Elisabeth Lutyens

Biography

Agnes Elisabeth Lutyens, CBE (9 July 1906 – 14 April 1983) was an English composer.

Early life and education

Elisabeth Lutyens was born in London on 9 July 1906. She was one of the five children of Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton (1874–1964), a member of the aristocratic Bulwer-Lytton family, and the prominent English architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. Elisabeth was the elder sister of the writer Mary Lutyens and aunt of the 4th Viscount Ridley and the politician Nicholas Ridley.
Lutyens was involved in the Theosophical Movement. From 1911 the young Jiddu Krishnamurti was living in the Lutyens' London house as a friend of Elisabeth and her sisters. At the age of nine she began to aspire to be a composer. In 1922, Lutyens pursued her musical education in Paris at the École Normale de Musique, which had been established a few years previously, living with the young theosophical composer Marcelle de Manziarly, who had been trained by Nadia Boulanger. During her months in Paris Lutyens showed first signs of depression that later led to several mental breakdowns.
She accompanied her mother to India in 1923. On her return to Europe she studied with John Foulds and subsequently continued her musical education from 1926 to 1930 at the Royal College of Music in London as a pupil of Harold Darke.

Family life

In 1933, Lutyens married baritone Ian Glennie; they had twin daughters, Rose and Tess, and a son, Sebastian. The marriage was not happy, however, and in 1938 she left Glennie. They divorced in 1940.
She then became the partner of Edward Clark, a conductor and former BBC producer who had studied with Schoenberg. Clark and Lutyens had a son, Conrad, in 1941 and married on 9 May 1942. She composed in complete isolation, a process greatly impeded by the drinking and partying at the Clark flat, and the responsibilities of motherhood.
In 1946, pressured by Edward Clark and her mother, she decided to abort her fifth child. Two years later, she had a mental and physical breakdown that forced her to spend several months in a mental health institution. It was not until 1951 that she managed to regain control of her alcohol addiction, having endured days of extreme withdrawal.
Lutyens was interviewed, in June 1975, by the historian, Brian Harrison, as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titled Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews. She reflected on theosophy and its influence on women’s suffrage, lesbianism in the suffrage movement and Edwardian attitudes towards sex and contraception, as well as her mother’s family relationships, including with Lady Constance Lytton.

Writing

Her autobiography A Goldfish Bowl, describing life as a female musician in London, was published in 1972. She once said that she hated writing the book and only did so to record her husband Edward Clark's earlier achievements.

Death

Elisabeth Lutyens died in London in 1983, aged 76.

Chamber music

String Quartet I, Op. 5, No. 1 (1937) – withdrawn
String Quartet II, Op. 5, No. 5 (1938)
String Trio, Op. 5, No. 6 (1939)
Chamber Concerto I, Op. 8, No. 1, for 9 instruments (1939–40)
String Quartet III, Op. 18 (1949)
Concertante for five players, Op. 22 (1950)
String Quartet VI, Op. 25 (1952)
Valediction, for clarinet and piano, Op. 28 (1953–54) – dedicated to the memory of Dylan Thomas
Capriccii, for 2 harps and percussion, Op. 33 (1955)
Six Tempi, for 10 instruments, Op. 42 (1957)
Wind Quintet, Op. 45 (1960)
String Quintet, Op. 51 (1963)
Wind Trio, Op. 52 (1963)
String Trio, Op. 57 (1963)
Music for Wind, for double wind quintet, Op. 60 (1963)
Oboe Quartet: Driving out the Death, Op. 81 (1971)
Plenum II, for oboe and 13 instruments, Op. 92 (1973)
Plenum III, for string quartet, Op. 93 (1973)
Clarinet Trio, Op. 135 (1979)

Vocal and choral

Two Songs by W.H. Auden, for soprano/baritone and piano (1942)
Ô saisons, Ô châteaux! – cantata after Rimbaud, Op. 13 (1946)
Requiem for the Living, for soli, chorus and orchestra, Op. 16 (1948)
Stevie Smith Songs, for voice and piano (1948–53)
Motet: Excerpta Tractatus-logico-philosophicus, for unaccompanied chorus, Op. 27 (1951) – text by Ludwig Wittgenstein
Nativity, for soprano and organ (1951)
De Amore for soli, chorus and orchestra, Op. 39 (1957) – text by Geoffrey Chaucer
Quincuncx, see full orchestra
Motet: The Country of the Stars, Op. 50 (1963) – text by Boethius translated Chaucer
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (SATB), Op. ?? (February 1965)
The Valley of Hatsu-Se, for soprano, flute, clarinet, cello and piano, Op. 62 (1965) – on early Japanese poetry
And Suddenly It's Evening, for tenor and 11 Instruments, Op. 66 (1965) – text by Salvatore Quasimodo
Epithalamion, for soprano and organ, Op. 67 No.3 (1968)
Essence of Our Happinesses, for tenor, chorus and orchestra, Op. 69 (1968) – texts by Abu Yasid, John Donne and Rimbaud
In the Direction of the Beginning, for bass and piano, Op. 76 (1970) – text by Dylan Thomas
Anerca, for speaker, 10 guitars and percussion, Op. 77 (1970) – on Eskimo poetry
Requiescat, for soprano and string trio, in memoriam Igor Stravinsky (1971) – text by William Blake
Voice of Quiet Waters, for chorus and orchestra, Op. 84 (1972)

Solo instrumental

5 Intermezzi, for piano, Op. 9 (1941–42)
Suite for organ, Op. 17 (1948)
Holiday Diary, for piano (1949)
Sinfonia for organ, Op. 32 (1955)
Piano e Forte, for piano, Op. 43 (1958)
Five Bagatelles, for piano, Op. 49 (1962)
Helix, for piano, Op. 68 (1967)
The Dying of the Sun, for guitar, Op. 73 (1969)
Plenum I, for piano, Op. 87 (1972)
Temenos, for organ, Op. 72 (1972)
Plenum IV, for two organs, Op. 100 (1975)
Five Impromptus, for piano, Op. 116 (1977)
Seven Preludes, for piano, Op. 126 (1978)
The Great Seas, for piano, Op. 132 (1979)
Bagatelles, Books 1, 2 and 3 for piano, Op. 141 (1979)
La natura dell'Acqua, for piano, Op. 154 (1981)
Echo of the Wind, for solo viola, Op. 157
‘’Encore-Maybe’’, for piano, Op. 159

Small orchestra

Chamber Concerto II, for clarinet, tenor sax, piano and strings, Op. 8, No. 2 (1940)
Chamber Concerto III, for bassoon and small orchestra, Op. 8, No. 3 (1945)
Chamber Concerto IV, for horn and small orchestra, Op. 8, No. 4 (1946)
Chamber Concerto V, for string quartet and chamber orchestra, Op. 8, No. 5 (1946)
Chamber Concerto VI (1948) was withdrawn
Six Bagatelles, Op. 113, for six woodwind, four brass, percussion, harp, piano (doubling celeste) & five solo strings (1976)

Orchestral

Three Pieces, Op. 7 (1939)
Three Symphonic Preludes (1942)
Viola Concerto, Op. 15 (1947)
Music for Orchestra I, Op. 31 (1955)
Chorale for Orchestra: Hommage a Igor Stravinsky, Op. 36
Quincunx, for orchestra with soprano and baritone soli in one movement, Op. 44 (1959–60) – text by Sir Thomas Browne
Music for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 59 (1963)
Novenaria, Op. 67, No. 1 (1967)

Opera and music theatre

Infidelio – seven scenes for soprano and tenor, Op. 29 (1954)
The Numbered – opera in a Prologue and four acts after Elias Canetti, Op. 63 (1965–67)
Time Off? Not the Ghost of a Chance! – charade in four scenes, Op. 68 (1967–68)
Isis and Osiris – lyric drama after Plutarch, Op. 74 (1969)
The Linnet from the Leaf – music-theatre for singers and two instrumental groups, Op. 89 (1972)
The Waiting Game – scenes for mezzo, baritone, actor and small orchestra, Op. 91 (1973)