Examination of the
Trio
Sources
The
available sources for the Trio are:
Source
(a): Hurlstone's autograph score,
movements 1, 2, 4 -
William Waterhouse Private
Library, Gloucestershire.
Source
(b): Hurlstone's autograph score
Scherzo movement - RCM, London
ms 4537.
Source
(c): Professional copy of the
piano score movements 1, 2, 4, evidently
made from (a) - RCM, London.
Source
(d): Copyist's clarinet and
bassoon parts movements 1, 2, 4
- Waterhouse
Library, Gloucestershire.
Source
(e): Copyist's clarinet and
bassoon parts movements 1, 2, 4
- RCM, London.
Source
(f): Emerson's first edition
of the Trio in G Minor, 1983
Source
(g): Emerson's second edition
of the Trio in G Minor, 1998
edited by Diana Bickley.
Source
(a)
is written on 12-stave paper 300mm x
242mm. Each movement is bound into its
own fascicle and the three fascicles
bound within boards covered with dark
green cloth. The front board is inscribed
with the title and composer's name,
but not in the composer's hand. The
inside of the front board gives details
of the players from a 1939 performance
organised by John Parr. The inside back
board has the programme bill for that
performance. The pages of each movement
are numbered from 1. In addition, pages
are also numbered from the beginning
to the end of the entire trio, but not
in the composer's hand. There are also
pencilled page numbers and evidence
of numbering alterations. The first
page of each movement bears Katharine
Hurlstone's name and address, but there
is neither signing nor dating by the
composer. Arabic numerals 4, 2 and 1
(though the latter is possibly a comma)
appear in blue-black ink, in a style
consistent with the composer's hand,
at the head of page 1 of each movement
(4 first, 1 last). Large blue pencil
numerals also appear on the first pages
of each of the movements, numbered 1,
2 and 3. Bar numbers are written at
the right-hand end of each stave and
ringed rehearsal letters appear in red
ink. They progress throughout the entire
trio. The last movement also has pencilled
rehearsal letters starting at A. The
music is written in a neat hand using
blue-black ink. There are very few alterations.
Pencilled dynamics and articulations
appear throughout the work; these seem
to be in a hand consistent with that
of the composer's. Occasionally one
comes across a reworking where the penned
music is crossed out using pencil and
a revised section appears following
the deletion. The outmoded abbreviation
cres
for crescendo is
used consistently in both pen and pencil
throughout the work. The composer's
characteristic p
and f
are markings consistent whether written
in pen or pencil; they also agree with
those used in other Hurlstone autographs.
It is apparent that the manuscript paper
has been reused, as pencilled sketches
appear upside-down at the back of each
fascicle. In general the paper is clean
and in good condition however the first
page of the last movement shows considerable
darkening though exposure to dust, dirt
and handling.
Source
(b) is
written on 12-stave paper 300x242mm.
The handwriting style is consistent
with Source (a). Most is in blue-black
ink with emendations made in pencil.
The use of cres is consistent
throughout. The autograph is neither
signed nor dated but is unmistakably
in Hurlstone's hand. The head of page
1 bears an Arabic numeral 3 in blue-black
ink; underneath and to the left, the
word Trio. As with Source (a)
there are signs of the paper having
been previously used for a pencil sketch.
Source
(c) is
written in a professional musical hand.
It is evidently a direct copy of Source
(a). However there are numerous mistakes
in this copy. In particular: grace notes
and octava makings are incorrect;
there are wrong and omitted notes; some
dynamics are omitted and some are misconstrued.
The copyist also seemed uncertain whether
to accept the pencilled emendations
in the autograph.
Source
(d) comprises the bassoon and clarinet
parts in the same hand as Source (c).
They are consistent with Source (c).
Ringed rehearsal letters in red ink
have been added to the bassoon as have
bar numbers and a programme bill from
the Parr performance (4th
March 1939), which is pasted into the
end cover. The front cover of the bassoon
part bears the title of the work and
the composer's name in Parr's handwriting
together with Katharine Hurlstone's
name and address in her own hand. The
clarinet part is more or less clean
except for the occasional ringing of
a rehearsal letter. The front cover
bears only the hand of Katharine Hurlstone.
Source
(e)
comprises a duplicate set of parts made
by the author of Source (c). Here the
clarinet part contains the programme
bill from the Parr concert and also
the ringed rehearsal letters in red
ink. The bassoon part is similarly marked
but in addition there are numerous emendations
to articulation and accentuation in
blue-black ink.
Source
(f) is
a faithful imprint of Source (c). No
editorial alterations have been applied.
Source
(g)
was commissioned by the publisher
to deal
with the problems inherent in the Source
(f) and therefore Source (c) on which
it was based. The musicologist Diana
Bickley was appointed to undertake this
task. At that time the location of the
autograph score was unknown to both
the editor and publisher. So, with access
only to Source (c), Bickely addressed
matters of inconsistency by making parts
and score agree. She was not to know
that many of the expression marks present
in the bassoon part (of Sources (f)
and (c)) were inauthentic.
Authorship
It
is clear that both Sources (a) and (b)
are genuine Hurlstone. The consistency
between the pencil and pen markings
and between the two sources suggests
strongly that the pencil is also Hurlstone's.
We are able to perceive his compositional
process: first a pencil sketch (perhaps)
from the back of the manuscript paper.
Then, a near fair copy in ink where
all matters of harmony, melody and tempi
are settled. Occasionally there is a
change of mind, whereupon Hurlstone
deletes the penned section, crossing
it out in pencil, and proceeds with
the revision in pen. The next stage
is to add articulation, dynamics and
accentuation in pencil. Here Hurlstone
affords himself some short cuts: where
it is obvious that a similar emendation
is to be applied to another part he
marks only the first occurrence. The
final stage is to make a fair copy of
score and parts. On completion he signs
and dates the score after or below the
last bar.
Sources
(c), (d) and (e) are all made by the
same copyist. The emendations in coloured
ink, blue pencil, rehearsal letters
and bar numbers are unmistakably John
Parr's. He possessed a large library
of chamber music from which it is possible
to see the same treatment being applied
to works whether in printed or manuscript
form. Thus, the emendations in coloured
ink and coloured pencil in Source (a)
are also due to Parr.
It
is possible to say with confidence that
the extraneous and exaggerated expression
marks that appeared in the bassoon part
to Emersonʼs first edition of the Trio
can
be safely ignored. Had it not been for
the faulty copying on the score (Source
(c)), the Emerson edition might have
been rectifiable directly from the Emerson
piano score. However, such are the discrepancies
between Sources (a) and (c) that a note
by note comparison between Emerson and
Source (a) has been necessary to produce
a corrected set of parts.
Date of Composition
Graphological
analysis suggests the Trio cannot
have been composed later than 1897.
Hurlstone produces a fair copy with
parts for most of his compositions,
and destroys earlier workings. Those
in fair-copy form are dated and signed
- usually after or below the final
bar. From this it has been possible
to correlate handwriting style, clef-style,
the use of cursive and Roman letters
(A & H in particular), and the size
and format of manuscript paper with
composition dates. A consistent pattern
emerges among his chamber compositions:
-
to
June 1898: 13 compositions: 12-stave
paper 300mm x 242mm
-
June
1898: String Quartet in E Minor:
20-stave paper 322mm x 242mm
-
from
July 1899: 14 compositions: 18-stave
paper 370mm x 272mm
-
1906:
2 compositions: 16-stave paper 368mm
x 272mm
-
post
1896: Roman H only
-
post
1897: Roman A only
Works
prior to June 1898 invariably have decorative
scroll-work adorning their title pages.
Apart from one work in 1900, Hurlstone
dispenses with this frivolity after
1898. Of the 10 undated chamber works,
none contradicts this pattern.
Both
autograph Sources (a) and (b) exhibit
the following graphological characteristics:
-
Use
of Cursive upper-case letters in
Allegro, Bassoon,
Clarinet and Piano
-
Use
of 12-stave manuscript paper 300mm
x 242mm
-
No decorative
title page, though this might be
a facet of the manuscript not being
in fair-copy form
-
Notation
in a typically tidy hand, however
the clefs show signs of being written
at speed and are are consistent
with those in the Variations
for Orchestra on an Original Theme
(1896)
These considerations
lead to the conclusion that the Trio
in G Minor is likely to have been
composed in 1896/97.
The theme
used in the Variations for Orchestra
on an Original Theme (1896) was
precisely that used in the earlier
Variations in G Minor for Clarinet,
Bassoon and Piano
(1894). Some of the variational thematic
material is also shared. It appears
that the idea of writing a set of variations,
which started as a modest chamber work,
eventually manifested itself as a full
orchestral work. Though a student work,
these orchestral variations exhibit
a considerable advancement in maturity
of style over the variations for trio.
Hurlstone may well have
felt motivated to replace the now superseded
trio with a more mature work based on
new ideas.
During 1896
and 97 Hurlstone expanded his scope
to include orchestral compositions.
In this period he produced at least
three substantial works -
Variations for Orchestra on an Original
Theme, Variations for Orchestra on a
Hungarian Theme, Piano Concerto in D
Major
- which may may have left him with
little time to complete the finishing
touches to a work for which there was
no imminent performance. Furthermore,
his Quintet in G Minor for
Piano and Wind
received its first performance at an
RCM Concert on the 30th June
1897. This suggests that he must have
been busy with the Quintet
at the same time as he was drafting
the Trio in G Minor. It
seems likely that he had set aside completion
of the trio because of
more pressing commitments.
Association of the
Scherzo
There
are two facts that strongly suggest
the Scherzo
is a movement of the Trio
in G Minor:
-
The
presence of the Arabic numerals
at the head of each movement. In
Source (a): 4, 2 and 1. In Source
(b): 3.
-
The
back of the second movement of Source
(a) contains a pencil sketch of
the opening of the Scherzo. Hurlstone
would have been working on both
Sources (a) and (b) contemporaneously.
Furthermore, the Arabic numerals suggest
that the conceived order of the movements
was with the outer two interchanged.
Thus:
-
Allegro
moderato (keys g - G - g)
-
Andante
(keys Eb - Ab - Eb)
-
Scherzo:
Allegro con moto - Piu Lento -
Allegro con moto (keys c - C -
c)
-
Andante
maestoso - Allegro vivace (keys
g - G)
In
this revised format his use of keys
and tempi makes a great deal of sense:
to start in the minor and end in the
major; and conclude the last movement
with the fastest and most triumphal
section of the entire Trio is
highly satisfactory.
However, with the outer movements interchanged
(4, 2, (3) then 1) the piece now has
an unconvincing ending on grounds of
tempo and key change; There is little
musical sense for the exchange of outer
movements, unless the Scherzo
had
indeed become misplaced. Under that
circumstance one might just argue that
a better contrast in tempi is achieved.
Was
the omission of the Scherzo
accidental or deliberate (given that
there are no musical grounds for doing
so)?
There are two possible reasons for deliberate
removal:
-
A performance
was planned but with insufficient
time to allow for the complete work
to be played;
-
A performance
was planned where the skill of the
pianist was not on a par with Hurlstone's
(the Scherzo is arguably
the hardest movement of the four
from the pianist's perspective).
Whilst
these are possible, neither argues for
permanent exclusion of the Scherzo;
and
with no evidence of a performancei
ever occurring during Hurlstone's lifetime
one must conclude that the separation
was accidental.
On Hurlstone's death most of his musical
effects were retained by his sister
Katharine with a few apparently going
to his middle sister Lucy. Though we
have no direct evidence for this, those
scores in Katharine's possession all
bear her name and address; while the
few manuscripts that were bequeathed
to the RCM by Lucy's daughter, Catherine
Hurlstone Waddicor, were either unmarked
or annotated with only the Waddicor
name. Movements 1, 2, and 4 are annotated
with Katharine's
name and address while the separated
3rd movement possesses no
such additions. Given the dirty appearance
of the first page of the last movement
of Source (a) (the original first movement)
one might surmise that the Trio had
been stored for many years in its complete
and original ordering.
Before accepting this conclusion one
must explain the binding of Source (a)
in cloth-covered boards. Nearly all
of Hurlstone's manuscripts are in small
fascicles and unbound. The exceptions
are:
-
Variations
in G Minor for Clarinet, Bassoon
and Piano
-
Trio
in G Minor for Clarinet, Bassoon
and Piano
-
Scherzo
for Flute, Oboe, Horn and Piano
Each
of these is bound in the same cloth
boards, each heavily annotated by John
Parr, with title page and programme
bill additions. The covers are inscibed
in Parr's hand. That Katharine adds
her name and address to the first page
of each of the movements of the Trio
in G Minor suggests each of the
constituent fascicles came into her
hands as separate entities. A reasonable
explanation must be that Parr, who had
borrowed the Trio from Katharine
Hurlstone for some considerable time,
had had it bound.
One
can be reasonably sure that instrumental
parts were never made by Hurlstone because
the autograph sources, (a) and (b),
are at a compositional stage prior to
production of fair copies. Thus, when
Katharine had requests for the Trio
from both John Parr and The Pauline
Juler Trioii,
she commissioned a copy of the score
and two sets of parts to make two performable
sets of material.
i
K. Hurlstone p. 58 See endnote
also 6.
ii
K. Hurlstone p. 58. The Pauline
Juler Trio flourished in the 1930s.