Peter Warlock – Bethlehem Down – SATB Choir (1927)

Warlock as a composer is somewhat of a complicated character. His real name was Philip Heseltine but he adopted the Warlock name, reflective of his occult interests and practices, for all of his musical and literary works. He was also notorious during his lifetime for his excessive, unconventional and, at times, scandalous lifestyle. His musical output is not vast and much of it has at times been criticized for leaving the listener, and the performer, ‘cold’. His harmonic language, at times, ‘muddled’ and difficult to fully understand has become something of a debate amongst critics and scholars. He described himself, on several occasions, as a ‘miniaturist’, a moniker with which he seemed completely at ease. It is through the composition of these ‘miniatures’, such as Bethlehem Down, that his reputation as a composer has endured since his untimely death in 1930.

Bethlehem Down was written in 1927 in response to an advert in the Daily Telegraph appealing for submissions for a Christmas Carol competition. Warlock and Bruce Blunt, a poet and friend, are reputed to have entered the competition to win the financial reward in order to enjoy a night of heavy drinking in London!

One of Warlock’s most celebrated compositions, along with other notable works such as the Capriol Suite, Bethlehem Down succeeds in creating the briefest of episodes where the listener is transported to another time and place whilst still being firmly rooted in the here and now Warlock was heavily influenced by Tudor music and one can hear that influence quite clearly here in his use of carefully placed dissonance and resolution alongside the more progressive harmonic language many of his other works are famed for. The influence of the music of Tallis and Gibbons is evident throughout as is the work of Delius with whom Warlock formed a lasting friendship whilst a schoolboy at Eton College.

The piece is in the key of D minor throughout but Warlock pushes the limits of tonal harmony almost to breaking point in the middle of each of the verses before somehow returning to the final, more predictable cadence at the end of each verse. The peaceful, quiet and serene setting of the text is reflective throughout and allows the listener to fully immerse themselves in the harmonic language of a composer striving for a contemporary identity whilst frantically clinging to the past.