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The George Lloyd Society
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Newsletter - February 2024
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Thank you for subscribing to the George Lloyd Society Newsletter. This has until now been an occasional and intermittent Newsletter, sent only when we have any news. We expect it to be approximately monthly during 2024, to keep subscribers informed of the release of the new George Lloyd Signature Edition from Lyrita. I hope you will find it interesting, but you can of course unsubscribe at any time,
In this issue:
1. Lyrita News - Perusal scores and CD box sets.
2. Echoes of Romanticism - a new video playlist with 100 images
3. Echoes of Romanticism - article and index of images
4. Invocation to the Virgin Mary and Psalm 130 - video scores
5. Downloads from the archive: audio, perusal, and biographical
6. A curiosity: Rob Matthew Walker book.
7. A disclaimer ... artificial unintelligence
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1. Lyrita News
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The George Lloyd Signature Edition.
Lyrita have announced the dates for release of the first CD box set
(1st March 2024) and the first batch of perusal scores (5th April 2024) The second CD box set will follow on 10th April 2024.
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CD Box Set: Symphonies No 1 - 6
Released on 1st March 2024
now available for pre-order from Amazon.
Price CD £19.98. MP3 £7.49
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A4 Study Scores released on 5th April
Symphonies No.1 to No. 12, with orchestral pieces Charade, Overture 'John Socman', The Serf, Suite No 1 and The Serf, Suite No 2.
Conductor's scores and orchestral parts are now available for hire from Lyrita
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CD Box Set: Symphonies No 7 - 10
Released on 10th April 2024
now available for pre-order from Amazon
Price CD £19.98. MP3 £7.49
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Lyrita MP3 Streaming and download
The George Lloyd Society is very pleased to be collaborating with Lyrita and their international reach through streaming services such as Spotify and Amazon Music.
Lyrita have now released several free tracks as MP3 'singles' as an introduction to the channel.
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2. New video playlist. |
Echoes of Romanticism: A Bohemian childhood in St Ives
A new video playlist with 100 fully catalogued images and a biographical article explaining George Lloyd's highly unconventional childhood.
He was born in 1913 into the bohemian circles of the international artists’ colony in St Ives, Cornwall. George’s grandmother, the American painter Frances Lloyd (Fanny Powell) had settled there in 1895 with her infant son Will, after she had been widowed while living in Italy. Will grew up to be a cultured poet and afficionado of Italian opera. In 1907 he married Constance, a half-Irish musician, museum curator and folklore specialist. Their elder son George was often unwell, so he did not go to school until he was 12. This allowed him time to read, study music and steep himself in the local Celtic culture, which contributed to his creatively gifted personality. At the age of 14, George demanded a full-time musical education, embarking on the path towards the critically acclaimed performances of his Cornish opera Iernin which would launch him as a composing prodigy in 1934, aged 21.
This new 35-minute playlist ‘Echoes of Romanticism’ uses George’s music as a soundtrack to 100 images relating to this early period of his life. They include paintings by his grandmother Frances, as well as works by artists from the St Ives and Newlyn Schools. The sequence also presents images from the extraordinary archaeological sites in West Penwith in Cornwall, encompassing artefacts dating from the Neolithic period to the Saxon invasion of Cornwall in the year 950. This mix of colourful art and ancient culture fed into the rich, twilight world of late-Romanticism which dominated Lloyd’s unusual upbringing. After 1945, Lloyd would receive harsh criticism from modernist and academic circles, because he continued to employ lyrical melodies, tonal harmony and traditional forms. His repudiation of modernist experimentation goes some way to explain why his music retains such enduring popularity. This playlist illustrates the sources of George Lloyd’s stubborn devotion to his romantic ideals, revealing too the mystical concerns with the supernatural, which sustained his musical imagination throughout his life.
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3. Echoes of Romanticism - Index and article |
The images in the playlist are (mostly) paintings from the period, intended as an accompaniment to the music, with minimal explanation. However, many of the images have a direct and personal connection with George Lloyd's family and childhood, so further details are available in a separate index, together with an article which provides a detailed account of the influence of the Celtic Revival, Romanticism, the unique local archaeology and the bohemian life of St Ives from 1895 to 1935.
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4. Video Scores |
We have published video scores of two short pieces for a capella chorus, with audio.
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Invocation to the Virgin Mary
from
A Litany by John Donne
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Psalm 130
(De Profundis)
Commissioned by Mr John D Owens
for the Tippett Choir
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5. Downloads from the archive |
As part of our biographical research, we have made available several downloads (gratis) which relate to the cultural influences on the young composer.
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 Constance,
George's mother
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Download PDF
from the archive
Additional background and photographs of George Lloyd’s immediate family in St Ives.
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Download Audio (MP3)
from the archive
George Lloyd speaking
about his childhood in Cornwall
Interview with Chris De Souza
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 St Ives Arts Club
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 The Muse by Gabriel Cool 1854 - 1908
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Download PDF
From the archive
A Medium with a Message
In memory of musicologist Ian MacDonald, whose byline was a guarantee of a thoughtful, usually provocative piece. His interests ranged from Laura Nyro and Neil Young through Miles Davis and Steely Dan to Terry Riley and John Tavener. He was an outstanding writer on the music of the Beatles, and a scrupulous defender of Shostakovich. Here he makes an unusual case for the relevance of George Lloyd's mysticism and traditional values.
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“Lloyd’s Celtic/Hellenic otherworldliness explains much about him which academic analysis of his style and technique cannot… While this will seem like nonsense to militant modernists, their scepticism explains little of any interest about an anomaly like George Lloyd. If he truly was en rapport with another era – a composer of Elgar's time writing in and about ours – we ought, rather than sneer, be grateful for the alternative view."
Ian MacDonald (MacCormick),
author and critic (1948- 2003) RIP
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6. A curiosity . . . |
The most recent publication from prolific English composer, editor, writer and broadcaster Rob Matthew Walker is Murdad-Trinimansk – Strange Harmony.
Rob was head of Classical Music at RCA, and went on to found several record labels, one of which, Trax, made the first recording of Lloyd's 10th Symphony. He has been the Editor of Music and Musicians and Musical Opinion.
His latest work is an unusual memoir-cum-spy-story based on real events, in which a music critic visits Murmansk to review a performance of Tosca, and is honoured by the residents because he had met the composer George Lloyd, a survivor of the Arctic Convoys which helped to save Russia from the German invasion.
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7. A disclaimer... not one of ours. |
YouTube Video biography of George Lloyd by by VIS Music.
George Lloyd (composer): A Symphony of Talent
This appears to be a compendium put together from various sources by a robot. Most of it is accurate, (lifted from www.georgelloyd.com, and Wikipedia) but not even one of the photographs is of George Lloyd, and there are a few glaring errors and some unwelcome hagiography, which suggests faulty logic from an AI marketing algorithm.
This video had nothing to do with us, but if you are curious as to how inaccurate Artificial Intelligence can be, then click the link..
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...and that wraps it up for February. |
Thanks for reading so far. We have been very busy for the last month with preparation of material to assist with the launch of the Lyrita Signature Edition. We expect to spend the next week networking this material through social media channels, so please like and share our posts if you come across them.
after that, some rest....
with all best wishes,
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The George Lloyd Society - websites and social media:
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