A composer blacklisted for adultery and necromancy
mainThe Welsh are trying to make a case for John Herbert Foulds, a composer whose First War eulogy A World Requiem had a brief success before being summarily discarded.
Was it because he had a child with a married woman who wasn’t his wife? Or because he liked talking to the dead and raising Hindui gods? That’s the latest musicological discovery in today’s Western Mail, always a good read.
Too good to be true, in parts. The headline seems to imply that A World Requiem, along with other works, is missing presumed lost, never to be heard again. Actually, it was revived at the Royal Albert Hall four years ago and released on the Chandos label.
And the sub-editor cannot make up his/her mind whether Foulds is plural or singular. Not surprising, perhaps, in his circumstances.
The world’s religions are in even deeper shit if talking to the dead counts as necrophilia!
Fantastic article – only the WM could slant it like that. He was of course a cellist in the Halle for a number of years!
Unless I’m looking at a different article, the missing work referred to is an ‘East-West Symphony’, not ‘A World Requiem’. It appears that they are 2 different pieces.
Quite right, Tim. I conflated two pars in my haste, on the hoof. Will amend.
Blimey, is it time for another Foulds revival? What are the chances of it sticking this time?