H05064 JULY 2005 NOTES AND QUERIES 7/05/05 - HARDY FORUM ARCHIVES ____________________________________________________________________________
HARDY'S XENOPHOBIA/PIRACY
HARDY'S POETIC REVISIONS
HARDY AND HOLST
HARDY AND MUSIC
ATHENAEUM EDITOR QUESTION
HARDY'S POEMS SET TO MUSIC
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From: michael@perceptivecreation.co.uk
Subject: Re: Hardy's xenophobia - piracy.
Date: July 4, 2005 6:36:03 PM PDT
Sorry to be a bit behind on this strand as well - but intrigued by the
piracy issue, which I hadn't really considered before.
"Before 1891..."? What is the significance of this date, Rosemarie?
When my theatre company last "did" Hardy's 2nd version of Tess, my
investigations showed (I think) that his first version (1894-5) didn't in
fact get off the ground (and was in fact not very good - my own thought was
that it was unplayable, today at least). It was Lorimer Stoddard's 1897
version with Mrs Fiske as Tess which was the first dramatization to reach
the stage - in NY - and very successfully. (Was this a piracy for example?).
Then (for various reasons) Hardy withdrew his permission for a London
production. (Jealousy and peak at the US success?).
My programme note continued: "Over the following years some piracies
appeared, notably one by Hugh Arthur Kennedy.... which 'owed much' to
Stoddard's (authorized) American success. An Italian opera by Baron Frederic
d'Erlanger opened in Naples in 1906, only to be totally ruined by an
eruption of Mount Vesuvius! The opera came to London in 1909 and received 'a
most enthusiastic reception from one of the largest and most fashionable
audiences of the season'"
Then - where we come in - "the first fully authorized British production of
Tess - a totally new version by Hardy in Dorchester in 1924.... This version
was a considerable improvement on the first, thanks partly to the work of
dramatist A.E. Filmer, who sharpened the script and made it much more
theatrical" (subsequently playing at the Barnes Theatre, then the Garrick).
My impressions (possibly incorrect?) when dealing with this programme were
that the Kennedy version was a British production, and that Filmer was an
American. And I had unanswered questions - 1) If Stoddard's version was
authorized, was this by Hardy himself? and 2) could the opera have come to
London if it had been a piracy?
If 1891 is a date beyond which things changed (?), did Hardy in fact get
royalties on all these versions and productions? And if so why did his
anti-American feelings not subside by 1906 (when his earlier quoted
xenophobic remark was made)?
Golly - this is all such dramatic stuff!
Michael Barry
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From: meryfac@hotmail.com
Subject: POETRY
Date: July 5, 2005 9:11:55 AM PDT
Hallo to everybody,
My thesis about the poetry of Thomas Hardy is going to reach its goal, but
now that I have finished my work, a question rises in my mind: I have studied
that Hardy was a lifelong reviser of his poems, that is he never
accomplished what he clearly intended as a final, definitive text.
He had begun his full-time poetic career late in his life, but in your
opinion, if he had begun it earlier, could he had the patience to co-ordinate
all the different versions of his poems and so produce an ideal text, or he
had kept on revising them looking for the perfectness?
Maria
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From: schweikr@localnet.com
Subject: Re: POETRY
Date: July 5, 2005 10:30:40 AM PDT
Dear Maria,
In a field where there is, of course, much difference of opinion, I'd venture
to say that, among those familiar with the textual history of Hardy's poetry,
there would be an almost unanimous opinion: Hardy would have continued
to go on revising his poetic texts.
To get some sense of just how much his poetic texts were still a work in
progress at his death, just look at the textual notes in Samuel Hynes'
or James Gibson's editions.
Bob
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From: robert_goddard@hotmail.com
Subject: Picture of Britain: Hardy and Holst
Date: July 7, 2005 2:21:02 AM PDT
Dear All,
For those of you able to receive BBC1 TV, I thought that I'd let you know that the final programme in David Dimbleby's "Picture of Britain" television series is titled "The Mystical West" and will be broadcast this Sunday (July 10th at 21.00 BST). According the the BBC website (see below link), one of Dimbleby's journeys in this final programme involves his going "in search of Thomas Hardy's Egdon Heath: the expanse of wild landscape where so many of Hardy's characters meet their fate, and which later provided the title for one of Gustav Holst's most famous pieces of music."
For further information, see:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/05_may/11/picture_west.shtml
With best wishes,
Robert Goddard
Solihull, UK.
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From: hackell90@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: Picture of Britain: Hardy and Holst
Date: July 7, 2005 6:45:54 AM PDT
Thank you Robert. Currently studying Hardy/music... I would have been so cross to miss this programme.
Susan
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From: segr@segr-music.net
Subject: Songs of Hardy's Choice
Date: July 21, 2005 4:04:30 AM PDT
Dear listers
On the subject of Hardy and music,
I have always wondered how Donald Farfrae's
singing of "My Ain Folk" might really have gone
down with the locals in the Casterbridge pub (MC).
He was unaccompanied of course and I imagine
he sang with a high voice (seems natural for a Scot
to have a high-pitched voice).
That song tends to get a slow, emotional performance
but he could have followed it up one much more lively.
Another of Hardy's particular favourites(besides
"Should He Upbraid) was the delightful adaptation
of the traditional Scottish tune "The Birks of Invermay".
Hardy knew this as the song "How Oft Louisa Hast Thou Told".
There seem to have been two versions of the title and first line,
one with "said" instead of "told".
The song was included by by Sheridan, who presumably wrote the words,
in his light opera "The Duenna" first performed in 1775. The instrumental
accompaniment to the tune seems to have been the work of Thomas Linley the
Younger.
Versions exist in which various instruments (piano, flute, guitar, violin)
have parts.
Hardy knew the song with the above title but how did he first get to hear
it?
At a performance? (A certain Louisa was for a long time on his mind, of
course.)
If you care to hear it sung (although not by Donald Farfrae) in
Linley's beautiful setting follow up the Latest News at my website
Roy Buckle.
www.segr-music.ne=t
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From: jacky@wilkibob.me.uk
Subject: RE: Songs of Hardy's Choice
Date: July 21, 2005 8:28:10 AM PDT
Dear Roy,
I don't know if you know this site or not. It's an interesting article I found on JSTOR:
C.M. Jackson-Houston "Thomas Hardy's use of Traditional Song" Nineteenth Century Literature, Vol. 44,no.3 (Dec. 1989)
It seems to fit well within the parameters of your web site.
Jacky
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From: meryfac@hotmail.com
Subject: Athenaeum
Date: July 28, 2005 2:27:41 AM PDT
Dear Forum,
Do you know who was the editor of the Athenaeum in 1899, a year after the pubblication of the Wessex Poems of TH?
Thank you All,
Mary
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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: Re: Athenaeum
Date: July 28, 2005 4:57:23 AM PDT
Frederic George Stephens -- was the editor of the Athenaeum in 1899
Rosemarie
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From: DDent@mail.MaconState.edu
Subject: RE: Athenaeum
Date: July 28, 2005 2:59:06 AM PDT
Norman MacColl (1871-1900). This is the URL for the source I found - http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/ap4.a85.raw.html. I hope this is accurate and helpful.
Debra
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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: RE: Athenaeum
Date: July 28, 2005 5:03:15 AM PDT
Correction (to my posting) -- Frederic George Stephens was Athenaeum Art Editor and Critic --. Thanks Debra.
Rosemarie
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From: meryfac@hotmail.com
Subject: MUSIC
Date: July 28, 2005 6:42:13 AM PDT
Thank you for letting me know the editor of the Athenaeum!
Does anyone know anything about some poems of Wessex Poems musicated by a compositor?
The ultimate aim of my thesis is to create an hypothetic hypertext about Wessex Poems and I would like to include as more media as possible! the poetry, of course, but also the drawing, the architecture and maybe the music!
I know Hardy was very fond of music and I believe that some of his poems were also played...is it true?
Thank you!
Mary
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From: segr@segr-music.net
Subject: RE: MUSIC
Date: July 28, 2005 6:57:34 AM PDT
Where would you like to start, Maria?
TTHA has some resources you could try.
Roy
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From: hackell90@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: MUSIC
Date: July 29, 2005 4:07:30 AM PDT
Dear Marie,
I am currently researching Hardy and his poems that were set to music. I know my great adviser Roy (Buckle) has been in touch already and you will find his knowledge extremely useful. As I mentioned to Roy, the Gooch and Thatcher Catalogue of Musical Settings of Late Victorian and Modern British Literature lists over three hundred Hardy poems that have been set to music. Of these the following come from Wessex Poems:
'Amabel' set by Gerald Finzi; 'Ditty' set by Finzi; 'Friends Beyond' set by Hubert Foss; 'Hap' by John Ireland; 'I Look into my Glass' set by Nicholas Maw; 'In a Wood' by Gustav Holst; 'Middle-Age Enthusiasms' by Finzi; 'Neutral Tones' by Nicholas Maw; 'The Peasant's Confession' set by Ivor Gurney; 'The Sergeant's Song' set by Rutland Boughton, Gerald Finzi, Hubert Foss, Gustav Holst, Frederick Keel and Boyton Smith; 'She, To Him I' by Gordon Binkerd; 'The Temporary the All' by Gerald Finzi; 'Thoughts of Phena' by Finzi; 'Valenciennes' by Boyton Smith.
Ther catalogue metnioned above was published in 1976 so there may be more now! Hope this is useful. Let me know if I can help further.
Best wishes
Susan Bell
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