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{{Infobox person
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| birth_name = Alan Dudley Bush
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1900|12|22}}
| birth_place = Dulwich, London, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1995|10|31|1900|12|22}}
| death_place = [[Watford]], Hertfordshire, England
| occupation = Composer and pianist
| party = [[Independent Labour Party|
}}
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==Life and career==
===Family background and early life===
Bush was born in [[Dulwich]], South London, on 22 December 1900, the third and youngest son of Alfred Walter Bush and Alice Maud, née Brinsley.<ref name= ODNB/> The Bushes were a prosperous middle-class family, their wealth deriving from the firm of industrial chemists founded by the composer's great-grandfather, W. J. Bush.<ref name= ODNB/> As a child Alan's health was delicate, and he was initially educated at home. When he was eleven he began at [[Highgate School]] as a day pupil, and remained there until 1918. Both of his elder brothers served as officers in the [[First World War]]; one of them, Alfred junior, was killed on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] in 1917. The other, Hamilton Brinsley Bush, went into the family business and ran twice as Liberal candidate for Watford in the 1950s. The end of the war in November 1918 meant that Alan narrowly avoided being called up for military service; meantime, having determined on a musical career, he had applied to and been accepted by the RAM, where he began his studies in the spring of 1918.<ref name= Jones/>
===Royal Academy and after===
[[File:Royal Academy of Music, London W1.jpg|thumb|The Royal Academy of Music]]
At the RAM, Bush studied composition under [[Frederick Corder]] and piano with [[Tobias Matthay]].<ref name= ODNB>{{cite
Among Bush's fellow students was [[Michael Head (composer)|Michael Head]]. The two became friends, as a result of which Bush met Head's 14-year-old sister Nancy. In 1931, ten years after their first meeting, Bush and Nancy would marry and begin a lifelong artistic partnership in which she became Bush's principal librettist, as well as providing the texts for many of his other vocal works.<ref name= Dalgleish/> {{refn | The critic Paul Dalgleish later wrote: "To experience the blending of the talents of both Alan and Nancy through the medium of song cycles, listen to ''To Whom a Future World May Hold'' in which Nancy's poems for ''Woman's Life'', together with pairs of poems by Nancy and C. Day Lewis in ''Life's Span'' ... make up a fascinating projection of Alan Bush's obvious relish in setting words."<ref name= Dalgleish/> |group= n}}
[[File:John-Ireland-1919.jpg|thumb|upright 0.7|left|John Ireland, Bush's early mentor and enduring friend]]
In 1922 Bush graduated from the RAM, but continued to study composition privately under [[John Ireland (composer)|John Ireland]], with whom he formed an enduring friendship.<ref>Ireland, pp. 15–16</ref> In 1925 Bush was appointed to a teaching post at the RAM, as a professor of harmony and composition, under terms that gave him scope to continue with his studies and to travel. He took further piano study from two pupils of [[Theodor Leschetizky|Leschetizky]], [[Benno Moiseiwitsch]] and [[Mabel Lander]], from whom he learned the Leschetizky method.<ref>Craggs, p. vii</ref>{{#tag:ref|The Leschetizky method follows the teaching and practices of [[Theodor Leschetizky]], who first gained eminence as [[Ignacy Jan Paderewski|Paderewski]]'s piano tutor.<ref name= GMO>{{cite web|last= Methuen-Campbell|first= James|title= Leschetizky, Theodor|url= http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/16474?q=Theodor+Leschetizky&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1
Among the works composed by Bush during this period were the Quartet for piano, violin, viola and cello, Op. 5; Prelude and Fugue for piano, Op. 9; settings of poems by [[Walter de la Mare]], [[Harold Monro]] and [[W. B. Yeats]]; and his first venture into orchestral music, the Symphonic Impressions of 1926–27, Op. 8.<ref>Craggs, pp. 32–35</ref> In early 1929 he completed one of his best-known early chamber works, the string quartet ''Dialectic'', Op. 15, which helped to establish Bush's reputation abroad when it was performed at a Prague festival in the 1930s.<ref name= OMO/>
===Music and politics===
Bush had begun to develop an interest in politics during the war years.<ref name= Jones/> In 1924, rejecting his parents' conservatism, he joined the [[Independent Labour Party]] (ILP).<ref name= Craggs1/> The following year he joined the London Labour Choral Union (LLCU), a group of largely London-based choirs that had been organised by the socialist composer [[Rutland Boughton]], with [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] support, to "develop the musical instincts of the people and to render service to the Labour movement".<ref>Hall, p. 64</ref> Bush was soon appointed as Boughton's assistant, and two years later, he succeeded Boughton as the LLCU's chief musical adviser, remaining in this post until the body disbanded in 1940.<ref name= OMO/>
Through his LLCU work, Bush met [[Michael Tippett]], five years his junior, who shared Bush's left-wing political perspective. In his memoirs Tippett records his first impressions of Bush: "I learned much from him. His music at the time seemed so adventurous and vigorous".<ref name= Tippett>Tippett 1991, pp. 43–44</ref> [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2006-0130, Berlin, Humboldt Universität.jpg|thumb|The Friedrich-Wilhelm University, Berlin, as it was in the 1930s]]
After his 1928 concert tour in Berlin, Bush returned to the city to study piano under [[Artur Schnabel]].<ref name= Bulliv1>Bullivant, p. 1</ref> He left the ILP in 1929, and joined the Labour Party proper,<ref name= Craggs1>Craggs, p. viii</ref> before taking extended leave from the RAM to begin a two-year course in philosophy and musicology at Berlin's [[Humboldt University of Berlin|Friedrich-Wilhelm University]].<ref name= OMO/> Here, his tutors included [[Max Dessoir]] and [[Friedrich Blume]].<ref name= Bulliv1/> Bush's years in Berlin profoundly affected his political beliefs, and had direct influence on the subsequent character of his music. Michael Jones, writing in ''British Music'' after Bush's death, records Bush's concern at the rise of fascism and antisemitism in Germany. His association with like-minded musicians such as [[Hanns Eisler]] and [[Ernst Hermann Meyer]], and writers such as [[Bertold Brecht]], helped to develop his growing political awareness into a lifelong commitment to Marxism and communism.<ref name= Jones>{{cite journal|last= Jones|first= Michael|title= Alan Bush (1900–1995) – Time Remembered|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/articles/article_mjones.asp?room=Articles|journal= British Music|volume= 22|year= 2000|access-date=26 May 2017}} Article reproduced in edited form by the Alan Mush Music Trust</ref> Bush's conversion to full-blown communism was not immediate, but in 1935 he finally abandoned Labour and joined the [[Communist Party of Great Britain|British Communist Party]].<ref name= ODNB/>
Notwithstanding the uncompromising nature of his politics, Bush in his writings tended to express his views in restrained terms, "much more like a reforming patrician Whig than a proletarian revolutionary" according to [[Michael Oliver (writer, broadcaster)|Michael Oliver]] in a 1995 ''Gramophone'' article.<ref>{{cite journal|last= Oliver|first= Michael|title= Music by Alan Bush|url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/music-by-alan-bush|journal= Gramophone|date= April 1995|access-date= 26 May 2017}}</ref> Bush's [[Grove Music Online]] biographers also observe that in the politicisation of his music, his folk idioms have more in common with the English traditions of [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]] than with the continental radicalism of [[Kurt Weill]].<ref name= OMO>{{cite web|last= Mason|first= Colin|display-authors=etal|title= Bush, Alan (Dudley)|url= http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/04432?q=Alan+bush&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1|publisher = Grove Music Online|date= 2007–17|access-date= 26 May 2017}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
===1930s: emergent composer===
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At the end of summer 1931 the couple returned permanently to England, and settled in the village of [[Radlett]], in [[Hertfordshire]]. In the following years three daughters were born.<ref name= Craggs1/> Bush resumed his RAM and LLCU duties, and in 1932 accepted a new appointment, as an examiner for the Associated Board of London's Royal Schools of Music, a post which involved extensive overseas travel.<ref name= ODNB/> These new domestic and professional responsibilities limited Bush's composing activity, but he provided the music for the 1934 Pageant of Labour,<ref name= Jones/> organised for the London Trades Council and held at the [[The Crystal Palace|Crystal Palace]] during October.<ref name= Pageant>{{cite web|title= Compositions: Pageant|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/music/compositions/PA.asp?room=Music|publisher= The Alan Bush Music Trust|access-date= 14 June 2017}}</ref> Tippett, who co-conducted the event, later described it as a "high water mark" in Bush's drive to provide workers' choirs with settings for left-wing texts.<ref>Tippett 1981, p. 9</ref> In 1936 Bush was one of the founders of the Workers' Musical Association (WMA), and became its first chairman.<ref>Kemp, pp. 33–34</ref>
In 1935 Bush began work on a piano concerto which, completed in 1937, included the unusual feature of a mixed chorus and baritone soloist in the finale, singing a radical text by [[Randall Swingler]]. Bush played the piano part when the work was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under [[Sir Adrian Boult]] on 4 March 1938. The largely left-wing audience responded to the work enthusiastically;<ref name="Hall, p. 133">Hall, p. 133</ref> Tippett observed that "to counter the radical tendencies of the finale ... Boult forced the applause to end by unexpectedly performing the National Anthem".<ref name= Tippett/> A performance of the concerto a year later, at the 1939 "Festival of Music for the People", drew caustic comments from [[Neville Cardus]] in ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]''. Cardus saw little direction and no humour in the music: "Why don't these people laugh at themselves now and then? Just for fun."<ref>{{cite
Bush provided much of the music, and also acted as general director, for the London Co-operative Societies' pageant "Towards Tomorrow", held at [[Wembley Stadium]] on 2 July 1938.<ref name= Pageant/> In the autumn of that year he visited both the Soviet Union and the United States.<ref name= Craggs18>Craggs, p. 18</ref> Back home in early 1939 he was closely involved in founding and conducting the London String Orchestra, which operated successfully until 1941 and again in the immediate postwar years.<ref>Craggs, p. 17</ref> He also began to write a major orchestral work, his Symphony No. 1 in C.<ref name= Craggs18/><ref name= ABMTOrch>{{cite web|title= Compositions: Orchestral works|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/music/compositions/OR.asp?room=Music|publisher= The Alan Bush Music Trust|access-date= 15 June 2017}}</ref> Amid this busy life Bush was elected a [[List of Royal Academy of Music people#Past and present Fellows of the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM)|Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music]].<ref name= OMO/>
===Second World War===
When war broke out in September 1939, Bush registered for military service under the National Service (Armed Forces) Act of 1939.<ref name= Cons>{{cite journal|last= Marcus|first= Philip|title= Some Aspects of Military Service|jstor= 1282941|journal= Michigan Law Review|volume= 39|issue= 6|date= April 1941|page= 930|doi= 10.2307/1282941|url= https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol39/iss6/4}} {{subscription required}}</ref>{{refn|The Act was passed into law on 3 September 1939, the day of Britain's declaration of war against Germany. It superseded all existing conscription laws, and extended liability to males between the ages of 18 and 41.<ref name= Cons/>|group= n}} He was not called up immediately, and continued his musical life, helping to form the WMA Singers to replace the now-defunct LLCU, and founding the William Morris Music Society.<ref name= Craggs18/> In April 1940 he conducted a [[Queen's Hall]] concert of music by Soviet composers which included the British premieres of [[Dmitri Shostakovich|Shostakovich]]'s [[Symphony No. 5 (Shostakovich)|Fifth Symphony]], and [[Aram Khatchaturian|Khatchaturian]]'s [[Piano Concerto (Khachaturian)|Piano Concerto]]. [[William Glock]] in ''[[The Observer]]'' was disdainful, dismissing the Khatachurian concerto as "sixth-rate", and criticising the inordinate length, as he saw it, of the symphony.<ref>{{cite
[[File:Vaughan-williams-hoppé.jpg|thumb|upright 0.7|Ralph Vaughan Williams, who led the opposition to the BBC ban on Bush's music in 1941]]
Bush was among many musicians, artists and writers who in January 1941 signed up to the communist-led [[People's Convention 1940-41|People's Convention]], which promoted a six-point radical anti-war programme that included friendship with the Soviet Union and "a people's peace".<ref>Gardiner, p. 297</ref> The BBC advised him that because of his association with this movement, he and his music would no longer be broadcast.<ref>{{cite
In November 1941 Bush was conscripted into the army, and after initial training was assigned to the [[Royal Army Medical Corps]].<ref name= Jones/> Based in London, he was given leave to perform in concerts, which enabled him to conduct the premiere of his First Symphony at a BBC Promenade Concert in the [[Royal Albert Hall]] on 24 July 1942.<ref>Foreman, p. 154</ref> He also performed regularly with the London String Orchestra, and in 1944 was the piano soloist in the British premiere of [[Dmitri Shostakovitch|Shostakovich]]'s Piano Quintet.<ref name= Craggsix/> His wartime compositions were few; among them were the "Festal Day" Overture, Op. 23, written for Vaughan Williams's 70th birthday in 1942,<ref name= ABMTOrch/> and several songs and choruses including "Freedom on the March", written for a British-Soviet Unity Demonstration at the Albert Hall on 27 June 1943.<ref>Craggs, p. 19</ref>
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==== Persona non grata ====
[[File:Lidice - pietni akt.jpg|thumb|left|A memorial service in 1947 at the site of the destroyed Czech village of Lidice]]
Bush's return to composing after the war led to what Richard Stoker, in the ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', calls "his best period".<ref name= ODNB/> However, Bush's attempts to secure a place in the concert repertoire were frustrated. A contributory factor may have been what the critic Dominic Daula calls Bush's "intriguingly unique compositional voice" that challenged critics and audiences alike.<ref name= Daula>{{cite journal|last= Daula|first= Dominic|title= Alan Bush (CD reviews)|journal= Tempo|volume= 69|issue= 271|date= January 2015|page= 93|id= {{ProQuest|1641518130}}|doi= 10.1017/S0040298214000813|s2cid= 233359945}} {{subscription required}}</ref> But the composer's refusal to modify his pro-Soviet stance following the onset of the [[Cold War]] alienated both the public and the music establishment, a factor which Bush acknowledged 20 years later: "People who were in a position to promote my works were afraid to do so. They were afraid of being labelled".<ref name= Ford>{{cite
As well as resuming his teaching routines, Bush embarked on a busy schedule of travel, mainly in Eastern Europe with the WMA choir. While in [[Czechoslovakia]] in August 1947, he and the WMA performed his unaccompanied chorus ''Lidice'' at the site of the [[Lidice|village of that name]],<ref>Craggs, p. 68</ref><ref>''Tribute to Alan Bush on his Fiftieth Birthday'', p. 7 (image)</ref> which had been destroyed by the Nazis in 1942 in a reprisal for the assassination of [[Reinhard Heydrich]].<ref>Kershaw, p. 391</ref>
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====Opera ventures====
[[File:DeathWatTyler.jpg|thumb|The death of Wat Tyler: a 14th-century depiction]]
Since his youthful ''Last Days of Pompeii'', Bush had not attempted to write opera, but he took up the genre in 1946 with a short operetta for children, ''The Press Gang (or the Escap'd Apprentice)'', for which Nancy supplied the libretto. This was performed by pupils at [[St Christopher School]], [[Letchworth]], on 7 March 1947.<ref name= Children>{{cite web|title= Compositions: Children's Operetta|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/music/compositions/CO.asp?room=Music|publisher= The Alan Bush Music Trust|access-date= 21 June 2017}}</ref> The following year he began a more ambitious venture, a full-length grand opera recounting the story of [[Wat Tyler]], who led the [[Peasants' Revolt]] of 1381. ''Wat Tyler'', again to Nancy's libretto, was submitted in 1950 to the Arts Council's [[Festival of Britain]] opera competition, and was one of four prizewinners – Bush received £400.<ref>N. Bush, pp. 61–62</ref>{{refn| £400 has a purchasing power equivalent to about £12,500 in 2016.<ref>{{cite web|title= Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a UK Pound Amount, 1270 to Present|url= https://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/|publisher= Measuring Worth|access-date= 6 June 2017}}</ref> |group= n}} The opera was not taken up by any of the British opera houses, and was first staged at [[Leipzig Opera]] in 1953. It was well received, retained for the season and ran again in the following year; there was a further performance in Rostock in 1955.<ref name= OMO/> ''Wat Tyler'' did not receive its full British premiere until 19 June 1974, when it was produced at [[Sadler's Wells]]; as of 2017, this remains the only professional staging of a Bush opera in Britain.<ref name= OMO/>
Bush's second opera, ''Men of Blackmoor'', composed in 1954–55 to Nancy's libretto, is a story of [[Northumberland|Northumbrian]] miners in the early 19th century; Bush went down a mine as part of his research.<ref name= Ford/> It received its premiere at the German National Theatre, Weimar on 18 November 1956. Like ''Wat Tyler'' in Leipzig, the opera was successful; after the Weimar season there were further East German productions in [[Jena]] (1957), Leipzig (1959) and [[Zwickau]] (1960). In Britain there were student performances at Oxford in 1960, and Bristol in 1974.<ref>{{cite web|title= Background to the Opera Men of Blackmoor|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/music/operas/blackmoor.asp?room=Music|publisher= The Alan Bush Music Trust|access-date= 21 June 2017}}</ref> In December 1960 David Drew in the ''New Statesman'' wrote: "The chief virtue of ''Men of Blackmoor'', and the reason why it particularly deserves a [professional] performance at this historical point, is its unfailing honesty ... it is never cheap, and at its best achieves a genuine dignity."<ref>{{cite web|last= Drew|first= David|title= Opinions and Commentary on Men of Blackmoor|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/music/operas/blackmoor.asp?room=Music|via= The Alan Bush Music Trust|work=New Statesman|date=18 December 1960|access-date= 21 June 2017}}</ref>
For his third opera, Bush chose a contemporary theme – the struggle against colonial rule. He intended to collect appropriate musical material from [[Guyana|British Guiana]], but an attempt to visit the colony in 1957 was thwarted when its government refused him entry.<ref>Craggs, p. 21</ref> The ban was rescinded the following year,<ref>{{cite
===1953–1975===
[[File:Alan Bush (Bundesarchiv Bild 183-13756-0002).jpg|thumb|upright|alt=black-and-white profile photo of Bush's head, looking left|Bush in 1952 at the Workers' Conference of Writers and Composers in Berlin]]
During his involvement with opera, Bush continued to compose in other genres. His 1953 cantata ''Voice of the Prophets'', Op. 41, was commissioned by the tenor [[Peter Pears]] and sung by Pears at its premiere on 22 May 1953.<ref>Foreman, pp. 136, 160–61</ref> In 1959–60 he produced two major orchestral works: the ''Dorian Passacaglia and Fugue'', Op. 52,<ref>Foreman, p. 156</ref> and the Third Symphony, Op. 53, known as the "Byron" since it depicts musically scenes from the [[Lord Byron|life of the poet]]. The symphony, a commission from East German Radio, was first performed at Leipzig on 20 March 1962.<ref>Foreman, p. 129</ref> Colin Mason, writing in ''The Guardian'', thought the work had a stronger socialist programme than the
At the end of the 1960s Bush wrote, among other works, ''Time Remembered'', Op. 67, for chamber orchestra, and ''Scherzo for Wind Orchestra and Percussion'', Op. 68, based on an original Guyanese theme.<ref>Foreman, pp. 141, 156</ref> In 1969 he produced the first of three song cycles, ''The Freight of Harvest'', Op. 69 – ''Life's Span'' and ''Woman's Life'' would follow in 1974 and 1977.<ref>Foreman, p. 161</ref> In the 1970s, while maintaining his teaching commitment to the RAM, he continued to perform in the concert hall as conductor and pianist. Bush was slowly being recognised for his achievements, even by those who had long cold-shouldered him. In 1968 he was awarded a [[Doctor of Music]] degree by the [[University of London]], and two years later received an honorary doctorate from the [[University of Durham]].<ref name= OMO/> On 6 December 1970, just before Bush's 70th birthday, BBC Television broadcast a programme about his life and works, and on 16 February 1971 the RAM hosted a special (late) birthday concert, in which he and Pears performed songs from ''Voices of the Prophets''. Bush featured in a further television programme, broadcast on 25 October 1975, in a series entitled "Born in 1900".<ref>Craggs, p. 23</ref>
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===Final years===
[[File:Lascaux painting.jpg|thumb|left|Cave paintings at Lascaux which inspired the Fourth Symphony]]
In old age, Bush continued to lead an active and productive life, punctuated by periodic commemorations of his life and works. In November 1975 his 50 years' professorship at the RAM was marked in a concert there, and in January 1976 the WMA gave a concert to honour his recent 75th birthday.<ref name= Craggs23/> In 1977 he produced his last major piano work, the ''Twenty-four Preludes'', Op. 84, of which he gave the first performance at the Wigmore Hall on 30 October 1977.<ref>Foreman, p. 159</ref> A later reviewer described this piece as "music I'd like to have playing beside me as I sprawled on the grass beneath the trees with an ice-cream, watching a county cricket match on a golden afternoon".<ref>{{cite journal|last= Seabrook|first= Mike|title= Record Review: Bush, 24 Preludes etc.|jstor= 945203|journal= Tempo|issue= 187|pages= 57–59|date= December 1993}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
In 1978 Bush retired from the RAM after 52 years' service.<ref>N. Bush, p. 90</ref> His 80th birthday in December 1980 was celebrated at concerts in London, Birmingham and East Germany,<ref>{{cite
In the late 1980s Bush was increasingly hampered by failing eyesight.<ref name= ODNB/> His last formal compositions appeared in 1988: "Spring Woodland and Summer Garden" for solo piano, Op. 124, and ''Summer Valley'' for cello and piano, Op. 125,<ref>Foreman, pp. 152, 160</ref> although he continued to compose privately and play the piano. Nancy's health meanwhile deteriorated, and she died on 12 October 1991. Bush lived on quietly at Radlett for another four years, able to recall the events of his youth but with no memory of the last fifty years and unaware of the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|collapse of the Soviet Union]] in 1991.<ref>{{cite web|last= Amis|first= John|title= Alan Bush – An Appreciation |url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/articles/article_jamis.asp?room=Articles |publisher= The Alan Bush Music Trust|access-date= 23 July 2017}}</ref> He died in Watford General hospital on 31 October 1995, after a short illness, at the age of 94.<ref name=ODNB/>
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Despite undergoing various changes of emphasis, Bush's music retained a voice distinct from that of any of his contemporaries.<ref name= Daula/> One critic describes the typical Bush sound as "Mild dominant discords, of consonant effect, used with great originality in uncommon progressions alive with swift, purposeful harmonic movement ... except in [Benjamin] Britten they are nowhere used with more telling expression, colour and sense of movement than in Bush".<ref name= OMO/>
John Ireland, Bush's early mentor, instilled "the sophisticated and restrained craftsmanship which marked Bush's music from the beginning",<ref name= Obit>{{cite
Bush's music, at least from the mid-1930s, often carried political overtones. His obituarist [[Rupert Christiansen]] writes that, as a principled Marxist, Bush "put the requirements of the revolutionary proletariat at the head of the composer's responsibilities",<ref name= Obit/> a choice which others, such as Tippett, chose not to make.<ref>Kemp, p. 27</ref> However, Vaughan Williams thought that, despite Bush's oft-declared theories of the purposes of art and music, "when the inspiration comes over him he forgets all about this and remembers only the one eternal rule for all artists, 'To thine own self be true'."<ref name= Hall132>Hall, p. 132</ref>{{refn|Hall points out that Bush may have found Vaughan Williams's tribute insulting, since it implied that his theories about the relationship between music and politics were insincere, and forgotten during the process of composition.<ref name= Hall132/> |group= n}}
===To 1945===
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===Postwar and beyond===
Although Bush accepted [[Zhdanov Doctrine|Zhdanov]]'s 1948 diktat without demur and acted accordingly,<ref name= Obit/><ref>{{cite journal|last= Bullivant|first= Joanna|title= Modernism, Politics, and Individuality in 1930s Britain: The Case of Alan Bush|url= https://muse.jhu.edu/article/363066/pdf|journal= Music and Letters|volume= 90|issue= 3|date= August 2009|pages= 432–52|doi= 10.1093/ml/gcp051|s2cid= 144687825}} {{subscription required}}</ref> his postwar simplifications had begun earlier and would continue as part of a gradual process.<ref name= OMO/> Bush first outlined the basis of his new method of composition in an article, "The Crisis of Modern Music", which appeared in WMA's ''Keynote'' magazine in spring 1946. The method, in which every note has thematic significance, has drawn comparison by critics with [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]]'s [[Twelve-tone technique|twelve-note system]], although Bush rejected this equation.<ref name= Dalgleish/>{{refn|The 12-note system employs a dodecaphonic scale which uses all the tones and semi-tones as provided by the black and white notes on the piano keyboard. The central principle of 12-tone music that emerged in the early 20th century was the belief that all 12 notes had equal importance in the music, rather than the use of a dominant key.<ref>Ward, p. 916</ref> |group= n}}
Many of Bush's best-known works were written in the immediate postwar years. [[Anthony Payne]] described the ''Three Concert Studies for Piano Trio'' (Op. 31) of 1947 as exceeding Britten in its inventiveness, "a high-water mark in Bush's mature art".<ref name= Payne>{{cite journal|author-link= Anthony Payne|last= Payne|first= Anthony|title= Alan Bush|jstor= 949357|journal= The Musical Times|volume= 105|issue= 1454|date= April 1964|pages= 263–65|doi= 10.2307/949357}} {{subscription required}}</ref> The Violin Concerto (Op. 32, 1948) has been cited as "a work as beautiful and refined as any in the genre since Walton's".<ref name= Obit/> Foreman considers the concerto, which uses twelve-tone themes, to be the epitome of Bush's thematic theory of composition, although Bush's contemporary, [[Edmund Rubbra]], thought it too intellectual for general audiences.<ref>Foreman, pp. 118–19</ref> The ''Dorian Passacaglia and Fugue'' for timpani, percussion and strings, (Op. 52, 1959), involves eight variations in the [[Dorian mode]], followed by eight in other modes culminating in a final quadruple fugue in six parts.<ref>Foreman, p. 141</ref> ''Musical Opinion''{{'}}s critic praised the composer's "wonderful control and splendid craftsmanship" in this piece, and predicted that it could become the most popular of all Bush's orchestral works.<ref>{{cite web|title= Dorian Passacaglia and Fugue for Orchestra, Op. 52 (1959)|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/music/commentaries/commentary73.asp?room=Music|publisher= The Alan Bush Music Trust|access-date= 28 June 2017}} (Review quoted in ABMT website)</ref>
{{Quote box|width=300px|bgcolor=#E0E6F8|align= right|quote= "All [Bush's] operas deal with things that actually happened, the message being contained in a judicious selection of fact, the music aimed at the heart before brain." |salign = left|source= Christopher Ford: ''Burning Bush'' (1974)<ref name= Ford/> }}
The postwar period also saw the beginning of Bush's 20-year involvement with grand opera, a genre in which, although he achieved little commercial recognition, he was retrospectively hailed by critics as a master of British opera second only to Britten.<ref name= Ford/> His first venture, ''Wat Tyler'', was written in a form which Bush thought acceptable to the general British public;<ref name= Foreman122>Foreman, pp. 122–23</ref> it was not his choice, he wrote, that the opera and its successors all found their initial audiences in East Germany.<ref>A. Bush, p. 21</ref> When eventually staged in Britain in 1974 the opera, although well received at Sadler's Wells, seemed somewhat old-fashioned;<ref name= Foreman122/> [[Philip Hope-Wallace]] in ''The Guardian'' thought the ending degenerated into "a choral union cantata", and found the music pleasant but not especially memorable.<ref>{{cite
The extent to which Bush's music changed substantially after the war was addressed by Meirion Bowen, reviewing a Bush concert in the 1980s. Bowen noted a distinct contrast between early and late works, the former showing primarily the influences of Ireland and of Bush's European contacts, while in the later pieces the idiom was "often overtly folklike and Vaughan Williams-ish".<ref>{{cite
===Assessment===
In the 1920s it appeared that Bush might emerge as Britain's foremost pianist, after his studies under the leading teachers of the day, but he turned to composition as his principal musical activity.<ref name= Obit/> In Foreman's summary he is "a major figure who really straddles the century as almost no other composer does". He remained a pianist of consequence, with a strong and reliable, if heavy, touch.<ref name= ODNB/><ref>Foreman, pp. 98–99</ref>
Joanna Bullivant, writing in ''Music and Letters'', maintains that in his music Bush subordinated all ideas of personal expression to the ideology of Marxism.<ref>{{Cite journal|last= Bullivant|first= Joanna|title= Modernism, Politics, and Individuality in 1930s Britain: The Case of Alan Bush|url= https://muse.jhu.edu/article/363066/pdf|journal= Music and Letters|volume= 90|issue= 3|date= August 2009|pages= 432–52|doi= 10.1093/ml/gcp051|s2cid= 144687825}} {{subscription required}}</ref> The critic [[Hugo Cole]] thought that, as a composer, Bush came close to [[Paul Hindemith]]'s ideal: "one for whom music is felt as a moral and social force, and only incidentally as a means of personal expression".<ref>{{cite
The music critic Colin Mason described Bush's music thus:<blockquote>His range is wide, the quality of his music consistently excellent. He has the intellectual concentration of Tippett, the easy command and expansiveness of Walton, the nervous intensity of Rawsthorne, the serene leisureliness of Rubbra ... He is surpassed only in melody, as are the others, by Walton, but not even by him in harmonic richness, nor by Tippett in contrapuntal originality and the expressive power of rather austere musical thought, nor by Rawsthorne in concise, compelling utterance and telling invention, nor by Rubbra in handling large forms well.<ref>{{cite web|first= Colin|last= Mason|title= Alan Bush – An Appreciation|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/articles/article_jamis.asp?room=Articles|publisher= The Alan Bush Music Trust|access-date= 30 June 2017}} Quoted from a programme note for the Alan Bush and Aaron Copland Centenary Focus Concert, Purcell Room, 3 April 2000</ref></blockquote>
==Legacy==
Bush's long career as a teacher influenced generations of English composers and performers. Tippett was never a formal pupil, but
Bush's music was under-represented in the concert repertoire in his lifetime, and virtually disappeared after his death. The 2000 centenary of his birth was markedly low key; the Prom season ignored him,<ref name= Dalgleish>{{cite journal|last= Dalgleish|first= Paul|title= Alan Bush: The Neglected Centenary|journal= Musical Opinion|volume= 124|issue= 1424|date= March 2001|page= 82|id= {{ProQuest|212323316}}}} {{subscription required}}</ref> although there was a memorial concert at the Wigmore Hall on 1 November,<ref>{{cite journal|last= Anderson|first= Martin|title= First Performances: Alan Bush Centenary Celebrations (synopsis)|journal= Tempo|date= April 2001|pages= 41–42|id= {{ProQuest|1217695}}}} {{subscription required}}</ref> and a BBC broadcast of the Piano Concerto on 19 December.<ref>{{cite web|title= Bush Centenary Concert, Maida Vale, 19 December 2000|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/articles/article_sjenner.asp?room=Articles|publisher= The Alan Bush Music Trust|access-date= 22 June 2017}}</ref> The centenary, albeit quietly observed, helped to introduce the name and music of Bush to a new generation of music lovers, and generated an increase in both performance and recordings.<ref name= Dalgleish/> The centenary also heralded an awakening of scholarly interest in Bush, whose life and works were the subject of numerous PhD theses in the early 20th century.<ref>Bullivant, p. 4</ref> Scholars such as [[Paul Harper-Scott]] and [[Joanna Bullivant]] have obtained access to new material, including documents released since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Bush's MI5 file. This, says Bullivant, enables a more informed assessment of the interrelationships within Bush's music and his communism, and of the inherent conflicting priorities.<ref>Bullivant, pp. 4 and 13</ref>
In October 1997 family members and friends founded The Alan Bush Music Trust "to promote the education and appreciation by the public in and of music and, in particular, the works of the British composer Alan Bush".<ref name= Craggs25>Craggs, p. 25</ref> The trust provides a newsletter, features news stories, promotes performances and recordings of Bush's works, and through its website reproduces wide-ranging critical and biographical material.<ref name= Dalgleish/><ref>{{cite web|title= Alan Bush Music Trust – Home|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/|publisher= The Alan Bush Music Trust|access-date= 22 June 2017}}</ref>
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==Recordings==
{{Further|Alan Bush discography}}
Before Bush's centenary year, 2000, the few available recordings of his music included none of the major works. In the 21st century much has been added, including recordings of Symphonies 1, 2 and 4, the Piano and Violin Concertos, many of the main vocal works, the Twenty-Four Preludes, and the complete organ works.<ref>{{cite web|title= Recordings|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/music/recordings.asp?room=Music|publisher= The Alan Bush Music Trust|access-date= 22 June 2017}}</ref>
==Notes and references==
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[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1995 deaths]]
[[Category:English male classical composers]]▼
[[Category:20th-century classical composers]]
[[Category:20th-century English composers]]
[[Category:English opera composers]]
[[Category:
▲[[Category:British male pianists]]
[[Category:English classical pianists]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:Musicians from the London Borough of Southwark]]▼
[[Category:Academics of the Royal Academy of Music]]
▲[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Academy of Music]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music]]
[[Category:
[[Category:People educated at Highgate School]]
▲[[Category:English communists]]
▲[[Category:Musicians from London]]
[[Category:People from Dulwich]]
[[Category:
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Royal Army Medical Corps soldiers]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Great Britain members]]
[[Category:Political music artists]]
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