Charles. D Helge
Beatrice Harrison and Jacqueline du Pré:
Misrepresentation and Mythology and the Elgar Cello Concerto
The infinitesimal silence between the final notes of a piece and the roaring wave of
applause that takes its place, while no more than a millisecond, is the dividing line
between a performer’s statement and the persona that is created by the forces surrounding
him or her. Sound is a the driving force behind the musical community yet with all its
impetus, it is temporally fragile, and therefore, moldable by perception. Conductor David
Barenboim (1942-) articulates by analogizing the phenomenon of sound and the concept
of a life.
Sound has several very interesting aspects… One is duration—that there is a
connection between sound and time. But before that there is a connection between
sound and silence. When one speaks about sound, every one speaks of the color of
sound— a bright sound or a dark sound. Which is of course nonsense because
what may be dark for one is light for the other, and vice versa. It’s very
subjective. I could say “It’s a beautiful sound.” What is a beautiful sound? So it’s
very subjective and not really a definable characterization. Whereas the duration
of sound and its relation to silence is a very objective thing. I sing a note or I
whistle a note and when I have no more air, the note goes. Where does it go? Into
the silence again. And when we observe that really more clearly we see that sound
has a relationship with silence not unlike the law of gravity. In order to lift a
certain object from the ground we have to use energy. But then to sustain it at that
level, we have to keep on adding energy or otherwise the object falls to the
ground. It’s exactly the same thing with the sound. We need a certain amount of
energy to produce the sound. But then to sustain it we have to give more energy
or otherwise it goes and it dies in silence. And therefore sound is absolutely,
inextricably connected to time, to the length of time. And this, I think, is what
gives it, or even more so when it becomes music, its really tragic element of the
fact that it can die, of the fact that it is a lifetime. Every note is a lifetime for
itself.1
1
“Physics of Sound: Daniel Barenboim on the Duration of Notes,” PBS, accessed
October 12th, 2010, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/video/physics-ofsound/daniel-barenboim-on-the-duration-of-notes/43/.
1
Just as sound must return to silence so must the voice of an artist. Who someone is
inevitably becomes what they were through the lens of scholarship and the eyes of each
scholar. Whether this takes place after the concert or at the end of a lifetime, the error
made by both scholars and the music community at large is to mistake the guise of
mythology for the illumination of accurate representation. This is illustrated by two
extraordinary cellists. Beatrice Harrison (1892-1965) and Jacqueline du Pré’s (19451987) individual careers and legacies are inseparable from the century-long narrative of
Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op 85. Harrison, a colleague of Elgar, was
first to record the concerto. With changing fashions and taste, however, Harrison’s
popularity faded and the legacy of her career was reduced to a footnote of “feminized
playing” and became a mere stepping-stone for the concerto’s next champion, Jacqueline
du Pré. Du Pré’s 1965 recording with Sir John Barbolli sparked the imagination of
performers and audiences alike and secured her cellistic celebrity status. To demystify the
context surrounding these two players will yield a better understanding of not only their
careers but of how scholarship can mold the facts.
Of the two performers, Jacqueline du Pré is the best known and she is most closely
associated with the Elgar Cello Concerto. The New York Times provided this description
of du Pré’s early life in their 1987 obituary.
Jacqueline du Pré was born in Oxford, England, on Jan. 26, 1945. Her talent was
obvious from an early age, and she began cello lessons when she was 5 years old.
Her early teachers included Herbert Walenn and William Pleeth; she later studied
with Paul Tortelier, Mstislav Rostropovich and Pablo Casals. At the age of 11 she
won her first competition, and she eventually took every possible prize for cellists
at the Guildhall School of Music.2
2
The New York Times, “Obituaries, Jacqueline d Pre, Noted Cellist, Is Dead at 42,” The
New York Times, October 20, 1987, accessed October 12th 2012,
2
Du Pré’s development as a cellist was prodigious. Yet it was her recording of the Elgar
Cello Concerto that solidified her artistic voice and her status as a titanic figure in
cellistic history. Justin Solomon gives this account in his paper “Deconstructing the
Definitive Recording: Elgar’s Cello Concerto and the Influence of Jacqueline du Pré”.
Accounts of Jacqueline du Pré’s 1965 recording session for the Elgar Cello
Concerto with Sir John Barbirolli border on mythical. Only twenty years old at
the time, du Pré impressed the audio engineers and symphony members so much
that word of a historic performance quickly spread to an audience of local music
enthusiasts, who arrived after a break to witness the remainder of the session.
Reviewers of the recording uniformly praised the passion and depth of du Pré’s
interpretation; one reviewer went so far as to dub the disc “the standard version of
the concerto, with or without critical acclaim.”3
If praise from the audio engineers, musicians, and critics were not enough to cement du
Pré’s artistic ownership of the piece, Mstislav Rostropovich’s stamp of approval banished
all doubts. In 1966, during Jacqueline’s visit to Moscow, Russian super-star Rostropovich
claimed “du Pré was the only cellist of the younger generation who could equal and
overtake his own achievement”4 and consequently removed the concerto from his
performed repertoire.
However, 45 years before du Pré’s playing enchanted the world with her recording of
Elgar’s Cello Concerto, another figure filled the silence of the concert hall with Elgar’s
music. Beatrice Harrison not only recorded the concerto twice, once in 1920 and again in
1928, but she did so under the baton of Sir Edward Elgar himself.
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/20/obituaries/jacqueline-du-pre-noted-cellist-isdead-at-42.html.
3
Solomon, Justin, “Deconstructing the Definitive Recording: Elgar’s Cello Concerto and
the Influence of Jacqueline du Pré,” (paper presented 2009 Hoefer Prize for
Excellence in Undergraduate Writing, Stanford, California, 2009), accessed on
October 12th, 2012, http://www.stanford.edu/~justso1/, 1.
4
Wilson, Elizabeth, “Forever Young: Jacqueline du Pré a 60th anniversary celebration”,
BBC Music Magazine, February 2005, 5.
3
Beatrice Harrison’s biography is uncannily similar to du Pré’s, though general
knowledge of Harrison seems to be incomplete due to misrepresentation and a lack of
representation. Both British musicians began playing as a duo with a sister (May Harrison
and Hilary du Pré respectively) and both were recognized at a young age to have
prodigious talent. In 1907, The Musical Times provided this biography of Beatrice
Harrison, whose young age and international success were remarkable merits:
As a baby of two years Beatrice showed a marked interest in the violoncello: at
the age of five she began to learn the violin and pianoforte, and two years later
(age seven) passed the examinations of the Association Board in both these
instruments. As soon as she had sufficiently grown she began the study of the
violoncello at the age of nine, using from the first a full-sized instrument… Miss
Beatrice was only ten-and-a-half years old when she achieved the remarkable feat
of winning the gold medal of the Association Board at the Senior Local
Examination, gaining absolutely full remarks, and moreover against nearly 4,000
competitors, male and female, from all parts of the Empire!5
Harrison’s reputation, like du Pré’s, was helped by a cellist who had already established
himself as a leader of the instrument. Yet in Harrison’s case, the reference is neither
direct nor intentional. This copy of the Musical Times reviewed a string of current
London concerts. Three performances by cellists are presented on the page, one of which
belongs to Señor Casals. This is of course a reference to the godfather of modern cello
playing, Pablo Casals (The Harrison sister in the lower left corner and Pablo Casals
(1876-1973) in the upper right hand corner). Harrison, in her own right, is represented
shoulder-to-shoulder with Casals in a glowing review with her sister May.
A satisfying performance of Brahms’ Double Concerto for violin, violoncello and
orchestra occurs but rarely, as the soloists, however clever they may be, seldom
play as with one mind. That given by the Misses May and Beatrice Harrison at
Queen’s Hall on May 30 was more than satisfying. It could hardly have been
5
“Lady Violoncellists and One in Particular,” The Musical Times , Vol. 48, No. 771,
May 1, 1907, 308.
4
bettered in its purity and execution and expressiveness, or in its unanimity. The
orchestra was that of the Queen’s Hall, conducted by Sir Henry Wood.6
While Beatrice and Jacqueline share similar histories, their treatment in modern
sources has been very different. If the general public knows Beatrice Harrison’s name at
all, it is as a footnote in the life of Jacqueline du Pré. For example, a reader of The New
York Times in October of 1987 may have been exposed to Harrison’s name in the middle
of Jacqueline du Pré’s obituary:
Miss du Pré excelled in a wide variety of music, specializing in the sonatas of
Johannes Brahms and the concertos of Haydn, Boccherini, Schumann, Dvorak
and Saint-Saens. She had a particular affinity for English music, and made
memorable recordings of the Delius and Elgar concertos. The Elgar was
associated more closely with her than with any other cellist since Beatrice
Harrison, who died in 1965.7
6
“London Concerts.” The Musical Times , Vol. 53, No. 833 (Jul. 1, 1912), pp. 486
7
The New York Times, “Obituaries, Jacqueline du Pre.”
5
While this may seem like a harmless or benign reference, the cumulative lack of
discussion in this and other sources, can lead to an inaccurate representation of a
historical figure.
Another unintentionally damaging account to Harrison’s legacy also came in 1987 in
the form of scholarship on modern cello technique. An expanded mention of Harrison
appeared in an academic journal: Tilden Russell’s article “The Development of the
Endpin” in Imago Musicae IV published by the International Repertory of Musical
Iconography. Combined with his 1993 article “New Light on the Historical Manner of the
Holding of the Cello in Historical Performance vi/2”, these two pieces of scholarship
form the Grove entry that further shapes Harrison’s representation.
When method books first began to advocate use of the endpin, around 1880, it
was again considered to be a new invention. It did not meet with immediate,
universal acceptance; many well-known cellists such as Grützmacher, Piatti and
Hausmann continued to adhere to the old position. Women cellists appear to have
been pioneers in the adoption of the endpin, because of widespread disapproval of
their holding the cello between the legs, a prejudice that persisted until well into
the 20th century. The endpin allowed the cello to be held away from the body in
positions that, around 1900, were deemed more decorous, either with the legs
turned to the left in side-saddle fashion, or with the right leg almost kneeling
behind the cello, a position in which Beatrice Harrison was photographed.8
Although women pioneered what can be considered the most significant modern
technological development of the cello, the connotation of side-saddle playing in
academic and musical circles is feminized. Carol Easton, biographer and author of
Jacqueline du Pré: A Life, provides an example of this. Easton seems to fill in the space
with her own claims of gendering and historical correctness. She suggests that du Pré’s
Russell, Tilden, “Endpin,” Grove Music Online, Accessed on October 12th, 2012,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.lib.indiana.edu/subscriber/article/grove/musi
c/08788?q=Beatrice+Harrison&search=quick&pos=11&_start=1#firsthit.
8
6
few predecessors were limited by this technical inferiority and that a masculine style gave
the cellist a more powerful tone and improved musical presence:
Few women became professional musicians when Jacqueline du Pre was growing
up. Few women ever attempted the cello, the instrument this child liked the sound
of. Jacqueline attended the London Violoncello School, whose little girls were
“the first to be taught to sit in the ‘masculine’ way. Until the Second World War,
the cello had been very much a man’s instrument; it was considered rather
immodest to play the cello. Girls were taught to sit with one leg discreetly tucked
under the instrument; the right knee dipped down in a sort of side-saddle position.
It was awkward and illogical, and terrible for the back. But the first women who
played with their knees sticking out and the cello between them were considered
hussies… Jacqueline ignored such socializing forces. “For a woman, the power
and quality of [du Pre’s performances] are stunning,” wrote a reviewer. “Women
usually have a small tone- this girl plays like five men.”… With her cello firmly
balanced between her knees, Jacqueline du Pre became world-renowned for her
impassioned playing.”9
Easton does not name Beatrice Harrison. However, this may be considered a case of bias
or an error of omission. Contrary to both Eason and Russell’s accounts, Beatrice Harrison
is an example of a female cellist who pioneered this outstanding technical characteristic
prior to Jacqueline du Pré as is suggested and is not the proponent of an inferior or
“feminine” technique.
Consider the following evidence. Beatrice Harrison, like du Pré, had a wide repertoire
and associated with some of the great musical figures of her time. Beatrice and her sister
May were close friends of composer Frederick Delius (1862-1934) and his family. In
1985, The Delius Society Journal published a 56-page commemorative issue on the
Harrison Sisters that supplies this photograph.10
9
Easton, Carol, “Jacqueline du Pré: A Life,” New York: Summit Books, 1989. 16.
10
The Delius Society Journal, “The Harrison Sisters Issue,” The Delius Society Journal,
No. 87 (Autumn, 1985): 5.
7
The picture appears to be have been posed for either public or private use. Either way,
a sense of propriety permeates the image. May stands poised with her violin at the ready.
Beatrice, with her left leg supporting the left side of the instrument, has tucked her right
leg behind the cello (notice the twisting of the torso to accommodate this position). This
supports the Russell’s account, and to a certain extent, the Carol Easton account.
However, other photographic evidence is contradictory to this representation. For
example, in the same Delius journal, an artistic rendition of Beatrice Harrison is
presented.11
11
The Delius Society Journal, “The Harrison Sisters Issue,” 28.
8
This statue, made by Lady Scott, suggests a different story. Both of the cellist’s legs are
positioned solidly on each side of the cello (note the protruding knees and equally spaced
feet). This evidence is complicated by the fact that it is an artistic representation.
However, what it does suggest is that social conventions of the time were not skewed
against (or strongly enough against) a woman not playing side-saddle. Since this statue
was to be received in public, we may be concluded that it was deemed acceptable.
There is still stronger evidence that may revise the accounts of both Russell and Easton
that shows Harrison playing with an untucked right leg. The following photograph is
supplied by the Harrison Sisters’ Trust, an organization based in the United Kingdom.12
Harrison is seated with dynamic poise. Looking like the fully realized concert performer
and cellistic titan of her time, one can see that neither of Harrison’s legs is tucked behind
the cello (the right bow of the cello is clearly covered by her knee). She is, as Easton
says, seated in a “…‘masculine’ way… [playing] with [her] knees sticking out… [with]
“Beatrice,” The Harrison Sister Trust, accessed on October 12th, 2012,
http://www.harrisonsisterstrust.org.uk/beatrice.jpg.
12
9
her cello firmly balanced between her knees…”13
Yet the most damaging evidence to the traditional representation comes from a crucial
moment in the lives of Beatrice Harrison, Edward Elgar, and the Cello Concerto itself.
This candid photograph, from either 1920 or 1928, shows Harrison recording the
Concerto with Elgar conducting.14 Placed in a room full of male musicians and sound
technicians, Beatrice is seated squarely. While the position of the right leg is unclear
because of the position of the camera, combined with the context of Lady Scott’s statue
from the same period and the position of Harrison’s torso, we may conclude that it is
untucked.15 None of elements that would suggest a tucked leg is present. Harrison is
seated squarely with the chair and the cello and the left face of the cello is flush with the
side of the chair.
13
Easton, Carol, “Jacqueline du Pre: A Life,” 16.
14
Solomon, Justin, “Deconstructing the Definitive Recording”, 4.
10
The atmosphere and conditions of this photo is not unlike those of another taken of du
Pré during her recording session with Barbiolli in 1965.16 In almost identical situations,
Harrison and du Pré are female cellists in a male-dominated orchestral environment. It is
perhaps the most significant piece of evidence that could balance or perhaps overturn the
commonly held conception of Harrison as an over-feminized or outdated player.
What can be clearly seen, through scholastic and photographic evidence, is that while
Harrison and du Pré’s careers were almost identical for their respective times, traditional
scholarship and representation has diminished one and augmented the other. Mythology
has distorted the facts. However, most interesting is that the reverse should be true.
Harrison was progressive, not only for her cello technique of playing with the leg
untucked, but also for embracing new technology that had not been accepted by the
musical community:
16
Libbey, Ted, “Quiet Anguish in Elgar’s Cello Concerto,” Accessed on October 12th,
2012, http://www.npr.org/2011/07/18/120248259/quiet-anguish-in-elgars-celloconcerto.
11
Edward Elgar was one of the few [composers] to take recording technology
seriously. While many of [Elgar’s] contemporaries regarded recording as a
passing fad suitable only for popular music, Elgar left over fifteen hours of
compositions recorded under his baton, providing a lasting record of his personal
interpretations and performances.17
Harrison made two recordings that have left modern audiences with a direct account of
how Elgar heard his own piece. Therefore, Harrison should be considered a strong
candidate for the cellist with the “definitive recording”.
Even with this illuminating information, the fact remains that Harrison’s legacy has
not withstood the test of time and it is du Pré’s that has become mythic. While equals in
their respective time periods, the longevity of their personas and resulting mythologies
are very different. Du Pré would be identified in masculine terms (playing with the power
of five men) and a “stage presence… more typical of rock ‘n’ roll flamboyance [rather]
than of classical restraint.”18 This representation sharply contrasts that of Harrison. This
is due to Harrison’s identification as the nightingale. BBC contributor Robert Seatter
provided a commemorative piece in 2010 that explains this phenomenon.
On 19th May 1924, BBC radio listeners heard for the first time an extraordinary
duet live from a Surrey garden. The cellist was Beatrice Harrison, who had
recently performed the British debut of Delius's Cello Concerto, which had been
written for her. The nightingales were the birds in the woods around Harrison's
home in Oxted, who were attracted by the sound of her cello.
Harrison first became aware of the birds one summer evening as she practised her
instrument in the garden. As she played she heard a nightingale answer and then
echo the notes of the cello. When this duet was repeated night after night Harrison
somehow managed to persuade the BBC that it should be broadcast. Engineers
carried out a successful test and the following night the live broadcast took place.
Harrison played and the nightingales, eventually, joined in.
The public reaction was such that the experiment was repeated the next month
and then every spring for the following 12 years. Harrison and the nightingales
17
18
Solomon, 4.
Solomon, 21.
12
became internationally renowned and she received 50,000 fan letters. Writing in
the Radio Times before the second broadcast, BBC Managing Director John Reith
said the nightingale "has swept the country...with a wave of something closely
akin to emotionalism, and a glamour of romance has flashed across the prosaic
round of many a life".19
Harrison’s nightingale representation was so strong that it became an annual event that
became her own iconic persona. A whole generation of listeners’ views of Harrison was
defined by these radio broadcasts and, as her thousands of fan letters attest to, she was
supported and loved. 20 Many listeners of the BBC would have known Beatrice as an
ephemeral bird-like female making casual music in the domestic garden.
Evidently, it may have been Harrison’s own self-representation that validated historians,
critics, and the public in knowing and remembering her in this way since her own auto-
19
About the BBC Blog, http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/posts/beatrice-harrisoncello-and-ni.
20
About the BBC Blog, http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/posts/beatrice-harrisoncello-and-ni.
13
biography is titled The Cello and the Nightingale. It cannot be said whether or not
Harrison was conscious of how this would affect her legacy. Whether this was intentional
or unintentional, it set the stage for a star of a younger generation to overtake her
contributions.
In contrast, du Pré’s artistic contributions were immortalized by her untimely death:
Shortly after Jacqueline du Pré’s popularity as a charming classical star began to
decline, the legitimacy of her interpretations was once again reinforced by the
tragic story of her battle with multiple sclerosis and eventual death at age 42.
Artists were understandably hesitant to approach such a cornerstone of du Pré’s
repertoire, a piece upon which she had developed a successful career and an
adored musical personality. Not surprisingly, the Concerto itself became linked
with du Pré’s story, rather than the other way around.21
The deafening silence left by her early retirement and passing was immediately filled, not
by the sounds of her music, but by the biographers such as Easton, and the writers of
widely published newspapers. Subjective views about interpretation and du Pré’s status
as an artistic genius became widely validated by the tragedy. Fact, embellished by fiction,
became the narrative. Oscar nominated film Hilary and Jackie (1998) immortalized and
sensationalized du Pré’s triumphant life and gradual decline, feeding the flames of
misconceptions and mythology.
While the masculine label given to du Pré is non-descriptive and Harrison’s feminized
playing seems to be only half of the story, it is clear how ambiguous gendered labels can
mold perception. If Harrison was not represented as the nightingale, would she have been
so closely associated with an outdated technique? If du Pré had not followed a feminized
predecessor, and had she lived as long as Harrison, and had she been forced to ride the
tides of change, would she have been immortalized and mystified? Neither of these
questions has a definite answer. In a sense, both cellist’s legacies ended in tragedy.
21
Solomon, 21.
14
Neither performer has been understood on her own terms. Harrison, while undoubtedly
the nightingale, was a tremendous musician and innovator. Du Pré’s recording, while
widely recognized, has been blown out of proportion and misunderstood out of context.
Perhaps the best thing to do is simply listen to the recordings. They are, in fact, the most
unbiased source that one can find to represent who the performer was. This point is
strengthened by an account of Elgar’s last years.
Edward Elgar checked into a London nursing home in March of 1918 to have his
tonsils removed. Surgery on a sixty-year-old man was considered somewhat
dangerous, but his doctors decided it was necessary. "He was in a great deal of
pain for several days," the composer's daughter Carice wrote later. "There was not
anything like the sedatives we have now, but nevertheless, he woke up one
morning and asked for pencil and paper and wrote down the opening theme of the
Cello Concerto."
During his final illness in 1933, Elgar hummed the concerto's first theme to a
friend and said, "If ever after I'm dead you hear someone whistling this tune on
the Malvern Hills, don't be alarmed. It's only me.”22
While ephemeral by nature, sound is the direct source from which scholarship and
perception must begin and to which it must inevitably return.
22
“Elgar: His Music, Cello Concerto, Creating a Classic: Howe Elgar Came to Write the
Concerto,” The Elgar Society, www.elgar.org/3cello-c.htm, accessed on October
12th, 2012.
15
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No. 87 (Autumn, 1985): 1-56.
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Concerto.” The Elgar Society. www.elgar.org/3cello-c.htm. Accessed on October
12th, 2012.
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http://www.harrisonsisterstrust.org.uk/beatrice.jpg.
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Solomon, Justin. “Deconstructing the Definitive Recording: Elgar’s Cello Concerto and
the Influence of Jacqueline du Pré.” Paper presented 2009 Hoefer Prize for
Excellence in Undergraduate Writing, Stanford, California, 2009. Accessed on
October 12th, 2012. http://www.stanford.edu/~justso1/.
Wilson, Elizabeth. “Forever Young: Jacqueline du Pré a 60th anniversary celebration”.
BBC Music Magazine, February 2005.
16