Music Review: The Heaton Collection Volume 5
Music Review: The Heaton Collection Volume 5
18 October 2016
If, like me, you are fascinated by the music of Wilfred Heaton (1918-2000), you now have the opportunity to hear some “new” music of his, even though he died 16 years ago. A chamber choir, formed to perform this music, consists of songsters from various corps in the United Kingdom, directed by Songster Leader Martin Bennett of Nottingham William Booth Memorial Halls, whose great aunt (the excellent sleeve notes by Paul Hindmarsh tell us) was Heaton’s first piano teacher, in Sheffield. Two fine soloists, Hazel Launn (soprano) and Bobby Irvine (tenor), are featured, as well as piano accompanist Elliot Launn and a 10-piece brass ensemble.
You can now hear how Heaton’s compositional mind was working at the age of 12. The song entitled The Army’s Marching Song, with words by May Bennett, is no doubt influenced by the kind of band marches Heaton would have heard as a child. It was published in 1933. Published in 1938 was the song Our Glorious King, with words by Walter Windybank. It is performed here with a brass accompaniment created by Richard Holz. In a very different vein is Intercede, O Lord, written in the 1950s, one of three lyrics by Kenneth Tout which Heaton set to music. It is a marvellous marriage of words and music, full of tension, full of pleading, which is only resolved in the final bars, as the music resolves from the stark minor key to its relative major. This song is a highlight for me. The other Tout songs are A City Prayer and Eternal Decision. There is one last contribution from Kenneth Tout, made at the request of Paul Hindmarsh in recent days. Paul’s sleeve note explains that the music For Babe Born This Day was originally written by Heaton for clarinet, for his granddaughter Emma, in the 1990s. Its inclusion on this recording, in a new guise, is very fitting.
Albert Mingay was another with whom Heaton collaborated. This came about because Mingay was Heaton’s corps officer at Sheffield Park in the 1930s. I am privileged to have the original manuscript of With Empty Hands, given to me by Heaton, including the handwritten original copy of the words by Adjutant Mingay. It was one of a number that he gave me that he had never heard, so that my wife Patricia could record it for him. It has a lush, romantic quality, which will probably come as a shock to those acquainted only with Heaton’s band music. In a letter to me dated 11 March 1993, he says of it: “I seem to have been suffering from an acute bout of Debussyitis at the time.” It is beautifully performed here by Hazel, and the challenging accompaniment, including the Debussy moments, are effortlessly handled by Elliot Launn. Mingay also provided Marred For Me, a song for male voices, on a subject that you might think rather sombre for such a young composer – but this was no ordinary young composer!
In sharp contrast, Safe In The Promised Land features the male voices in dialogue with soloists Bobby Irvine and Richard McIntosh. It is a high-spirited romp through a song (anon) from an early Salvation Army songbook, with a colourful brass accompaniment reminiscent in places of his famous brass work Toccata. The solo Welcome For Me!, published in 1970, is given a warm and lyrical performance by Irvine; the charming words by Fanny Crosby elicit some beautifully tender lines from the composer.
Irvine’s other contribution is the muchloved On The Road, another Mingay collaboration from the 1930s, while Hazel Launn features again in a setting of Ralph Featherstone’s words, My Jesus I Love Thee. She handles its high register with ease. Elisha Hoffman’s Glory To His Name! is given a more thoughtful setting than has often been provided by others in the past.
Also newly included in this recording and given a first recording are Three Hymns. The first two are settings of words by John Bunyan, and the latter by Henry Longfellow. Hindmarsh has adapted these from Heaton’s manuscript, producing straightforward, a cappella chorales that can be sung and enjoyed by groups of all standards.
The hymn-tune arrangement, Martyn, forms the finale to this recording, in a specially created version for choir and band, to George Robinson’s words Loved With Everlasting Love. Heaton was a shy, private man, with enormous gifts as a composer. For a variety of reasons – including the particular nature of his own spiritual journey, feelings of rejection by the musical establishment, both inside and outside The Salvation Army, and his own sense of perfectionism – his compositional output is not as large as it might have been. This recording offers us a unique opportunity to hear just a little bit more of his work, and I am grateful to his son-in-law Bryan Stobart, the Heaton Trust, Martin Bennett and all the dedicated musicians involved in this project for making that possible.
The Heaton Collection: Volume 5 – Vocal Works is available from Salvationist Supplies for $28.50. Go to thetrade.salvos.org.au or phone (02) 9466 3257.
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