Good Bush
;-XCEPT for Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, no recent English opera has impressed me as much as Alan Bush’s Wat Tyler (YC link), Although, here and there, my ear was reminded a little of that monstrous bore, Gloriana, and at other times of Vaughan Williams in his mood of high pomposity, the music seemed to be dramatically satisfying to an’ unusual degree. This was virile, muscular stuff, with stirring tenderness, set, so far as I could make out at one hearing, to a strong, intelligent libretto. Somewhat surprisingly for a modern composer, Alan Bush does not appear to think good tunes vulgar, nor to despise traditional harmonies; he showed here a range of melodic invention, which made parts of the opera quite beguiling. Wagner is, I suppose, the great-grandfather of the near-symphonic technique Alan Bush uses, yet Wat Tyler, with its concentration of effects, is no mere imitation of Wagner, but has a dynamic Englishness of its own. It is a work I look forward to hearing again. It certainly shows that the relatively untouched field of English history can inspire opera composers more fruitfully than Greek legend or Celtic fantasy.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19571018.2.44.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 949, 18 October 1957, Page 24
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192Good Bush New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 949, 18 October 1957, Page 24
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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