Sir Arthur Bliss

Standing out from the Crowd

Paul Spicer

• Publisher: Robert Hale Non Fiction
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9780719831584
• Topic: Médias et arts de la scène
• Subtopic: Musique

Arthur Bliss (1891–1975) was one of the most important British musicians of his age. Born into a family where music played a highly significant role, his talent emerged early. He served with distinction in the Great War, in which he was both injured and gassed. After the War he set the musical world alight with ultra-modern works, earning himself the soubriquet enfant terrible and leading to his first major work, the Colour Symphony. His dual American/British birthright led to a close connection with the USA and marriage to an American girl, Trudy Hoffman, who would be a mainstay of his life. Before long he became the most performed British composer abroad and his portfolio of works included ballet, film (H.G. Wells's Things to Come remains one of the finest film scores), opera, orchestral, chamber, choral works and song. He was a diplomat, a skill that was recognized in many appointments from the Government to travel using music as soft power, notably to Russia in 1956. He served as Director of Music at the BBC from 1942–4, was knighted and soon after appointed Master of the Queen's Music. Bliss was a private figure who stated that the only way to get to know him was through his music. Paul Spicer takes this as his starting point for this pioneering biography, which underlines the timely importance of a complete reappraisal of this important composer's music.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter One: The Curtains Open
• Chapter Two: The Nation Arming
• Chapter Three: The Diaghilev Effect
• Chapter Four: A Colour Symphony
• Chapter Five: Love Via the Stage: The ‘Volcanic Anglo-American’
• Chapter Six: Towards Morning Heroes: 1927–1930
• Chapter Seven: Things to Come: New Paths
• Chapter Eight: Strings, Travel Guides and Checkmate
• Chapter Nine: An American Interlude
• Chapter Ten: The Dance Resumes: The BBC, Miracle in the Gorbals and Adam Zero
• Chapter Eleven: Towards Grand Opera and Beyond
• Chapter Twelve: Master of the Queen’s Musick
• Chapter Thirteen: Musical Diplomacy, The Lady of Shallot, and Opera for Television
• Chapter Fourteen: Unblessed Beatitudes
• Chapter Fifteen: Australian Interlude and a Vision of Retrospect
• Chapter Sixteen: The Curtains Close
• Endnotes
• Bibliography
• Index