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Written by Bill Hemminger
SYMPHONY NO. 2, OP. 30
RUTH GIPPS
Duration: 20 Minutes
Ruth Gipps (1921-99) was an English treasure: a child prodigy, she went on to become a composer, oboist, pianist, conductor, and music educator. She came from a very musical family who quickly recognized and then supported her great gifts. As a young teenager she entered the Royal College of Music where she mastered skills in the performance of her instruments. She also studied composition—and for a time with Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Early in her career she noted that, though already an accomplished performer on two instruments, she really wanted to be a composer. An accident in her early 30s damaged her shoulder, and she had to forgo her concert performances on oboe
or piano. But that gave her more time to devote to composing, and the catalog of her works includes five symphonies, concertos for various instruments, and a number of smaller works (several tone poems) for orchestra. Sadly, she is not well known today because of a well-known phenomenon—female artists (particularly composers) were often overshadowed by the work of their male counterparts, their contributions overlooked. Today’s performance helps redress the years of disregard and disdain.
Gipps eschewed the “modern” sound of much 20th-century music, in particular serialism. Her harmonic debt to Vaughn-Williams and the English pastoral sound is evident in tonight’s work, the Symphony No. 2 in B major. This delightful tonal work was written in 1945 and is contained in one movement. Yet that one movement is separated into eight contrasting sections. A brief lyrical opening moderato expands into an exciting Allegro moderato (section 1). Of particular interest are the brilliant Tempo di Marcia (IV) and the touching Adagio (V). The eighth, concluding movement culminates in a massive brass proclamation. Among other skills, Gipps clearly understood the possibilities of the modern orchestra.