[영국]Arnold (Edward Trevor) Bax

English composer and poet

Bax in 1922

Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax KCVO (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 music. In addition to a series of symphonic poems he wrote seven symphonies and was for a time widely regarded as the leading British symphonist.

Bax was born in the London suburb of Streatham to a prosperous family. He was encouraged by his parents to pursue a career in music, and his private income enabled him to follow his own path as a composer without regard for fashion or orthodoxy. Consequently, he came to be regarded in musical circles as an important but isolated figure. While still a student at the Royal Academy of Music Bax became fascinated with Ireland and Celtic culture, which became a strong influence on his early development. In the years before the First World War he lived in Ireland and became a member of Dublin literary circles, writing fiction and verse under the pseudonym Dermot O'Byrne. Later, he developed an affinity with Nordic culture, which for a time superseded his Celtic influences in the years after the First World War.

Between 1910 and 1920 Bax wrote a large amount of music, including the symphonic poem Tintagel, his best-known work. During this period he formed a lifelong association with the pianist Harriet Cohen – at first an affair, then a friendship, and always a close professional relationship. In the 1920s he began the series of seven symphonies which form the heart of his orchestral output. In 1942 Bax was appointed Master of the King's Music, but composed little in that capacity. In his last years he found his music regarded as old-fashioned, and after his death it was generally neglected. From the 1960s onwards, mainly through a growing number of commercial recordings, his music was gradually rediscovered, although little of it is heard with any frequency in the concert hall. In more recent years, Bax's music has been (re-)discovered enthusiastically by a new generation via online distribution services such as YouTube.

[List of compositions by Arnold Bax]

그의 음악은 제1·2차 세계대전 사이에 출현한 신낭만주의 경향을 대표한다.

백스는 1900년 영국 왕립 음악 아카데미에 들어가 피아노를 공부했고, 1909년 켈트 문예부흥과 아일랜드 시의 영향을 받아 교향시 〈패리 힐스에서 In the Faëry Hills〉를 작곡했다.

1910년 러시아에 체류했고, 그후 수년 동안 아일랜드에서 더모트 오번이라는 필명으로 단편소설과 시들을 발표했다. 1916~17년 3편의 교향시 〈팬드의 정원 The Garden of Fand〉·〈틴타겔 Tintagel〉·〈11월의 숲 November Woods〉 등을 써서 명성을 확고히 했다. J. M. 배리의 희곡을 대본으로 작곡한 발레 〈러시아 무용가들에 관한 진실 The Truth About the Russian Dancers〉이 1920년 세르게이 디아길레프 무용단에 의해 공연되었다.

1921~39년 존 아일런드와 얀 시벨리우스 등 존경하는 음악가들에게 7개의 교향곡을 헌정했다. 〈비올라와 하프를 위한 소나타〉(1928)·〈목관 악기, 현악기, 하프를 위한 9중주〉(1931)를 비롯하여 피아노곡과 실내악 작품들도 다수 남겼다. 오랫동안 아일랜드와 스코틀랜드 해안지방에 살면서 낭만적이고 화려한 색채의 관현악곡들을 썼다. 1937년 기사작위를 받았으며 1941년 국왕 음악교사로 임명되었다.[다음백과]