by Caiti Beth McKinney
Hello, Horn Friends!
Happy February! This month, I am drawing your attention to a composer who has recently been experiencing a resurgence in popularity, Ruth Gipps. Born in a small, English seaside town in 1921, Gipps was an opinionated woman who tolerated no nonsense. This is perhaps unsurprising considering that she was regarded as a child prodigy in a time when even adult women performers, composers, and conductors in Classical music were still very few in number. Famously known for her direct, almost confrontational approach, Gipps staunchly opposed the Modernist movement and 12-tone compositional technique, instead choosing to follow in her mentors’ (Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughn Williams) styles, what she called “English pastoralism.” One of her priorities as a composer was to ensure that her music was accessible to a broad audience, containing memorable melodies in contrast to the Modernists’ embrace of atonality.
Ruth Gipps left us horn players several substantive works which are beginning to be performed more and more frequently, the most well-known of which is her Horn Concerto, Op. 58. What’s incredible to me, personally, about this piece is Gipps’ balance between intense technical virtuosity and melodic material; for example, in the first movement of the piece, interspersed between lyrical, flowing lines are blindingly fast arpeggiated motives which require the lightest of articulations. The second movement is a particular favorite of mine; it alternates between a lilting 7/8 and 3/8 time in a joyful scherzo which I find stuck in my head for days at a time. Also not to be missed are Gipps’ Sonatina, Op. 56 for horn and piano, and her surprisingly challenging narrated work, The Three Billy Goats Gruff for horn, oboe, and bassoon. If you are interested in learning more about this dynamic composer, check out Jill Halstead’s book entitled Ruth Gipps: Anti-Modernism, Nationalism and Difference in English Music. It’s a great read!
