The Cornish composer Judith Bailey is succinct in her music. You
would know that if she ever wrote a sixty minute symphony every
note would count. There would be no ullage. Going by these works
she is also of a serious bent yet with a light heart.
The String Quartet
is the earliest work here - some twenty years old. It's a densely
grave weave of sound with each line of singing intensity occasionally
suggesting early Tippett. The effect is husky and warm and the
redolences are of a consort of viols. This is relieved by a pizzicato
episode in the finale.
It
was commissioned by the Davey String Quartet, following the death
of the composer's mother in 1986. Their first performance took
place in Kentish Town, London on instruments which were all made
by female luthiers. The three movements are headed by literary
quotations: I. "Music expresses that which cannot be put
into words and that which cannot remain silent" (from The
Bridge of Love; an Anthology of Hope, collected by
Elizabeth Basset); II. "We are what suns and winds and waters
make us" (W.S. Landor); III. Those who spread their sails
in the right way to the winds of the earth will always find themselves
borne by a current towards the open seas (Teilhard de Chardin).
The latter author is of interest given the Rubbra connection mentioned
later. Rubbra’s Eighth Symphony is entitled Hommage à Teilhard
de Chardin.
The 1993 Clarinet
Quintet was also written for the Daveys and strikes me as more
of a suite of three contrasted movements. The first has the rearing
strength of the Bax and Alwyn clarinet sonatas. The second laps
sweetly and the finale is a woozy-zany song. It's very attractive
and should find a ready place in chamber recitals.
From
the same year comes the carillon-fractured Towers of San
Gimignano. It traces its origins from the composer’s visit
to Tuscany in 1993. The three segments are: 1. The Towers
of San Gimignano: “There are fourteen of them, built in rivalry
by warlike nobles in Mediæval times. As one approaches the
hill-top city of San Gimignano the towers stand majestically
silhouetted against the skyline.” 2. Frescoes and 3. Piazza:
“A sunny square thronging with people. A man is singing -
it echoes through the arches and towers beyond. The free three-notes
repeated motif was made by bells heard on Easter Sunday morning.
Bells are never far away in Italy.”
The
work that is The Egloshayle Nightingale Trio is in
four movements which look back to the string quartet but here
the textures are more open and folksong invigorates and seduces
the listener. The bluffer moments are offset by a heartfelt
second movement. If the first and final movements do sport
a phrase that recalls Yorkshire rather than Bodmin this remains
a tender and vulnerable work. It was written for Tony Cox
and his Mainly Baroque Trio based in Egloshayle in
Cornwall. The Cornish folk-song The Sweet Nightingale
is the basis of the work. It was premiered in South Harting,
near Petersfield.
The Aquamarine
Waltz is intended to have marine view connotations although
it seemed more pastoral-homely to me. The two Microminiature
pieces are each in three concise movements variously reflective-unrepentant
and glintingly eager. The first and second movements of No.
2 recall the Quartet while the finale is more unbuttoned and
carefree.
The Visions of
Hildegard takes a fragment of a piece by Hildegard von Bingen
and meditates upon it. The drone effect at 0.50 and other aspects
later imply the medieval connection in a work that has a strongly
serious bearing perhaps reminding the listener of Rubbra's music
for chamber orchestra. Light is in three movements. Again
this is a gravely beautiful piece which should make it endearing
to admirers of Rubbra's chamber music. The four movements carry
superscriptions from St John of the Cross, Browning, Bridges and
Anon. The music and the words saturate each other in the crepuscular
and the valedictory. Also we encounter a new mood in Silent
Silver Lights - a flash of anger. This music has more angularity
than you might have expected from the other works apart from The
Towers of San Gimignano.
The Davey Ensemble
are accorded a powerful close-up sound. There was only one
momentary player slip which could have been edited out and
that falls in the second movement of Light. It causes
no harm to the progress of the music.
The presentation
has something of the Dunelm design feel marking the recent
transition of that label into the Divine Arts Metier line.
I am sure that
Judith Bailey must be grateful to Patrick Waller who made
this album happen and to the Davey Ensemble whose expertise
and caring dedication has released this music to the listening
world.
I hope that this disc,
quite apart from its intrinsic pleasures, will be the harbinger
of recordings of Bailey's Concerto for Orchestra, Cliff
Walk Symphony, the two numbered symphonies, the Clarinet Concerto
and her other string quartet.
Rob Barnett
see also Judith Bailey's
Website
Davey Chamber
Ensemble (Juliet Davey, Prunella Sedgwick (violins); Lucy White
(viola); Catherine Wilmers (cello); Jane Plessner (clarinet); Nicola
Grunberg (piano)) 
