Stamps Celebrating British Compositions

This post is about a set of stamps celebrating British compositions that were created in 1985. That year, the European parliament declared as the “European Year of Music.” Initially, the idea came from the fact that 1985 was the three hundredth birth anniversary of several important composers, most notably Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederick Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti. From there, it became a larger event with concerts and especially activities for young composers and musicians.

As a result, many countries commemorated music on postage stamps during that year. Undoubtedly, some of the most beautiful are four stamps from Great Britain celebrating four musical compositions. The stamp designs by Wilson McLean are visual representations of the pieces themselves.

Water Music by George Frederick Handel

The first stamp in the series honors George Frederick Handel’s “Water music.” Specifically, what are now known as three suites, were short orchestral pieces that were written for a concert on July 17, 1717. King George I had requested a concert of music on the Thames river, accordingly, Handel wrote the music for this special outdoor aquatic event. For that special concert, the King and his entourage rode on a barge, with a second barge with fifty musicians providing the entertainment for the evening.

The stamp design is evocative of this musical history. It depicts the calm waters of a lake or pond, reflecting a landscape that includes, hidden among vegetation, musical instruments and an angel musician.

Pieces from “Water Music” are regularly performed, however, not typically on boats like the premiere. However, the event was recreated in honor of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee and you can learn about that event and see musicians perform on a barge in the below video.

The Planets by Gustav Holst

One of my favorite orchestral pieces is the seven-movement suite The Planets by Gustav Holst. Each of the movements carries the name of a planet in the solar system. The order is the distance of the planet from Earth: Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (Pluto, then as now was not a planet). The musical styles of each movement capture ideas from astrology, from ancient Roman gods, and from Holst’s own feelings about each planet. The piece calls for a very large orchestra, largely to create different tone colors. At the very end of the final movement, Neptune, there is even a women’s chorus.

Of course, The Planets is now a regular part of modern concert repertory. However, it was rather controversial when it made its premiere in 1919. Audiences did not know what to make of the piece as the forms and sounds were unusual, from the aggressive war-like Mars to the ethereal, other-worldly Neptune. Yet, by the 1920s, musicians and audiences alike began to champion the piece as a brilliant orchestral work.

The stamp design is pretty fantastic, featuring a fanciful view of the solar system with each of the planets in the same view. Among those identifiable are the rings of Saturn and the red planet of Mars.

Take a listen to “Mars” from The Planets:

On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring by Frederick Delius

Undoubtedly, the least well known of the four composers whose works are in this set is Frederick Delius. He was a British born (1862) composer who left the country to find musical success. Originally, he went into commerce, moving to Florida to run an orange plantation in the 1880s. This was a failure. He did not have a mind or heart for business. After studying in Germany, he went to Paris and began a career as a composer.

On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring is an orchestral tone poem. This type of orchestral composition became popular in the nineteenth century. It is usually a single continuous movement that tries to illustrate a narrative, usually from a poem, short story, or other source.

In this piece, the inspiration comes from the experience of hearing bird calls in spring. After a short introduction, its opening theme features bird calls from the oboe. Next, the piece moves into a melody taken from the Norwegian folk song “In Ola Valley.” It ends with the clarinet bringing back the calls. The piece made its premiere in Leipzig in 1913.

The stamp has a rather serene and ethereal design, evoking the greens of spring. In the center is a cuckoo bird on atop a small tree. Behind the bird is a landscape with a few other trees in the distance and a cloudy sky. The clouds and the trees mix with each other, suggesting either a hill or mountain in the distance, or floating trees in the clouds.

On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring is not very long. Please take a listen.

Sea Pictures by Edward Elgar

The final stamp features the piece Sea Pictures by Edward Elgar. It is a song cycle, consisting of five songs for contralto and orchestra (though often heard with a piano reduction of the score). The five songs are based on poems by various poets. They are:

“Sea Slumber Song” by Roden Noel
“In Haven (Capri)” by Caroline Alice Elgar
“Sabbath Morning at Sea” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“Where Corals Lie” by Richard Garnett
“The Swimmer” by Adam Lindsay Gordon

One of the features of the cycle is that the melody from the first song makes appearances throughout the cycle. In that way, it unites the songs as a larger piece. Elgar, evidently, wrote the songs on a small square piano, and originally for a soprano singer. Later, he transposed the pieces to lower keys for the orchestral version and the contralto Clara Butt. The premiere took place in October of 1899 with Elgar conducting while Butt sang.

The simple design for the stamp is quite evocative. The image is looking down at the active waves of the sea on a sunny day. In the top of the frame is a single wing from a seabird flying by.

Perhaps most famously, Sea Pictures was recorded by Janet Baker with Sir John Barbirolli conducting. Make sure to take a listen.