An anniversary year is often deemed an appropriate occasion for the launch of biographies and retrospectives and the year 2002, being the 150th anniversary of the birth of composer Charles Villiers Stanford, proved no exception, with the release of not one but two monographs on his life and works. Paul Rodmell’s Charles Villiers Stanford was first past the post, giving him bragging rights as the producer of the first biography of Stanford since Harry Plunkett Greene published a personal and somewhat indulgent memoir of his friend in 1935. Jeremy Dibble’s Charles Villiers Stanford: Man and Musician followed later in 2002, marking a relatively early contribution to Dibble’s considerable research output on British and Irish music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which now includes monographs on Hubert Parry, John Stainer, Michele Esposito and Hamilton Harty. His 2002 work on Stanford has now been published in a new edition marking another anniversary, 2024 being the centenary of the composer’s death.

The intervening years have seen a marked turnaround in the reception of Stanford’s works and in his standing as a composer of symphonies, operas, chamber music and song. Although this rehabilitation had begun some time before the 2002 anniversary, his reputation had previously largely rested on his choral works, particularly those for the Anglican church, and on his achievements as a teacher and advocate for the profession of music. Dibble’s monograph and his championing of Stanford’s music has undoubtedly contributed to a more widespread reappraisal that has seen an upsurge in public performances and recordings of Stanford’s works, as well as a growth in scholarly attention to his considerable oeuvre. Dibble has firmly established himself as a leading Stanford authority and has immersed himself in projects including preparation of performance scores for the composer’s Mass Via Victrix (1914–1918), his Violin Concerto No. 2, and his choral work Song to the Soul. He has also acted as consultant and musical adviser on revival performances and recordings of Stanford’s operas – The Travelling Companion and The Veiled Prophet were performed from Dibble’s reconstructed scores in 2018 and 2019 respectively, and in October 2024, audiences at the Wexford Festival Opera will have the opportunity to hear Stanford’s 1915 opera The Critic, which Dibble also edited from manuscript.

This deep immersion in Stanford’s music reveals itself in extended analytical commentary in the revised and expanded edition of Dibble’s 2002 monograph. The new edition is more ‘expanded’ than ‘revised’, with almost all of the original content retained, alongside plentiful insertions representing new insights and sources. Those familiar with the first edition of Dibble’s monograph will note that the structure of the main body of text remains largely unchanged, following the unfolding of major events in Stanford’s life and career: his early years in Dublin; his scholarship years in Cambridge and appointment to the Royal College of Music; the Professorship in Cambridge; his work with the Leeds Triennial Festival and Leeds Philharmonic Society; the impact of the Great War; and his rather poignant final years as he struggled with political changes and diminishing relevance. Dibble charters Stanford’s compositions within this chronological structure, with analyses of the works set alongside details of their early performances and mentions in Stanford’s correspondence.

Plunkett Greene lamented in his 1935 biography that Stanford kept no diary, and only began to date his letters well into the 1880s, thus complicating the job that any future biographer might attempt. Stanford did write an autobiography of sorts, Pages from an Unwritten Diary (1914), a carefully curated collection of anecdotal material, often focusing more on the luminaries he met in the course of his career than on the man himself. Although many of his letters to friends and colleagues have survived, of those he received he kept only a small selection. In his preface to the first edition, Dibble noted that the scope of Stanford sources had broadened considerably since Plunkett Greene’s time, and he had access to music manuscripts and documents from a number of international collections. To this has been added more recently unearthed sources, most notably his long correspondence with fellow Cambridge student and musician, Thomas Percy Hudson. From these, Dibble has pieced together Stanford’s life in remarkable detail, adding nuance to the caricature-like descriptions of his (admittedly volatile) personality that have persistently attached to his legacy.

Challenging criticisms
Much of Stanford’s life is of course a matter of public record, as he held prominent positions in the British musical establishment, and his involvement in public performances was closely scrutinised in the contemporary press, not least by his fellow Irishman and music critic George Bernard Shaw. Shaw’s sometimes scathing (and eminently quotable) commentary on ‘Stanford the Celt’ and ‘Stanford the Professor’ has loomed large over the composer’s reception history, as he claimed that ‘Mr Stanford is far too much the gentleman to compose anything but drawing-room or class-room music’. Dibble’s extensive considerations of Stanford’s work does much to rebut such criticism, although the detailed critical commentary is clearly aimed at an academic audience and will be of less interest to the general reader. Nonetheless, Dibble proves a sure guide through the repertoire, offering insightful comments on both the better-known works and those that are less familiar, and many readers will be encouraged to explore further. The expanded commentary includes a greater number of musical quotations and newly tabulated analyses of works (e.g. the Clarinet Concerto, Magnificat and Symphony No. 7) as well as additional notes on works such as his late organ sonatas and the above-mentioned operas.

As in the original edition, Dibble refrains from any substantial summation of Stanford’s life’s work and contribution, unlike Rodmell who devoted the two final chapters of his monograph to a consideration of ‘Stanford the Pedagogue’ and ‘Stanford the Composer’. Dibble’s omission is a pity, as there are few better qualified than he to comment. The final chapter covers Stanford’s last years, death and the subsequent neglect of his legacy. Here, Dibble draws a line in the 1950s, with indignant quotes from Vaughan Williams and Finzi on the neglect of Stanford’s work during the centenary year of his birth. As much has been done to rectify this in the intervening period, a discussion bringing the reception of Stanford’s work up to date would be a useful addendum, although as Dibble played no small part in this revival, he may have preferred to leave this to a less partisan commentator.

At over 700 pages including appendices, the new edition is quite a tome, recalling Vikram Seth’s exhortation to his readership to ‘Buy me before good sense insists / You’ll strain your purse and sprain your wrists’ (although the attractively priced e-book offered by Boydell and Brewer would answer both concerns). The book is beautifully produced, introducing previously unpublished images and score reproductions. The extensive appendices and indices have been reformatted to greatly enhance legibility, and a particularly useful list of works has been expanded to include more detail on individual pieces within a collection, along with dates of composition and publication, and location of autograph source where known.

As the first edition of Man and Musician has been out of print for some years, this thoroughly researched update is a welcome publication in Stanford’s anniversary year, and will be of interest to academics and musicians seeking greater familiarity with the life and work of a previously neglected titan of British and Irish music.

Charles Villiers Stanford: Man and Musician – Revised and Expanded Edition by Jeremy Dibble is published by the Boydell Press. Visit https://boydellandbrewer.com.

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