John Foulds

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

John Foulds

John Foulds (1880-1939) was an English composer and Theosophist.

James Cousins described him as "John Foulds of England who has raised the requiem from the grave and made it once more the voice of praise for those who found the dying way to life.'"

Musician career

John Foulds wrote music for a wide range of instruments and formats, including piano works, cello sonatas, tone poems, chamber music,

Gandharva Music

Gandharva Music, Opus 49 is among Foulds' most famous works.

[quoting composer] "This music was heard clairaudiently on a hot summer's day (September 9th, 1915)– not heard imaginatively in the way that a composer's work is usually done, but actually and objectively." He wrote down part of what he heard, choosing the pianoforte as the instrument, because of its obvious convenience, although the music heard was in natural intonation, not tempered, and its tone-colour resembled that of the flute. He believes the music to have originated with music angels, called " Gandharvas ” in India, whence the title of the composition.

Music for theatrical productions

Foulds wrote music for the play Fires Divine by Rosaline Rossomer, presented on September 15-18, 1925, at the Scala Theatre in London.

Teaching and writing

He also taught "Musical Composition" at the School of the Mysteries in London: "Mode, Counterpoint, Harmony, Instrumentation, &c., in the light of the mystery tradition."

Involvement with Theosophy

James H. Cousins recollection

I met Mr. Foulds in 1914, at a special meeting of the Liverpool Lodge of The Theosophical Society, when he was violoncellist in the famous Hallé Orchestra of Manchester. Mrs. Cousins, herself a musician, and I were delighted to find in him not only a fine player but a composer and scholar, and an eager student and applicant of Theosophical ideas to his art.

Kurt Leland assessment

Theosophical historian and composer Kurt Leland wrote of Foulds:

A lesser known British composer of Theosophical bent is John Herbert Foulds (1880-1939). Long fascinated by Theosophy's "light from the East," Foulds met Theosophist and fellow musician Maud MacCarthy in 1915. She had been a traveling companion of Annie Besant in India and was one of the first Western authorities on Indian classical music. Under MacCarthy's influence, Foulds experimented with developing musical clairaudience through fasting, meditation, and trance states. He hoped to take dictation from the musical devas Cyril Scott had written about.

Together, Foulds and MacCarthy collaborated on the magnificent World Requiem, first performed in 1923. The piece was intended to honor those who died in the First World War. The text was drawn from Latin and English masses for the dead, Psalms, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and even the poetry of Kabir, a Sufi mystic. One section brought together the Eastern Om (Aum) and the Western Amen—a musical first.

For many years, Foulds planned to compose an opera called Avatara, based on the life of Sri Krishna, an incarnation (avatar) of the Indian god Vishnu. He only completed three orchestral preludes, one for each act of the opera. These preludes are now performed under the title Three Mantras.

Foulds was fascinated with the concept in Indian music that certain musical scales called ragas could create heightened states of consciousness. Sanskrit phrases recited outwardly or inwardly as mantras ("words of power") during meditation have a similar effect—as in kirtan singing.

In Three Mantras, Foulds combined these ideas, using Indian scales and short repeated melodic fragments to create potent musical pictures of three states of consciousness. The first movement, "Mantra of Activity," depicts the state of consciousness Theosophists call manas (mind). The second movement, "Mantra of Bliss," depicts the state called buddhi, and the third, "Mantra of the Will," the state called atma (spirit).

The second movement, with its wordless chorus, is especially effective as a musical depiction of buddhi. It resembles the mysterious "Neptune" movement from The Planets by Gustav Holst (1874-1934). The third, representing atma, surprises with its apocalyptic fury, reminding us that one function of the godhead is unmaking the old to bring in the new.

Writings

Published scores

• Hellas: a suite of ancient Greece: op. 45 . München: Musikproduktion Höflich, 2011.
• Gandharva Music, op. 49. Sheet music. London: Theosophical Publishing House, 1928.

Books

• Music To-Day: Its Heritage from the Past, and Legacy to the Future. London: Nicholson and Watson, 1935. In a review, James Cousins wrote, "the occult basis of the book is cordially acknowledged by the author to have been laid by Miss Maud MacCarthy, with the addendum that 'the teacher does not always agree with the methods and statements of the pupil.'"

Additional resources

Articles

The Union Index of Theosophical Periodicals lists three articles by or about Foulds.

• John Foulds in Wikipedia.

Books and pamphlets

• MacDonald, Malcolm. John Foulds and His Music: an introduction ; with a catalog of the composer's works and a brief miscellany of his writings. White Plains, N.Y : Pro/Am Music Resources, 1989. 150 pages.

Video

• Dynamic Triptych Piano Concerto. Performed by Peter Donohoe with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo. Posted on YouTube on May 21, 2023 by Sergio Cánovas.
• Cello Concerto in G major, Op. 17. Performed by Raphael Wallfisch with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martin Yates. Posted on YouTube on April 30, 2023 by André Cupone Gatti.
• A World Requiem. Performed by Crouch End Festival Choir, Philharmonia Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, and Trinity Boys Choir conducted by Leon Botstein. Posted on YouTube on June 1, 2019 by Sergio Cánovas.
• April - England. Performed by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner conducting. Posted on YouTube on Feb 5, 2021 by AntPDC.
• A Keltic Lament for Cello and Piano, Op. 29, No. 2. Performed by Christine Thomas Tsen-cello, Keane Southard-piano. Posted on YouTube on May 31, 2020 by Keane Southard.