Background
Bax was born in 1883 in the London suburb of Streatham, Surrey, to a prosperous Victorian family. He was the eldest son of Alfred Ridley Bax (1844–1918) and his wife, Charlotte Ellen, née Lea (1860–1940).
Bax was born in 1883 in the London suburb of Streatham, Surrey, to a prosperous Victorian family. He was the eldest son of Alfred Ridley Bax (1844–1918) and his wife, Charlotte Ellen, née Lea (1860–1940).
Arnold Edward Trevor Bax studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he worked under Frederick Corder for composition and Tobias Matthay for piano.
In 1908 Arnold Edward Trevor Bax began a cycle of tone poems called Eire. The first of these pieces, Into the Twilight, was premiered by Thomas Beecham and the New Symphony Orchestra in April 1909, and the following year, at Elgar's instigation, Henry Wood commissioned the second in the cycle, In the Faëry Hills. The work received mixed notices.
Bax's private means enabled him to travel to the Russian Empire in 1910. He was in pursuit of Natalia Skarginska, a young Ukrainian. In Saint Petersburg he discovered and immediately loved ballet; he absorbed Russian musical influences that inspired material for the First Piano Sonata, the piano pieces, "May Night in the Ukraine" and "Gopak", and the First Violin Sonata, dedicated to Skarginska.
During his time in Dublin Bax had made many republican friends. The Easter rising in April 1916 and the subsequent execution of the ringleaders shocked him deeply. He expressed his feelings in some of his music such as the orchestral In Memoriam and the "Elegiac Trio" for flute, viola, and harp (1916), as well as in his poetry.
Many works he wrote during the war years were heard in public, and he started writing symphonies. Bax's First Symphony was written in 1921–22, and when first given it was a great success, despite its ferocity of tone.
In the 1930s, Bax composed the last four of his seven symphonies. Other works from the decade include the popular Overture to a Picaresque Comedy (1930), several works for chamber groups, including a nonet (1930), a string quintet (1933), an octet for horn, piano, and strings (1934) and his third and last string quartet (1936).
After the Second World War began, Bax moved to Sussex, taking up residence at the White Horse Hotel, Storrington, where he lived for the rest of his life.
(Symphonie n° 6 - Into the Twilight - Summer Music / Royal...)
Arnold Edward Trevor Bax was indeed a shy and retiring man who throughout his life accepted only one official appointment, in 1942 he became Master of the King's Musick.
Arnold Edward Trevor Bax was married to the pianist Elsita Luisa Sobrino. They had two children. During the war Bax began an affair with the pianist Harriet Cohen, for whom he left his wife and children.
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