We’ll begin and conclude by putting a little English on it, on The Classical Network.
At 4:00, we’ll mark the birthday today of Richard III with works by William Walton and Bedrich Smetana. Then at 6:00, we’ll honor English composer Kenneth Leighton.
Leighton’s “Veris Gratia” (1950) betrays a spiritual kinship with the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Herbert Howells, and his champion and friend Gerald Finzi.
Completed at the age of 21, the suite is scored for oboe, cello and orchestra. Though the musical language is in the tradition of the English pastoralists, gentle, tonal and melodic, Leighton’s yearning to be his own man is already evident in some of the harmonies. The work is based on an earlier cantata of the same name, a setting of Medieval Latin lyrics in English translation. Finzi conducted the suite several times, including its first performance. In gratitude, Leighton dedicated the work to his memory, following Finzi’s untimely death.
Leighton emerged from a working class background in Yorkshire. He exhibited talent early as a chorister and pianist, before receiving a scholarship to study Classics at Queen’s College, Oxford. Simultaneously, he embarked on a degree in music. There, he studied with Bernard Rose. Finzi and Vaughan Williams interceded on his behalf, facilitating and attending performances of his works. Leopold Stokowski conducted the premiere of his “Primavera Romana” with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.
Soon after, Leighton left for Rome to study with Goffredo Petrassi. This led to his exposure to a wider range of European composers and techniques. In some of his pieces, he even flirts with serialism. He certainly developed a more modern, though generally lyrical and always personal style.
As a person, he enjoyed family and teaching. He was less fond of the administrative duties that were part of being a university professor. At his core, he was a shy and private man, who cherished peace and quiet.
Leighton is often reductively referred to as a “church composer,” which is ironic, since he was not overly fond of church or even conventionally religious. He preferred the transcendent qualities of poetry and nature, and enjoyed taking long walks through the Scottish Highlands with his dog. Though he spent much of his adult life in Scotland, on the faculty of the University of Edinburgh, Leighton never forgot his origins. He always regarded himself as a down-to-earth Yorkshireman.
Watch for Clarence in the malmsey butt, then kick back with the cows, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
