Helen Leach
Diary of the Bee
Chamber Works
Richard Simpson (oboe), John Bradbury (clarinet), Simon Leach (piano)
Victoria String Quartet
rec. 2023, Marchmont House, Berwickshire, UK
Divine Art DDX21104 [82]
Helen Leach lives in the Scottish Borders. She is composer in residence at Marchmont House, a Palladian mansion in Berwickshire. It was recently restored by its owners, Oliver and Hugo Burge, who have played a considerable role in supporting the arts in the region. Leach’s booklet notes show that she is very much enlivened by the natural world about her; many of the short works have a wildlife or plant-life inspiration. The booklet includes several colour photographs of the mansion inside and outside.
Leach’s music on this disc may be best classified as Scottish Lowland pastoral. It is almost wholly quietish, never rising to a frenetic or sustained climax, melodically pleasant, and well distributed across instruments or groups of instruments. If one listens from one end to the other, a sense of melodic or stylistic sameness might accrue. It is far nicer to dip in and out to enjoy the composer’s inspiration. I think it is best to listen to each work whilst being aware of her own words set down thoughtfully in the notes.
Leach composed the 3½-minute Prelude for a Royal Swan to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II. Originally written for organ, it is played here in an arrangement for piano and violin. The long gently undulating melody is intended to be a musical portrait of the Queen.
In the ten-minute Tenera caritate (tender love)for string quartet and clarinet, Leach’s inspiration were her many visits to Lindisfarne also called Holy Island. The work begins with the clarinet musing for a few bars, then joined by the quartet, in a journey through a whole spectrum of harmonic shades. The composer says that the music, marked Adagio teneramente (tender adagio), “speaks simply and directly from and to the human heart”.
Leach devotes Where Hope was Sown, a set of six movements of 2½-3 minutes, to the lapwing also known as peewit. She says that the oboe – accompanied by the string quartet – struck her as particularly suited to portray the character and agility of the bird and its pastoral habitat. The booklet notes comment on the decline in lapwing numbers and the associated environmental issues. The composer grew to increasingly appreciate the distinctive beauty of the bird’s appearance.
The first movement, The Day of the Peewit’s Return, is gently beautiful. The violin arabesques just about manage to avoid sounding like The Lark Ascending, and the oboe’s dancing tones help. (RVW has so much captured this type of pastoral feeling that anyone who ventures into that field has their work cut out to avoid comparisons.) In all movements, the string quartet is more than background accompaniment; there also are individualistic parts. For each movement, Leach wrote a poem, reproduced in full in the booklet.
The 3½-minute Melrose Rhapsody from 2022 speaks of the powerful spirituality of the ancient Melrose Abbey and the surrounding countryside. The gently flowing 9-8 meter reflects the waters of the River Tweed. It is my favourite here, with a haunting principal theme. It begins with a couple of chords of bell-like piano tone. The violin enters quietly, introducing the theme.
The Diary of the Bee is a nineteen-minute suite of five short pieces, each named after a flower that the bee would visit: bluebell (Prelude), thistle (Air), forget-me-not (Scherzo), wild rose (Romanza) and buttercup (Inroduction and Capriccioso). It would have been an option to make the instruments sound vaguely onomatopoeic. For the first seconds of the Prelude this does happen, but it is not overdone. The cello occasionally plays in its lowest register – in the Air and the Scherzo. There is a brief shimmer in the strings and, at the very end, a neatly done downward passage on the cello as the bee swoops downwards into the flower.
Any British composer who styles a movement ‘Romanza’ has to be careful of comparisons with RVW. I am very familiar with his music, and I can say that at no point was I reminded of it. The Romanza is delicate and tuneful, as befits its title. The Introduction and Capriccio, suitably flighty, fully exploits woodwind acrobatics.
The Letters from the Owl House, four pieces for solo cello, have traits of Baroque dances in their improvisatory character. They are intended to capture the beauty of the night sky in the unspoilt area of the world near the Marchmont Estate, where the local owls fly. The four-minute Sarabande represents a fallen oak, which the owls visit and revisit. I am not usually taken by music for solo cello, but this sarabande is melodically very attractive indeed.
The Edinburgh Farewell, a commemorative piece in memory of the late Prince Philip, tries to catch some aspects of his character. This is very attractive melody.
The Black Rood of Scotland, composed in the isolation of lockdown in March 2020, is a personal devotion for Holy Week. The composer’s her husband, Simon Leach, gave the first performance on the organ of Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh, later that year when the churches reopened.
The melody of a Song Without Words came to Leach when she was improvising at the piano and thinking about the late Hugo Burge of Marchmont House. It is a melody of gentle sadness and reflection.
A Cup of Kindness, inspired by the words of Auld Lang Syne, is written for the string quartet and oboe. Nostalgic, lyrical, tender and thoughtful, it makes a fitting conclusion for this unusual programme.
I must single out the booklet. It has the most beautiful and thoughtful design and illustrations. Images of flowers, bees and birds appear throughout, especially alongside Helen Leach’s verses. Judging by the photographs, Marchmont House is an idyllic sort of place.
Jim Westhead
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Contents
Prelude for a Royal Swan
Tenera caritate
Where Hope was Sown
The Day of the Peewits’ Return
Arabesque at the Pond
Rising Kings
Wings of the Rainbow
Of Crown and Field
Gentle Earth
A Melrose Rhapsody
Diary of the Bee
Bluebell (Prelude)
Thistle (Air)
Forget me not (Scherzo)
Wild Rose (Romanza)
Buttercup (Introduction & Capriccio)
Letters from the Owl House
Treasures of Darkness (Allemande)
Broken Oak (Sarabande)
Face of Love (Air)
Star Dance (Gigue)
An Edinburgh Farewell
The Black Rood of Scotland
Song Without Words
Cup of Kindness
