Patrick Arthur Sheldon Hadley (5 March 1899 – 17 December 1973) was a British composer.

Biography

Patrick Sheldon Hadley was born on 5 March 1899 in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

. His father,

William Sheldon Hadley :''The subject was sometimes surnamed "Hadley", and sometimes "Sheldon Hadley"'' William Sheldon Hadley, LL.D (b. Moseley 22 October 1859 – d, Heacham 25 December 1927) was a British academic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Hadley was ...

, was at that time a fellow of Pembroke College. His mother, Edith Jane, was the daughter of the Revd Robert Foster, chaplain to the

Royal Hibernian Military School The Royal Hibernian Military School was founded in Dublin, Ireland in 1769, to educate orphaned children of members of the British armed forces in Ireland. In 1922 the Royal Hibernian Military School moved to Shorncliffe, in Folkestone, Kent, ...

in Dublin. Patrick attended St Ronan's Preparatory School at

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and H ...

, Sussex and

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

. However the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

interrupted his education. He enlisted in the army and was commissioned as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until 1 ...

in the

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of ...

. He managed to survive unscathed until the last weeks of the war, when he received an injury necessitating the below-knee amputation of his right leg. This profoundly damaged his confidence and also caused him to perhaps drink more than was wise; he was in constant pain, for which alcohol provided some relief. Patrick's elder brother Peyton Sheldon Hadley, a former pupil of

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

, who served in the infantry, was also wounded in the closing months of the War. He was invalided home to convalesce, but died of pneumonia that October. A memorial to Peyton is found in the Charterhouse School Chapel. After the war Patrick went up to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where by now his father was Master. He was fortunate to study with both Charles Wood and the English composer Cyril Rootham. Hadley was awarded

B.Mus. Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of presc ...

in 1922, and an MA in 1925. He then went to the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

in London. Here he came under the influence of

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

for composition and

Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in Londo ...

and Malcolm Sargent for conducting. Eric Weatherell notes that Hadley's contemporaries at the RCM included

Constant Lambert Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founder and music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton) he was a major figure in t ...

and

Gordon Jacob Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob CBE (5 July 18958 June 1984) was an English composer and teacher. He was a professor at the Royal College of Music in London from 1924 until his retirement in 1966, and published four books and many articles about ...

. He won the Sullivan prize for composition: at that time the sum of 5 shillings. He became a member of the RCM staff in 1925 and taught composition. He became acquainted with

Frederick Delius file:Fritz Delius (1907).jpg, Delius, photographed in 1907 Frederick Theodore Albert Delius ( 29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934), originally Fritz Delius, was an English composer. Born in Bradford in the north of England to a prosperous mercan ...

( Eric Fenby describes the role played by Hadley in recovering the long-lost score of Delius's early opera '' Koanga''), Ernest John Moeran, Sir

Arnold Bax Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, (8 November 1883 – 3 October 1953) was an English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral musi ...

William Walton Sir William Turner Walton (29 March 19028 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include ''Façade'', the canta ...

, Alan Rawsthorne, and

Herbert Howells Herbert Norman Howells (17 October 1892 – 23 February 1983) was an English composer, organist, and teacher, most famous for his large output of Anglican church music. Life Background and early education Howells was born in Lydney, Glouces ...

. During 1937–38 Hadley assisted his friend and former teacher Cyril Rootham (by then terminally ill) in completing his Second Symphony. Acting as amanuensis, Hadley and others took dictation and transcribed the entire sketch for the symphony and the orchestration of the first two movements. At Rootham's request, Hadley also completed the orchestration of the final movement after the composer's death in March 1938. In 1938 Hadley was elected to a Fellowship at

Gonville and Caius College Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of t ...

in Cambridge and appointed as a lecturer in the music faculty. Much of his time was spent in mundane administrative activities, but there was still time available for composition. Some of his greatest works were written during and after the war. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

he deputised for Boris Ord as conductor and musical director of the

Cambridge University Music Society The Cambridge University Musical Society (CUMS) is a federation of the university's main orchestral and choral ensembles, which cumulatively put on a substantial concert season during the university term. Background Music has a long history at Cam ...

. There he introduced a number of important works, including Delius' ''Appalachia'' and '' A Song of the High Hills''. He was keen to promote a wide range of music, including the formation of a

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which '' H.M.S. ...

Society. Much of his time was spent in making arrangements for the use of the males in the choir. Sadly, few of these have survived. We know them only from programme notes and hearsay. In 1946 he was elected to the Chair of Music at Cambridge University. He retained this post until his retirement in 1962. Some of the students taught by Hadley included

Raymond Leppard Raymond John Leppard (11 August 1927 – 22 October 2019) was a British-American conductor, harpsichordist, composer and editor. In the 1960s, he played a prime role in the rebirth of interest in Baroque music; in particular, he was one of th ...

, Sir David Lumsden, Patrick Gowers, Sir Philip Ledger, Peter le Huray and

Richard Hey Lloyd Richard Hey Lloyd (25 June 1933 - 24 April 2021) was a British organist and composer. Biography Richard Lloyd was born near Stockport, Cheshire, the younger of two children of Charles Yates Lloyd, an accountant, and his wife Ann Lloyd (née Hey ...

. In 1962 Hadley retired to Heacham in Norfolk, living in Shalcross, Wilton Road. He wished to pursue his interest in

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

collection. However, he latterly struggled with throat cancer and this caused many of his activities to be suspended. Patrick Hadley died on 17 December 1973 at

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, ...

. He was 74 years old.

Music

Patrick Hadley was influenced by the music of

and also to a certain extent

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

. But there were other non-musical influences in his life too: Ireland and

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nort ...

gave him a profound sense of landscape and location. His output was limited. He found the business of composing quite exhausting. Most people think of Hadley as composer of one or two church anthems: ''

I Sing of a Maiden "I syng of a mayden" (sometimes titled "As Dewe in Aprille") is a Middle English lyric poem or carol of the 15th century celebrating the Annunciation and the Virgin Birth of Jesus. It has been described as one of the most admired short vernac ...

'' and the mildly exotic ''My Beloved spake''. The catalogue shows a wide variety of musical forms: from a symphonic

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

to incidental music for ''

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins V ...

''. However, there are no cycles of symphonies, concertos, or

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinist ...

s. He maintained throughout his a career a sense of the lyrical. Not for him was the experimental music of the Second Vienna School. He had an exceptional understanding of how to set words to music. Much of his music is meditative and quite inward looking. As noted by Bernard Benoliel,Benoliel, Bernard in many ways Hadley is a link between Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten. For example, the first movement of ''The Trees so High'' anticipates in some respects the opening movement of Vaughan Williams's Fifth Symphony, while the 'Taxal Woods' scene from ''The Hills'' has a sparely atmospheric, Britten-like quality.Palmer, Christopher

Works

On 19 March 1925 Constant Lambert was the piano soloist at a College concert for a performance of Hadley's ''Ephemera,'' a setting of W B Yeats for soprano, flute, oboe, string quartet and piano completed the year before. ''Ephemera'' was probably influenced by Peter Warlock's ''

The Curlew ''The Curlew'' is a song cycle by Peter Warlock on poems by W. B. Yeats. It is generally considered one of the composer's finest works. It was written between 1920 and 1922 for singer and an unusual accompanying group of flute, cor anglais and st ...

'' (1920–22) and approaches the Celtic twilight mood of Warlock's piece, though it is less melancholic. Lambert conducted the work again in a version for soprano and small orchestra in a BBC broadcast on 18 December 1931. While ''Ephemera'' remained unpublished, another song of farewell scored for similar ensemble, ''Scene from The Woodlanders'' (1925, a setting of

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Wo ...

) is more assured and was accepted for publication by

Hubert Foss Hubert James Foss (2 May 1899 – 27 May 1953) was an English pianist, composer, and first Musical Editor (1923–1941) for Oxford University Press (OUP) at Amen House in London. His work at the Press was a major factor in promoting music and ...

at the Oxford University Press in 1926. Hadley continued to write works for solo voice and small ensemble throughout his career, such as ''

Mariana Mariana may refer to: Literature * ''Mariana'' (Dickens novel), a 1940 novel by Monica Dickens * ''Mariana'' (poem), a poem by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson * ''Mariana'' (Vaz novel), a 1997 novel by Katherine Vaz Music *"Mariana", a so ...

'' (setting Tennyson) in 1937 and ''Lines from ' The Cenci (setting Shelley) in 1951. One of Hadley's undoubted masterpieces is his ''Symphonic Ballad: The Trees So High'', completed in 1931, and first performed in Cambridge the following year. It was at one stage described by Hadley as a 'symphony in A minor'. This work, for baritone, chorus, and full orchestra, uses the melodic framework of the Somerset folksong of that name. The work is in four movements, though it is only in the last movement that Hadley deploys the chorus and soloist, quoting the folksong explicitly in its entirety. Hadley likened his technique in this work to ‘three independent brooks which flow into one stream at the beginning of the finale’. A shorter, but important, choral work, ''La Belle Dame sans merci'' followed in 1935. This 'short masterpiece' sets the well-known poem by Keats and lasts approximately 10 minutes in performance. ''The Hills'' was completed in 1944 and is perhaps the finest of Hadley's cantatas, the other two being ''Fen and Flood'' and ''Connemara'', both dating from the 1950s. ''The Hills'' has strong autobiographical links, dealing with the meeting, courtship and marriage of his parents, introduced retrospectively by the narrator (bass soloist) as he returns after his mother's death to the landscape where these events once took place. Hadley wrote: 'I lost my mother in 1940 and that set my mind to the Derbyshire hills where she met my father.' Many specific local place-names are quoted in the text. As Christopher Palmer notes, the emotion which the composer is ever concerned to communicate is ecstasy. ''Fen and Flood'' was completed in 1955: its text both provides a history of the Norfolk Fens and commemorates the devastating floods that hit the North Norfolk coast on the night of 31 January 1953. Originally performed in 1955 by reduced forces, including a male voice chorus, it was arranged by Vaughan Williams for fuller forces, including a mixed chorus, to increase the chances of the work being performed. At the first performance of the expanded version in 1956 one of the soloists was Fred Calvert, the King's Lynn Superintendent of Police who had directed the emergency operations during the floods. The text he sang was the words he used during the emergency! Hadley wrote little for orchestra alone: purely instrumental music did not hold much attraction for him. Perhaps the gentlest introduction to Hadley is his short orchestral work ''One Morning in Spring'', which was composed to celebrate Ralph Vaughan Williams' seventieth birthday in 1942. It is a fine example of an English

tone poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...

. The early (1923) orchestral sketch ''

Kinder Scout Kinder Scout is a moorland plateau and national nature reserve in the Dark Peak of the Derbyshire Peak District in England. Part of the moor, at above sea level, is the highest point in the Peak District, in Derbyshire and the East Midlands; ...

'', a musical evocation of the distinctive

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...

peak, remained in manuscript, but was recorded for the first time in September 2019 by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Rumon Gamba. It is strikingly scored, calling for cor anglais but no oboes.Notes to ''British Tone Poems, Volume 2''
/ref> Hadley's last major work was his ''Lenten Meditations'' (also known as ''A Lenten Cantata'' or ''A Cantata for Lent''), which was completed in 1962. This is a setting of Biblical texts, written for tenor and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra with organ. Although Hadley was best of friends with Ralph Vaughan Williams, he was not so drawn into the folk song revival. Still, much of his music has subtle folk characteristics. Many of the shorter works in the composer's output, such as anthems for liturgical use, were connected with the choir of

, Cambridge. He also made a number of arrangements of works in many different genres, from

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

's ''Stabat Mater'' to ''Waltzing Matilda''.

Recordings

* ''La Belle Dame sans merci'': Neill Archer (tenor), Philharmonia Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Matthias Bamert, 1992, reissued on CD as Chandos CHAN 241-22. * ''Fen and Flood'', arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams for soloists, mixed chorus and orchestra: Mary Bevan (soprano), Leigh Melrose (baritone), Joyful Company of Singers, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paul Daniel, 2010, issued on Albion Records ALBCD 012. * ''The Hills'', Felicity Palmer (soprano), Robert Tear (tenor), Robert Lloyd (bass), Cambridge University Musical Society Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Philip Ledger, 1975, reissued on CD as EMI CDM 5 67118 2. * ''I sing of a maiden'': Choir of King's College, Cambridge and Francis Grier (organ), conducted by Philip Ledger, 1975, reissued on CD as EMI CDM 5 67118 2. * ''Kinder Scout''. BBC Philharmonic conducted by Rumon Gamba, on ''British Tone Poems Volume 2'', Chandos Records CHAN 10981, September 2019. * ''Lenten Meditations'': Neill Archer (tenor), Stephen Richardson (bass), Leslie Pearson (organ), Philharmonia Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Matthias Bamert, 1992, reissued on CD as Chandos CHAN 241-22. * ''My beloved spake'': Choir of King's College, Cambridge and James Lancelot (organ), conducted by Sir David Willcocks, 1973, reissued on CD as EMI CDM 5 67118 2. * ''One Morning in Spring'': London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, 1979, reissued on Lyrita SRCD 245. * ''One Morning in Spring'': Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Matthias Bamert, 1992, reissued on CD as Chandos CHAN 241-22. * ''The Trees so High'': David Wilson-Johnson (baritone), Philharmonia Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Matthias Bamert, 1992, reissued on CD as Chandos CHAN 241-22. * ''The Trees so High'': Thomas Allen (baritone), Guildford Philharmonic Choir, New Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Vernon Handley, 1979, reissued on CD as Lyrita SRCD 238.

References

Notes

Sources

* Benoliel, Bernard. Booklet, Chandos CD CHAN 241-22 (2005) * Connock, Stephen. Booklet, Albion Records ALBCD 012 (2011) * * * Mann, William. Booklet, Lyrita CD SRCD 238 (2007), originally written for 1979 Lyrita LP issue * Palmer, Christopher. Booklet, EMI CD 5 67118 2 (1999), originally written for 1976 EMI Angel LP * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hadley, Patrick 1899 births 1973 deaths People from Cambridge English classical composers Alumni of the Royal College of Music People educated at Winchester College 20th-century classical composers Musicians from Cambridgeshire Royal Field Artillery officers British Army personnel of World War I Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Academics of the Royal College of Music Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge English male classical composers 20th-century English composers Amanuenses 20th-century British male musicians Professors of Music (Cambridge) 20th-century musicologists