Alan Bush: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|British composer, pianist, conductor, teacher and political activist (1900–1995)}}

{{EngvarBUse British English|date=January 2020}}

| birth_place = Dulwich, London, England

| death_place = [[Watford]], Hertfordshire, England

| party = [[Independent Labour Party|Independent LabourILP]] {{small|(1924–1929)}}<br> [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] {{small|(1929–1935)}}<br>[[Communist Party of Great Britain|Communist]] {{small|(after 1935)}}

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/>

At the RAM, Bush studied composition under [[Frederick Corder]] and piano with [[Tobias Matthay]].<ref name= ODNB>{{cite webODNB|last= Stoker|first= Richard|title= Bush, Alan Dudley|url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/60406|publisher= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edition|date= September 2013|doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/60406|access-date= 16 May 2017}} {{subscription required}}</ref> He made rapid progress, and won various scholarships and awards, including the Thalberg Scholarship, the Phillimore piano prize, and a Carnegie award for composition.<ref name= ODNB/> He produced the first compositions of his formal canon: Three Pieces for Two Pianos, Op. 1, and Piano Sonata in B minor, Op. 2,<ref>Craggs, pp. 28–29</ref> and also made his first attempt to write opera – a scene from [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton|Bulwer Lytton]]'s novel ''[[The Last Days of Pompeii]]'', with a [[libretto]] by his brother Brinsley. The work, with Bush at the piano, received a single private performance with family members and friends forming the cast. The manuscript was later destroyed by Bush.<ref>Craggs, p. 30</ref>

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#firsthit|publisher= Grove Music Online|date= 2007–17|access-date= 26 May 2017}} {{subscription required}}</ref> The method is described in numerous works, among them Malwine Brée's ''Groundwork of the Leschetizky Method'' (1902).<ref>{{cite book|last= Brée|first= Malwine|title= Groundwork of the Leschetizky Method|url= https://archive.org/stream/groundworkoflesc00b186#page/n9/mode/2up|publisher= Haskell House|location= New York|year= 1902}}</ref> Some writers have inferred that the techniques promoted by Leschetizky were common knowledge among piano teachers and only acquired their special gravitas from his force of personality and his skill as a teacher.<ref>{{cite journal|last= Corey|first= N.J.|title= The Leschetizky Method – The Teachers' Round Table|url= http://etudemagazine.com/etude/1910/10/the-leschetizky-method.html|journal= The Etude|date= October 1910|access-date= 26 May 2017}}</ref> According to his Grove biographer, "It was Leschetizky's profound musicality, his wealth of experience in teaching and his ability, through sheer force of personality, to communicate with the pupil that led to his unassailable status as having been the greatest piano teacher of the modern era.<ref name= GMO/> |group= n}} In 1926 he made his first of numerous visits to Berlin, where with the violinist Florence Lockwood he gave two concerts of contemporary, mainly British, music which included his own ''Phantasy'' in C minor, Op. 3. The skill of the performers was admired by the critics more than the quality of the music. In 1928 Bush returned to Berlin, to perform with the [[Antonio Brosa|Brosa Quartet]] at the Bechstein Hall, in a concert of his own music which included the premieres of the chamber work ''Five Pieces'', Op. 6 and the piano solo ''Relinquishment'', Op. 11. Critical opinion was broadly favourable, the ''Berliner Zeitung am Mittag'' correspondent noting "nothing extravagant but much of promise".<ref>N. Bush, pp. 19–20</ref>

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> Tippett's biographer Ian Kemp writes: "Apart from Sibelius, the contemporary composer who taught Tippett as much as anyone else was his own contemporary Alan Bush".<ref>Kemp, p. 72</ref>

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>

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 newspapernews|last= Cardus|first= Neville|title= Music for the People|newspaper= The Manchester Guardian|date= 6 April 1939|page= 13|id= {{ProQuest|484628062}}}} {{subscription required}}</ref>

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 newspapernews|last= Glock|first= William|title= Music and Musicians: New Works|newspaper= The Observer|date= 4 April 1940|page= 11|id= {{ProQuest|481718236}}}} {{subscription required}}</ref>

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 newspapernews|title= BBC Extends its Veto: Mr Alan Bush|newspaper= The Manchester Guardian|date= 8 March 1941|page= 7|id= {{ProQuest|484846061}}}} {{subscription required}}</ref> This action drew strong protests from, among others, [[E. M. Forster]] and [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]].<ref name= Lucas>Lucas, p. 160</ref> The ban was opposed by the prime minister, [[Winston Churchill]], in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]],<ref name= Lucas/> and proved short-lived; it was annulled following the [[Operation Barbarossa|German invasion of the Soviet Union]] in June 1941.<ref name= Craggsix>Craggs, p. ix</ref>

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 newspapernews|last= Ford|title= Burning Bush: Christopher Ford meets Alan Bush, neglected British master of grand opera|newspaper= The Guardian|date= 8 June 1974|id= {{ProQuest|185747511}}}} {{subscription required}}</ref> Stoker comments that "in a less tolerant country he would certainly have been imprisoned, or worse. But he was merely ignored, both politically, and, which is a pity, as a composer".<ref name= ODNB/> Nancy Bush writes that the BBC considered him ''persona non grata'', and imposed an almost complete though unofficial broadcast ban that lasted for some 15 years after the war.<ref name= NB40/>{{refn|Nancy Bush states that, between 1947 and 1960, none of Bush's major works were broadcast except for two concert performances of the opera ''Wat Tyler'', the cantata ''The Winter Journey'', and the first and second symphonies.<ref name= NB40>N. Bush, pp. 40–41</ref>|group= n}}

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/>

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 newspapernews|title= Mr Alan Bush|newspaper= The Manchester Guardian|date= 22 May 1958|page= 5|id= {{ProQuest|480265630}}}} {{subscription required}}</ref> and in 1959 Bush was able to gather and record a great deal of authentic music from the local African and Indian populations.<ref name= Jones/> The eventual result was ''The Sugar Reapers'', premiered at Leipzig on 11 December 1966. ''The Times'' correspondent, praising the performance, wrote: "One can only hope that London will soon see a production of its own".<ref>{{cite web| title= The Sugar Reapers|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/music/operas/reapers.asp?room=Music|via= The Alan Bush Music Trust|work=The Times|date=17 December 1966|access-date= 21 June 2017}}</ref> With Nancy, Bush wrote two more operettas for children: ''The Spell Unbound'' (1953) and ''The Ferryman's Daughter'' (1961).<ref name= Children/> His final opera, written in 1965–67, was ''[[Joe Hill (opera)|Joe Hill]]'', based on the life story of [[Joe Hill (activist)|Joe Hill]], an American union activist and songwriter who was controversially convicted of murder and executed in 1915. The opera, to a libretto by Barrie Stavis, was premiered at the German [[Berlin State Opera, Berlin,]] on 29 September 1970, and in 1979 was broadcast by the BBC.<ref>{{cite web|title= Background to the Opera Joe Hill|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/music/operas/jhill.asp?room=Music|publisher= The Alan Bush Music Trust|access-date= 21 June 2017|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160412140116/http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/music/operas/jhill.asp?room=Music|archive-date= 12 April 2016|df= dmy-all}}</ref>

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 NottingmanNottingham symphony of 1949. The ending of the second movement, a long tune representing Byron's speech against the extension of the death penalty was, Mason wrote, "a splendid piece".<ref>{{cite newspapernews|last= Mason|first= Colin|title= New Music 1962|newspaper= The Guardian|date= 27 December 1962|page= 4|id= {{ProQuest|184863426}}}} {{subscription required}}</ref> The symphony was awarded that year's Händel Prize in the city of [[Halle (Saale)|Halle]].<ref name= Craggs23>Craggs, p. 22</ref>

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 newspapernews|last= Cole|first= Hugo|title= Alan Bush|newspaper= The Guardian|date= 13 December 1980|page= 11|id= {{ProQuest|186302057}}}} {{subscription required}}</ref><ref name= Craggs24>Craggs, p. 24</ref> and the BBC broadcast a special birthday musical tribute.<ref name= Craggs24/> In the same year he published ''In My Eighth Decade and Other Essays'', in which he stated his personal creed that "as a musician and as a man, Marxism is a guide to action", enabling him to express through music the "struggle to create a condition of social organisation in which science and art will be the possession of all".<ref>A. Bush, p. 20</ref> In 1982 Bush visited the [[Lascaux]] caves in south-western France, and was inspired by the prehistoric cave paintings to write his fourth and final symphony, Op. 94, subtitled the "Lascaux".<ref name="Foreman, pp. 133–34">Foreman, pp. 133–34</ref> This, his last major orchestral work, was premiered by the [[BBC Philharmonic Orchestra]], under [[Edward Downes]] in Manchester, on 25 March 1986.<ref>Foreman, p. 157</ref>

John Ireland, Bush's early mentor, instilled "the sophisticated and restrained craftsmanship which marked Bush's music from the beginning",<ref name= Obit>{{cite newspapernews|last= Christiansen|first= Rupert|title= Obituary: Alan Bush|url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-alan-bush-1537087.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022125142/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-alan-bush-1537087.html |archive-date=2012-10-22 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|newspaper= The Independent|date= 3 November 1995|access-date= 15 June 2017 }}</ref> introducing him to folksong and [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|Palestrina]], both important building blocks in the development of Bush's mature style.<ref>Foreman, p. 100</ref> Daula comments that "Bush's music does not [merely] imitate the sound-world of his Renaissance predecessors", but creates his unique fingerprint by "[juxtaposing] 16th century modal counterpoint with late- and post-romantic harmony".<ref name= Daula/>

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}}

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>

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 newspapernews|author-link= Philip Hope-Wallace|last= Hope-Wallace|first= Philip|title= Bush's Wat Tyler at Sadler's Wells|newspaper= The Guardian|date= 20 June 1974|page= 10|id= {{ProQuest|185814048}}}} {{subscription required}}</ref> Bush's three other major operas were all characterised by their use of "local" music: Northumbrian folk-song in the case of ''Men of Blackmoor'', Guyanese songs and dances in ''The Sugar Reapers'', and American folk music in ''Joe Hill'' – the last-named used in a manner reminiscent of Kurt Weill and the German opera with which Bush had become familiar in the early 1930s.<ref>Foreman, p. 128</ref>

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 newspapernews|last= Bowen|first= Meirion|title= Alan Bush|newspaper= The Guardian|date= 13 January 1986|page= 11|id= {{ProQuest|186673540}}}} {{subscription required}}</ref> In general Bush's late works continued to show all the hallmarks of his postwar oeuvre: vigour, clarity of tone and masterful use of counterpoint.<ref name= OMO/> The Lascaux symphony, written when he was 83, is the composer's final major orchestral statement, and addresses deep philosophical issues relating to the origins and destiny of mankind.<ref name="Foreman, pp. 133–34"/>

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 newspapernews|last= Cole|first= Hugo|title= Wigmore Hall: Alan Bush|newspaper= The Guardian|date= 19 January 1970|page= 8|id= {{ProQuest|185422901}}}} {{subscription required}}</ref> The composer [[Wilfrid Mellers]] credits Bush with more than ideological correctness; while remaining faithful to his creed even when it was entirely out of fashion, he "attempt[ed] to re-establish an English tradition meaningful to his country's past, present and future".<ref>{{cite web|author-link= Wilfrid Mellers|last= Mellers|first= Wilfrid|title= Alan Bush and the English Tradition|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/articles/article_wmellers.asp?room=Articles|publisher= The Alan Bush Music Trust|access-date= 30 June 2017}} Originally published in the Trust's ''Clarion'' magazine, August 1998.</ref> Hall describes Bush as "a key figure in the democratisation of art in Britain, achieving far more in this regard than his pedagogic, utopian patrons and peers, the labour romantics."<ref>{{cite web|last= Hall|first= Duncan|title= More Than a Pleasant Way to Pass the Time? Alan Bush and Socialist Music Between the Wars (book preview)|url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/articles/article_dhall.asp?room=Articles|publisher= The Alan Bush Music Trust|access-date= 2 July 2017}}</ref>

Bush's long career as a teacher influenced generations of English composers and performers. Tippett was never a formal pupil, but hashe acknowledged a deep debt to Bush.<ref name= Tippett/> [[Herbert Murrill]], a pupil of Bush's at the RAM in the 1920s, wrote in 1950 of his tutor: "[T]here is humility in his makeup, and I believe that no man can achieve greatness in the arts without humility ... To Alan Bush I owe much, not least the artistic strength and right to differ from him".<ref>Murrill, p. 19</ref> Among postwar Bush students who later led distinguished careers are the composers [[Timothy Bowers]], [[Edward Gregson]], [[David Gow (composer)|David Gow]], [[Roger Steptoe]], [[E. Florence Whitlock]], and [[Michael Nyman]], and the pianists [[John Bingham (pianist)|John Bingham]] and [[Graham Johnson (musician)|Graham Johnson]].<ref name= ODNB/><ref name= Daula/> Through his sponsorship of the London String Quartet Bush helped launch the careers of string players such as [[Norbert Brainin]] and [[Emanuel Hurwitz]], both of whom later achieved international recognition.{{refn|Brainin founded the [[Amadeus Quartet]], which performed worldwide for forty years.<ref>{{cite web|title= Amadeus Quartet|url= http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/00724?q=Amadeus+Quartet&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit|publisher= Grove Music Online|access-date= 22 June 2017}} {{subscription required}}</ref> Hurwitz led many groups, including the [[Aeolian Quartet]] from 1970 until its disbandment.<ref>{{cite web|title= Hurwitz, Emanuel (Henry)| url= http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/13597?q=Emanuel+Hurwitz&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit |publisher= Grove Music Online|access-date= 22 June 2017}} {{subscription required}}</ref> |group= n}}

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>

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>

[[Category:MaleEnglish operamale classical composers]]

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