Rosa Newmarch and Russian Music in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century England

208 Pages·2016·2.083 MB·English

by  Philip Ross Bullock

Photograph of Rosa Newmarch (courtesy of the Sibelius Museum, Turku/Åbo).
Newmarch commented on this photograph to Sibelius (19 May 1909, Sibelius Family
Papers, National Archives of Finland, Box 24): ‘I am sending you my photographs which
are not too bad, especially the one where I am busy le(cid:308)ing my inspired thoughts run
free at an improvised writing table, all the while observing Klary [the photographer]
with an uneasy look. They are thought to be a good likeness, so I suppose I am, a(cid:286)er
all, this very bourgeois, very well-rested person, this unflappable representative
of custom and propriety!’ [‘je vous envoie mes photographies qui ne sont pas trop
mauvaises, surtout celle où je suis occupée à faire couler mes pensées inspirées,
sur une table d’écriture improvisée, toujours en regardant Klary d’un œil inquiet.
On les croit ressemblantes, ainsi je suppose que je suis, en vérité, ce(cid:308)e personne très
bourgeoise et bien reposée, ce(cid:308)e représentative imperturbable du comme il faut!’]
This photograph was also used in a 1911 interview with her in The Musical Times.

Rosa Newmarch and Russian Music
in Late Nineteenth and Early
Twentieth-Century England
Philip Ross Bullock looks at the life and works of Rosa Newmarch
(1857–1940), the leading authority on Russian music and culture
in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century England. Although
Newmarch’s work and influence are o(cid:286)en acknowledged – most
particularly by scholars of English poetry, and of the role of women
in English music – the full range of her ideas and activities has yet
to be studied. As an inveterate traveller, prolific author, and polyglot
friend of some of Europe’s leading musicians, such as Elgar, Sibelius
and Janáček, Newmarch deserves to be be(cid:308)er appreciated. On the basis
of both published and archival materials, the details of Newmarch’s
busy life are traced in an opening chapter, followed by an overview
of English interest in Russian culture around the turn of the century, a
period which saw a long-standing Russophobia (largely political and
military) challenged by a more passionate and well-informed interest
in the arts. Three chapters then deal with the features that characterize
Newmarch’s engagement with Russian culture and society, and – more
significantly perhaps – which she also championed in her native
England; nationalism; the role of the intelligentsia; and feminism.
In each case, Newmarch’s interest in Russia was no mere instance of
ethnographic curiosity; rather, her observations about and passion for
Russia were translated into a commentary on the state of contemporary
English cultural and social life. Her interest in nationalism was based
on the conviction that each country deserved an art of its own. Her call
for artists and intellectuals to play a vital role in the cultural and social
life of the country illustrated how her Russian experiences could map
onto the liberal values of Victorian England. And her feminism was
linked to the idea that women could exercise roles of authority and
influence in society through participation in the arts. A final chapter
considers how her late interest in the music of Czechoslovakia picked
up and developed these themes in the context of interwar Europe.
ROYAL MUSICAL ASSOCIATION MONOGRAPHS
General Editor: Mark Everist
This series is supported by funds made available to the Royal Musical Association
from the estate of Thurston Dart, former King Edward Professor of Music at the
University of London. The editorial board is the Publications Commi(cid:308)ee of the
Association.
No. 1: Playing on Words: A Guide to Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia (1985) by David
Osmond-Smith
No. 2: The Oratorio in Venice (1986) by Denis and Elsie Arnold
No. 3: Music for Treviso Cathedral in the Late Sixteenth Century: A Reconstruction
of the Lost Manuscripts 29 and 30 (1987) by Bonnie J. Blackburn
No. 4: The Breath of the Symphonist: Shostakovitch’s Tenth (1988) by David
Fanning
No. 5: The Song of the Soul: Understanding Poppea (1991) by Iain Fenlon and Peter
Miller
No. 6: The Impresario’s Ten Commandments: Continental Recruit-ment for Italian
Opera in London 1763‒64 (1992) by Curtis Price, Judith Milhous and Robert
D. Hume
No. 7: Institutional Patronage in Post-Tridentine Rome: Music at Santissima Trinità
dei Pellegrini 1550‒1650 (1995) by Noel O’Regan
No. 8: Latin Poetry and Conductus in Medieval France (1997) by Christopher Page
No. 9: Orientalism, Masquerade and Mozart’s Turkish Music (2000) by Matthew
Head
No. 10: ‘Composing with Tones’: A Musical Analysis of Schoenberg’s Op. 23 Pieces
for Piano (2001) by Kathryn Bailey
No. 11: Szymanowski, Eroticism and the Voices of Mythology (2003) by Stephen
Downes
No. 12: Salomon and the Burneys: Private Patronage and a Public Career (2003) by
Ian Woodfield
No. 13: Repetition in Music: Theoretical and Metatheoretical Perspectives (2004) by
Adam Ockelford
No. 14: ‘To fill, forbear, or adorne’: The Organ Accompaniment of Restoration
Sacred Music (2006) by Rebecca Herissone
No. 15: MS Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Magl. XIX, 164‒167 (2006)
by Anthony M. Cummings
No. 16: Bartók and the Grotesque: Studies in Modernity, the Body and Contradiction
in Music (2007) by Julie Brown
No. 17: Sacred Repertories in Paris under Louis XIII: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale
de France, Vma ms rés. 571 (2009) by Peter Bennett
No. 18: Rosa Newmarch and Russian Music in Late Nineteenth and Early
Twentieth-Century England (2009) by Philip Ross Bullock
ROYAL MUSICAL ASSOCIATION
MONOGRAPHS
18
Rosa Newmarch
and Russian Music
in Late Nineteenth
and Early
Twentieth-Century
England
PHILIP ROSS BULLOCK
First published 2009 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2009 Philip Ross Bullock
Philip Ross Bullock has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in anyform or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented,including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system,without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Notice..
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used onlyfor identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Bullock, Philip Ross.
Rosa Newmarch and Russian music in late nineteenth and early twentieth-
century England. — (Royal Musical Association monographs)
1. Newmarch, Rosa, 1857-1940. 2. Women music critics—Great Britain—
Biography. 3. Music critics—Great Britain—Biography. 4. Music journalists—
Great Britain—Biography.
5. Music—Russia—19th century—History and criticism. 6. Music—Russia—
20th century—History and criticism.
I. Title II. Series
780.9’2—dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bullock, Philip Ross.
Rosa Newmarch and Russian music in late nineteenth and early twentieth-
century England / Philip Ross Bullock.
p. cm. — (Royal Musical Association monographs)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-6662-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Newmarch, Rosa, 1857–1940.
2. Musical criticism—England—History—19th century. 3. Musical criticism—
England—History—20th century. 4. Music—Russia—History and criticism. I. Title.
ML423.N37B86 2009
780.92—dc22
2009016837
ISBN 9780754666622 (hbk)
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Conventions ix
Introduction 1
1 The Invention of Rosa Newmarch 6
2 The Invention of Russia 19
3 Nationalism and Music 38
4 Audiences and Intellectuals 71
5 Women and Society 99
6 A(cid:286)er Russia 137
Appendix – Chronological list of published works
by Rosa Harriet Newmarch 147
Bibliography 165
Index 188
Acknowledgements
Much of the material contained in this book was first presented at a
variety of conferences and seminars over the last few years, and I have
benefited immensely from the many questions and comments prompted
by these papers: the British Association for Slavonic and East European
Studies (BASEES) Study Group for Literature of the 20th Century
and Beyond, Mansfield College, Oxford (September 2003); the second
Anglo-French Workshop in Russian Studies, Maison des Sciences de
L’Homme, Paris (October 2005); the Centre for Russian Studies, School
of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London
(November 2005); ‘The Proms in British Musical Life’ conference at
the British Library (April 2007); The ‘Music in Britain’ Seminar Series,
Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University
of London (March 2008); and the opening conference of the European
Network for Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies, Ghent (May 2008).
Newmarch was an inveterate traveller and I have enjoyed
following in her footsteps (as well as visiting some places that she
almost certainly never visited). Funding from the British Academy and
from BASEES allowed me to visit archives in St Petersburg and Helsinki
respectively (Anna Lordan was kind enough to consult the holdings
of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art in Moscow on my
behalf). I am grateful to Nicolas Bell (Curator of Music Manuscripts,
British Library, London); Marina Yur′yevna Lyubimova and Natal′ya
Vasil′yevna Ramazanova (Manuscript Department, Russian National
Library, St Petersburg); the staff of the Manuscript Department of the
Institute for Russian Literature (Pushkin House), St Petersburg; Sue
Fairchild (Elgar Birthplace Museum, Lower Broadheath); Marja Pohjola
(National Archives of Finland, Helsinki); Lesley Pitman and Robin
Aizlewood (School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University
College London); Peter Horton (Royal College of Music, London);
and the Special Collections staff at the University of Reading, for
allowing me to work on (and, where relevant, cite from) Newmarch’s
le(cid:308)ers in their custody. Victoria Mold expertly researched the John
Lane Company Records; my thanks to her for this, and to the Harry
Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, for
permission to cite from this invaluable correspondence. I am grateful to
Sco(cid:308) S. Taylor at Georgetown University Library for kindly arranging for
copies of Newmarch’s le(cid:308)ers to be sent to me, and to Nicholas Scheetz,
Manuscripts Librarian, for granting permission to cite from them. Laura
Ponsonby generously gave permission to cite a le(cid:308)er from Sir Hubert
Parry to Newmarch. I am indebted to the staff of the British Library;
Acknowledgements
the Bodleian Library; the Taylorian Library, Oxford; the library of the
Royal Academy of Music; the BBC Wri(cid:308)en Archives Centre, Reading;
the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton; the Newberry Library,
Chicago; and the New York Public Library for their help in tracking
down, books, scores, journals and sundry bibliographical rarities. I
am obliged to the Sibelius Museum in Turku/Åbo for permission to
reproduce a copy of Newmarch’s portrait, and to Wadham College,
Oxford, for defraying the costs involved in this. It has been a pleasure
to sound out the professional expertise of an old friend, Fiona Courage,
at the University of Sussex.
The nature of this project has meant that I have relied extensively
on the advice of friends and colleagues both old and new. In music,
Rachel Cowgill and Leanne Langley have guided my explorations with
tact and expertise; equally crucial were the encouragement, enthusiasm
and exhortations of Byron Adams, Geoffrey Chew, Jenny Doctor and
Peter Franklin. John Tyrrell generously helped with material related to
Janáček. I cannot thank Edward Morgan enough for graciously allowing
me to draw on his own indefatigable researches into Newmarch.
Alexander Binns has been a source of much excellent advice more
generally. In English, Carol Peaker and Jane Po(cid:308)er alerted me to a
number of li(cid:308)le-known sources, and Rebecca Beasley has generously
guided my work by sharing her extensive knowledge of the reception
of Russian culture in twentieth-century England. Of colleagues in
Russian, Pamela Davidson and the late Lindsey Hughes asked pertinent
and thought-provoking questions; in particular, Lindsey Hughes heard
two papers and was o(cid:286)en an imaginary interlocutor at other times – I
hope she would have approved of the results. Jane Garne(cid:308)’s input as a
historian encompasses everything I might hope to achieve in this book.
Three people in particular deserve my immense gratitude for their
forbearance every time I struggled to articulate a Newmarch-related
thought and for imparting to me something of their indispensable
knowledge of the era: William Whyte will understand what I mean
when I refer to Newmarch as ‘my dead architect’; Catherine Maxwell
shares, I hope, fond memories of an Oxford graveyard; most of all,
Stefano Evangelista must wonder how it came to be that so many of his
people – and so much else besides – found their way into my book.
I am grateful to Mark Everist of the Royal Musical Association
for overseeing the submission and refereeing of the original proposal,
and for his commitment to this project ever since. At Ashgate, Heidi
Bishop and her colleagues have been models of patience and expertise.
All reasonable a(cid:308)empts have been made to contact the current
representatives of Newmarch’s estate (in this connection, I should like
to thank Jean Rose, Librarian to the Random House Group, for her
help). The author and publisher would be glad to acknowledge any
such representatives in any republication of this book.
All of these people and institutions have made my work possible
– as well as be(cid:308)er; for the faults I alone am responsible. As ever, my
vii