College Cambridge. Further studies at the Royal College of Music were interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War in which he gave distinguished service in the Army but was wounded in the Battle of the Somme and gassed at Cambrai. The tragic death in battle of his brother Kennard together with his own war experiences had a profound, lasting impact on his life and in his music, finding expression in his choral symphony Morning Heroes (1930). Bliss studied music at Cambridge under Charles Wood and at the Royal College of Music under Charles Villiers Stanford with classmates like Herbert Howells, Ivor Gurney and Eugene Goosens. A prolific and versatile composer, Bliss wrote over 140 works for every combination of voice and instrument, including large scale orchestral and choral works, music for brass bands, chamber instrumental music, songs, operas, ballets and film music. Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst were also his teachers and although he was compositionally adventurous at first, he later adopted a conservative, Romantic style with a certain Elgar influence e.g the Colour Symphony and the music written for the royal and national occasions. He had a passion for literature and wrote many articles on music which are now collected together in “Bliss on Music”, whilst his autobiography “As I remember” provides a rich insight into his character, his life and his work. After WWI Bliss was briefly professor of composition at the Royal College of Music but soon devoted himself exclusively to composition, establishing himself on the London scene before moving to the USA (from 1923 to 1925) - initially to accompany his American father who had retired there. There in California he met Gertrude Hoffmann, whom he married and brought back to London in 1925. They had two daughters, Barbara and Karen.
«Arthur Bliss' Photograph» First stimulated by the representations of Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet in London, Bliss wrote nearly 10 scores for the dance, without counting some musical interludes for plays. The ballets have inspired some of Bliss' finest music: Checkmate (1937), Miracle in the Gorbals (1944) and Adam Zero (1946) Many consider his greatest works to be the Colour Symphony (1921), the Piano Concerto in Bb (1938) and Morning Heroes (1930) for speaker, chorus and orchestra. However, there are many other treasures which well deserve exploration. His chamber music is a serious contribution to the 20th Century repertoire. The composer found himself commissioned to write the cinema's first great film score with the music for Alexander Korda's film of H.G. Wells novel “Things to come” (1935). When WW2 broke out Bliss was again in the United States, teaching at the University of Berkeley. However in 1941 he returned to England to take up the post of BBC’s Music Director, leaving his wife and family temporarily in the States. After a knighthood in 1950 he succeeded Sir Arnold Bax in 1953 as Master of the Queen's Musick, in which capacity he was responsible for numerous works and fanfares for royal occasions, composing up until his death in London in 1975 at the age of 83.
Ninette de Valois at age 16 - Photograph from Wijipedia: Dame Ninette de Valois: The ballet's choreographer - Born Edris Stannus in the Irish village of Baltiboys in 1898 she dominated the British dance scene in the 20th Century. Her life's work has provided a legacy that continues to flourish and inspire dancers and enthral audiences. She danced in pantomime and music hall and gained experience as a choreographer by working at many different theatres, including the famous Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Her family moved to England when she was seven and by the age of 13 she was performing in Lila Field's “Wonder Children” in commercial theatre: "If they didn't like you they threw things!" she once said. She moved on to ballet, which was then little more than a novelty turn in variety theatres and became a leading dancer in London before joining Diaghilev's company in 1923. Her dancing career was relatively short, as in 1926 she gave it up: "It was no tragedy - I wasn't that great."! In 1935, she married Arthur Connell, an Irish surgeon who died in 1986: they had no children. She opened her own ballet school in London and worked to instil her great understanding of classic tradition and love of classic repertory in her students, persuading impresario and director Lillian Baylis to let her pupils take dance parts in theatrical and operatic productions. The full evening of ballet at the Old Vic on 5 May 1931 is considered the beginning of professional classical ballet in England. De Valois was strict - but it was she that brought out the talents of great ballerinas like Margot Fonteyn, Alicia Markova and Moira Shearer.
«Ninette de Valois' Photograph» She was the founder of The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet (initially the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet) and the Royal Ballet School - and also the first Turkish national ballet company (1947)! She choreographed many important works, of which the acknowledged masterpieces were Job (1931), The Rake's Progress (1935) and Checkmate (1937). She received many official honours, including being made a Dame in 1951 writing her “Come Dance With Me” memoirs in 1957. She retired in 1963 and was named life-governor of the Royal Ballet, continuing to be involved in the work of the Ballet School until 1971.
«Dame Ninette de Valois She will be remembered as a gifted choreographer but more so as the woman who did so much to increase the prestige of ballet in England. "With the death of Dame Ninette de Valois we acknowledge the passing of one of the 20th Century's greatest and most influential figures in the world of the arts." - Sir Anthony Dowell, director of The Royal Ballet.
Edward McKnight Kauffer: the ballet’s designer: “Kauffer was a good painter, but his real genius was in advertising art.” Edward ("Ted") McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954) left the USA in 1913 for Germany and France, where he was introduced to Ludwig Hohlwein's poster masterpieces in Munich. He attended the Academie Moderne in Paris and became one of Europe's most prolific and influential advertising poster artists during the Twenties and Thirties - as innovative as his more celebrated French counterpart, A.M. Cassandre. In England, where he lived and worked, Kauffer was hailed for elevating advertising to high art, yet in America only the design cognoscenti knew of his achievements. Kauffer attempted repatriation to the US in 1921 when he was invited to show his early posters at New York's Art and Decoration Gallery. He attempted to find work with American advertising agencies but except for a few commissions to design theatre posters, "America was not ready for him," [Frank Zachary in Portfolio #1 (1949)]. He felt obliged to return to England where he continued to pile up honours. After the outbreak of war in 1940 Kauffer concluded that living and working in London was no longer a viable option. As an alien(!) he was prohibited from contributing to England's war effort and feeling he was a liability, he and Marion Dorn, (1896-1964) textile desingner, his wife, left the country on the last passenger ship to the United States (leaving most of their belongings behind) and lived in New York for 14 years, until his death in 1954. Though he worked for various American clients during those times, he was never given the same recognition he enjoyed in England. Indeed, only after 38 years is he finally the recipient of a posthumous AIGA award. His work: Even with a promising advertising career, Kauffer continued to think of himself as a painter and was a founding member of the X Group, which promoted the post-Vorticist avant-garde. In 1915, the American-born Kauffer was commissioned to design his first poster. "Flight" (1916), which in 1919 was adapted as a poster for the London Daily Herald with the title, "Soaring to Success! The Early Bird," and was the first Cubist advertising poster published in England. The London Underground was to become his most important client. Inspired by Futurism, Cubism, Art Deco and Surrealism, Kauffer created hundreds of posters for the London Underground over a 25-year period. Kauffer's posters appeared frequently during the 1930s. They played a significant part in introducing the British public to developments in modern art and he was made an Honorary Royal Designer for Industry in 1936. He also illustrated a number of books, including Don Quixote (1930) and T S Eliot's Triumphal March (1931).
«Edward ("Ted") McKnight
Checkmate - The Ballet: opposes the forces of Love and Death – or putting it another way, Good and Evil. Written at the request of the Sadler's Wells Ballet for their visit to Paris in 1937, Bliss chose the game of chess as the subject and wrote his own scenario: within the framework of a chessgame, the storyline. Its choreographer Ninette de Valois knew precious little about chess - Bliss had to explain the rules and show the moves of the pieces to her. The première took place at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 15 June 1937 with the Lamoureux Concerts Orchestra under the baton of Constant Lambert. Later that year came its London première at Sadler’s Wells Theatre.
«Checkmate, 15.06.1937» In the original cast list there are such eminent figures of British ballet as Margot Fonteyn, Frederick Ashton, and Robert Helpmann.
«Checkmate, 15.06.1937» Pamela May as "The Black Queen" and Harold Turner as the first "Red Knight".
«Robert Helpmann in Half-a-Century after the première (1937)! The same Robert Helpmann as the Red King in the Australian Ballet's 1986 production: Checkmate would turn out to be a prophetic statement about the coming war. “It reveals, yet again, what a magnificent maker of dances she was.” - Clement Crisp, Financial Times, 27/10/2005.
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