So Written to After-Times
John McCabe – A Life in Letters
Compiled by Monica McCabe
Published 2024
Paperback, 260 pages
ISBN 978-0-9514795-6-8
Forsyth Brothers Limited

The rear cover says: “A compilation of letters or extracts from letters between composer-pianist John McCabe and eminent composers and performers from across the world, including also letters home from his various foreign tours. They range from the scholastically interesting to the frivolous and the emotionally moving. Correspondents include Britten, Barbirolli, Ursula Vaughan Williams, Previn, Beryl Bainbridge, David Bintley and Richard Rodney Bennett. […]” Among correspondents, there also are Alun Hoddinott, William Alwyn and, of course, McCabe’s wife Monica.

After McCabe’s death, his archive revealed a remarkable collection of letters, postcards, faxes and emails. These documents offer valuable insights into his considerable effect on music, musicians, family and friends, and shed light on various aspects of his life and legacy.

Some biographical details will put these letters into context. John McCabe, born in 1939 in Huyton, Liverpool, decided to become a composer at the age of five-and-a-half. He studied at Manchester University and the Royal Manchester College of Music, and later in Munich with Harald Genzmer. McCabe’s career spanned composition, performance and teaching. Notable works include symphonies, ballets, concertos and chamber music. He gained international recognition with pieces like Notturni ed Alba (1970), Concerto for Orchestra (1982) and supremely Cloudcatcher Fell for brass band (1985).

McCabe’s music defies categorisation: he often used post-tonal structures, including serialism, but rarely entered avant-garde’s blind alleys. The music is typically approachable and always satisfying. As a concert pianist, McCabe’s recorded Haydn’s complete Piano Sonatas on Decca, which some consider definitive. He served as director of the London College of Music in 1983-1990. In 1999, Oxford University Press published his major study on fellow North Country composer Alan Rawsthorne. McCabe died in Rochester, Kent on 13 February 2015.

The principal text which examines McCabe’s life and work is Landscapes of the Mind: The Music of John McCabe edited by George Odam (2008). Earlier, the indefatigable Stewart R. Craggs published John McCabe: A Bio-Bibliography (1991), now sadly 34 years out of date, but still a decent starting point for students who wish to explore McCabe’s achievement. The entry in Grove’s Dictionary was published as far back as 2001.

In A Life in Letters, most of the text is a chronological selection of 314 letters between John McCabe and a wide range of correspondents. They begin with one from the organist Frederick H. Wood to the nine-year-old boy; Wood suggested that writing a Soldier’s March or a Fairy Dance might be an easier task than a symphony. The final epistle is a moving draft of “John’s Last Letter” written shortly before his death.

It may be invidious to pick out examples, because everything in the book is interesting and important. Yet for me, of deep significance are the twenty-one letters from Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012). He was a versatile British composer, known for his film scores, concert music and jazz performances. Superficially, Bennett’s letters are often characterised by wit and frivolity, but there is a deeper intent. Monica McCabe told me that she found “an undercurrent of loneliness and insecurity” in these pages, “even about his [own] outstanding talent”. Certainly, these letters deserve to be read as a group. In fact, in a note dated 25 November c.1983, Bennett does suggest that, if they keep up the correspondence, “we can publish a slim volume of letters”. Given the humour and the subjects of these missives, I think an edition of RRB’s ‘complete’ correspondence is a desideratum for all cultural and music historians.

Two important sequences of letters are those between McCabe and his fellow student and lifelong friend Professor George Odam, and the American composer, literary scholar and teacher Barney Childs. The latter wrote avant-garde music both in the United States and in the UK, at Goldsmiths College.

Another fascinating series of letters explores John McCabe’s overseas trip to the Middle East, where he gave a series of recitals, lectures and masterclasses under the auspices of the British Council. In October and November 1979, he wrote to his wife from Riyadh, Jeddah, Baghdad, Kuwait, Amman and Damascus. Much of this presents his thoughts about the places he visited, and the hotels he stayed at. One note even says that typewriters were hard to find in Iraq, due to “the spy industry, apparently”. McCabe mentions to his wife that “there is undoubtedly a tape recording of our phone call last night…”

The letters are complemented by Monica McCabe’s light-touch commentary. It gives a sense of perspective, and expands on some of the less well-known correspondents or people mentioned in the text. Interestingly, there is a selection of emails. This is one of the problems of our modern age. I guess that few people keep these electronic messages, and they inevitably disappear into the recycle bin. So, it is good to have these here.

The book is enhanced by a striking selection of photographs of John McCabe, his friends and family. Many are in colour. The text is readable, and the binding is sturdy. The only slight criticism of this otherwise flawless volume is the lack of a topical index. To be sure, there is a comprehensive listing of correspondents, but no opportunity to search for folk mentioned in the text, and for McCabe’s and other composers’ works.

An apt quotation from John Milton’s The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty sums up the ethos of this book: “By labour and intense study (which I take to be my portion in this life) joined with a strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to after times as they should not willingly let it die.” Letters are an important means of understanding an artist’s work. They fill out details of historical context, and can reveal much about the intentions and creative process behind specific compositions. They often reveal the character of the person, and that can help evaluate a response to their art. We forget too often that great musicians are human beings, with all that the human condition brings. And they do not always think about music…

Finally, though, I hope that historians will use this volume for serious study, I agree with the sentiment printed on the rear cover: “The book is therefore interesting as a historical document, as an intimate disclosure of the thoughts of great artists and even as light-hearted bed-time reading.” This is a high recommendation indeed.

John France

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