Sacred songs published by Composers Edition:
Songs of Faith and Joy, I will lift up mine eyes, and Lord who shall dwell under your protection
As part of the ongoing publication of Ailsa Dixon's scores, the latest batch of works to be released by Composers Edition brings together sacred vocal works written in the 1980s and '90s.
Songs of Faith and Joy is a cycle of five songs on Biblical texts for soprano or tenor and guitar, most recently performed by James Gilchrist with guitarist Mark Eden. Three psalm texts are interspersed with settings of Ecclesiastes 12 ‘Remember now thy Creator’ and ‘Charity’, from Corinthians 1:13 (the composer’s interest in St Paul stemmed from childhood conversations with her grandfather, the theologian P.N. Harrison, which had inspired her opera, Letter to Philemon). The guitar part explores in dialogue with the voice the variation of touch and tone, and a range of atmospheric effects created by techniques including harmonics, rasgueado and tremolando.
The work was originally written to contrast with the 1612 Songs of Mourning for voice and lute by John Coprario, a contemporary of Dowland. The opening song, ‘When the Lord turned again’ signals an emotional recuperation from mourning, in which ‘they that sow in tears shall reap in joy’. The two cycles were programmed together when the work was premiered by the composer and her husband, guitarist Brian Dixon, at Pallant House, Chichester in 1988 and again in more recent performances by soprano Emily Gray with Gerard Cousins in 2019, and James Gilchrist with Mark Eden in 2024. The final song ‘I was glad’ was performed by Lotte Betts Dean with Michael Butten at the St Magnus International Festival on Orkney in 2021.
Click here to listen to 'When the Lord Turned Again' from Songs of Faith and Joy
Click here to to listen to 'I was glad' from Songs of Faith and Joy
Songs of Faith and Joy is a cycle of five songs on Biblical texts for soprano or tenor and guitar, most recently performed by James Gilchrist with guitarist Mark Eden. Three psalm texts are interspersed with settings of Ecclesiastes 12 ‘Remember now thy Creator’ and ‘Charity’, from Corinthians 1:13 (the composer’s interest in St Paul stemmed from childhood conversations with her grandfather, the theologian P.N. Harrison, which had inspired her opera, Letter to Philemon). The guitar part explores in dialogue with the voice the variation of touch and tone, and a range of atmospheric effects created by techniques including harmonics, rasgueado and tremolando.
The work was originally written to contrast with the 1612 Songs of Mourning for voice and lute by John Coprario, a contemporary of Dowland. The opening song, ‘When the Lord turned again’ signals an emotional recuperation from mourning, in which ‘they that sow in tears shall reap in joy’. The two cycles were programmed together when the work was premiered by the composer and her husband, guitarist Brian Dixon, at Pallant House, Chichester in 1988 and again in more recent performances by soprano Emily Gray with Gerard Cousins in 2019, and James Gilchrist with Mark Eden in 2024. The final song ‘I was glad’ was performed by Lotte Betts Dean with Michael Butten at the St Magnus International Festival on Orkney in 2021.
Click here to listen to 'When the Lord Turned Again' from Songs of Faith and Joy
Click here to to listen to 'I was glad' from Songs of Faith and Joy
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills is a setting of Psalm 121 for high soprano and organ or piano. Ailsa Dixon loved the high soprano tessitura, and this was among several pieces she wrote for Sally Harrison, who had sung the part of an angel in the closing scene of her opera Letter to Philemon in 1984. In this anthem, the soaring voice part evokes both the elevation of the hills and the exaltation of the faithful soul, over a flowing accompaniment.
Click here to listen to I will lift up mine eyes for soprano and piano
I will lift up mine eyes is also available in an arrangement for violin and piano, recently recorded in the chapel of Royal Holloway by violinist Leda Mileto with pianist Tom Jesty.
Click here to listen to I will lift up mine eyes, in the version for violin and piano
Lord, who shall dwell under your protection is a choral setting of Psalm 15, well suited to church and chapel choirs. In a lively variation of choral textures, homophonic affirmation at the opening and close of the anthem frames a central section in which the words of the Psalm are passed between voice parts, over a hummed accompaniment from the rest of the choir.
Click here for more information and to review, buy or hire scores from Composers Edition
'Three Fugues on Biblical Subjects' for lutes published by Composers Edition
Click here to listen to I will lift up mine eyes for soprano and piano
I will lift up mine eyes is also available in an arrangement for violin and piano, recently recorded in the chapel of Royal Holloway by violinist Leda Mileto with pianist Tom Jesty.
Click here to listen to I will lift up mine eyes, in the version for violin and piano
Lord, who shall dwell under your protection is a choral setting of Psalm 15, well suited to church and chapel choirs. In a lively variation of choral textures, homophonic affirmation at the opening and close of the anthem frames a central section in which the words of the Psalm are passed between voice parts, over a hummed accompaniment from the rest of the choir.
Click here for more information and to review, buy or hire scores from Composers Edition
'Three Fugues on Biblical Subjects' for lutes published by Composers Edition
Publication of Ailsa Dixon’s scores by Composers Edition continues with Three Fugues on Biblical Subjects in a newly prepared tablature edition for lutenists. Dating from the later end of her composing years in the 1990s, they were referred to in her archive as ‘Fugues for plucked instruments’. Each fugue is headed with a Biblical quotation: ‘Since by man came death’, ‘And I will write my law in their inward parts’ and ‘By the waters of Babylon’.
A note accompanying the scores in her archive explained the relevance of these texts to their composition:
'One does not pluck good fugue subjects out of the blue, so I took a sentence from the Bible for each piece, to help find a memorable rhythm and a meaningful shape to the subject, and thus give what Bach and his contemporaries would have called ‘affekt’.
A note accompanying the scores in her archive explained the relevance of these texts to their composition:
'One does not pluck good fugue subjects out of the blue, so I took a sentence from the Bible for each piece, to help find a memorable rhythm and a meaningful shape to the subject, and thus give what Bach and his contemporaries would have called ‘affekt’.
Ailsa Dixon playing the lute in the 1950s
The first fugue ‘Since by man came death’ most clearly recalls the winding chromatic subjects of Dowland’s lute fantasias; elsewhere passing dissonances or false relations recall the idiom of early English polyphony, and also Purcell’s viol fantasias. A note accompanying this fugue expressed her wish to present it to the Lute Society in memory of its founder, Diana Poulton, her lute teacher in the 1950s and author of the standard biography of Dowland. The manuscript was reproduced with the dedication in the supplement to the Society’s Lute News in March 1996. After her death, Ailsa Dixon’s lute was presented to the Lute Society, and in November 2023 the Society’s meeting on the subject of Women and the Lute featured a talk commemorating her as a founder-member at their first meeting in 1956, and one of the pioneer generation at the outset of the 20th-century lute revival.
The fugues were among the manuscripts which came to light in Ailsa Dixon’s archive after her death. Lutenist Lynda Sayce, who had played at her funeral, was consulted for advice on the score, and as a lockdown project in 2020, she created a multi-tracked recording played on a ‘family’ of 4 Renaissance lutes in different sizes. This became the basis for Lynda’s edition of the score, arranged for four players and set in tablature. The work received its first live performance at the Lute Society’s residential week in Benslow on 9 March 2024, played by Lynda Sayce, Jacob Heringman, Xavier Diaz-Latorre and Matthew Spring.
Click here to watch a video of Lynda Sayce's multi-tracked recording
Click here for more information and to buy the scores from Composers Edition
The fugues were among the manuscripts which came to light in Ailsa Dixon’s archive after her death. Lutenist Lynda Sayce, who had played at her funeral, was consulted for advice on the score, and as a lockdown project in 2020, she created a multi-tracked recording played on a ‘family’ of 4 Renaissance lutes in different sizes. This became the basis for Lynda’s edition of the score, arranged for four players and set in tablature. The work received its first live performance at the Lute Society’s residential week in Benslow on 9 March 2024, played by Lynda Sayce, Jacob Heringman, Xavier Diaz-Latorre and Matthew Spring.
Click here to watch a video of Lynda Sayce's multi-tracked recording
Click here for more information and to buy the scores from Composers Edition
'Airs of the Seasons', a sonata for piano duet, published by Composers Edition
Ailsa Dixon's sonata for piano duet Airs of the Seasons, is the latest work to be published by Composers Edition, in a new edition by pianist Waka Hasegawa. The work is in four movements, each prefaced by a short poem, evoking in turn the magical stillness after a winter snowfall, the first stirrings of spring, a dragonfly darting over the water in summer, and finally amid the turning leaves of autumn, a retrospective mood which recalls the earlier seasons and ends with the hope of transcendence in ‘Man’s yearning to see beyond death’.
The sonata was unperformed in Ailsa's lifetime, but in the months before she died in 2017 the score was sent to pianists Joseph Tong and Waka Hasegawa, who would give the work its posthumous premiere at St George’s Bristol in November 2018. A week before her death, Tong wrote with the news that they were already rehearsing: ‘It is a beautiful set of pieces and each of the movements evokes aspects of the seasons suggested in the poems in an original and imaginative way - the musical language itself and the way in which Ailsa creates four-handed piano textures are absorbing and distinctive.’ For a composer who received very little recognition in her lifetime, it was a poignant indication that her music would survive her.
In a review of the premiere, critic Frances Wilson wrote ‘The opening chords of the first movement are reminiscent of Debussy and Britten in their distinct timbres, and the entire work has a distinctly impressionistic flavour. Ailsa’s admiration of Fauré for his “harmonic suppleness” is also evident in her harmonic language, while the idioms of English folksong and hymns, and melodic motifs redolent of John Ireland and the English Romantics remind us that this is most definitely a work by a British composer with an original musical vision. The entire work is really delightful and inventive, rich in imagination, moods and expression.’
Airs of the Seasons has subsequently been performed for Wye Valley Music in 2019, for Wessex Concerts at St Mary’s church in Twyford near Winchester in 2022, and in a concert in 2024 celebrating Ailsa Dixon’s musical legacy at St Mary’s College, Durham University where she studied in the 1950s.
Click here to watch a video of the 2022 performance by Jong Gyung Park and Anthony Zerpa Falcon
Click here for more information and to buy the score from Composers Edition
Airs of the Seasons has subsequently been performed for Wye Valley Music in 2019, for Wessex Concerts at St Mary’s church in Twyford near Winchester in 2022, and in a concert in 2024 celebrating Ailsa Dixon’s musical legacy at St Mary’s College, Durham University where she studied in the 1950s.
Click here to watch a video of the 2022 performance by Jong Gyung Park and Anthony Zerpa Falcon
Click here for more information and to buy the score from Composers Edition
'These things shall be' published by Composers Edition
- the anthem which launched the revival of Ailsa Dixon's music
A new landmark in the ongoing publication of Ailsa Dixon's scores by Composers Edition is the release of These things shall be, the choral work whose premiere in 2017 led to the remarkable revival of her music. Thanks to the London Oriana Choir's Five15 project championing the work of women composers, the work received its first performance in the spectacular glass-roofed hall surrounding the keel of the Cutty Sark ship in Greenwich, thirty years after it was written, enabling the composer to hear it for the first time just 5 weeks before she died.
Watch the video of the premiere here
This was not the end, but the beginning. While her scores had yet to be published, These things shall be was soon in circulation and being sung by choirs large and small, including Sansara and the Cambridge Chorale conducted by Owain Park, now at the helm of the BBC Singers. It has been performed in Oxford and Cambridge chapels, at St Mary's College in Durham, in festivals from Little Missenden to Romsey Abbey, in Bristol where Ailsa Dixon was born, and in a range of London venues, from Holy Trinity church on Sloane Square to Stationer’s Hall and the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank. The London Oriana Choir have kept it in their repertoire as a piece they hold in special affection, at the heart of their mission to give female composers the recognition that many have historically been denied.
The ripple effect from that landmark performance at the end of the composer’s life extended far beyond this one piece. Its success inspired a project to work through Ailsa's musical archive, where many more unheard works were still in manuscript. There followed a succession of posthumous premieres, greeted as ‘most definitely the work of a British composer with an original musical vision’. By February 2020, the revival of Ailsa Dixon's music was on the cover of the British Music Society’s magazine, and a recording of her chamber music has now been released on the Resonus Classics label.
It's extraordinary to think how much was set in motion by this one piece, and how many performances were chalked up before it was ever published. Now it will have larger life in the repertoire of choirs around the world, with scores available for hire or purchase from Composers Edition. Choral directors, what are you waiting for?
Click here for more information and to buy or hire scores from Composers Edition
Watch the video of the premiere here
This was not the end, but the beginning. While her scores had yet to be published, These things shall be was soon in circulation and being sung by choirs large and small, including Sansara and the Cambridge Chorale conducted by Owain Park, now at the helm of the BBC Singers. It has been performed in Oxford and Cambridge chapels, at St Mary's College in Durham, in festivals from Little Missenden to Romsey Abbey, in Bristol where Ailsa Dixon was born, and in a range of London venues, from Holy Trinity church on Sloane Square to Stationer’s Hall and the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank. The London Oriana Choir have kept it in their repertoire as a piece they hold in special affection, at the heart of their mission to give female composers the recognition that many have historically been denied.
The ripple effect from that landmark performance at the end of the composer’s life extended far beyond this one piece. Its success inspired a project to work through Ailsa's musical archive, where many more unheard works were still in manuscript. There followed a succession of posthumous premieres, greeted as ‘most definitely the work of a British composer with an original musical vision’. By February 2020, the revival of Ailsa Dixon's music was on the cover of the British Music Society’s magazine, and a recording of her chamber music has now been released on the Resonus Classics label.
It's extraordinary to think how much was set in motion by this one piece, and how many performances were chalked up before it was ever published. Now it will have larger life in the repertoire of choirs around the world, with scores available for hire or purchase from Composers Edition. Choral directors, what are you waiting for?
Click here for more information and to buy or hire scores from Composers Edition
Preview of chamber music recording
HK Interlude, a classical music website with audiences in the Far East and the US, has published a preview of the recording coming out on 22 August from Resonus Classics. Critic Frances Wilson writes:
' This is more than just a new album; the release of The Spirit of Love represents a pivotal moment for the rediscovery and appreciation of Ailsa Dixon’s diverse and compelling chamber music – music which combines lyrical lines, adventurous harmonies, and a spiritual undercurrent, brought to life with vibrant intensity and finesse by the Villiers Quartet, Lucy Cox and Charlie Draper. This recording offers listeners an insightful journey into the rich, previously under-exposed world of a significant British composer. '
Scores published with Composers Edition
Scores of Ailsa Dixon's works are now being published by Composers Edition, starting with the works on the recording of her chamber music coming out with Resonus Classics in August 2025: The Spirit of Love: 3 songs for soprano and string quartet, Nocturnal Scherzo, The 'lost' Scherzo, Sohrab and Rustum, Shining Cold and Variations on Love Divine.
Later in August, the second batch of scores to be published will include Shakespearean songs and duets, and the anthem for choir These things shall be, which set off the revival of interest in her music at its premiere in 2017, 30 years after it was written and 5 weeks before she died.
In September, Ailsa Dixon's sonata for piano duet Airs of the Seasons will be published in an edition by Waka Hasegawa, followed by a set of sacred songs, and her 3 Fugues on Biblical Subjects scored for lutes in tablature, edited by Lynda Sayce.
Further batches of songs will follow in October.
Dan Goren, Director of Composers Edition, writes 'we are delighted to be publishing the treasure-trove of works by Ailsa Dixon in collaboration with her daughter Josie. Here is music of real musical intelligence and instinct – direct, fresh and captivating.'
The Spirit of Love: chamber music recording to be released 22 August 2025
A new recording by the Villiers Quartet, representing a landmark in the revival of Ailsa Dixon's music, will be released in August on the Resonus Classics label. It comprises her complete works for string quartet: Nocturnal Scherzo, Sohrab and Rustum, Varations on Love Divine, and The 'lost' Scherzo, an early work from the 1950s, revived for performance following the recent discovery of the manuscript in an attic.
The Villiers Quartet are joined on this recording by soprano Lucy Cox for The Spirit of Love - a set of 3 songs with string quartet which they premiered in St George's Bristol in 2020 - and Shining Cold, an ethereal vocalise for voice, strings, and ondes Martenot played by Charlie Draper. The performance of The Spirit of Love at the Nottingham Chamber Music Festival in July 2024, was hailed as ‘a stunning find! The lush harmonies of the outer movements, the strange yet still beautiful dissonances of the second movement… Rarely have I heard a new piece which has moved me so deeply’ , echoing the British Music Society's review of its premiere which concluded 'At the end of the concert, there was a feeling that something special had just occurred'.
Violin and piano arrangement of 'I will lift up mine eyes'
The latest addition to the YouTube channel for Ailsa Dixon's compositions is an arrangement for violin and piano of 'I will lift up mine eyes', originally written as a setting of Psalm 121 for high soprano and piano or organ.
Violinist Leda Mileto is a graduate of the Rome Conservatoire and the Royal Northern College of Music, Ruth Sutton fellow of the Manchester Camerata and leader of the Aestus Quartet. Pianist Tom Jesty held a junior fellowship at the Guildhall School of Music and is now Graduate Fellow in Collaborative Piano at Royal Holloway University of London.
Their performance was filmed in the chapel of Royal Holloway University of London by recording students Ben Blakeborough (sound) and Marcus Lai (sound mix, video and editing).
The score will be published later this year by Composers Edition. Click here to listen
Chamber music recording by the Villiers Quartet
In February 2025 the Villiers Quartet recorded Ailsa Dixon's chamber music, for release in August on the Resonus label. The recording will include her complete works for string quartet: Nocturnal Scherzo, Sohrab and Rustum, Varations on Love Divine, and The 'lost' Scherzo, an early work from the 1950s, revived for performance following the recent discovery of the manuscript in an attic. The Villiers Quartet will be joined by soprano Lucy Cox for The Spirit of Love - a set of 3 songs with string quartet which they premiered in St George's Bristol in 2020 - and Shining Cold, an ethereal vocalise for voice, strings, and ondes Martenot played by Charlie Draper.
The Spirit of Love was recently performed at the Nottingham Chamber Music Festival in July 2024, and hailed as ‘a stunning find! The lush harmonies of the outer movements, the strange yet still beautiful dissonances of the second movement… Rarely have I heard a new piece which has moved me so deeply.’ Another performance in the run-up to the recording was given at the Jacqueline du Pre concert hall in Oxford on January 31st.
Songs of Mourning, Songs of Faith and Joy
On Friday 31st May 2024, tenor James Gilchrist and guitarist Mark Eden performed Ailsa's Songs of Faith and Joy in St Paul's church in Winchester. They were programmed together with lute songs by Dowland, and Coprario's Songs of Mourning (written for the death of Prince Henry, son of James 1 in 1612), which inspired their composition. This was the first performance of Ailsa's song cycle for five years, sung by one of Britain's finest tenors in the opening concert of the Winchester Guitar Festival.
A musical celebration in Durham
On March 6th 2024, in the run-up to International Women's Day, a concert of Ailsa's music was held at St Mary's College, Durham University, where she studied in the 1950s. Students from the Music Department presented a programme of songs, choral, piano and chamber music, in the most wide-ranging performance of Ailsa's works to date. Her daughter Josie Dixon introduced the concert with an account of Ailsa's musical life and the formative influence of her time in Durham.
Wessex Concerts filming project
The latest releases on Ailsa Dixon’s YouTube channel are a pair of live recordings from concerts in 2022, featuring her sonata for piano duet Airs of the Seasons and the first complete concert performance of Variations on Love Divine for string quartet.
This project was a collaboration between Wessex Concerts and a film crew from the University of Winchester. The videos were edited by Ethan Crowther and produced by the composer’s daughter, Josie Dixon. Conceived as a creative response to the continuing impact of the pandemic on audiences for live concerts, these video recordings have preserved landmark performances to be enjoyed online across the world and for years to come.
Wessex Concerts and the Friends of Ailsa Dixon are grateful to the musicians, Jong-Gyung Park, Anthony Zerpa-Falcon and the Villiers Quartet, for kind permission to share these performances for all to enjoy, and to St Mary’s Church in Twyford and St Mary & St Nicholas Church in Wilton for allowing the concerts to be filmed in their beautiful buildings.
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Click here for Airs of the Seasons, a sonata for piano duet
Click here for Variations on Love Divine for string quartet |
Nocturnal Scherzo: Premiere of a new arrangement for string orchestra
On 2nd July 2022 the New London Orchestra conducted by Joshua Ballance gave the premiere of a new arrangement for string orchestra of the Nocturnal Scherzo (originally written for string quartet), in the High Barnet Chamber Music Festival. The programme also included Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, and Schoenberg's Verklaerte Nacht.
Scores of this arrangement are available using the contact form here
Two concerts in April 2022
Music for Piano Duet - on Saturday 2nd April 2022 in Twyford church near Winchester, pianists Jong-Gyung Park and Anthony Zerpa Falcon performed Airs of the Seasons, alongside Schubert's Fantasie in F Minor and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
Quartets for Palm Sunday - on Sunday 10th April 2022 in the Italianate church in Wilton near Salisbury, the Villiers Quartet gave the first complete concert performance of the Variations on Love Divine, with Haydn's Seven Last Words from the Cross.
St Magnus International Festival
The beautiful Italian chapel in Orkney was the venue for a recording of Psalm 122, I was glad, from the Songs of Faith and Joy, sung by mezzo soprano Lotte Betts Dean with guitarist Michael Butten, as part of the Land, Sea and Sky series in the 2021 St Magnus International Festival.
Click here to listen
More song recordings
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Two songs for soprano and piano have been recorded by Kate Semmens (who sang at Ailsa’s funeral) with pianist Steven Devine.
Cuckoo, come! is the conclusion of Alcuin’s poem ‘The Strife Between Winter and Spring’, from Helen Waddell’s translations of Medieval Latin Lyrics. The contest between the two seasons is focused on the song of the cuckoo as the harbinger of spring. At the outset of the poem, Winter does his worst to hold the cuckoo’s song at bay, but eventually Spring is pronounced the victor with this lovely pastoral lyric. Click here to listen. |
Song of the Mad Prince is an evocative setting of Walter de la Mare’s poem, apparently voiced by the deranged Hamlet after the death of Ophelia. It combines the curious whimsy of a nonsense song with the disturbed imagination of a grieving lover, dressed in luxuriant imagery that belies the underlying sense of loss. Click here to listen.
New song recordings
Soprano Lucinda Cox (who sang the premiere of The Spirit of Love at St George’s Bristol in February of this year) has made two new song recordings with pianist Tom Jesty.
Come Away Death, Feste’s melancholy lyric sung for the lovesick Orsino in Twelfth Night, is an early composition which Ailsa Dixon revisited around 1980, reworking the song with guitar accompaniment for a stage production. This recording returns to the original version with piano. Click here to listen.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills is a setting of Psalm 121 for high soprano. It was written in the mid-1980s for Sally Harrison, who had sung the part of an angel in the closing scene of Ailsa’s opera Letter to Philemon in 1984. The soaring vocal lines evoke the elevation of the hills and the exaltation of the faithful soul, over a flowing piano part. The accompanying video is a celebration of the beauty of hillside landscapes, following the words of the Psalm through light and shade, the sun by day and the moon by night, closing in a spectacular sunset ‘from this time forth, even for evermore’.
Click here to listen and be transported.
Anniversary recording from Fretwork
A new recording of the first of the Three Fugues on Biblical Subjects, played on viols, has been released to mark the third anniversary of Ailsa’s death in August 2017. Fretwork are known for their pioneering programmes, exploring the viol consort’s expressive potential far beyond its conventional early music niche; their latest project 'Albion' fuses ancient and modern in the soundscape of British music, making them ideal interpreters for a work that interweaves Renaissance polyphonic writing with twentieth-century harmonies.
Click here to listen to ‘Since by Man came Death’ in its beautiful new rendition on viols.
Lutes in lockdown: a new recording
Among the unperformed works discovered in Ailsa’s archive after she died was a set of Three Fugues on Biblical Subjects. The writing suggests a range of influences from Renaissance polyphony and the lute music of John Dowland, to Purcell’s viol fantasias (mentioned in a note accompanying the manuscripts) and the keyboard fugues of Bach. Each one takes a short Biblical text as its ‘subject’, responding to the rhythms of the opening words: ‘Since by man came death’, ‘And I will write my Law in their inmost parts’ and ‘By the waters of Babylon’.
Ailsa was herself a lutenist, and one of the fugues was written out in lute tablature with the intention of presenting it to the Lute Society in memory of her teacher, the Society’s founder, Diana Poulton. Following their rediscovery, Lynda Sayce, who played at Ailsa’s funeral, has arranged the three fugues for her unique family of Renaissance lutes in different sizes. With concerts currently suspended during the coronavirus lockdown, the idea emerged for an original way to premiere the fugues, in a composite home recording, with Lynda playing all the parts. With the support of the Music Reprieval Trust, the recording was commissioned and presented to Ailsa’s husband Brian on his 89th birthday. Click here to listen.
'Something special': Reviews of 'The Spirit of Love' premiere at St George's Bristol
The British Music Society have published in their April newsletter a review of the concert at St George’s Bristol in February, featuring the premiere of The Spirit of Love, 3 songs for soprano and string quartet, and the first performance of the Nocturnal Scherzo for more than 25 years.
Reviewer Poppy Bingham writes of ‘foreboding and dissonant harmonies which smoothly morph into rich and sweet sounds… The Villiers Quartet played with exceptional sensitivity, executing this complex mixture of emotions and drawing out Ailsa Dixon’s personal voice with a brilliant balance of subtlety and drama.’ Paying tribute to Lucinda Cox’s ‘outstanding’ performance of the songs, ‘clear and soaring’, the review concludes ‘At the end of the concert there was a feeling that something special had just occurred.’
The concert was also reviewed by Laura Hillier for Bristol Women's Voice. She writes that Nocturnal Scherzo and The Spirit of Love were ‘intricate and complex… performed with passion and emotion permeating every single note. The members of the quartet artfully bounced off one another [in] a delightfully animated, yet wordless, conversation. Lucinda Cox’s voice was strikingly beautiful and clear, carrying a melancholy, haunting tone to the pieces. I felt that the overall experience of listening to Ailsa’s pieces was dream-like in its storytelling… utterly enchanting.'
Cover story in The British Music Society's magazine
The revival of Ailsa's music was the chosen as the cover story in the February issue of the British Music Society's quarterly magazine. Originally published in their newsletter last October, the article gives an overview of her musical life and works with insights into her composition, and refers to the increasing number of recent and forthcoming performances as ‘welcome signs of a musical revival for one of the many female composers missing from the history of British music in the twentieth century.’
The Villiers Quartet to premiere 'The Spirit of Love' at St George's Bristol
On February 20th 2020, in the lunchtime concert series at St George’s Bristol, the Villiers String Quartet and soprano Lucinda Cox will give the world premiere of Ailsa’s three songs for soprano and quartet, The Spirit of Love, together with the first performance of the Nocturnal Scherzo for over 25 years. Also on the programme will be the string quartet in E Minor by Ethel Smyth. Written in 1902, Smyth’s quartet likewise had to wait for its first performance, some 12 years later, during which time she revised the score substantially; it has been described as ‘a spellbinding work that deserves a higher profile’.
This concert has been enabled by grants awarded by the Gemma Classical Music Trust, which supports wider recognition of musicians (including composers) whose profile is still emerging, and the Music Reprieval Trust, which sponsors performances of lesser-known repertoire.
On February 20th 2020, in the lunchtime concert series at St George’s Bristol, the Villiers String Quartet and soprano Lucinda Cox will give the world premiere of Ailsa’s three songs for soprano and quartet, The Spirit of Love, together with the first performance of the Nocturnal Scherzo for over 25 years. Also on the programme will be the string quartet in E Minor by Ethel Smyth. Written in 1902, Smyth’s quartet likewise had to wait for its first performance, some 12 years later, during which time she revised the score substantially; it has been described as ‘a spellbinding work that deserves a higher profile’.
This concert has been enabled by grants awarded by the Gemma Classical Music Trust, which supports wider recognition of musicians (including composers) whose profile is still emerging, and the Music Reprieval Trust, which sponsors performances of lesser-known repertoire.
The British Music Society
The British Music Society has published several features on Ailsa's music.
The first article, in October 2019, documents the revival of her music, with an overview of her compositions. It can be read here (the article is about a third of the way through the newsletter).
The second article, in December 2019, featured the upcoming world premiere of The Spirit of Love, 3 songs for soprano and string quartet, and can be read here.
The third, in January 2020, announced to the British Music Society's membership the twice-yearly newsletter of the Friends of Ailsa Dixon, featuring news of recent and forthcoming concerts, broadcasts, progress on the availability of scores, and recording plans. You can sign up for the newsletter using the Contact form here.
The British Music Society has published several features on Ailsa's music.
The first article, in October 2019, documents the revival of her music, with an overview of her compositions. It can be read here (the article is about a third of the way through the newsletter).
The second article, in December 2019, featured the upcoming world premiere of The Spirit of Love, 3 songs for soprano and string quartet, and can be read here.
The third, in January 2020, announced to the British Music Society's membership the twice-yearly newsletter of the Friends of Ailsa Dixon, featuring news of recent and forthcoming concerts, broadcasts, progress on the availability of scores, and recording plans. You can sign up for the newsletter using the Contact form here.
Illuminate Women's Music concert in Oxford
On November 8th 2019, as part of its celebration of 40 years since women were admitted, University College Oxford hosted a performance in the Illuminate Women’s Music touring concert series, directed by composer Angela Elizabeth Slater. The Illuminate String Quartet included in their programme an Advent Sequence comprising the first five movements of Ailsa's Variations on Love Divine.
Click here to read an article on Ailsa's music for string quartet, published on the website of Illuminate Women's Music in connection with the concert.
On November 8th 2019, as part of its celebration of 40 years since women were admitted, University College Oxford hosted a performance in the Illuminate Women’s Music touring concert series, directed by composer Angela Elizabeth Slater. The Illuminate String Quartet included in their programme an Advent Sequence comprising the first five movements of Ailsa's Variations on Love Divine.
Click here to read an article on Ailsa's music for string quartet, published on the website of Illuminate Women's Music in connection with the concert.
Friends' inaugural newsletter
February 2019 saw the first newsletter of the Friends of Ailsa Dixon, designed to bring together all those who have taken an interest in the revival of her music. Please use the Contact page to get in touch if you would like to be added to the mailing list for future newsletters, including updates on forthcoming concert dates and plans for recordings of her works.
The second newsletter was issued in December 2019
February 2019 saw the first newsletter of the Friends of Ailsa Dixon, designed to bring together all those who have taken an interest in the revival of her music. Please use the Contact page to get in touch if you would like to be added to the mailing list for future newsletters, including updates on forthcoming concert dates and plans for recordings of her works.
The second newsletter was issued in December 2019
Digitising the scores
Ailsa's scores, until now preserved only in manuscript, are now being digitised as part of a project in Finland to rescue the works of neglected female composers. The Savo Musical Society specialises in the performance of music by women composers including Ida Moberg (a pupil of Sibelius), Lili Boulanger and Florence Price; their editorial project to produce digital editions from manuscript scores will serve to make these works newly accessible to musicians worldwide.
Ailsa's scores, until now preserved only in manuscript, are now being digitised as part of a project in Finland to rescue the works of neglected female composers. The Savo Musical Society specialises in the performance of music by women composers including Ida Moberg (a pupil of Sibelius), Lili Boulanger and Florence Price; their editorial project to produce digital editions from manuscript scores will serve to make these works newly accessible to musicians worldwide.
Interviews and Features
In December 2018 Bristol Women's Voice published a pair of interviews with Ailsa's daughter, the first charting Ailsa's musical development and career, and the second reflecting on the larger context of women composers' under-representation in classical music-making, and how the barriers are now being overcome.
In 2019, the March/April issue of Choir and Organ includes a feature article on the London Oriana Choir's Five15 project in which 'These things shall be' was premiered. Conductor Dominic Ellis Peckham reflects ‘That experience of enabling Ailsa to hear her piece for the first time at the very end of her life made us realise how important this project is [in] giving recognition to the many female composers over the centuries whose music has been neglected.’
In December 2018 Bristol Women's Voice published a pair of interviews with Ailsa's daughter, the first charting Ailsa's musical development and career, and the second reflecting on the larger context of women composers' under-representation in classical music-making, and how the barriers are now being overcome.
In 2019, the March/April issue of Choir and Organ includes a feature article on the London Oriana Choir's Five15 project in which 'These things shall be' was premiered. Conductor Dominic Ellis Peckham reflects ‘That experience of enabling Ailsa to hear her piece for the first time at the very end of her life made us realise how important this project is [in] giving recognition to the many female composers over the centuries whose music has been neglected.’
Review of 'Airs of the Seasons' premiere
Frances Wilson, author of classical music websites The Cross-Eyed Pianist and Meet the Artist, reviewed the premiere of Ailsa's sonata for piano duet by Piano4Hands (Joseph Tong and Waka Hasegawa):
'The opening chords of the first movement are reminiscent of Debussy and Britten in their timbres, and the entire work has a distinctly impressionistic flavour. Ailsa's admiration of Faure is also evident in her harmonic language, while the idioms of English folksong and hymns, and melodic motifs redolent of John Ireland and the English Romantics remind us that this is most definitely a work by a British composer with an original musical vision. The entire work, although quite short, is really delightful and inventive. Rich in imagination, moods and expression, the musical evocation of each season is distinct and characterful. From a pianistic point of view, the textures of the music are carefully conceived to bring a range of colours and voicings imaginatively shared between the two players.'
Frances Wilson, author of classical music websites The Cross-Eyed Pianist and Meet the Artist, reviewed the premiere of Ailsa's sonata for piano duet by Piano4Hands (Joseph Tong and Waka Hasegawa):
'The opening chords of the first movement are reminiscent of Debussy and Britten in their timbres, and the entire work has a distinctly impressionistic flavour. Ailsa's admiration of Faure is also evident in her harmonic language, while the idioms of English folksong and hymns, and melodic motifs redolent of John Ireland and the English Romantics remind us that this is most definitely a work by a British composer with an original musical vision. The entire work, although quite short, is really delightful and inventive. Rich in imagination, moods and expression, the musical evocation of each season is distinct and characterful. From a pianistic point of view, the textures of the music are carefully conceived to bring a range of colours and voicings imaginatively shared between the two players.'
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Songs of Faith and Joy Emily Gray (mezzo soprano) and Gerard Cousins (guitar) performed some of the Songs of Faith and Joy in their recital in Cantref church on the fringe of the Brecon Baroque festival on 21st October 2018, and again in a concert for St Cecilia's Day in Hampstead on 22nd November 2018. They will perform the complete cycle in Winchester on 27 April, 2019. |
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Variations on Love Divine
Ailsa's 19 Variations on Love Divine for string quartet featured in a recent article on the use of hymn tunes in instrumental music (from Bach to Britten and beyond), on the classical music website Corymbus. Simon Brackenborough writes: 'There is something quietly thought-provoking about Dixon’s insistence on using this modest, contented-sounding tune to cover such large theological ground... the message of this work seems to be that a whole world of religious meaning can be revealed through even the smallest means. '
Click here to read the article in full
Photo: Hanya Chlala/ArenaPAL
'Airs of the Seasons' premiere at St George's Bristol
Ailsa's sonata for piano duet (4 hands), Airs of the Seasons will be premiered in the lunchtime concert series at St George's Bristol on 8th November 2018, by Joseph Tong and Waka Hasegawa.
Joseph Tong writes of the music: 'It is a beautiful set of pieces. Each of the movements evokes aspects of the seasons in an original and
imaginative way - the musical language itself and the way in which Ailsa creates four-handed piano textures are absorbing and distinctive'
Photo: Theo Williams
Sansara perform 'These things shall be'
Ailsa's anthem, These things shall be was sung by Sansara at the Little Missenden Festival on 12th October 2018, and again on 20th October at Romsey Abbey, as part of the St Ethelflaeda Festival.
Several of Ailsa's works were premiered at the Little Missenden Festival in the 1980s, including songs and duets performed by Ian Partridge and Lynne Dawson, Nocturnal Scherzo by the Brindisi Quartet, and Shining Cold by Sally Harrison, Cynthia Millar and members of the Brindisi Quartet.
Feature article on the re-discovery of Ailsa's music
Click here to read a feature by Robert Hugill on the revival of interest in Ailsa's work following last year's premiere at the Cutty Sark, charting her development as a composer,
Music on YouTube
A YouTube channel has now been launched to bring together the existing recordings of Ailsa's music and make these available to new audiences.
Sohrab and Rustum and Variations on Love Divine can be played on the Ailsa Dixon channel, or via this site (see Links).
String quartet recordings
Two of Ailsa's pieces for string quartet were recorded in the early 1990s: Sohrab and Rustum by the De Beauvoir Quartet, and Variations on Love Divine by the Rasumovsky Quartet. These original performances have been digitised and are now available on a CD for non-commercial purposes, to bring these works to light again and encourage future performances.
Please get in touch via the Contact page if you would like a copy
Two concerts of remembrance, 3 and 11 November 2017
A tribute to Ailsa's life and music, with a performance of her anthem 'These Things Shall Be', was given as part of a concert of remembrance by the London Oriana Choir at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square on 3rd November.
The concert was repeated in Bristol (where Ailsa was born) on 11th November.
The London Oriana Choir gave the premiere of 'These Things Shall Be' in July 2017, five weeks before Ailsa died.
Click here to read an interview with Ailsa in the 'Meet the Artist' series
London premiere, July 2017
Ailsa’s anthem for choir, ‘These things shall be’ was premiered by the London Oriana Choir at the Cutty Sark on 5 July 2017, as part of the Five15 project, giving a voice to women composers across the UK.
The glass-roofed hall surrounding the ship's keel made a spectacular setting for the second of Five15's concerts featuring the work of women composers.
Click here to watch the video: vimeo.com/229386773
Ailsa’s anthem for choir, ‘These things shall be’ was premiered by the London Oriana Choir at the Cutty Sark on 5 July 2017, as part of the Five15 project, giving a voice to women composers across the UK.
The glass-roofed hall surrounding the ship's keel made a spectacular setting for the second of Five15's concerts featuring the work of women composers.
Click here to watch the video: vimeo.com/229386773
Images courtesy of the London Oriana Choir / Kathleen Holman
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Ailsa (centre) with Dobrinka Tabakova and Cheryl Frances Hoad
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Composers line-up with conductor Dominic Ellis-Peckham
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Ailsa takes a bow
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