Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • WINTER 2018 • PAN PIPES 27 and finding refuge. It portrays the immigrant's ability to find a nest, to resume a normal life, and to continue connections with other brilliant musicians forced to leave their European homes. It is the story of a person who finds a solution to every problem, such as founding an orchestra of high school students who found the community orchestra's conductor lamentable, which then draws musicians from the area to join in the music-making. The book is full of advice by example and reminds one of the necessity of continuing to develop one's craft through daily study and work, an exercise that Adler views with delight. In a way, through this volume, we get a taste of his mentorship, of the sharpened demands he places on himself to ruthlessly examine his compositions and his skill as a conductor and player, and of his all-embracing warmth that makes him an irresistible teacher. The memoir is a profile of a singular person, in his own well-chosen words, and it should be on everyone's shelf, in years to become a well- thumbed benchmark for developing oneself into a model of ethical and generous behavior within a life of continual creativity. Reveiwed by Dr. Susan Cohn Lackman, SAI Composers Bureau Director and a Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Rollins College. REVIEWS ENGLISH PASTORAL MUSIC: FROM ARCADIA TO UTOPIA, 1900-1955. Eric Saylor. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2017. M usic in the pastoral style has not always been deemed worthy of scholarly attention, and critics have been dismissive, even contemptuous of it. Music characterized by beautiful melodies and pitch centricity, accessible enough to be enjoyed by a broad range of people, was considered to be too simplistic to be taken seriously. Eric Saylor's new book aims to change this mindset, however, "to make a case for the cultural and creative importance of English pastoral music" (p. 8). He begins, after a brief introduction, in Chapter One, "What is Pastoralism?", by defining the pastoral idiom, first by examining some literary models, then providing a list of general traits associated with the style. These can include harmonic stasis, use of modal scales, parallel thirds, rhapsodic melodies, and flowing rhythms. In addition, the pastoral is often evoked by using titles or texts that refer to nature or elegiac feelings. Arcadia was a Greek province, the mythical home of the god Pan, and a rural retreat said to be populated by gods and shepherds. Chapter Two, "Arcadia," discusses how the concept of an idyllic past and imagery associated with Arcadia inspired composers to connect these characteristics with England. Several specific works are discussed in depth, including Edward Elgar's In the South and E.J. Moeran's Phyllida and Corydon. Saylor's discussion of these pieces leads to the conclusion that Arcadia "is not just a place, but a way of thinking about places—a state of mind positing a better world than the current one, based on the revival of a simpler past … that … is almost always imaginary (or misremembered)" (p. 54-55). The third chapter of the book, "War," concentrates on World War I and its effect on music, particularly as it manifested as pastoral characteristics in the music of three categories of composers—those who did not participate in the war due to age (Edward Elgar) or for medical reasons (John Ireland), those who fought in the war and did not survive (George Butterworth and Ernest Farrar), and composers who went to war and returned (Ralph Vaughan Williams and Arthur Bliss). The ways pastoral music was used to memorialize victims of war, and the challenges the war brought to England's national identity are also discussed. Chapter Four, "Landscape," explores evocations of nature in the music of Herbert Howells, Frederick Delius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Gustav Holst, as well as musical settings of poet A.E. Houseman's "A Shropshire Lad." Saylor explains how pastoral music was used to privilege the rural life and its associations with physical and mental health. While much of the geographical pictures painted by the music were not necessarily based in reality, they were used to express a truth greater than any more realistic description would. "Utopia," the final chapter of the book, contrasts the concept of Arcadia discussed in the second chapter with that of Utopia, a potential, hopeful future. The use of pastoral episodes in the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Constant Lambert, Benjamin Britten, and Gerald Finzi to express utopian ideals is examined. By the time most of this music was being written (the mid-1940s), the popularity of pastoral music was waning, partly due to "changing aesthetic attitudes among British critics" (p. 171). Nationalistic art was in disfavor, and it was generally believed that pastoral music reflected ideals that were naive and ineffective. Overall, I found this book to be a compelling and lucid treatment of its subject. The introduction clearly laid out the aims of the book (quoted in the first paragraph of this review), and in this I think the author was successful. I appreciated the context provided by incorporating discussions of literature and art, and I found the musical analysis to be just enough to provide appropriate clarification of the technical aspects of the music, while remaining accessible to anyone who might not have extensive training in musical theory. I came away from the book more informed about pastoral music, with a good understanding of the cultural climate that birthed it. The writing style was erudite, but not pedantic, and I would recommend the book to anyone, musical background or not, who is interested in the subject. Kathi Bower Peterson, an SAI Philanthropies coordinator, is a graduate of Indiana University, where she majored in music history and was a member of Iota Epsilon chapter. She has an MM in musicology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MLIS from San Jose State University. She has been the librarian at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla, CA for 20 years and currently serves as the treasurer of the San Diego County Alumnae Chapter.

• Cover