This atmospheric Christmas poem was written just over a century ago by Robert Bridges, in his first year as Poet Laureate:
Noel: Christmas Eve, 1913 — Robert Bridges. Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
A frosty Christmas Eve when the stars were shining Fared I forth alone where westward falls the hill, And from many a village in the water’d valley Distant music reach’d me peals of bells a-ringing: The constellated sounds ran sprinking on earth’s floor As the dark vault above with stars was spangled o’er. Then sped my thoughts to keep that first Christmas of all When the shepherds watching by their folds ere the dawn Heard music in the fields and marvelling could not tell Whether it were angels or the bright stars singing. Now blessed be the tow’rs that crown England so fair That stand up strong in prayer unto God for our souls: Blessed be their founders (said I) an’ our country folk Who are ringing for Christ in the belfries to-night With arms lifted to clutch the rattling ropes that race Into the dark above and the mad romping din. But to me heard afar it was starry music Angels’ song, comforting as the comfort of Christ When he spake tenderly to his sorrowful flock: The old words came to me by the riches of time Mellow’d and transfigured as I stood on the hill Heark’ning in the aspect of th’ eternal silence.
Gerald Finzi used these very English words in his Christmas cantata In Terra Pax, though the third stanza is replaced by words from the second chapter of Luke’s Gospel:
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them,
Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Luke 2: 8–14 (KJV)
Finzi’s decision to quote Luke where he does leaves the identity of ‘the same country’ satisfyingly ambiguous. For Bridges’ words are set unmistakeably in England — perhaps Oxfordshire, known to both Finzi and Bridges — and the words from Scripture seem to follow the poem seamlessly, as if it had been on the same hill that both poet and the shepherds had stood. Thus the composer leaves undisturbed that unspoken myth, once wished-for and half-believed by everyone in England, and perpetuated by such carols as ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ or Warlock’s Bethlehem Down, that Christ must have been born somewhere in England, preferably in the Home Counties, perhaps enfolded by a chalky Sussex woodland or a wooded Surrey dene. After all, where else could He have been born?
Ah, what shall we do with the incorrigible English? Well, today’s not the day to worry about that. Glory to God in the highest, peace to people of goodwill, and a merry Christmas to all readers.
Now the station is in the news again: according to this year’s statistics it has retained its position of honour, having attracted a grand total of twelve passengers. It might seem natural to ask why so few people should use it, but, when it comes to Shippea Hill, as I explained last year, the question is really why the figure should be as high as it is! For Shippea Hill is notable for having purported to serve, since 1845, a blank, unpopulated fen, the ‘hill’ of its name turning out to be a patch of ground qualifying as a hill only because it is not below sea level, and therefore attains a dizzying altitude compared to all the land around. As for the trains, there is a single service per week-day, in one direction only, which calls on request only and is totally unsupplemented and uncomplemented by any bus or even a practical service at the next station down the line at Lakenheath. There is no pub, shop or phone box; there is only the unchecked wind, the uncompromising Fenland horizon and the small bluish vessel of Ely Cathedral, eight miles away.
Happy eightieth birthday to the unstoppable Pope Francis, who continues to teach and us less by words (which I think he sees as a secondary tool) than by gesture and example, in which his real homilies are to be found.
“How many of you speak Spanish?” Pope Francis prays with refugees in Rome.
He is certainly a Pope who pulls no punches: man has, he says, “slapped nature in the face”; young people are to “renounce the sofa” — and remember the “Curse my mother; expect a punch” line? People don’t realise how much tougher a nut he is than Benedict ever was! But he has to be tough. Time is short. The world is awash with wrongdoing and riven by evil, and Francis has more to contend with even than the unfolding spiritual decline of the West. As I have pointed out before, I think he wants to concentrate on the rest of the world before Europe, whose faithful remnant, with its particular mission, can still draw on the (far-from-exhausted) well of teaching of Benedict and St. John Paul, in addition to Francis’s, for years to come.
“Pray for me,” he has asked us, so we should do so. And the same for his predecessor.
First the long slow drawing in of the evenings; now the long slow drawing near of God. Advent is a very precious time of year, less severe than Lent (necessary though that severity is) and tinged with that yearning — known to us all since childhood but dulled and dormant in millions of modern hearts — for a mysterious approaching joy which, though still out of sight, will surely come to those who wait for it. It is a distilled, wintry version, of course, of the feeling that is with us all year round, even if we choose to ignore it, that for all earth’s delights there is some greater joy somewhere else. Advent is a model of a lifetime’s waiting that gives us a chance to see our life, and what lies at its end, as if from outside, and to renew our determination to do good. If the people of Britain are ever again to return to the faith, perhaps it will be this feeling that draws them churchwards at last. Under the old vaults they will find the joy they have sought, a newborn child in his mother’s arms. He is only a few Sundays away. Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.
A stirring arrangement of the old carol by Paul Leddington Wright, sung by the Choir of Derby Cathedral; from ‘Songs of Praise’ broadcast 29 November 2011, (B.B.C.)
Wishing a peaceful Advent to all readers, near and far.
Most occupations — the transport industry, the financial sector, the medical profession, the emergency services — involve trying to overcome the shortness of time. But others also have to cope with time’s sheer magnitude: for history has shown us that there is rather a lot of it! The archival profession numbers among these. If some records are made to be kept, and if they are to outlive our era and last long into many others, then we must ready our records, and their context, to survive decades and centuries. And information is such a fragile thing.
This has been the week of the annual Explore Your Archive campaign, which promotes archives and their holdings to the public. Hopefully it is not a mere coincidence that it fell around the feast day (Friday 25th November) of St Catherine of Alexandria, patroness of archivists (among others), and the ranks of whose petitioners I have joined this year. St Catherine, pleading the cause of all archivists as they wrestle with the past, for the sake of the future, in the narrow window of the present, ora pro nobis! And deliver us from ninety-year-old sellotape.
St Catherine of Alexandria, Ventura Salimbeni (1567-1613). From the Wikimedia Commons.
In November 2015 the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (Comisiwn Brenhinol Henebion Cymru) held an Open Day at their headquarters in Aberystwyth, just before they moved their offices up the hill to the National Library. They invited members of the public to find something of interest among the material brought out from their archives, and then to produce ‘something creative’ (art, poetry, even tapestries). I was struck by an aerial view of Fishguard, taken in 1929 by Aerofilms, that I actually stumbled across on their online catalogue Coflein (the name is a combination of cof,memory and lein,line). The picture can be seen here. I sent off my effort at a ‘soldier’s englyn’ (englyn milwr in Welsh) — lines of seven syllables; rhyme-scheme of AAA — and they replied to say that they would put it on the People’s Collection Wales website here, along with other people’s works. I thought it seemed rather topical this week — though it is topical most of the time in a Welsh November!
Weather
Without
Surely little will outlast
West Welsh houses. They hold fast
In the western weather’s blast.
When the wet Welsh wind is big
(Mast or trunk like straw or twig),
West Welsh houses only dig
Hewn heels deeper into hills.
Western weather finds and fills
Every crevice: gusts like drills
Deafen heaven, beaches teem,
Waves maraud and woodlands scream.
In foundation, wall and beam,
West Welsh houses, though, are made
Firm against the rain-storm’s raid;
Stout of hearth and finely laid
Down in stone that shall not fail;
Hale of gable in a gale;
Staunch in every joint and nail.
Rows and rows are sworn to guard
West Welsh hearts against the hard
Rain, however swayed and scarred.
Snugly perched along the steep
Western hillsides, each shall keep
Stories, music, breath and sleep
Safe and sound for years on end:
Side by side they shall defend
West Welsh souls, and will not bend.
Westwards down Buarth Road, Aberystwyth, November 2015.
This is a picture of the High Street in Sutton in Surrey taken at Christmas, 1908 – which is not all that long ago in the grand scheme of things, but long enough, as it turns out, for almost everything visible in this photograph to have disappeared entirely. Gone are the dignified bunting and proud flags and the banner proclaiming ‘Here we are again’. Gone are the cumbersome means of transport, the fashion, the manners and mannerisms, the solemn lettering, even Robinson’s High Class Teeth (which might be a good thing). But I said ‘almost everything’ has disappeared because there has been one remarkable survival from this picture. It is connected with another of these shops on the right, no. 18: the photography studio of David Knights-Whittome, advertising him as ‘Photographer to His Majesty the King’. It is his business that we have to thank for some 11,000 photographic negatives taken of Sutton’s townsfolk between 1904 and 1918, and it was his photographic eye that recorded the characters of people who knew and walked this frozen High Street when it was living. We have to be grateful also to providence that so much of this collection survived the twentieth century against all the odds, so that it is now possible for them be cleaned, conserved, rehoused, catalogued, digitised, researched and put online by Sutton Archives, with the help of local volunteers and a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The banner that announced ‘Here we are again’ in 1908 turns out to have been a message not only for the ordinary Edwardians of Sutton, but for us in the present day. Here they are again indeed.
They were ordinary people like Miss Neate who, during her visit to Sutton on the 11th December 1908, might have been able to admire the Christmas decorations if they had been put up, or have thought 1907’s had been better, before she went into Knights-Whittome’s studio to have this photograph taken. They were ordinary people like Mr. E. A. Blacker who had been a sitter the previous February.
For single portraits like this, Knights-Whittome tended to use glass plate negatives. The negative was simply a small rectangle of glass coated in a ‘light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts’. By the time of these photographs they were being mass-produced. Knights-Whittome tended to take several exposures per client, sometimes using a single plate for each shot, as he does here, and sometimes squeezing two onto the same plate, as he did for this client, seen here a year later.
A sitter with a name like Detective Enticknap was perhaps not so ordinary, but a Charles Henry Enticknap was indeed a detective and member of the Metropolitan Police from 1887 to 1913 (his biography is here). When the print had been taken of the negative and the happy customer had left, the plate was numbered and labelled with the sitter’s surname, put in an envelope and placed on shelves and in boxes in the basement of the shop.
This is the man at the heart of the story: David Knights-Whittome, who was born in Greenwich in 1876 and was the seventh child of Joseph Whittome (a warehouseman and Baptist minister) and Eunice Smith. He probably taught himself the art of photography. The Borough Archives at Sutton hold a notebook that he compiled at the age of 18, entitled ‘Secrets of Photography’. There are records of his having worked in Edmonton (North London) and Woking (in Surrey) before he moved to Sutton in 1904. Here he married, in 1907, Sarah Elizabeth Draper, known as Bessie. They had two sons, Maurice and Ronald, born in 1908 and 1912 respectively.
He was also indeed a photographer to the King, as he claimed (if not the only one), obtaining a Royal Warrant of Appointment in 1911 and being one of the official photographers at Prince Edward’s investiture as Prince of Wales at Caernarvon Castle in 1911. His royal subjects included Edward VII, George V and Edward VIII at various ages, and also King Alfonso of Spain, King Manuel of Portugal and Queen Maud of Norway.
To the shop in Sutton, opened in 1904, he added a studio in Epsom in 1911. All the negatives from both studios were kept together in Sutton without any distinction between the series, which means that any photograph from this date onwards could have been taken in either town. This has repercussions for the identification of the sitters.
It seems that in 1918 Knights-Whittome gave up photography as a career altogether. The Sutton and Epsom shops closed, and the family had moved away by 1921 to Wimbledon, then to Bournemouth and finally to retirement in St. Albans, where Knights-Whittome was mayor in 1940. He died in 1943. As for the one-and-a-half tonnes' worth of glass negatives, they had all been left in the basement of 18, High Street, Sutton in 1918… There they would remain for sixty years.
The involvement of the Sutton Borough Archives began in 1978, when June Broughton, the Local Studies Librarian, was contacted by a member of the public about a certain large collection of glass plate negatives in the basement of Linwood Strong optician’s in the High Street… The building was to be demolished to make way for a road-widening scheme (this happened in 1986). So June Broughton and Frank Burgess, a local historian, went to investigate. In the words of Abby Matthews, the current Project Officer for the ‘Past on Glass’ project, ‘they were met with a scene of neglect and damage’.
The state of the collection in the basement of 18, High Street, Sutton, Surrey, in 1978. From the project blog.
Everything remained much as it had been left, on open shelves in original envelopes, except that some of the shelves had collapsed onto others, and some of the plates had been piled up on top of each other anyway, so they were also bearing their own weight. The inevitable result is shown by the fragments of broken glass visible on the floor.
The plates were moved to Cheam Library as a matter of urgency. Eventually they were transferred to the main civic offices in Sutton and given to the borough by the Knights-Whittome family. However, many of the plates had been broken and, worse still, had suffered water damage in the cellar so that they were stuck in their brown envelopes. On a large number of plates the emulsion was delaminating, or peeling and flaking off the glass, and with it the image itself.
The collection remained in this position for thirty more years. Then in 2014, after lengthy audits and consultation with photographic conservators, a successful application was made to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the preservation of the collection. Nearly £100,000 was awarded so that every plate could be cleaned, rehoused and catalogued, and undergo conservation if necessary. The funds also provided for their comprehensive digitisation, not least so that they could be made public over the Internet. The project was called ‘The Past on Glass’.
The Project Officer, Abby Matthews, and Kath Shawcross, the Borough Archivist, oversee a number of local volunteers who clean, catalogue, rehouse and scan as many plates as they can, sending some for conservation. Some volunteers carry out research on family history websites to try to shed some light on the people in the portraits. Then they are uploaded to the project’s Flickr page, where there are already about 4,000 images.
The collection might have lain for a hundred years awaiting its moment, but in some respects the timing of this new project is perfect. Only in recent years has the technology become readily available for a proper digitisation programme. The same goes for the way in which the Internet can make the collection far more accessible virtually than it ever could have been physically.
As they have done so they have had to contend with all sorts of difficulties. For example, the writing on these envelopes, all scrawled in ink and bled into the poor paper, are still the only source of information for most of the plates: all the ledgers and account books have disappeared. And the information that survives is often incomplete: many surnames are illegible or undated.
From an article on the project blog. These envelopes are for photos of quarter-plate size (about A6), the most common for single portraits.
The photograph inside might be stuck, or the emulsion flaking, so it has to be done gingerly! Then they have had to catalogue the plates in a way that tries to straighten out Knights-Whittome’s idiosyncratic system of numbering. But all of this is outweighed by the experience of liberating a photograph that has not seen the light of day for a century, and coming face to face with the people and the characters of that vanished age:
For example, Mrs. W. Smith, photographed on the 15th November, 1912. Abby Matthews (the Project Officer) has noted that the largest category of photographs are single portraits of women, like this. One of the reasons she suggests for this is the First World War, which looms large over this collection in many ways. It would make sense for soldiers who went off to fight to take photographs of their sweethearts with them.
The archives assistant at Sutton found that he had enlisted in the 3rd East Lancashire Field Ambulance Corps two years earlier at the age of sixteen, when he was three years underage. He survived the war. Below is Private Harold Dickson Mims, born in North London in 1896; son of Ernest and Sarah Jane Mims; enlisted as a private in the 5th (City of London) Battalion (London Rifle Brigade); embarked for France in January 1915; promoted to Lieutenant in early 1917; killed in action aged 22 on the 27th September, 1918.
There are group portraits as well. Here is a couple called Bevington, frustratingly with no year given. I had a go at researching this couple but could not find out anything concrete about them. But the advantage of their being on the Internet is that the families themselves are more likely to find them and supply the necessary information.
…and a few months later the jovial Mr. Fiddyment sat for his portrait. Abby Matthews has pointed out that he must be a working man because of the grime in his hands and his worn jacket: unusual, because working men would not normally have been able to afford to have a photograph taken like this.
Knights-Whittome did occasionally venture outside the studio, for instance to take these pictures of classes at the convent school at Carshalton.
And this is Mr. Andrews who, astonishingly enough, was not satisfied with his portrait, and wrote to Knights-Whittome to tell him so. It is not yet clear whether this is the offending or the corrected version:
E. Molesey Aug 7th 1907 Dear Sir, I am not at all pleased with the photos. Everyone who has seen them says they are very poor & I must ask you to see what you can do towards bettering them. The one X is all on one side as though the face was badly swollen & twisted. The other is the better of the two & I think can be made to look more natural by turning the nose down & not up as it now is. I am not aware that my nose turns up nor is anyone else who knows me – the head & figure stoops rather too much forward & this can easily be altered when cutting the photo for mount & I think they would look infinitely better if darker about the top of the head – Please adjust these items! Let me have the ½ dozen as soon as you can. Yours truly, R.M. Andrews
This goes to show that photographers were in the habit of retouching their work even in those times, mainly by pencil on the reverse of the glass plate. There is a post here on the project blog about Mr Andrews and his exacting standards! I count myself very fortunate to have been able to volunteer for this project — only for a short time (and I miss going) but enough to cement my decision to pursue a career as an archivist. There are plenty of others who have also found it tremendously rewarding. Recent good news has been that the project has received a second much-needed grant from Lottery Fund. This means hopefully that the work can be brought to completion.
Of course, this post is a feeble attempt to do justice to this astonishing collection, which throws open not a different era but a vanished civilisation. There are weddings, grown men in fancy dress, clergymen, schoolchildren and students, and no end of babies and dogs. There are enigmatic people, too, whose gaze meets ours unsettlingly across the gulf of the twentieth century. There they are again, full of quirky nooks and eccentric crannies, spirited, upright and full of life, just as we are now.
I believe that these images have been reproduced in accordance with to the terms of the Creative Commons Licence but if not will make any necessary changes. Except for the placing of images in pairs, indications of reference numbers and sitters’ names, and in one case an enhancement of contrast and colour, no alterations have made to the images. The references and links to the original uploads are given for all pictures..
Some thoughts as the Year of Mercy approaches its close…
My guilt towers higher than my head; it is a weight too heavy to bear.
The choir of Westminster Cathedral sings Psalm 37 (38).
Many of us in the West, most of the time, don’t know what mercy means because we don’t know what guilt means, and don’t know what guilt means because we don’t know what sin means. But mercy is what we are hungering for all the same.
I have read C. S. Lewis somewhere pointing out the difference between being forgiven and being excused. Our culture is very good at making excuses, particularly for the wrongdoings of grown adults, and then using syrupy pathos in novels and dramas or the sheer deluge of distraction to paper over any remaining cracks in the conscience. Forgiveness, however, it finds more difficult. Hence the hardening of our culture into extremes: certain misdeeds bring guilt crashing down irrevocably upon the wrongdoer, but anything short of this is unblotted innocence. And notice a gradual slide into condemning persons along with their actions.
But I have a feeling that guilt, even for wrongs excused by our culture that would never make the headlines, accumulates into a sludge that in the end makes itself felt in all but the hardest of hearts. Paradoxically, the abandonment of a Christian sense of penitence only strengthens this feeling, and in three ways that I can see. Firstly, I think that modern morality allows the distinction to be blurred between an ordinary sense of weakness — not guilt but the feeling we all have of lacking the strength to achieve all we wish — and the awareness of having done wrong: some people, knowing that something is their fault, but unable to tell what, might be tempted to conclude that everything is.
Secondly, these feelings are surely made all the more piercing by their foreignness to our culture. ‘Through my sin, there is no health in my limbs’? ‘My wounds are foul and festering, the result of my own folly’? The dictatorship of relativism is baffled by such sentiments, so it forbids them. For even if no other impulse is to be held back, guilt (and, incidentally, therefore also innocence) must be repressed.
Thirdly, since nobody mentions mercy, still less a merciful God, the way out is hidden. Hence, I suppose, an enormous, vague, lonely wave of hollow pain with no outlet, expressed in the bone-dry aching words of the thirty-seventh psalm. No wonder this is such an unhappy age.
Those of us who, to greater or lesser extents, know of this reality that rings with paradox — that justice co-exists with mercy — should also know that it is nothing to be smug or self-satisfied about. We are bound by the inverse (not the opposite) of the beatitude: those who are shown mercy are to be merciful. Thus mercy, like other things, is meant to cascade down the terraces of the Church and shimmer between heaven and earth.
This article was originally posted on the 16th October, 2016, but is regularly updated as new recordings emerge. Many thanks to several readers who have submitted new information. More is always welcomed!
Ruth Gipps (1921–1999) is a composer whose work, it is fair to say, is severely under-recorded, under-broadcast and not nearly well-known enough. I have written a bit about her remarkable character and her ardent and spirited music here and here. Since then I have been scouring the Internet for readily-available recordings of her music, regardless of sound quality. Beggars can't be choosers! The result is the initial attempt at a discography below, which includes commercial and non-commercial recordings. If any readers know of any more, of have any corrections, please leave a comment!
For anybody who hasn’t come across her music before, I would personally recommend the good humour (and good recording quality) of the Horn Concerto, the lyricism of the third symphony (the second and third movements are especially accessible) and the piano concerto. The second movement of her fourth symphony is a moonlit grove of wonders. In her fifth symphony's first movement, a particularly lovely melody is passed around the chocolatey winds. The energetic third movement of the same symphony gives a good impression of the spikiness and energy of her character: this, after all, was the person who once said, ‘I regard all so-called 12-tone music, so-called serial music, so-called electronic music and so-called avant-garde music as utter rubbish and indeed a deliberate conning of the public’…!
Première recording by Duncan Honeybourne first broadcast on BBC Radio 3's programme 'Composer of the Week', 8 March 2021: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sxzh> and released on disc in 2021 by Prima Facie records.
Op. 2: 'Kensington Gardens' Suite for Oboe and Piano (1938)
Rendition by Stephanie Carlson (oboe) and Stephen Sulich (piano) during a Lecture Recital at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, 16th September, 2017: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBvQYELiaqA&t=2060s>
Op. 3b: 'Sea-Shore' Suite for Oboe and Piano (1939)
Rendition by Stephanie Carlson (oboe) and Stephen Sulich (piano) during a Lecture Recital at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, 16th September, 2017: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBvQYELiaqA&t=1580s>
Opus 3d: 'Honey-Coloured Cow' for Bassoon and Piano (1938)
Performed during a concert given by the Association for the Promotion of English Composers, 9 June 2021. Performed by Lowri Richards (bassoon) and Sasha Valeri Millwood (piano). The recording can be heard here: <www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDB9uG7Cao0&t=1308> (21'45")
Op. 5: Sonata No.1 for Oboe and Piano in G minor (1939)
Performed by Catherine Pluygers (oboe) and Sasha Valeri Millwood (piano) during a concert organised by the Association for the Promotion of English Composers and broadcast on YouTube on 31st March, 2021 (<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guJ4NlgsicI&t=21s>), the music having been recorded at Craxton Studios (London) on the 22nd March.
I. Allegro moderato — Presto — Tempo I — Presto [0'21"]
One recording on the Chandos label (CHAN 20078): the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Rumon Gamba.
Op. 9: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (1940)
One recording released by Champs Hill Records (CHRCD160) in July 2020: Robert Plane (soloist) and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Martyn Brabbins.
Op. 10: Trio for Oboe, Clarinet and Piano (1940)
One performance by unnamed students at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Vigo in January 2020. Recording uploaded to YouTube by Raúl RodrÃguez González: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EV76o454kQ> Op. 12b: 'The Piper of Dreams' for oboe solo (1942)
1. Performed by Elizabeth Fleissner during a recital at the University of North Texas (Voertman Recital Hall): <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97kgY1pJowQ>
Op. 12c: 'Seaweed Song' for English Horn and Piano
Rendition by Stephanie Carlson (English horn) and Stephen Sulich (piano) during a Lecture Recital at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, 16th September, 2017: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBvQYELiaqA&t=4575s>
Op. 15: 'Jane Grey', Fantasy for Viola and String Orchestra (1940)
Performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Teresa Riveiro Böhm, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Afternoon Concert, 16th November 2020: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000pgb9>
Op. 16: Quintet for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and cello (1941)
One commercial recording on the Chandos label (Gipps: Orchestral Works, Volume 2, CHAN 20161, 2022): Juliana Koch (oboe) and the Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Rumon Gamba.
Op. 21: 'Flax and Charlock' (movt. IV, for cor anglais solo) (1941)
Played by Elizabeth Fleissner of the Imparius Quartet at a recital at the Greater Denton Arts Council (Texas, U.S.A.), 29 November 2018: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocm4eVJWkdw>
Op. 22: Symphony No. 1 in F minor (1942)
Recorded for broadcast by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Rumon Gamba in September 2023; broadcast as BBC Radio 3's Afternoon Concert on 22 February 2024 (<https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001w8hn>; from 1:00:23)
Op. 25: Death on the Pale Horse, tone poemfor orchestra (1943)
One commercial recording on the Chandos label (Gipps: Orchestral Works, Volume 2, CHAN 20161, 2022): the Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Rumon Gamba.
Op. 27a: Rhapsody for Violin and Piano (1943)
One recording (2022) by Patrick Wastnage (violin) and Patricia Dunn (piano): Guild GMCD7827.
Op. 27b: Scherzo: The Three Billy Goats Gruff for Oboe, Horn, and Bassoon, 1943
A rendition without spoken narration was given during a concert organised by the Association for the Promotion of English Composers on Wednesday, 9th June, 2021 at Craxton Studios, London. (Catherine Pluygers, oboe; Lowri Richards, bassoon; Henryk Sienkiewicz, horn): <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDB9uG7Cao0&t=1700>
Commercially recorded by Three Worlds Records for their 2022 disc 'Winds of Change': Gordon Hunt (oboe), Meyrick Alexander (bassoon), Ben Goldscheider (horn).
Op. 28: Chanticleer overture for orchestra (1944)
One recording on the Chandos label (Gipps: Orchestral Works, Volume 2, CHAN 20161, 2022): the Philharmonic Orchestra under Rumon Gamba.
Op. 30: Symphony No. 2 in one movement (1945)
Two commercial recordings. The first is by the Munich Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Douglas Bostock, a disc (Classico CLASSCD 274) released in 1999, not now available, but included on a compilation of British symphonies on Classico 23316. (Update 19th May 2020: reissued under the Musical Concepts label: MC3105)
The second (Chandos CHAN 20078) is with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Rumon Gamba, and was released in September 2018.
One recording on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FSm_DUbb_0) of the United States première performance of this symphony, given by the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra under Adam Stern on Saturday 31st March 2018:
Op. 33: Song for Orchestra (1948)
One recording on the Chandos label (CHAN 20078): the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Rumon Gamba.
Op. 34: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G minor (1948)
Three recordings: the first from a BBC radio broadcast on the 24th May, 1972, with the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra and the pianist Eileen Broster, conducted by the composer;
the second released in 2014 on Cameo Classics (CC9046CD), with the Malta Philharmonic conducted by Michael Laus, and the pianist Angela Brownridge (more information, for example, here: http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Cameo%2BClassics/CC9046CD):
A version for two pianos was uploaded to YouTube in May 2022: Alicja Kojder plays the solo part; an unknown pianist plays the piano reduction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDAafQJpc0k
Op. 39: Cringlemire Garden, impression for string orchestra (1952)
Recorded by Sudwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim under Douglas Bostock, CPO 555457-2
Op. 42: Sonata for Violin and Piano (1954)
One recording (2022) by Patrick Wastnage (violin) and Patricia Dunn (piano): Guild GMCD7827
One recording (2022) by Patrick Wastnage (violin) and Patricia Dunn (piano): Guild GMCD7827
Op. 51: Prelude for Bass Clarinet Solo (1958)
Rendition by Mark O'Brien of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (of which Gipps was once a member), uploaded on the day of, and in celebration of, Gipps' centenary on the 20th February, 2021: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctCb4_uebWg>.
A première recording by the BBC Singers and Stephen Farr (piano), conducted by Sofi Jeannin, was first broadcast on BBC Radio 3's programme 'Composer of the Week', 10 March 2021: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sz5x>.
Laura Reyes conducts the CCM (Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music) Chamber Winds in a video uploaded to YouTube on the 11th February 2020: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueXToMJy8Ek>.
A recording by musicians of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Jonathan Bloxham was first broadcast on BBC Radio 3's programme 'Composer of the Week', 10 March 2021: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sz5x>.
Commercially recorded by members of the London Chamber Orchestra for their 2022 disc 'Winds of Change' (Three Worlds Records)
Recording on 'Winds of Change' (Three Worlds Records, 2022), duettists Ben Goldscheider and Annemarie Federle.
Op. 55: Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis for mixed chorus and organ (1959)
One recording, likely to be the world première, sung by the City Chamber Choir of London, conducted by Stephen Jones. Hannah Parry is the organist. Recorded in St Lawrence Jewry, City of London, in May 2019. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojVNx7b0bMA>
A recording of both canticles sung by the choir of Gloucester Cathedral under Adrian Partington (2022?):
Performed by Henryk Sienkiewicz (horn) and Sasha Valeri Millwood (piano) during an online concert organised by the Association for the Promotion of English Composers and broadcast on YouTube on 31st March, 2021 (<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guJ4NlgsicI>), the music having been recorded at Craxton Studios (London) on the 22nd March:
Performed at the Western Horn Festival (Illinois, United States) by Jena Gardner (horn) and Joanne Chang (piano) and uploaded to YouTube on the 13th April, 2021: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRZzFZEEdl4>
Performed by Emily Britton (horn) and Yu-Han Kuan (piano) for a lecture recital given at the 2021 International Horn Symposium: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSiKt_oU_Es>
Commercially recorded by Ben Goldscheider (horn) and Huw Watkins (piano) for the 2022 disc 'Winds of Change' (Three Worlds Records, 2022).
Op. 57: Symphony No. 3 (1965)
Three recordings, one commercial. The first was made from a broadcast by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ruth Gipps herself, on the 29th October 1969. Available on YouTube at <www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZiLsTKu01Q>
Rumon Gamba also conducted the Philharmonic Orchestra in the first commercial recording, released in 2022 on the Chandos label (Gipps: Orchestral Works, Volume 2, CHAN 20161, 2022).
Op. 57a: Theme and Variations for Piano (1965)
A piano transcription of the third movement of the Third Symphony (Op.57). Available on Cameo Classics CC9046CD, played by Angela Brownridge; a sample can be heard here.
A second recording, by Duncan Honeybourne, was first broadcast on BBC Radio 3's programme 'Composer of the Week', 11 March 2021 <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sytk> and released in 2021 by Prima Facie records on the disc 'Opalescence'.
Op. 58: Concerto for Horn and Orchestra (1968)
A commercial recording (London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite; soloist David Pyatt) is available on Lyrita SRCD0316 (e.g. here).
I — Con Moto — Tranquillo — Cadenza [here or sample here]
The second is, according to the uploader, a recording of a radio broadcast on 29 July, 1976 by the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra under Vernon Handley, and with Val Kennedy as soloist: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPz4TmoEzlY>
Op. 60: 'Triton' for Horn and Piano (1970)
One rendition uploaded to YouTube on the 30th November 2019. Alicia Rafter (horn) and Dr. Hooi Yin Boey (piano): <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kONTNql8jgI>.
A second recording, from a concert given by the Association for the Promotion of English Composers on the 9 June 2021, can be heard here: <www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDB9uG7Cao0&t=1468> (24'25"). Performed by Henryk Sienkiewicz (horn) and Sasha Valeri Millwood (piano)
A third performance by Emily Britton (horn) and Kristin Jones (piano) was given for a lecture recital during the virtual International Horn Symposium 2021: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECU9sxAFGaE>
Commercially recorded by Ben Goldscheider (horn) and Huw Watkins (piano) for the 2022 disc 'Winds of Change' (Three Worlds Records, 2022).
Op. 61: Symphony No. 4 (1972)
Two recordings. The first of a broadcast on the 3rd May, 1983, by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Pritchard; the second is a commercial recording with Rumon Gamba, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales available on Chandos CHAN 20078. There is more information about the symphony's dedication to Sir Arthur Bliss at http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Feb05/Gipps_Bliss.htm.
I — Moderato — Allegro molto — Poco meno mosso [0'00"]
II — Adagio [10'35"]
III — Scherzo [17'27"]
IV — (Finale) Andante — Allegro molto [22'12"]
Op. 62: Gloria in excelsis for Unison Chorus and Organ (1977)
A première recording by the BBC Singers and Stephen Farr (organ), conducted by Sofi Jeannin, was first broadcast on BBC Radio 3's programme 'Composer of the Week', 10 March 2021: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sz5x>.
Op. 63: Sonata for Cello and Piano (1978)
A première recording by Joseph Spooner (cello) and Duncan Honeybourne (piano) was first broadcast on BBC Radio 3's programme 'Composer of the Week', 11 March 2021: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sytk>, and was released on disc in 2021 by Prima Facie records ('Opalescence').
Op. 64: Symphony No. 5 (1982)
One recording of a performance given in 1983 by the London Repertoire Orchestra, conducted by Ruth Gipps. This symphony has never been broadcast or recorded commercially. It was reviewed in the Catholic Herald on the 14th March 1986: the idea of a Missa Brevis for orchestra was considered 'intriguing', but the reviewer was otherwise rather unenthusiastic!
A première recording by musicians of the National Orchestra of Wales and conducted by Jonathan Bloxham was first broadcast on BBC Radio 3's programme 'Composer of the Week', 11 March 2021: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sytk>.
Recording on 'Winds of Change' (Three Worlds Records, 2022) with members of the London Chamber Orchestra.
Op. 66: Sonata No. 2 for Oboe and Piano (1985)
Rendition by Stephanie Carlson (oboe) and Stephen Sulich (piano) during a Lecture Recital at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, 16th September, 2017: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBvQYELiaqA&t=3360s>
Op. 67: 'The St. Francis Window' for Alto Flute and Piano (1986)
Rendition by Andra Bohnet (alto flute) and Doreen Lee (piano); recorded at the Laidlaw Performing Arts Center, University of South Alabama, United States, 1 September, 2020: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWoYGaTBlT0>
Op. 68: Scherzo and Adagio for Unaccompanied Cello (1987)
One recording by Joseph Spooner was released in 2021 by Prima Facie records on the disc 'Opalescence'.
A commercial recording by David Heyes (double bass) and Duncan Honeybourne (piano) was released in 2021 by Prima Facie records on the disc 'Opalescence'.
A second recording by Duncan Honeybourne was first broadcast on BBC Radio 3's programme 'Composer of the Week', 12 March 2021: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000szy4> and released in 2021 by Prima Facie records on the disc 'Opalescence'. Honeybourne also gave a performance of the work during a lunchtime lecture recital at St. James's Church, Piccadilly, on the 23 June 2021; the recorded Internet live stream can be watched here <www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDb1Wo6tvu0&t=1941> (32'31")
A performance was also given by Sasha Valeri Millwood during a concert organised by the Association for the Promotion of English Composers and broadcast on YouTube on 31st March, 2021 (19'26",<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guJ4NlgsicI&t=1166>), the music having been recorded at Craxton Studios (London) on the 22nd March.
Op. 73: Sinfonietta for 10 Winds and Percussion (1989) Performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Teresa Riveiro Bohm, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Afternoon Concert, 16th November 2020: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000pgb9>. The recording received a second broadcast BBC Radio 3's programme 'Composer of the Week', 12 March 2021: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000szy4>.
A commercial recording by members of the London Chamber Orchestra was released on disc in 2022 ('Winds of Change', Three Worlds Records, 2022).
Two other recordings: the Erie County Chamber Winds conducted by Rick Fleming:
Op. 74: Threnody for English horn and Piano (1990)
Inscription: 'I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills'. Rendition by Stephanie Carlson (oboe) and Stephen Sulich (piano) during a Lecture Recital at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, 16th September, 2017: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBvQYELiaqA&t=5060s>
Op. 75: The Pony Cart for Flute, Horn and Piano (1990)
Performed by Simon Desorgher (flute), Henryk Sienkiewicz (horn) and Sasha Valeri Millwood (piano) during a concert organised by the Association for the Promotion of English Composers and broadcast on YouTube on 31st March, 2021 (64'44",<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guJ4NlgsicI&t=3884>), the music having been recorded at Craxton Studios (London) on the 22nd March.
Recorded by Leanne Hampton (flute), Emily Britton (horn) and Kristin Jones (piano) for a lecture recital given at the virtual International Horn Symposium 2021: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01IGMm20TyI>
A commercial recording on 'Winds of Change' (Three Worlds Records, 2022) with members of the London Chamber Orchestra.
Op. 78: Pan and Apollo (1992)
A première recording by musicians of the National Orchestra of Wales was first broadcast on BBC Radio 3's programme 'Composer of the Week', 12 March 2021: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000szy4>.
A recording of a live performance at the Curtis Institute of Music, United States May 9th, 2023: Izaiah Cheeran (oboe), Ben Price (oboe), Oliver Talukder (English horn), Subin Lee (harp): <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLxAbRqpTO0>
Op. 79: Lady of the Lambs for soprano and wind quintet (1992)
Recorded by Alanna Keenan (soprano), Leanne Hampton (flute), Elizabeth Robertson (oboe), Emily Cook (clarinet), Emily Britton (horn) and Eve Parsons (bassoon) for a lecture recital given at the virtual International Horn Symposium 2021: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHqugoZnXOk>
A commercial recording released on disc by Three Worlds Records ('Winds of Change', 2022) with Mary Bevan (soprano) and members of the London Chamber Orchestra. Also performed on YouTube here: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MULTmK92iKI>
Op. 80: Sonata for Alto Trombone (or Horn) and Piano (1995)
A commercial recording for horn (played by Ben Goldscheider, and Huw Watkins playing the piano) was released in 2022 by Three Worlds Records on their disc 'Winds of Change'.
Op. 81: Sonata for Double Bass and Piano (1986)
One recording by David Heyes (double bass) and Duncan Honeybourne (piano). 'Opalescence', Prima Facie (2021).
WoO 2 (Werk ohne Opuszahl; Work Without Opus Number): Reverie for Bassoon and Piano
