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Compositions
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| Theatrical Works - Opera | Click here for SMC List of Operatic and Ballet works
The Scottish Music Centre has also added a further group of works specifically aimed at Amateur and young people which you will find under the heading of Theatrical Works - Ballet.
OperaChisholm is best known today in the world of opera as the man who organized the first complete performance in Britain of Berlioz’ opera ‘The Trojans' in 1934. Unbelievable this, when you consider he wrote twelve operas of his own, half of which were performed in his lifetime to considerable acclaim.
The most successful of these is his one act opera, Dark Sonnet, based on the play ’Before Breakfast” by Eugene O’Neill which had over 40 performances, including a television and radio broadcast in London. Opinions expressed by the critics were nearly all extreme which Chisholm took as a good sign. It was described as the "most sordid, repellent, seamy drama ever set to music and called ‘opera’". On the other hand it was described as "a beautiful piece of work, a brilliant achievement, even a masterpiece".
After an absence of nearly 50 years, it was staged again in 2004 in Cape Town along with ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’ and public reaction to it was as mixed as before. Surprisingly, it was perceived by some as a black comedy; perhaps with this approach to production, it may have a second life. Promotional DVD of both operas made in 2004 may be ordered from the Chisholm Trust.
The Feast of Samhain: Libretto by the composer.:1941 A Celtic romantic-comic opera in 3 acts after James Stephen.
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The Inland Woman:1951 Opera in 3 acts after Mary Lavin’s ‘ The Green Death and the Black Death’; a story of death at sea in a fishing village. Libretto by the composer. First performed at the Little Theatre, Cape Town in 1953.
Videotape in UCT archival collection
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Murder in Three Keys (trilogy):1954 The three operas which make up the trilogy - Dark Sonnet, Black Roses and Simoon were all performed in New York 6 July 1954, where it enjoyed a six-week season. All 3 works were produced using 2 pianos instead of the orchestral score.
Dark Sonnet: dramatic 1 act opera about a nagging wife and faithless husband based on ‘Before Breakfast’ by Eugene O’Neill. Libretto by the composer. First performed Cape Town 1952. BBC London television production 1952.
Full Score (FS), Vocal Score (VS) and parts.
Listen to Music clip Extract from Dark Sonnet
Black Roses: 1 act opera, uniquely has two libretti. When permission to use a libretto based on T.S. Eliot’s ‘Sweeney Agonistes” was refused, Chisholm wrote a new libretto for the music he had already composed. The action, set in a lively party atmosphere, is about a returning GI and his dark secret. FS, VS and some parts.
Simoon 1 act opera based on a text by Auguste Strindberg; set in Algeria,the simoon,a violent hot desert wind’ is an aid to murder by suggestion in this psychological thriller. FS & VS. A A new typeset VS is now available.
The Midnight Court: Written some time between 1954 & 1961, 1 act ballad after “A Rhythmical Bacchanalia” by Bryon Merryman (1780).
FS is incomplete; orchestrated for instrumental trio & VS
The Canterbury Tales: 1961-2 Opera in 3 Acts after Geoffrey Chaucer. Words in Middle English.
Act 1 The Wyf of Bath’s Tale A knight in the court of King Arthur, goes on a journey to find the answer to the riddle ’what do women love most” FS & VS
Act 2 The Pardoner’s Tale of 3 rogues and their fight to the death over a pot of gold. FS, VS & parts. Published VS by Studio Holland. The ECT has spare copies.
Listen to Music clip Extract from the Pardoner's Tale
Act 3 The Nun’s Priest’s Tale of the contest between Chaunticleer, the rooster, and the fox. FS & VS
The Caucasian Chalk Circle:1963 Opera in 3 acts Libretto by the composer after the play by Bertold Brecht. In the aftermath of war, a servant girl battles for her son’s life. FS (incomplete) VS
The Importance of Being Earnest:1963 Comic opera in 3 acts. Libretto by Oscar Wilde with additions by the composer. FS & VS
The Life and Loves of Robert Burns:1963 Opera based on poems of Robert, and his correspondence with brother Gilbert and other contemporaries.
VS and score for string quartet.
Unnatural Death, based on “The Spell by Mary Kelly, Casse Noisette and The Virtuous Isadora are three other operas in various stages of completion; these await cataloguing and further research |
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| Theatrical Works - Ballet | Ballets of Erik Chisholm
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Music: Erik Chisholm
Choreography: Marjory Middleton
Written for the Scottish Ballet Society, this ballet was given 15 performances by it in the Lyric Theatre in December 1937. The Ballet lasts about 30 minutes, is scored for a small orchestra and makes an excellent Christmas entertainment, particularly as was the case when coupled with Humperdink’s opera “Hansel and Gretel”. Miss Middleton’s adaptation of Browning’s famous poem is both witty and choreographically effective.
The Forsaken Mermaid
Music: Erik Chisholm (1936)
Choreography: Margaret Morris
Design: Andrew Taylor-Elder
First Performance 6th December 1940, Lyric Theatre, Glasgow
It is the first full length Scottish Ballet to be written and has been successfully performed by the Scottish Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Orchestra in Suite form. The fifth movement- based on a Skye air-“Alastain M’ansachd”- is a gem, and the work contains a variety of moods and rhythms clothed in brilliant orchestral colours, which should make for popularity. The last part is wildly dramatic and brings a thrilling conclusion to a fine work.
Listen here to the Wooing from the recently released two piano version.
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The Earth Shapers
Music: Erik Chisholm
Choreography: Margaret Morris
Costumes & Décor: William Crosbie
First performance 28th November 1941, Lyric Theatre, Glasgow
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Forthcoming Production
In April 2013 Jonathan Burnett, Director of Edinburgh Ballet Circle, will mount the entire ballet in its first production in over 70 years. Rehearsals begin in June 2012.
The Hoodie Craw
Music: Erik Chisholm
Choreography: Margaret Morris
Décor & costumes: Robert Frame
Scottish Tour November December, 1948
Other ballets
The Piobaireachd; Ballet in Four scenes
A Woodland Tale; ballet Riddell Hunter arr, for 2 pianos, voices and small orchestra.
Reminiscences of the Celtic Ballet
By William Maclellan from Third Eye Centre, published Glasgow 1985
I became a habitué of the newly formed Celtic Ballet Club, and performed in the first two ballets, The Forsaken Mermaid and The Earth Shapers. I was given minor roles-the Mermaid’s Sea King father or a fisherman-which required the minimum of technique.
The Celtic ballet performed The Forsaken Mermaid ballet (with music by Erik Chisholm) at the old Lyric Theatre in December 1940. Erik Chisholm’s interest and research into Celtic music had drawn him to Margaret Morris and the Forsaken Mermaid was probably her best ballet. The design and décor by Andrew Taylor-Elder were quite ravishing, capturing the clear colours of the Western Isles in the backcloths and costumes. At that time Erik Chisholm still lived in Glasgow, and he and Wight Henderson played the music (also written for orchestra) on two pianos and soon everyone was singing the lovely Gaelic air which Chisholm used in the wooing scene between Allan and the Mermaid, who had appeared from the sea into the magic island of Skye.
The Forsaken Mermaid, Hoodie Craw CD 2 piano arrangement with pianists Murray McLachlan and Graham Scott was released in August by ECT Records. It can now be purchased online from the Trust, see Recordings.
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| Arrangements | Chisholm made several arrangements for piano of works by other composers including Handel and Mozart. Of interest to followers of the music of Charles Alkan are the following -
Alkan’s Concerto for Piano arranged for solo pft and string orchestra and
Alkan’s Symphony Op. 39 no 4-7, arranged for string orchestra; first performed in 1937 at the Atheneum Theatre, Glasgow. A newly typeset score will soon be available.
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| Overview of Chisholm's Music | I believe that Chisholm at his best is an outstanding composer. Instrumental works such as the two piano concertos, the 'Pictures from Dante', the sonata 'An Rioban Dearg' and 'Night Song of the Bards' are full of excitement and beauty, quite apart from the fact that each breaks new ground technically, stylistically or formally. Among the stage works, 'Simoon', 'Dark Sonnet' and the three Chaucer operas cover an amazing range of dramatic style with richly inventive music, well written for voices and with vividly coloured orchestration. In the neglected area of children’s music, 'Adventures of Babar' should be a winner at children’s concerts, and the 'Scottish Airs for Children' are miniature masterpieces of keyboard instruction married to originality and beauty of treatment of traditional music.
| His style was varied, eclectic, and challenging. The modernist style was declaredly eclectic. The term is often used as a kind of accusation – but it is an accusation based upon an aesthetic standpoint which has no sure validity, least of all in connection with the modernist movement of which Chisholm was undoubtedly a part and (in terms of Scottish music) the leading light.
That similar accusations could be thrown at James Joyce, Hugh MacDiarmid, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Poulenc and a host of others, is undeniable.
Was Chisholm, then, too eclectic for his own good? I do not believe so. Given the depth and breadth of his experience, it is proper to think of him as a composer of his time. He was not outside a movement and learning from it; he was in it and creating it along with some of the greatest of his contemporaries – for he did not only sit beside them: they too sat beside him.
John Purser
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